- Maintaining your living content
- break up sections of website
- every piece of content needs to be reviewed on an ongoing basis
- Content strategy
- define exactly what you’re going to do
- new and current = good for SEO and encourages users to return and keeps website relevant
- Content governance
- who should own what particular pieces of content + parts of website
- specify who is responsible
- distributed accountability model
- centralised accountability
- characteristics of good content:
- timely
- accurate
- authority
- quantity
- quality
- relevant
- Style guide
- logos, colours, fonts, typography
- how you want content written
- tone of voice
- headings
- langugae
- reading level
- terminology, abbrevs, acronyms
- phrases
- lists
- any unique things to organisation
- how will staff know an update has been made? = Internal communication
- Managing stakeholders
- web team
- subject matter experts (SME)/content authors
- senior management
- managers of other channels
- legal team, marketing, sales, SEO experts, etc
- Other digital channels
- microcontent/other channels = consistency over all channels
- email/newsletters
- social media
- messages
- instore: signs, cash registers, personalities, is it the same as the website?
- advertising
- call center
- text messages
- packaging + delivery
- receipts + thankyous
- seamlessness
- Becoming a better writer
- read and write more
- get someone to edit your writing
- get content reviewed
- think outside the box
- look at other good content, eg competitors + identify what they do well
- test it with users
- Checklist
- prepare + plan
- know your reader
- know your business
- know your purpose
- write
- plan
- structure
- relevant
- useful
- accurate
- credible
- current
- consistent
- findable
- scannable
- understood by our users
- interesting
- plain english
- tone of voice
- active voice
- present tense
- keywords = find them through users and analytics
- headings
- lists
- links
- visual/audio/graphics = to enhance
- forms
- messages: personable + informative
- SEO
- accessibility
- review + maintain
- spelling + grammar
- all words necessary?
- reviewed by another person
- who owns which content
- plan next 12 months
- content governance
- define style guide
- Structure
- how someone is going to read content
- F scan – chunk information so people can scan more easily
- nice heading, subheadings, shorts paras, bullet points
- Relevant + Useful
- looks at competitors
- more research into what users want to get out of content
- give practical advice
- look at analytics – if people are linking to your site
- social media if people are talking about content
- Accurate + Credible
- trusted content
- have the expertise to be writing about that content
- check with an expert if correct
- research
- David Ogilvy
- review
- reliable + believable
- Current + Consistent
- take things away that are out of date
- think about when things will expire
- is it still relevant?
- consistent tone of voice
- abbreviations and acronyms etc = consistent
- Findable
- how do people find your website?
- search
- links to your website
- within website: navigation, internal links, website’s internal search
- Scannable
- F shaped pattern
- chunks of content, headings, subheadings
- summaries at the beginning
- white space can make website more attractive to the eye = breathing room between content
- Simple
- plain english
- short sentences + paragraphs
- lists
- graphics, tables, pictures
- personal: I, us, we, you
- match user’s knowledge, eg writing for a teen website
- direct
- verbs not nouns, eg ‘consider’ not ‘consideration’
- inform don’t impress
- examples + analogies
- Interesting
- personality
- topical
- present it in an interesting way, eg info graphics
- don’t oversell, push user, have fluffy introductions or use jargon
- Voice
- personality
- tense: present active
- consistent across all channels
- Writing Style
- inverted pyramid
- read content out loud to yourself – could you leave the page after one paragraph satisfied you have all the info?
- Good quality content
- clear headings
- exact statements
- nice images
- summaries (could stop here is we wanted/needed to)
- chunks of information
- links
- calls to action
- visuals representations of products
- Elements of a good website
- user + business needs
- information architecture (IA)
- interactive design
- visual design
- brand
- content
- users essential
- navigation/tree structure
- labels + secondary navigation
- wireframe
- aesthetic appeal + personality
- content is king
- Web v Print Content
- how do people read online/print?
- printed = physical document, read front to back, don’t rely on power source, less fatigued eyes
- online = computer, tablet, mobile, laptop, rely on power, back light results in eye fatigue
- Jakob Nielsen 1997: how users read the web = they don’t, they scan in F shape pattern
- snack vs feasting
- Understanding users
- talking to users
- website analytics
- surveys
- Context of use
- where are they accessing, when and with what device?
- eg, at lunch people might have more time to read news content compared to a 10 – 15 minute commute
- what pieces and pages of content are people looking at at certain time?
- if we know what devices people are accessing we can change the content that we deliver on those devices
- all different screen sizes, etc
- Understanding the business objectives
- stakeholders
- marketing
- financial
- customer service
- subject matter experts
- anyone with vested interest in website
- sometimes a mobile optimized site is going to meet the user’s needs more than an app
- Purpose of content
- persuade
- inform
- educate
- entertain
- change behaviour
- enforce compliance, esp govt websites
- Accessible content
- disabilities:
- vision impairment
- hearing impairment
- motor impairment
- dyslexia
- colour blindness
- don’t use content as images
- captions on audio + video
- transcripts
- Microsoft Word accessibility checker
- product descriptions
- SEO
- page title – in the browser/tab bar
- page heading
- keywords
- links
- natural language
- topical content
- unique content
- URL
- the last thing we want is to optimise for search engines but not optimise for our users
- Evolution of the web:
- the web simplified what was complicated into a standard protocol
- 1993 – Tim Berners-Lee – made access of info available to everyone
- mobile now primary access –> what does this mean then for online advertising?
- Hyper Text Markup Language
- Commercialisation of the internet
- advertisers sought to monetise consumers
- WIRED magazine – how technology was affecting culture – first web ad for AT&T “Have you ever clicked your mouse right here? You will.”
- portals, eg netscape
- opportunities for commercialisation of search
- online ad banners generate high volumes of interest displayed by high percentages of user click-through rates
- Digital industry players
- marketers have more choice than ever in terms of where they can advertise and run their marketing messages
- digital has exponentially increased choices
- advertisers have to sift through and ask: where is the best place to spend my money?
- buyers: agencies primary buyers
- issue that there is no standard structure for the way advertising is bought and sold
- sellers:
- pure play = a media company that has no legacy property (eg TV network, newspaper), it is online only, eg Amazon, Yahoo
- traditional = eg, print publishers having websites
- creatives: more interested in allure of TV than small postage-sized ads online
- technology companies – SEO etc
- New players and traditional outlets repurposing themselves
- How digital complements print media
- magazines with apps with additional content in editorial and advertising – can bring print to life – online enhances print
- not competing medias but complementing
- channel isn’t as important as the content
- not tied to physical product anymore
- How digital complements broadcast media
- TV expensive, so video online may be more feasible
- TiVo etc, fast forwarding ads is a major challenge to industry
- tablet use in front of TVs offers opportunities for networks to connect with these audiences
- TV show shareability over social channels
- ads with Shazam embedded at the bottom for us to use over phones while watching TV
- Online audience measurement
- every medium has an agreed standard audience currency, eg TV ratings and viewershio, radio listenership, print readership and circulation
- difficult for online to settle on a particular standard currency
- Australia one of the first countries to establish the standard
- Nielsen had a couple of different methodologies:
- site centric = based around code to measure activity counting browsers as people – challenges because often more than one person uses a computer, and people often use more than one device
- based on panel = track activity of panel members – challenge as may under represent
- every measuring metric has inherent flaws, the importance is that the industry agrees on a methodology
- Nielsen combined both to create UA – Unique Audience
- Still not all websites use this system when reporting audience members to agencies/advertisers, may use Google Analytics
- Digital jargon
- hits = one of the first measurement metrics on the web
- outdated and irrelevant
- it doesn’t mean visitors but the load on the webpage, ie each element that needs to load (this means nothing to advertisers)
- be confident enough to ask what someone means by hits, eg visitors, pageviews, etc
- SEO = Search Engine Optimisation
- updating content, unique content, appropriate keywords, external links
- things that make search engines things this is a valuable, content-rich site
- cookies = piece of code that a website uses to determine browsers
- they are identifiers
- when sites remember usernames that is because the cookies recognise you