For the Content Hungry: The Eat Media Blog

I recently had a conversation with Doug Rushkoff about a project he is working on. My first instinct was, “This could be a product or an app.” Not so much for the commerce aspect but rather to translate the value inherent in his thinking/project to something people could use. And Doug said: Not everything is a product. Some things are process only, and processes are better implemented and actualized by people from start to finish.

Every day a new app that curates knowledge or helps users skip the process and get right to decision making is pushed to web. I use many of these sites/applications — they save me time and money. But at what cost?

To Doug’s point, at the cost of process creation, process understanding and the information/experience loss that comes from understanding complexities. Is opinion formed from a deep understanding of process more valuable than a decision quickly culled from a slider, input box, submit button and results page?

—Ian

Just hear me out. One emerging practice (content strategy) + one tactic (content marketing) = I’m not really sure.

Content Marketing: “Content marketing is an umbrella term encompassing all marketing formats that involve the creation or sharing of content for the purpose of engaging current and potential consumer bases. Content marketing subscribes to the notion that delivering high quality, relevant and valuable information to prospects and customers drives profitable consumer action. Content marketing has benefits in terms of retaining reader attention and improving brand loyalty.” –from the Content Marketing Wikipedia page created 25 February 2008

Content Strategy: “Content strategy has been growing as a practice within the industry of web development since the late 1990s. It is recognized as a field in user experience design but has also drawn interest from practitioners in adjacent communities such as content management, business analysis and technical communication.” –from the Content Strategy Wikipedia page created 08 April 2009

Then a funny thing happened about a year ago—the terms got squished together to form “Content Marketing Strategy.” I’m not sure how this happened or even what it means but it’s out there and to some people it means something.

In my opinion, “Content Marketing Strategy” is vacuous—there is no such thing. There is content marketing and there is content strategy. Or, to rollback a round of buzzwords, there is integrated marketing and there is UX Design. Either way, one is a tactic and one is a practice. I’m not shining a light on one to keep another one in the dark, but rather here to say that we all agree content is important. That includes IAs, ixDs, coders, graphic designers, and copywriters. It’s what we do about knowing content is important that counts. How we solve client’s problems is what matters.

Volume and repetition matter
The solution I hear most often from content marketing is “make more content, gain more trust.” From content strategy, it’s “content should drive all other practices.” Increasingly, you will find many articles that use the terms interchangeably, and I’m not sure that’s a good thing; primarily for the client who now has to deal with ever-finer slices of practitioner specialties and more difficult integration/PM issues.

I recently met with a friend of a friend about a website he was launching. His business was a data-based content creation & strategy play with all the requisite buzzwords in place, along with poor design, clunky marketing speak and a mish-mash of “content marketing” and “content strategy” definitions. I was at loss. Here was a very smart guy with good intentions going out into the market with one puzzle piece. The whole event felt like dropping your car off at a mechanic who asks you for a ride because his car doesn’t run.

Perhaps you don’t build trust?
Building trust goes way beyond the creation of content. (And yes, I’m guilty of oversimplifying its importance.) I’m slowing starting to realize that you can’t set out to build trust. When you do, it implies that you are building it in order to leverage it later—and that feels a little dirty. Trust has so many facets to it and is so subjective that I find it hard to believe there is a one size fits all solution that works. So if Content Marketing Strategy can live on the web, then I’m petitioning for Trust Strategy.

Perhaps content ________ isn’t about building anything but rather is just a requirement like air in your tires, ink in your pen and quality in your product/service.

A great user experience respects both the content and the reader (see Readability). A great user experience cares that labels fit inside buttons and ensures that “thanks for coming” takes precedence across all fields of practice from the first click to the last.

—Ian

At the initial Content Strategy Consortium in 2009 /IA Summit in Memphis I suggested we create a budget, a fake project and play out a content strategy budget scenario. The small group didn’t jump on the idea, but it has always sat with me as a worthwhile exercise.

So I’m offering up my experiment here to a broader audience of: Content Strategists, Design/Build Digital Shops, User Experience Designers and anyone else in the Strategic Branding, Digital Marketing space.

THE $25,000 CHALLENGE

The Challenge:

How would you use this (purposefully) limited budget to solve this hypothetical client’s problem(s)? You can focus just on your expertise or spread the budget out across multiple practices.

The Rules:

You can ask 3 questions (email ian@eatmedia.net) but you can’t say no to the job.

Industry: Financial Services

Budget: $25,000.00

Deadline: We’ll be collecting ideas until Thursday, May 5.

What’s in it for You:

We’ll be posting the best submissions on our blog sometime in May. And if we mention your submission, you’ll get a little gift from us.

Assessment of the Existing Website:

• On a scale of 1-10 the site would score a 5 (design/IA/user experience).
• Client has a 50 page website. Home/Services/About/Contact/Press.
• Client’s target audience = 23-59 year old executives looking to invest in regional, high-yield markets.
• They are only using organic search. 30 of their 50 pages are articles, press and marketing content.
• Site is not converting pageviews to leads (email and one whitepaper download).

Assessment of Newsletter:

• On a scale of 1-10 the newsletter would score a 4 (design/IA/user experience)
• Newsletter is not performing well compared to industry opens and clicks.

Assessment of Social Media:

• On a scale of 1-10 their social media interaction would score a 4 (content, frequency, relevance)
• Twitter account that they intermittently post to – 1-3x a week with prompts to check out their services as well as some industry news.
• No mobile strategy and website is not optimized for the web. All collateral is very dry and lacks a unique voice.
• How do you allocate this (purposefully) limited budget? You can focus just on your expertise or spread the budget out across multiple practices.

—Ian

If you have ever heard, “Throw your hands in the air, and wave ‘em like ya just don’t care,” you know the next line is, “Oh yeah!”

DJ Hollywood originally coined the call and response that happens between a DJ and the crowd as “conversations.” Hollywood’s “conversations” with his audience completed a circle and cemented a relationship that built trust, extended the depth of the experience and established Hollywood as the hottest DJ in New York.

Today’s digital landscapes too often forsake the conversation and treat experiences like shiny IP assigned megaphones—statement amplifiers—rather than introductions to converse. Dan Brown says very early in his book Communicating Design, “The people who will be visiting and interacting with your web site provide important context to the design process.” If Dan would permit me to replace ‘design’ with ‘conversation,’ I’d leverage his statement to offer that companies should be paying more attention communicating with web site visitors and creating designs/experiences that introduce and inspire conversations, rather than simply collecting data and prompting to purchase their wares. An incredible experience is not enough anymore, it feels both obvious and static without a conversation. (A conversation is not an email address, a pop-up chat window, a comment field or even a “like” button.)

Collect = Confero in Latin, meaning to “bring together.”
Buy = Paro in Latin, meaning, “to prepare or get ready.”

I’d like to think we can tailor experiences that confero better than a plain old form submit—like this from uber-designer Jessica Hische. Or as a broader in-person experience like the Donahue App from arc90 and Behavior.

I also think we are capable of helping customers paro. Like Warby Parker’s virtual glasses tool.

Virtual realities, GEO-located inspirations and social media are great tools with which to create experiences, but only if they are part of a larger conversation with the user. Only if they are committed to an open loop where the experience wants to both talk and listen.

Oh yeah.

P.S. — Interested in more Hip-Hop and Content Strategy analogies. Come see me speak at Confab.

—Ian

Every great idea is not great feature. And every feature isn’t a great idea. Gold plating and coming soon both have the same ally — the story. If your story is strong, your product/service has a much better chance of success. Unless you have an undiscovered truckload of viral pixie dust in hiding in Iowa, let your product build on story.

The Big Four

Be prepared to change all of these items:

Story: Your story creates and enforces your message — messages are shared.

Features: Features either work or they don’t, but rarely are they shouted from the rooftops unless they are accompanied by a great user experience.

User Experience: User experiences can be exciting or invisible but always include aspects of both your story and your features.

Customer Development: Customer development is the “Will it Float” moment? Will customers bite? Do you know who they are? How will you reach them? What features do they need to adopt your product/service?

Everyday we tell stories. Build on that.

— Ian

Too many companies fail to seek change until after a brand or product is declared broken. Then change is ushered through at a breakneck pace fed by panic and profits. And even after broken pieces are identified, the focus is often on plugging the dike rather than seeking opportunities to improve the entire process.

In other words, maintenance often trumps improvement. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

The problem

The distance and prerogatives between “change” and “improvement” often creates organizational pressure. The greater the pressure, the more likely employees are to play it safe and the more predictable a brand story becomes.

“But we make site changes every day.”

Don’t confuse maintenance with change. True change is made with the intention of moving the bar forward.

What’s the root of the problem?

• There is often no process for suggesting change.
• There is often no process for initiating change.
• Change sparks questions that organizations aren’t ready to answer.
• Managing change challenges systems that are already in place (whether they are efficient or not).
• If the mechanism for change isn’t in place and isn’t embraced, people will only push creative they know will get approved. Which means there’s not a lot of opportunity for brand evolution.
• If employees are shot down (or considered “rocking the boat”) for trying to create spearhead change, they’ll go back to pushing papers.
• Change is usually brought on due to a lack of sales, a problem with an existing product, a product launch or new management. In other words, when you’re up against the gun.

The Opportunity

Effective change management is a brand’s greatest asset—if you don’t have the mechanisms in place to effect change, your brand story goes stale.

Ready your brand for change. Prepare your organization to be more nimble. Create systems for gathering input. Map processes for initiating cross-departmental change. Empower your management to move quickly and efficiently.

Why?

Change saves money. Change gets people excited (once they get past the fear). Change broadens your audience. Change evolves your story. Change rocks.

You have your logo, product/service and an awesome domain name. You’re a month or two from launch and smack-dab in buzz-building mode. Creating and pushing live a Coming Soon page should take about an hour, right? Um, not so fast, mister.

Your Readiness

1) Can you define what makes your company different?
While this may seem like something that should be nailed down before deciding to launch a project/company, it’s not always the case. Making a Coming Soon page represents a commitment to designing/developing a website, which in most new businesses will be the largest investment made in year one. It will also challenge your perception of what you do and force you to explain it in clear, concise language.

2) Do you have a tagline?
A good tagline is a natural fit and acts like a nickname, enhancing what is already obvious. A bad tagline is an obtuse, obvious generality that does nothing to differentiate.

-Tip: Segment what type of tagline you are looking to create. Start here for help —Types of Taglines

-Of note: Not having one is better than having a bad one.

3) Have you given some thought to brand attributes and voice?
If you were going to assign the design and copy to a freelancer, how would you summarize what you are hoping to convey about your company?

4) How clear are you on your service/product offering?
If you can’t score an 8 out of 10 on the “describe what we do in one sentence test” to your friends, then you aren’t ready for a Coming Soon page — really. This is your first chance at impressing the influencers and gaining some pre-launch buzz. The idea part of the show moves to the execution phase once a “Coming Soon” page goes live. There will always be iterations, V2 features and like it or not, gold-plating but having the core of your idea nailed down is critical at this juncture. How does this differ from #1? Your company is what you stand for. Your services are what you do.

Site Objectives

1) What’s the purpose of the Coming Soon page?
To build an audience? To build buzz? To prove to investors you’re in development?

2) Are you collecting email addresses or creating a limited, invite-only beta?
No: Most Coming Soon pages collect email addresses, but invite-only betas have their advantages.  A trusted, closed environment accomplishes a number of things. A. The creation of a vetted testing community. B. The why-not-me/this-must-be-fantastic buzz factor created by an “invite-only” beta. C. The ability to iterate, reinvent and fine-tune behind closed doors with expert input.

Yes: If you are going to collect email addresses you need to consider how, and if, you are are going to confirm email addresses. If you are going to confirm you will need to add in time/$ for coding and a minor database setup.

-Tip: Use web form best practices. If you don’t know what they are then get Luke Wroblewski’s book

-Of Note: People differ on strategies here. Some say, don’t capture email addresses if you don’t have a clear launch date. I say if you can estimate what season it will launch, ex. (Summer 2012) then collect addresses.

Technical Matters

1) Purchase your URL
Hopefully you have already done this. And quickly afterward you reserved your company name on Twitter/Flickr/Vimeo/Facebook, right?

2) Determine who is hosting your Coming Soon page
You don’t necessarily need to host your Coming Soon page with the same host you bought it from but sometimes it is easier (see below). Some hosting services have built-in templates that you can modify, others provide only a “Parked Domain” page, or the ever popular “Under Construction” with the yellow hardhat and pylons – Yay!

-Tip: If you’re not ready to select a hosting provider just yet, consider a landing page hosting service, which will also manage email subscriptions for you. Ones to research: Performable, Unbounce, Capturely or Launch Soon.

-Of note: If you go ahead with a traditional host, know that ICANN, the international domain registry organization, has a 60-day wait policy on registrar transfer. This means that when you ARE ready to launch your full site, switching hosts may not be immediate or easy. Which is why you should consider #3.

3) Have a pretty good idea where your site will be hosted upon V1 launch.
Not always, but in most cases, you bought a domain name and have it parked somewhere. If you are reading this prior to purchasing the domain look into the hold-over time your hosting service requires before moving the domain — standard is 60 days. Depending on your time line this may be ok, or it may be a huge p.i.t.a. Better to know now.

Design

1) Do you have a logo?
Clarification — A final logo?

2) Do you have colors, fonts and a living style guide?
The design of your Coming Soon page should reflect the elements of the brand you are building. Ideally you want your brand assets to be as close to final as possible. If the logo you are using is just, “for now” stop right now and reassess. And while you may love comp 1 over comp 2 – usability should be the ultimate decision maker. There are a number of reputable A/B testing services. We like AB tests.

Copy Elements

1) Have you provided all the necessary copy elements to your designer?

• Company Tagline
• Headline
• Subheadline/Hook
• Body text (aim for 70 words or less)
• Call to action
• “Submit” button text (i.e. Subscribe now, Notify me, etc.)
• Error copy for form submit errors (required field, incorrect email, email already on file, etc.)
• Confirmation message for submission
• Submission confirmation email
• Social Media links
• Twitter/Facebook push
• Email link
• Footer

Your primary goals are to create a buzz and collect emails.* The way to do this is with active, intriguing language and engaging call(s) to action. Keep it short, simple and sweet as Pecan pie. There is such a thing as just enough copy*. And it’s usually much less than you thought. Hat tip to @brownthings

*Or not.

2) No really. What did you name your buttons?
“Submit”, “Subscribe” and “Signup” are all clinically unclear and not relevant to what the user is actually doing. (And “Click here” is nonsensical.) Make the button name part of the narrative, something active that reflects what the user is actually requesting. In most cases your Coming Soon page is asking/convincing users if they want to be contacted when the site launches. Try: “Notify me” or the ever-neutral “Go.”

3) Designing the Coming Soon page?
From a cost perspective a well-designed/coded Coming Soon page will cost between $800-2000 depending on the designer and the scope. It will usually consist of one main page, a form-submit and a post-submit landing page. Examples of good Coming Soon pages.

Social Media

1) Will your Coming Soon page have Twitter/Facebook icons?
Do you have accounts set up on those sites? Have you built up a reasonable Twitter timeline? Is there content on your Facebook page? Do you have a social media strategy and/or someone who is going to man the social media fort? Ideally your social media campaign starts months before a “Coming Soon” page. Three Twitter followers and picture of your company mascot on Facebook does not inspire confidence.

2) Are you implementing a Facebook/Twitter push?
Giving users the option of sharing is the best way to extend your sphere of influencers. Facebook and Twitter both have simple code that makes it easy for users to share your Coming Soon page. Some gameify the push by moving users who share more up line on early invite to the beta. The line between marketing/tacky and useful/cool is a thin one, so make sure the sharing experience is about them and not you. 

Email -To confirm or not to confirm?

1) Get confirmed
In order to weed out spam, and keep your database clean, send an invite code to the sent email for confirmation. This adds either one or two copywriting projects and a small coding project to your list of to-dos. The first — the invite code email (along with the code snippet). The second — a “you’re in, stay tuned” email, or landing page, that the user receives on select of the email code snippet.

2) No barrier to entry
The other route is to keep the user in the groove and let them submit any email address. This taxes the data integrity more than a bit and changes the entire strategy of the Coming Soon page.

Getting the word out

1) Now that you’ve done all this hard work, how will people find your Coming Soon page?
A newsletter seems to be lowest hanging fruit, so lets start there.  Bear in mind newsletter coding is something I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy, especially if you have to support IE6.  Even if you use Mailchimp be prepared for a little HTML to work around the browser background-image issues. With that said, add one more copywriting project to your growing list of to-dos. First impressions count. But the sum of that impression made up of many, tiny parts executed flawlessly.

2) Newsletter design/copywriting
Unless you are going lo-fi add another $500-800 for a professional newsletter design to your timeline and budget. When working with your designer and copywriter keep in mind that the newsletter is not a duplication of the Coming Soon page.

Good news, this can probably all be done in a 2-3 days if you are focused, and have the staff. If you are hiring an agency or freelancers you can expect this to take 7-10 days depending on scope.

—Do the hard work now and don’t turn Coming Soon into Coming Sooner or Later.

- “It needs to support IE6.”
- “What can you do for half that?”
- “It has to speak to all audiences equally.”
- “Can you come in and present, again?”
- “Lunch and learn.”
- “Check’s in the mail.”
- “I don’t like this comp.”
- “We’d like to keep everything in Cold Fusion if possible.
- “I email it to him and he uploads it. It’s a flawless system.”
- “I’ll know it when I see it.”
- “Can I pre-pay for a yet unnamed project?”

And the ever popular –

- “Make the logo bigger.”

The magic of experience and forever asking “why” solves every one of the issues above brilliantly.

Your job as a practitioner is to keep digging until you get to the root of the clients phrase/concern. Only then can you deliver a successful project.

-Ian

But you always remember how the party ended: With a fight. Out of booze. In bored silence. Or with a queuing up of Air Supply’s Greatest Hits.

In the web world, the end of the party is the end of the experience — a purchase, an error message or a signup. Often these are experienced as the good, the bad or the indifferent. There’s_got_to_be_a_better_way.

Starting at the end.
The first client review is usually (cue angel music) “The Homepage.” This is what the client wants to see and what we are programmed to create. Make it shiny. Give it curb appeal. Get the team “design-excited.”

The problem with this strategy is it doesn’t address the end result of collecting data or purchasing something (see business objectives). Wireframes certainly address these details, but they are rarely something agencies show clients on a first or even second design review. When wireframes are shown, they are boxes and arrows delivered after the 3 comps/3 revisions cycle we (client and agency) have fallen into.

Something we do here @eatmedia is flip the script by starting our design process at the end of the user interaction. The secret: Go to the farthest end of the interaction and work backwards. Embrace the challenge of working with intense clarity on the messaging and basic design within this “closing experience” constraint. Once you nail down the end of the interaction, you now have something to build on with the client and with the design and messaging.

Segmenting Closing Experiences.

We focus on the following design and messaging experiences prior to tackling the homepage. So far, so good.

1. The successful interaction
-Form submit success messages
-Successful signup email
-Thank you page
-Email receipt post-purchase

2. The unsuccessful interaction
-404 page
-Form submit error message(s)
-Lost username/password message

We mock up these pages and messages as fully as possible and present to clients. It takes much less time than a homepage and with the applied constraints you have the ability to execute many more iterations. Homepage presentations can go in a million directions, but closing experience presentations are much easier for both stakeholders and designers to dig into. We have found that people very naturally jump into playing around with these more tactile scenarios and do so with more clarity and creativity than when we start with the homepage presentations.

—Manufacture the end of the party, skip the big homepage presentation. When the streamers and top-shelf liquor are gone it is the closing experiences and the handshakes at the door that will be last thing users will remember.