How Do You Eat an Elephant?

You’ve probably heard this one before, but I have to ask, “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.”

I don’t condone killing & eating elephants; it is a great analogy to tackling an enormous project like a company rebrand or website redesign. Many times, our websites get stalled because our clients gets stuck on the text and refuse anyone’s help. No matter what, you will always know your company & industry better than my team and we can not write your company profile without your input (well we could, but it’d be highly inaccurate).

When we start working with a new client on a large project, we break up the responsibilities on our team and our client’s team. The best way to get everything done is to utilize another saying, “Many hands make light work” by John Heywood.

Getting more people involved not only shares the workload, but also gives ownership to the team instead of just one individual. The best marketers and executives, I’ve seen, involve key people throughout the company. They still have the final say, but sharing the “wealth” gives everyone buy in and generally keeps the team from retaliating against a big change like a rebrand. I’m not saying the design & positioning should be done by  committee, that can kill a design by making everything generic. Different tasks such as writing text and finding pictures for projects are great ways to involve others.

Also, maintaining a website, especially with social media is generally best done with a team. Our parent company, Design the Planet, recently started having most of the team blog once a month. The Design the Planet blog is now updated 6-7 times a month by people with expertise in different arenas & mediums. It’s revolutionized the blog’s voice, content, and the website’s search engine rankings.