Towards A Content Strategy That Sells Persuasion Labs

From Content Strategy to Persuasive Content Strategy
Because Taxonomies & Content Audits Aren’t Enough for e-Commerce Today

What’s This?

It’s This… Without Content

(K, Then This One Should Be Easy.) What’s This?

What Is Content?
“the text, graphics, video, and audio that make up an interactive experience”
Kristina Halvorson
Death to LoremIpsum and Other Adventures in Content

But What’s Content Really All About?
Content is not just text. It is not just video. It’s not a choice between stock photos or UGC. It’s not this PPT saved to my desktop, presented to a group, viewed on SlideShare or embedded in my LinkedIn profile.
Any employed content strategist (or copywriter!) will tell you that content is the key to increasing conversion on your site. And she’ll be right. And her boss will be happy because she’ll be selling more product.

And Is There Anything More Important Than Selling More Product? (Not sure? Ask your shareholders.)

The goal of a Web site is to change a set of beliefs and behaviors, driving target actions.
The goal of Web content is, then, to change a set of beliefs and behaviors, driving target actions.

Now, For a While, We’ve Been Approaching Content Strategy in a Clinical, Academic Way…

The Clinical Side of a Standard Content Strategy
Content inventories help us know what content we have on our sites & where… and expose gaps in content that we need to fill
Competitor content audits help us compare our content to the other guys… and expose gaps in content that we need to fill
Content scorecards help us measure our existing (& new!) content using heuristics so we can quantify improvements in content down the road
Content assessments allow us to determine if we’re meeting or missing the mark with our content
Taxonomies/Folksonomieshelp us to organize & find content

The Clinical Side of a Standard Content Strategy
Editorial calendars allow us to schedule updates to our content, in keeping with our Web release schedule and/or CMS pushes
UGC mapping sees the content strategist working closely with the IA, ID, developers & site experience manager to plot out where users can create content
Standard Web writing principles, rules or philosophies shape the ‘how’ of content that is created
Editorial guidelines, like capitalization rules, ensure consistent copy display
CSS recommendations help to ensure readability with intentional typography

Good Stuff… But, Well, So What?

We Need a Broader Approach to Content Strategy That Includes Influencing Users & Persuading Them to Buy.

Example: Let’s Sell Flowers
The biz wants to sell lots o’ flowers
The customer wants
And shareholders want to make $$$

Now What? What Does the Content Strategist Do With That?

The [Traditional] Content Strategist Then…
Refers to the content inventory to assess what’s available to sell & where it’s being sold on-site
Refers to the competitor content audits to seek out opportunities
Reviews the content assessment to see what’s good… and not
Works with the ID (wireframe) to start slotting in content

Whoa, Nelly!

We Need to Sell to People. So We Need to Learn About Them, First.

Learn About Users 1st
What are their motivations? What makes them want to buy?
What keywords are they using to get to your site/page?—and which are converting most?
What are their barriers to buying from you on your site?
What do they need to make decisions more confidently?
Are they in a rush to buy on your site… or are they browsing?
Do they return to your site several times before buying?
Are they familiar with your brand?—your products?—your services?
Are they web savvy or NTTW?
Are they social media users with higher UGC & rich media expectations?
What are their behaviors on the page?—where do they click, what do they miss?

To Find Out, Use Tools Like…
Where they’re clicking
What they think
Where they go
What keywords are working

And Activities Like…
Deeper drives & barriers
If they can use it

Learning Is an Ongoing Process. But We Can at Least Get Started Now.

Example: Let’s Sell Flowers
The biz wants to sell lots o’ flowers
The customer wants
And shareholders want to make $$$

Great, But Where Does All That Content Go?
Your information architect and/or interaction designer has intended flows… and it’s up to the CS to work with them to ensure the content:
Is placed where users will find it easily
Is placed at a “seducible moment”
Helps to erode barriers at each moment in the conversion experience (and all the way down the funnel)

And Now Comes the Persuasion “Magic”

Organize Content Persuasively
Keep your drivers (barrier-destructors) in the same place on all your pages, like in the header.

Organize Content Persuasively: Home
Lead with top-sellers to help users narrow their decisions faster, especially with 1000s of SKUs.

Let them buy from the home page if they’re telling you that they’re busy and just want to order fast.

Callout your top nav links in chunky buttons/boxes straight from the home page.

Organize Content Persuasively: Product Detail
Give very specific details if users are skeptical about what they’ll get and there’s room for confusion.

Use social proof (e.g., user ratings) and tap into herd behavior to get users to decide faster & with more confidence.

Show exactly when the product will be able to be shipped/delivered on the product detail – before the cart where the info may cause users to abandon cart.

Show add-ons on the same page to apply slight pressure – so purchasing one isn’t an upsell but a given.

The More You Know About Your Users & Decision-Making Behaviors, The Better You Can Persuade with Content.

… But What About All the Other Content Types???
NOT EVERY CONTENT STRATEGY NEEDS MULTIMEDIA
Only use content types that your users would want in order to make their purchasing decision faster & confidently.

Measure It, Too
If you’re going to ask the business to invest in you, you need to show your value – beyond organizing info in fancy charts & spreadsheets. So… test your content!
Use Omniture Test & Target or good ol’ Google Website Optimizer to A/B or MVT test your buttons, videos, layout, headlines…
Share the results with the biz
Shape your “fiscal year content strategy” around great test results – and add potential content tests to it

Yes, This Is More Than “Just” Content
Here’s a tip: If you’re not ready to be a salesperson-cum-information-designer, you’re not ready to write for the Web. And if you’re not ready to write for the Web, you’re not ready to be a content strategist. We need to know all there is to know about the product, the customer/user & decision-making behaviors before we can do any work.
At least, that’s the case if you want to add real value to the biz. (And not only keep your job but get bonuses!)

Long Story Short: Content Strategists Need to Get More Strategic About Content.

So… A Persuasive Content Strategy
Covers the [admittedly extensive] basics of a standard content strategy
Is informed by voice of customer, user behaviors, etc.
Makes persuasive content priority-one
Is tested & tested again
The goal of Web contentis to change a set of beliefs and behaviors, driving target actions.

Joanna Wiebe | 19 OCT 09

Persuasion Scorecard

Towards A Content Strategy That Sells Persuasion Labs

by joanna_wiebe on Oct 21, 2009

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Towards A Content Strategy That Sells Persuasion Labs — Presentation Transcript