1. The Branded Biography
Strategies for Biographies that Sell, Sell, Sell
September 19th, 2012

2. #gbwebinar
what you will learn:
 how to ―think‖ like a portal or minisite
 ideal organizational strategies
 best practices for effective formats:
preview what it‘s like to work with you
 inspirational content
 great photography: how to achieve it,
sustain it and use it
 the rules for great video… and what never
to do

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to think like a portal, understand
how great sites are designed

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the thelma and louise effect
(pennywise and pound foolish)

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homepage

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interior pages

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beyond the homepage, all
creativity disappears and the
―template‖ takes over.
why? $$$

10. the mall analogy

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failing to think like a portal,
being hostage to template
stunts marketing effectiveness:
thought leadership is buried
in a news archive

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failing to think like a portal,
being hostage to template
stunts marketing effectiveness:
office pages offer directions,
not a reason to buy

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failing to think like a portal,
being hostage to template
stunts marketing effectiveness:
biographies have no clear goals

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yet biographies are the most
visited pages on your site.
so why the great homepage
followed by the high school resume?

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to think like a portal, understand
the goals of each destination page

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what‘s the goal of a biography?
 to be important, confident, a leader
 preview what it‘s like to work with you
 establish expertise
 encourage a call to action

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when people look for services…
Finding Choosing
Intellectual Expertise Expertise
Emotional Comfort Comfort

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when people decide to buy…
Finding Choosing
Intellectual Expertise Expertise
Emotional Comfort Comfort

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before we tackle expertise,
let‘s talk heart to heart

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emotion governs all our behavior,
driving our unconscious reactions,
but also determining what becomes
conscious!
LESSON FOUR: DECIDE

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before we can pay attention,
we must attract attention.
LESSON FOUR: DECIDE

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―Since emotion plays a key role in
directing our attention, the task of
the ad is to evoke emotion in us.‖
Edward du Plessis, The Advertised Mind
LESSON FOUR: DECIDE

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―Affective content drives advertising
effectiveness and our ‗thinking‘
merely supports a decision that may
already have been made.‖
Tim Ambler, Memory-Affect-Cognition
LESSON FOUR: DECIDE

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―Liking an ad is much more
predictive of its success than any
other factor.‖
Low Attention
Processing

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Emotional factors account for a
significant and substantial portion of the
variance in perceived risk even after the
effect of rational factors (perceived
differences between alternatives) has
been taken into account.
—A study of reason and emotion in products and
services, Journal of Consumer Behavior
LESSON ONE: REACT

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design strategy does not work out
on the margins; it works at the core!

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we‘ve talked about the role of emotion
but not how to engage it;
but first let‘s talk about expertise
and how to prove it

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what‘s the goal of a biography?
 to be important, confident, a leader
 preview what it‘s like to work with you
 establish expertise
 encourage a call to action

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nobody reads first. they scan.
quick, you‘ve got three seconds,
what‘s your takeaway?

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preview what it‘s like to work with you

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give them a voice with a quote

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the challenge of getting quotes

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alternative to the voice of the lawyer

42. the voice of authority

43. the voice of the client

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be important, confident and a leader

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invert the typical picture to text ratio:
the individual is the star

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―a picture is worth a thousand words.‖
Fred Barnard, Printers’ Ink 1918
―the memory of a picture is stronger than
the memory of a word describing the
same object.‖
How People Learn:
Brain, Mind, Experience, and School,
National Research Council, 1999
LESSON ONE: REACT

48. #gbwebinar
what‘s the goal of a biography?
 to be important, confident, a leader
 preview what it‘s like to work with you
 establish expertise
 encourage a call to action

49. sidebar

50. inline

51. illustrated practices

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organizational strategies
for delivering experience
(that rhymes with ―expertise‖)

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tabs
―first they wouldn‘t scroll,
now they won‘t click‖
(i.e., to another page)

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widgets and sidebars
―first they wouldn‘t scroll,
now they won‘t click‖
(i.e., to another page)

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the challenge of building a bio page
for all attorneys
so the associate doesn‘t look bad*
*good design can be said to be not much more than common courtesy visualized

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what goes in the middle;
what can be hidden and what should be
displayed ALL the time

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ideal length: setting limits
the wisdom of <more>
or <view all>

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creative writing

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use headlines, not labels

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oh, yeah, SEO.

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optimizing your biographies
(it‘s a minisite, right?)
1. identify keywords
2. write headlines with keywords
3. write keyword rich copy—first 25 words
4. build links to rank higher

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give them a voice with video

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FEATURES OF AMLAW 100 FIRMS
VIDEO
DOES THE WEBSITE HAVE YES NO
video 47%
53%
average length 2.85 minutes
inline 75%
25%
average load time 10:28 seconds
click to*Careers, 45%, About Us, 13%, Practices, 2%, 93%
play? Elsewhere, 40%
7%
on bio page?* 0%
LESSON ONE: REACT

73. #gbwebinar
and it‘s not just for the young
 Gen Y (18 – 32 yr. olds) has the highest
percentage using the web to watch video
 but the same percentage of Gen X do so
 almost half of young boomers watch
video online

74. #gbwebinar
Americans move briskly to online video
 100M Americans watch online video daily, up
43% since 2010 (source: comScore)
 average view length is up from 5 minutes to 5.8
minutes
 video ad volume up 20% to 7.1B served
 30% of Internet traffic is video
… in other words, video is now part of marketing

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but not just any video…
1. unearth a driving concept
2. connect left brain to right
3. brevity is a common courtesy
4. be authentic, but practice, practice …
5. create and maintain a firm style
6. lousy video undermines your authority

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what‘s the goal of a video?
 to be important, confident, a leader
 preview what it‘s like to work with you
 establish expertise
 encourage a call to action
bottom line: the humanization of the
technical expert

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turn attorney profiles into viewpoints

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invest in video case studies

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get your clients to share their ideas

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photography must be central to your
design, not a stamp on the envelope

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but not just any photography…
1. have a creative style
2. develop consistent art direction
3. have a plan to sustain the style
(economical and scalable)

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what‘s the goal of a biography?
 to be important, confident, a leader
 preview what it‘s like to work with you
 establish expertise
 encourage a call to action

88. #gbwebinar
now imagine there is a set of best practices
for every single page of your website…

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―I‘m superficial, but I‘m
deeply superficial.‖
Andy Warhol

90. questions?
www.greenfieldbelser.com
burkeyb@gbltd.com
gbmarketing@gbltd.com
202.775.0333
#gbwebinar

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