Archive for the ‘Beth’ Category
We’re developing the web strategy for a new DMO (Destination Marketing Organisation) website. We’re currently looking at segmentation – building out our current approach to segmentation so we have something more granular that supports the development of specific customer personas. Once we’ve defined these groups and fleshed out a clear rationale for going after them we’ll present our approach to key stakeholders.
Getting collective and organisational buy-in around our approach to segmentation and targeting is critical before we move into defining a user experience for each group – mapping out appropriate user journeys and considering the resonant content to meet the needs of each one. Once we have clear picture of the desired user journeys associated with each customer group then, and only then, can we move onto defining detail around the information architecture, content strategy and functionality requirement …
As we’re working through this process I’m mindful of some of the bigger issues facing a DMO. Here’s a recently published presentation from the Manolis Psarros at AbouTourism that looks positively at some of the challenges. It’s well worth taking the time to watch the videos too.
Tags: digital marketing, tourism marketing, user experience
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As a follow up to Jon’s post ‘Content is King. More than ever’ I thought I’d outline the foundations that underpin a content strategy.
A content audit
Start by formulating some real clarity around existing content within the organisation. There’s no escaping it, an audit on some scale will need to take place to establish what content is a genuine asset, what content is performing well and what existing content can potentially be re-purposed for a new channel.
Understanding the current patterns of content production
Start with some key questions. How is content currently planned and produced? What resources are being spent on production? Where are the content creation specialisms within the organisation?
Defining business and user goals
Users want useful and engaging content, they also want it to be easy to find and share. The business wants to raise awareness and engagement across key products and services – and ultimately sell more stuff. It also wants to wrap it’s products and services in a brand position, point of view and tone of voice.
The challenge
The challenge of defining a workable content strategy is to mesh these foundations together and make them the foundation of the strategy. Beyond that there’s getting organizational buy-in, creating an editorial board, implementing work flow process and creating content production guidelines. Easy pips!
The reward
Developing a content strategy is potentially a really rewarding digital journey, one that if planned and executed well could put the organisation in a great place. Working more collaboratively with a renewed sense of purpose.
If you’re new to content strategy I’d highly recommend this book Content Strategy for the Web by Kristina Halvorson and maybe start following this new elite of digital darlings, the Content Strategist, Colleen Jones, Jonathon Kahn, Erin Kissane.
Tags: content strategy, digital marketing, planning, user generated content
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We’re going to be working on some pretty hefty web redevelopment projects over the next six months so I thought I’d swot up on current thinking and future gazing on where the web is going next in terms of design and usability. Here are some of the trends that are coming our way. Thanks to the smart team at Net magazine for a great article in issue 198 called Tips and Trends for 2010. Here are my jotted out revision notes. I’ve chosen a neat top ten, there were lots more, but I like neat.
1) Improving what you’ve got. The return to analytics.
Throwing money at gimmicky one-off micorsites and games will be replaced with a serious assessment of core site usability to increase customer conversions and retention. Analytics will shift from active pages to examining user activity. Google AB testing.
2) Multi-channel design briefs.
Companies will move to using the web as a primary source for spreading the message. This won’t lead to mega agencies, but to more creative collaborations with small teams. Designers will take a more holistic approach. Be content aware, user and usability focused.
3) Less choice and more single minded content.
Sites will become more purposeful and single minded, minimising self hosted content to the strictly relevant and using third party services where necessary.
4) It’s still about speed. Find , do , share things – Quickly!
The trend of enabling people to rapidly access information is here to stay. We’ll see a continued rise in the grid system, influenced strongly by print with plenty of white space to enhance visuals.
5) Apps will lead the way in design.
Apps provide quick, usable solutions for people on the go. Many sites will take their design and user experience from their mobile apps rather than the other way round. Designers will simplify and streamline websites for mobile platforms, resulting in sites with better usability and apps that give users greater control over their personal experience.
6) It will move for a reason.
2010 will see a move away from meaningless moving content and towards beautiful interactive style that looks great and adds something to the ease and pleasure of using a site. Flash is not dead, Flash CS5 looks promising.
7) It’s all about web fonts.
2010 will be the year of web fonts. Web designers can now use a wider pool of fonts without resorting to images or flash. Web fonts it will change the look of the web forever.
Designing for social engagement and the three universal challenges*
Designers will be optimising sites for things that can be commented on and shared. Designers must optimise for engagement and encourage participation. The three key design and usability challenges for social engagement look like this. 1) Help people understand how the site works. Quickly! 2) Get people to sign up. 3) Turn them into active returning users.
*I honestly have no idea why my number eight is a smiley face. I’ve looked at the HTML but I’m none the wiser. See point 10. Will email Pete on Monday.
9) Mobile and location awareness.
Location awarness will become integral on desktops. Without relying on user input it will be possible to set a geographical context, enhancing the user experience with services such as localised search.
10) We’ll all need to broaden our skill set.
With the iphone it’s all about software so if you’re a designer who doesn’t know code you should learn. If you’re web page creator who doesn’t know basic HTML you should learn.
All this sounds pretty exciting to me. If you know of any more me drop me a line. Thanks again to Net magazine.
Tags: design, trends, usability, user experience
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Our Managing Director Jon recently celebrated a big birthday. One with a zero involved, that’s all I’m saying. His birthday present to himself was a ‘top of the range’ road bike. He sure does love that bike. I’ll ask him to post his thoughts on how much he loves his new bike very soon. In-between his euphoria he has fleeting moments of tormenting guilt about how much it cost.
This got me thinking about how pre-purchase thinking and consuming conscientiously is in part about making sure you’re really going to love something for the long term. If you love it, you value it, and if you value it, you’ll care for it.
Nowadays I seem to agonize longer over purchases then I ever did before. Shopping is something I avoid unless absolutely necessary. Some of the questions I try to untangle go like this:
Did the person (or company) have ‘fire in their bellies’ about making it the best it could be? Were they passionate about it? Has obsolescence been sneakily built into the design? Is it inherently disposable? Do I love it? And will I love it ‘long time’. Why do I love it? Fashion? Kudos? Have I given this purchase proper thought? Will I use it regularly? Is it practical? Ahhhh! Buying things is tough.
Here are a few things I thought hard about and decided yes I would love them and yes they would bring me a bit of joy every single time I used them.
My ‘box of Poppets’ size camera. It’s dead handy and bloody lovely to look at and hold.
My Roberts Radio. It’s on almost 365 days a year in my house. I love the buttons and the lovely rounded, deep sound.
My new shower cap. An obvious solution to keeping the ‘hairdo’ in check and adding a bonus ten minutes to my day. Got to love that.
And so to the real ‘digital’ point I’m trying to make. Web content, websites and blogs need constant nurturing; they are living things that are never finished. Owners have to continuously invest time into maintaining and developing the content and functionality. Being the demanding little buggers they are its vital that people love their websites and that using them brings them joy.
Making sure users enjoy their websites is a core design and UX (user experience) challenge. Not only should it look lovely up front it should be quick, easy and enjoyable update and maintain from the back end.
If using your website brings you (or the team) no joy it’s destined for neglect and will inevitably end up in the big digital landfill in the sky. Our Word Press blog is testament to a great back office user experience and a great design by Pete and his team on the front end.
We love it, it’s a joy use.
Tags: design, nice stuff, random thoughts, usability, user experience
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On some level, when a company offers me a form or an e-mail address as a way to get in touch, I feel slightly snubbed. Why so bloody aloof? Why keep me at arm’s length? I’m an alright person. My needs are not wholly unreasonable. I just want a few answers to a few questions that I can’t find the answer to on the website.
I feel pretty strongly about ‘Contact Us’ pages. They should be welcoming and encouraging. After a first date with someone you really quite like you wouldn’t ask them to leave a message so that you can pick it up at your earliest convenience. Surely you’d make yourself as available as possible. In fact if you really liked them you’d be waiting by the phone, e-mail, text and Skype! After all, this is the critical phase of what could turn out to be lovely long term relationship. Every move matters.
Here comes the trumpet blowing.
On one of the sites we’ve recently been working on we’ve been improving that all important ‘Contact Us’ page. Built on Word Press, it’s not as big and elaborate as a lot of the sites we work on but it doesn’t mean you can’t do things well. We think the end result is human, welcoming and super encouraging to ‘get in touch’. Like most of our website development work it all starts with a sketch and a conversation with the client and then (and only then) do we move into wire framing, information architecture and the techie build. I do the doodles and Pete and his team work their magic on design and build.
The final solution.
Here’s what we decided;
- Introduce the lovely staff. Include images and links to find out more about them.
- Offer four different ways to get in touch – telephone, e-mail, Skype and a call back form.
- Reassure that there is no question too silly and that the staff speak good English.
- Be upfront about response turnaround times, call rates and office hours.
- Wrap it all up in a bunch of useful content and information. Flickr, YouTube, downloadable brochures, weather and the location.
- Offer the option to sign up to hear from them again and win a holiday.
We also worked with the client to set up appropriate telephony and route calls via Skype so the customer only pays for a national rate call. Here’s the end product. You can let us know what you think and what we’ve missed by leaving a comment below. Thoughts welcome!
Tags: digital marketing, tourism marketing, usability
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Now more than ever before, in our new world of conversation culture, brands must have a distinct tone of voice to help project a unique point of view. So when it comes to freelance copywriting where do the poor blighters start?
Robert Hoberry author of the book I’m still reading – Brilliant Copywriting dismisses the usefulness of big brand development projects as they often produce long winded vision and values statements and lengthy descriptions of the target audience and segmentation.
“Radical simplicity and a healthy dose of honesty are the answer. In fact to write for a brand, a copy writer usually needs to understand just two components the big idea and the brand personality. Everything else is a distraction. A brand’s big idea can steer your general direction: a brand’s personality can help steer the tone”.
So now I’m reaching for another book on my shelf The big Idea by Robert Jones. It’s an oldie but goodie. I remember the pennies dropping when I read his summary of the 50 biggest ideas around at the time. He scored them each up to a maximum of five stars based on how big the idea, how radical, how social and how tangible they were. Below are some of the top scorers. It’s interesting that 10 years on these ideas are still firmly positioning these companies as ‘different’.
Ikea – Democratizing design
John Lewis – A better form of capitalism
Apple - Usability
Virgin – Iconoclasm (I looked that one up – breaks established conventions)
Tesco – We like our customers
Orange – Optimism
Gap – Democratic fashion
The Guardian – Outsider
Channel 4 – Curious
National Trust – places for people for ever
If a copywriter understands the big idea and can formulate a clear picture of the personality traits associated to the big idea then they’re ready to write, but not before answering another bunch of question related to expression, content and audience.
How would that person speak? What words and phrases would they use? (expression). What would they chose to say? (content). Who would they choose to say it to? (audience).
Whilst I agree that brand development projects often end up on the shelf - too wordy and descriptive to be useful. My experience is that the really useful output of any brand development work is the production of a simple set of guidelines. Hats off to the brand team at Visit Wales. Check out www.walesthebrand.com for a brilliant example of articulating an organisations’ ‘tone of voice’ and ‘point of view’ simply and more importantly usefully. I love inclusion of what not to say.
I suppose my point is that freelance copywriters as well as designers, directors, editors etc need help getting started. Marketing departments must answer two killer questions before looking to the creative industries to describe the solution. What is your big idea and what is your brand personality?
I’m a firm believer in ‘The tighter the brief the more creative the solution’.
Tags: branding, Copywriting, tourism marketing
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‘Brilliant Copywriting’ is one of the books I am dipping into at the moment. It’s split neatly into three parts; Background, Method and Interviews with professional copywriters. It’s written by a copywriter and as you’d expect it’s structured and written well…..brilliantly.
I’m not expecting to become a better copywriter by reading this book, but I’m hoping to understand this age old advertising profession and get to grips with the how, who and what makes great copywriting.
Next up are some of the best quotes, tip and tricks that I’ve underlined so far.*
Here goes:
Be brief, the brain is a cognitive miser it’s too busy thinking about love or lunch.
What’s the story you’re trying to tell, if you don’t know don’t start writing.
Churchill said it all: begin strongly, have one theme, use simple language, leave a picture in the listener’s mind and end dramatically.
Like poetry, copywriting is about using as few words as possible to say as much as possible.
To become a better writer you need to become a better reader.
Wit works wonders, just don’t overdo it.
The back story isn’t superfluous, often that’s where the real power lies.
Words are ideas and ideas are the key to brilliant copy, get plenty of ideas down and then edit with cruel brutality.
The brand is the star not you.
The reader is everything; agree who they are early on.
If it takes too long to write, it’s probably wrong.
Banish boredom by being disalarmingly honest.
“Everyone who tells the truth is interesting” Quentin Crisp
Hope you found these useful, there’s tons more golden nuggets in this little book of copywriting insights. I’m reading the chapter on Brands and Tone of Voice next so I’ll be back soon.
*Must check if scribbling in library books is illegal, or even just a literary faux pas.
Tags: branding, Copywriting
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This is the first in my series of ‘why digital can take so much bloody time’ blogs. Let’s start with email. How hard can it be? Most of us send and receive e-mail every day. But with our very precious customer base at the end of that send button the devil is most certainly in the detail and like any other digital marketing project (and that’s what it is – a project) it can be complex, resource intensive and time hungry.
To illustrate this point here are some things to consider and key questions to ask yourself. I’ve left out the initial heavy weight task of deciding on which e-mail platform to use and developing an appropriate communications programme … jumping straight into the design and build.
What’s it going to look like & how are you going to build it?
Early on, factor in time to agree and specify the e-mail design, content requirement and the functionality … not vaguely but in detail. Draw a sketch, think about word counts and image orientation.
Yes content is king, but not only that, it’s an unpopular, time consuming, resource draining white elephant. Content research, asset collation and copywriting all take a disproportional amount of time and effort. Anyone who’s ever built a website, written a blog or sent an e-mail can vouch for that.
Allow time to ensure the entire subscription process is in place. Will the user get a ‘Thank You’ page, a confirmation e-mail, a welcome e-mail, the ability to unsubscribe easily, a unsubscribe confirmation page or even a final goodbye e-mail. Is the ‘sign up’ form capturing the right data? Does the opt-in mechanism comply with data protection best practice?
There are many more questions. Is the email a newsletter, a specific communication or an incentive based e-voucher? Should it include additional functionality such as ‘Send to friend’? Can you cope with an ‘off the shelf’ template or do you need a custom template designed? Where will those receiving the email see the email as being sent from?
Testing and sending the final version
Check, check and double check the content of the email, the links and think hard about the subject line. Is the subject line relevant & intriguing – will it support open rates? Will it get blocked by spam filters? Avoid long subject lines and spammy words like free, cheap and offer.
Send a test e-mail, then send another test e-mail and another and another. Send the e-mail to yourself, your colleagues and your test accounts. Do this more than you think necessary.
There’s lots than can go wrong and having a checklist to go through each time will help minimise the chances of things going astray. Some of the problems you encounter can take a significant amount of time to unravel and fix. Make sure you build in enough time to allow for troubleshooting.
There are many things to go on the checklist. Has the copy been spell checked? Are all heading and sub-headings a consistent colour and size? Are all the links working and behaving consistently throughout the email? Are all your images and logos working links? Is the unsubscribe function working? Is it working across the full range of email platforms that your customers are using? If you are personalising the email is that working properly?
How did it perform and what can you learn to make the next one better?
You have hit the send button and almost immediately it is time to start looking at the results. First thing you are likely to be interested in is deliverability – how many emails actually reached their desired destination and if not why not. Beyond that you are going to be interested in things like how many emails were opened, how many unsubscribes you had, what links were clicked on and what they did when they actually arrived at your site. The results will develop over the few days following you sending the email and should ultimately help improve what you do next time.
So, back to the beginning … there is a lot to do and a lot of things that can go wrong if things are not planned and executed properly. In my experience, like most things digital, it is good planning, project management and, especially for email, appropriate use of checklists that are going to help deliver good quality email marketing and the right results.
Tags: email, process, project management
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Digital projects, be it building a website from scratch or sending an e-mail can crudely be divided into three production phases, and as a rule of thumb we work in thirds. A third specification, a third build and a third testing. Mentally, for web developers and digital marketers the last phase can sometimes feel like the most grueling.
A bit like my bike ride home after a long and busy day. For the final third of journey I always need to dig a bit deeper. I suppose I’m relaxing because the end of the day is in sight. But as soon as this happens my gears feel lower and my legs heavier. This last half a mile feels more like three and it seems to take forever. It’s also the time when I’m less alert and more prone to making mistakes. One day a grey squirrel will meet a sudden, dizzy end between my spokes.
In my experience digital projects often roll out like this.
There’s the lovely dreamy specification phase with all the excitement and expectation of bringing something new into the world. Then there’s the satisfying and rewarding build phase when our brilliant ideas take shape and we’re feeling smug and proud.
Then comes the ‘brutal critique’ – The user acceptance testing. Other people stand around our beautiful new born and point out everything that’s wrong with it. We find ourselves back in the specification and build phase but this time with a looming deadline and depleted self confidence and enthusiasm.
Over the next few weeks we’ll post our thoughts on why making digital stuff a reality sometimes takes longer than you might initially expect and how it’s our job to manage those expectations … and we’ll consider the project management techniques that help us all enjoy the process and keep our sanity intact.
Tags: digital marketing, nice stuff, project management
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