Content Strategy for the Masses

Following up on yesterdays “Why Aren’t People Excited About My New Product?,” here’s an example of a newsletter I received that has the potential to get users excited through Good Web Writing.

As explained yesterday, Good Web Writing:

• is part of a conversation
• answers questions
• lets people grab and go

Who am I? I still sign up for newsletters to get deals.

I open this email, which tells me “Congratulations! As a member, you have access to this brand new program,” giving me an opportunity to pass along discounts to families and friends, while also earning rewards.

(Lesson: This email answered questions effectively. Who? Me and My Friends. What? A discount and promo code. Where? Online shopping. When? Now – though I don’t know when this offer ends. How? Get my friends to buy a kit so I get a gift. Why am I here? You’ll get a discount or a gift certificate, even if I don’t want the product.)

I click on the Tell Me More because in the email, there is no way to sign up for the project without clicking on the link to the site. My main goal in heading to this site is to learn how to send the deal to my friends.

(Lesson: I’m taken directly to the area of the site I wanted to go to, without a preamble sales pitch. The conversation element is there – lots of headings posed as questions, the option to sign in is in the first person (log in to my SKINID) and the graphic showing has speech bubbles to remind me of the special and subconsciously emphasize the conversational element of the deal)

The only question I have is “what is my SKINID? Is it a different log in than what I used for the newsletter?” I try to enter in the account details I use for my newsletter, but it doesn’t recognize it – so, I guess I need to sign up for something new if I want the gift certificate or the discount. Worth it? Depends on the user (me).

How Did This Email Campaign Do?

• The website was part of a conversation - absolutely. By creating digital copy that uses questions to help guide the user through the process, this site is simple and engaging.
• The website answered questions - For the most part. While the SKINID membership is a puzzler (why would someone have that if it’s a new product?), everything was explained – the who, what, where, when, why and how. A user knew why they were on this site, whether they planned to follow through with the offer or not.
• The website let me grab and go - Again, for the most part. By needing to sign up for a new membership, it created a step that didn’t let me immediately grab and go. But props to the designers and content strategists who brought the user right to the information about the campaign rather than forcing then through content about the promoted product. It trusted that, if I were interested in learning more, I could find the information in myself the navigation.

This YouTube channel is a must-see for anyone who creates online content for kids. “Kids React!” is a collection of feedback by children up to 14 years old after watching top viral videos, YouTube stars and memes. It’s a good reminder that what’s funny to us may not be funny to them (and vice versa!)

I recently had to book some flights for business travel and the online landscape has changed. Did you hear the one about American Airlines not appearing on Expedia? Back in January, American Airlines has its second falling out with an online airline sales website due to contract issues, namely the airline wants to pay these sites less money and have users book directly on their own website.

Airlines and hotels are increasingly encouraging the public to book directly on their corporate sites rather than through third party aggregators to offer additional buy-ins like hotel room upgrades and airline seat choices to the consumer. This trend could force Expedia, Travelocity and others to change their business models slightly in order to stay in business.

While Global Business Travel Assn says booking directly with the airline and the hotelier may increase costs for the customer, other sites are popping up to help you compare prices and make sure you’re getting the bang for your buck. Here’s one to show your colleagues: Hipmunk.com is a very easy-t0-use site that organizes its search based on time, price and agony. It doesn’t support all airlines, yet. Toronto’s Porter Airlines for example, wasn’t appearing in any of their beautiful charts.  Upon chatting with their very helpful live help chat, they thanked me for letting them know the airline was missing. How nice!

Bonus: OK, so say you’re flying to the U.S. and you want to check up on an airport’s hands-on TSA review process, look no further than this TSA Status site, created and updated by its users.  This heavily rainbowed site doesn’t have the cleanest of interfaces, but it is handy. It’s also a great place if you feel a compulsion to complain about a TSA agent online.

So next time you need to book a flight for work or pleasure, impress everyone with your knowledge of these two handy sites. Got others?

If you’re Canadian and already upset you can’t watch content that’s blocked in this country, or frustrated your internet bill keeps getting higher as you watch more online content, it might get worse. Canada is experiencing an interesting struggle right now between emerging online business colliding with traditional cablecos, particularly when it relates to open web and Net Neutrality.

Cable TV and Internet providers in Canada, such as Rogers and Bell, currently implement a form of User Based Billing on their customers by putting a cap on internet use, and then charging additional $2 per GB when they go over (even though bandwidth costs are dropping). Customers who didn’t wish to go with User Based Billing used to have an option to sign up with other internet providers, some of whom purchase their bandwidth from larger ISPs at a bulk rate. Not anymore, though – the CRTC last week allowed Bell, Shaw and Rogers to place a cap on these wholesale suppliers, meaning these independent ISPs must cap their plans at 25GB a month. To put it in perspective, that’s about five HD movies from iTunes, without even touching your email, YouTube or Skype.

The major ISPs say this is an important step to prevent those who use a lot of bandwidth from creating congestion. The CBC reports, however, on-demand video services provided by Rogers and Bell do not fall under these caps, meaning you can watch a bandwidth-hogging TV show on Rogers On Demand Online without fear of additional cost, but try to do the same with Rogers’ competitor Netflix, and you could see your internet bill jump.

Here’s a good explanation from the CBC’s George Stroumboulopoulos.

OpenMedia.ca, a NFP site, is collecting signatures to encourage the CRTC and government to rethink its stance on allowing these companies to meter the internet.  Backlash against bandwidth caps appears to be growing in Canada, with the site gaining approximately 110,000 signatures in the last week. I’ve included the petition here for anyone interested:

The same organization’s website points to further CRTC discussions on the merger of BCE and CTVGlobemedia. Michael Geist writes a fantastic article on what this merger should be addressed during discussions, alluding to the recent takeover by cable giant Comcast of NBC Universal in the States. Whereby the FTC stipulated that merger must support net neutrality and could not negatively impact growing competition from companies such as Hulu and Netflix, Geist is concerned the CRTC isn’t addressing these same concerns in Canada.

Kickstarter calls itself “a fun way to fund & follow creativity,” and gained a lot of attention after TikTok+LunaTik Multi-Touch Watch Kits for the new iPod Nano pledged for $15,000 and got just under a million dollars in funding. It’s a site where artists pitch creative projects that need funding, and it’s up to the user to determine whether it’s worth of a pledge (aka, crowd-sourced funding).

Outside of crowd-sourcing, if you work professionally in a creative field (television, gaming, etc), this site may offer a unique vision into what’s being pitched, what’s piquing interest form the masses, etc.

Zippycart created an awesome infographic so I don’t have to explain a thing about how it works. Love that! (And if you’re interested in e-commerce, definitely read up on Zippycart.)

Click to Enlarge
[Via: ZippyCart - reviewing the best ecommerce software online]