Content Strategy for the Masses

Ginny Redish, the author of Letting Go of the Words, says Good Web Writing is based on usability and:

• is like a conversation
• answers peoples questions
• lets people grab and go

Using this as a base, let’s look at an email alert I received this week and determine if it was successful in its digital writing to get me excited about a new product.

Who am I?:  I signed up for this newsletter because I love coupons. It’s true. No shame.

(Lesson: A pay-off will get someone to sign up for a newsletter. Coupons, recognition, additional secret information that no one else could get… If you’re creating a persona around people who sign up for your newsletters, be sure to include one who is in it to get something)

Their latest newsletter featured a link to coupons, but also prominently featured a new product. I thought maybe I’d get another pay-off if I clicked on “check it out” to learn more about the product. Why else would they want me to click on it? The newsletter blurb gave me all the information I need… why would I need to know more?

 (Lesson: Don’t automatically assume your users are as excited about your new product as you are – if you want visitors to read more on the product, provide a reason to click on the link other than ‘to provide more information.’ Also, stop using “check it out” online. Just. Stop.)

So, I clicked on the “check it out” to enter the site.  It featured lots of information about the product (which I didn’t read), rollovers on a graphic (some of which didn’t work) and links with animations to show the razor’s different features (of which I clicked on one).

(Lesson: If good web content is like a conversation, this one was one-sided. It successfully answers questions a user may have about the product, but doesn’t answer: why am I here?

The website also featured a “love it, pass it on!” link, which I thought – ok – maybe sending info will also provide a coupon. So, I clicked on it.

Who in their right mind would send their friend an email about a new razor? Really think about this… What is interesting about this?

(Lesson: Including interactivity and opportunities to share content is great – but not all content is worth sharing. Adding a pay-off “send to 5 friends for a free sample” would encourage more use of this form)

I clicked on this “buy it now” link, thinking it might be good to find out where to buy one – and maybe I’d find a deal:

So, I click Buy It Now, and the following pop-up appears:

Wait… wha? Why is it even an option?

(Lesson: Anticipate what the user will do when they come to the site. Good web writing answers a visitor’s question – not make them ask more. Also, if you offer something on your site, such as “Buy it Now!” or “See the video clip now!” it’s in your best interest to make sure the content exists every time. Also, avoid industry speak. Rather than partner online retailer, try “online shops” and let the user know where they can find it in the real world, if that option is available)

How Did This Email Campaign Do?

• the web writing was like a conversation – not really. While there were efforts to share the information, there was no anticipation of the user’s part of conversation when they would open this site.
• the website answered questions – the campaign answered questions the who, what and how about the razor, but did so in the well written introductory paragraph on the newsletter. It didn’t effectively anticipate the where and why questions a visitor would ask, such as “where can I buy this?” or “why am I here?”
• the website let me grab and go – since the campaign didn’t answer real user questions, there was nothing to “go” with on this site. I could grab the link to the site and send it to a friend, but what am I grabbing and why would I share it?

BBC.com has reached profitability two years ahead of schedule, according to its BBC Worldwide blog today: BBC.com reaches new heights | BBC Worldwide Blog.

Their success comes from three key areas:

- Understanding their international audience, by bringing in local stories balanced with a global perspective

- Tailoring its editorial  and product offering to expand across multiple platforms, such as mobile and smart TV apps

- Building sales and marketing capability to lure in local clients. “We still had to assume that the medi buyer we were pitching to in, say Chicago had never heard of us before.”

In the coming weeks, stay tuned to this blog as I’ll show you how investing in Content Strategy can help you achieve revenue growth and a better understanding of BBC.com’s 3 key areas for success: audience; tailoring content; and marketing.

During the protests in Egypt, designer Kenneth Cole was given a strong lesson in how not to use recent events on Twitter to self promote, and thanks to some quick actions and ownership of his mistake, recovered. Now Microsoft may need to look to the designer for some damage control lessons.

After the horrible earthquake and tsunami in Japan, Microsoft’s Bing search engine posted a ‘retweet’ challenge – they will donte $1 for every @bing retweet up to $100,000 for quake victims.

Oops. Backlash started pretty quickly as people accused Microsoft of using the disaster to promote their search engine and their “corporate citizenship” page, which shows how Microsoft is helping Japan.

Meanwhile, Bing’s competitor Google created a popular people finder for those trying to find friends and relatives in the disaster, and released their satellite images to help resources on the ground find those in the most amount of danger. No retweet challenge or marketing plan needed because these services are worthwhile and deployed during times of need.

Bing’s Twitter team later apologized for their tweet, claiming their intention was to make it easy for people to donate to the cause. Their original tweet, however, was not deleted and continues to be retweeted, even by Bing’s celebrity spokespeople like Ryan Seacrest. In other words, this marketing plan continues despite admitting to an error.

You may remember something like this happened only a few weeks ago when designer Kenneth Cole tweeted inappropriately that the protests in Egypt were actually people excited about his new collection. He quickly recovered from this by owning up to the mistake, removing the original tweet and stating it was his personal error. No excuses.

How can Microsoft recover?

- delete the RT challenge tweet

- add “how to donate” to their Bing homepage

- use their expertise to create a tool that helps the cause

Is this a marketing fail by Microsoft, or just a misguided attempt to raise awareness of how to donate funds to the cause? How else could Microsoft help? While you’re thinking of this, please also consider donating as there’s nothing worse than analyzing a company’s $100K donation when you haven’t given anything yourself.

How to donate:

Canadians wishing to help support relief efforts underway are encouraged to contribute by:

• Donating online
• Calling 1-800-418-1111
• By texting the word ASIA to 30333 to make a one-time donation of $5*
• By contacting their local Red Cross office. Cheques should be made payable to the Canadian Red Cross, earmarked “Japan Earthquake/Asia-Pacific Tsunami” and mailed to the Canadian Red Cross National Office, 170 Metcalfe Street, Suite 300, Ottawa, Ontario, K2P 2P2.

Americans can donate: text REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation

First, there was Quora – a site that sparked immediate interest from digital pundits for its professional spin on a simple question and answer format. It proved popular at first, particularly from the technologically-savvy bunch because it focuses on high quality answers from well respected people in their fields.

Now, there’s Convore, a site that takes the Quora concept and turns it into live chat.

Basically, you create groups formed around a topic you’d like to discuss. So, I recently set up a group called Toronto- Interactive and posed a question – whatcha working on? I can invite my friends on Twitter or Facebook to join the site and participate in a live conversation, or I can join other groups and speak to international experts in the fields of tech, user experience, etc. You can even set up private groups, so if you’re working on a project with a group of people, you can set up live chats on this site.

Group chats are nothing new, but this site is free, easy to use and so far seems to be nicely focused on the topic at hand. It’s also a great research tool and a way to chat instantly about your favourite things. This TV Discussion, for example, separates each conversation by TV show.

So far, the site is interesting because it’s small and manageable. It’s also easy to see where your social media friends are chatting, which is a great feature. Let me know what you think of this in the comments.