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From Content Strategy to Persuasive Content StrategyBecause 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 HalvorsonDeath to Lorem Ipsum 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/Folksonomies help 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 customer
wants
And shareholders
want to make $$$
The biz wants to
sell lots o’ flowers
Now What? What Does the Content
Strategist Do With That?
The [Traditional] Content
Strategist Then…• Refers to the content inventory
to assess what’s available to sell & where it’s being sold on-site
• Refers to the competitor content audits to seek out opportunities
• Reviews the content assessment to see what’s good… and not
• Works with the ID (wireframe) to start slotting in content
Whoa, Nelly!
We Need to Sell to People. So We Need to Learn About Them, First.
Learn About Users 1st
• What are their motivations? What makes them want to buy?
• What keywords are they using to get to your site/page?—and which are converting most?
• What are their barriers to buying from you on your site?
• What do they need to make decisions more confidently?
• Are they in a rush to buy on your site… or are they browsing?
• Do they return to your site several times before buying?
• Are they familiar with your brand?—your products?—your services?
• Are they web savvy or NTTW?
• Are they social media users with higher UGC & rich media expectations?
• What are their behaviors on the page?—where do they click, what do they miss?
To Find Out, Use Tools Like…
Where they’re clicking
What keywords
are working
What they think
Where they go
And Activities Like…
If they can
use it
Deeper drives & barriers
Learning Is an Ongoing Process. But We Can at Least Get Started Now.
Example: Let’s Sell Flowers
The biz wants to
sell lots o’ flowers
The customer
wants
And shareholders
want to make $$$
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.
Organize Content
Persuasively: Home
Let them buy from the home page if they’re telling you that they’re busy and just want to order fast.
Organize Content
Persuasively: Home
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.
Organize Content
Persuasively: Product Detail
Use social proof (e.g., user ratings) and tap into herd behavior to get users to decide faster & with more confidence.
Organize Content
Persuasively: Product Detail
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.
Organize Content
Persuasively: Product Detail
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 content is to change a set of beliefs and behaviors, driving target actions.
Persuasion ScorecardStrongly
AgreeAgree Somewhat
AgreeSomewhatDisagree
Disagree Strongly Disagree
Comparisons 1 2 3 4 5 6
Repetition 1 2 3 4 5 6
Rewards & discounts 1 2 3 4 5 6
Contrast 1 2 3 4 5 6
Fewer decisions 1 2 3 4 5 6
High price = good 1 2 3 4 5 6
Social proof 1 2 3 4 5 6
Likable people 1 2 3 4 5 6
Scarcity 1 2 3 4 5 6
Divestiture aversion 1 2 3 4 5 6
Rewrite truth 1 2 3 4 5 6
Priming & framing 1 2 3 4 5 6
Rule of reciprocation 1 2 3 4 5 6
Obedience to authority 1 2 3 4 5 6
Momentum of Yes 1 2 3 4 5 6
