On your retainer dashboard and in your monthly retainer hours recap email, we will provide a breakdown of how hours have been used into discrete categories called “project phases”. However, you may be asking yourself "what does this thing mean?"
Below we have provided a glossary of the most common terms that may be listed as a project phase. Your retainer may have a different phase listed than the ones below, or ones specific to your engagement or a project. If you have any questions or would like hours categorized differently, please contact your Account Manager listed on your dashboard.
- Analytics - Tasks associated with pulling and analyzing data, such as website data from Google Analytics or performance metrics from marketing efforts.
- Content Strategy - Any task associated with managing and improving your site's content. This could include drafting new content or reviewing existing content, planning an editorial calendar for a campaign, or analyzing the performance of a specific strategy.
- Data - Tasks associated with importing, exporting, or manipulating data as part of data management, such as with a CRM.
- Development: WordPress - Any work associated with coding or managing technical configurations within WordPress.
- Development: CRM - Any work associated with coding or managing technical configurations within a CRM or marketing system.
- Digital Strategy - Time spent meeting or planning your digital presence, requests, or ideas. Typically in the form of internal calls with the retainer team or with you and your team or future planning.
- Email Marketing - Any work associated with the production of emails within a marketing system.
- Google Ads - Tasks associated with the management of an ads account associated with a grant.
- Google Ads: Paid - Tasks associated with management of an ads account associated with paid ads.
- Non-Retainer - Tasks that should not be deducted from the retainer hours and are billed separately.
- Rush Rate - Denotes tasks that required quicker turnaround than could be accommodated This signified that the hours should be deducted from the retainer at 2x. Prior approval must be obtained before work is done at rush rate.
- SEO: Content - Tasks associated with creating or editing content to managing and improving your site's SEO.
- SEO: Technical - Task associated with making changes to technical configurations on your site to make it more optimized for SEO.
- SEO: Monitoring - Tasks associated with monitoring SEO performance to inform strategy, content, or technical recommendations and next steps.
- Project Management - Time your day-to-day contact spends communicating with you on the progress of work on your retainer, managing tasks, and keeping this on time and budget.
- Discovery - Time spent in discussions on goals for a project or research, either around functionality and/or design.
- Design - Any work associated with a design deliverable. Could include wireframes, style tiles, or full-color mockups.
- Internal QA - Any work associated with reviewing a deliverable through a quality assurance process before it is sent by someone who is not the developer, content strategist or project manager on the project.
- Training and Documentation - Time spent to prepare guides, instructions, or provide trainings for both internal and external purposes.