Creating the blueprint for digital performance

Editor's Notes

1. Creating a blueprint for digital performance What we call a planning stage – the fruits of a lot of hard work, banging heads together, but based on a desire to avoid the avoidable errors and build a really solid foundation for our clients. You can’t just launch into building a website without asking yourself some fundamental questions, without drilling into the absolute essentials behind why you’re doing it, what your client wants… It’s an investment, sure, and it’s not what most clients are expecting… but it’s what clients actually need in order for design & development to proceed with confidence, and for the site to succeed in the long term.
2. So, those questions. Some fundamental ones… you can’t build a website unless you can answer these.
3. These are not the answers, btw. These are the strategies that help you provide the answers. The difficulty, and where many agencies have failed, is that they believe the strategies are the answer. Look, they say, we’ve provided keyword research. Here’s an excel file. We’ve developed some user personas. Can we build yet? We’ve done a wireframe, can we build now? These strategies have to MEAN SOMETHING to the client. If they don’t the client loses confidence. If they don’t, the site won’t succeed.
4. Define what success looks like first- Agree on it with the client- Build a structure that works for users & search engines- Build a structure that is future-proof (no bloating)- Build a structure that meets client objectives- Avoid ‘scope creep’- Enter design & development with confidence that your foundations are evidence-led and data-based Difficult sell? Well yes, if other agencies are pitching web builds at £3k. You have to establish the value. The value here is the confidence & understanding. And you know what, you can do the planning stage and let the client go out to tender with this blueprint. They’ll have KWR, IA, wireframes, a full scope of work… feel free to have it built elsewhere. It’s all about confidence & understanding.
5. An email from one of our clients, sent this morning.
6. You will need some tools for the keyword research stage. Let’s keep it simple.
7. And if we’re keeping it simple… I love excel but clients don’t love excel data dumps Not everyone understands data Not everyone cares Data has to tell a story The biggest problem that we, as agencies, face, is that we don’t let our data tell stories We over engineer what is actually a very strategic phase. We look at data and competition metrics too much, we need to interpret more and make decisions. You can go off and understand keyword competition metrics and get as granular as you like. That’s your job. The data has to mean something to clients – giving them an excel dump of keywords is a mistake
8. Talk… And above all, listen. Market research… ask for it. If they don’t have it, demand it. Talk to your client’s customers… or listen to them. E.g. Animas – carried out a lot of consumer research, defined users & interviewed 50 – watched them navigate & their choice of keywords – saw what they wanted to achieve. This insight led to decisions in KWR, architecture, wireframes, even the language we used in the content.
9. A few tactics – but not the whole story. We could speak for days on how to deep-dive. Remember, we’re not over-engineering. We’re trying to understand & build a picture. So start at the top & work down. And yes, we use SEMRush & we trust the data more than we trust Google’s data. So we start by looking at the assumptions – let’s say “Log Homes” is what we’ve assumed is our keyword. SEMRush tells us, actually, we’re not right. Log Cabins is by far and away the more popular keyword. And yes, we know from talking to our market that log cabins is also used for holidays.
10. Where it gets really powerful is when you can turn to a client and say “you know that competitor, well I know what he ranks for” “I know how much traffic he’s getting” “I also know when these keywords are trending…”
11. And I know where you sit in comparison to this competitor – and others… This is where it gets really interesting for clients. You’re putting it into a real-world context – everyone has a competitor. Everyone has goals – and very often, those goals are to outrank someone else. Remember – no sign of excel, no data dumps, just stories. Led by data.
12. Diversify your data sets – get different angles Google’s drop-down is visible to everyone Use keywordtool.io or alternatives to find out what the suggestions are - IMPORTANT: remember what is important to the client, not what Google says is important… log cabin breaks is NOT what this client wants. Log Cabins for sale, however…
13. Diversify your data sets. Answer The Public gives you questions that people are actually asking. Think blog posts – think Quora – think FAQs – think “low volume, high conversion” keywords that might not register volumes in Google Adwords
14. A lot of these questions are rubbish But there are some gems – e.g. what wood for log cabin, are log cabin homes expensive? How much are log cabin modular homes – obviously, price is a driver But when you come to build your editorial calendar with the client, this is a great starting point.
15. The process of making this data MEAN SOMETHING to a client… You need pen & paper for this Process, process, process… Build from the trophy outward & look for alternatives Segment intent Build further. Look at Wikipedia’s rankings. Look at competitors. Talk to you client. Talk to their customers. Look at market research. You hold the data. You interpret it. They understand the story.
16. Keyword Clouds are easier to interpret for clients They tell the story, and the data is there to back it up It gives you direction & a focus Big keyword down to little keyword Short-tail down to long-tail Product page down to supporting blog post / user guide / campaign content item
17. Think about intent. Start to segment your keywords up. Take log homes as an example: You have log homes, small log homes, large log homes – buyer intent is unclear, but they want a log home You have garden rooms, annexes, gyms, offices – buyer intent is different, they know what the log home is for So you have a direction for your architecture
18. Not just navigation – but structure of site People don’t come to NAVIGATE through your site, they come to GET SOMETHING DONE (alistapart) Think Intent Think Client Objectives e.g. Animas, go back to your market research, your conversations with customers – WHAT DO THEY WANT TO GET DONE? Keywords are one thing, real-life examples are better Use the keyword research to educate structure of the site Use your knowledge of the customer’s customers to educate structure of the page
19. 3 users: those who are new to insulin pumps – switching from injections, those who are out of warranty / coming up to warranty expiry, those who have been living with t1d for many years Architecture designed to influence & support the journey through the site Define the goals – design the architecture to help people get where they want to go & where you want them to go Result: Bounce rate down 30%, time on site up 100%, enquiries up 50%, pages per visit up 100%
20. This is important: who are your users? You may want to hold this stage back until you’re doing the IA – once you have the KWR on board. What do you expect them to do on the site? What’s most important to them? Their frustrations? Their needs? What type of content do they want to ‘consume’? If you have market research, if you’ve talked to your client, if you’ve talked to these customers, you can start to fill this in… (and you will have multiple)
21. Who are your users? What do you expect them to do on the site? What’s most important to them? Their frustrations? Their needs? What type of content do they want to ‘consume’?
22. Remember – why are we doing this? Opportunity to lay out the customer journey – NOT the design Take design elements out, strip everything back, bring out what’s important I’m presuming that everyone knows what a wireframe is, what I want to talk about is how we use them as part of our planning stage.
23. Pen & paper - fastest way to get initial ideas down The first iteration should be low fi, it’s up to you whether you share this with the client. It helps keep things fluid and means the designers don’t get caught up in the detail.
24. We’ve learnt that wireframes for desktop are not enough, there is no point in working out the template layouts for desktop without considering the way it adapts for other devices. Even if it is in rough desktop alone is not enough. The second iteration should be in sketch, if you haven’t started using this yet then you definitely need to check it out. When you have sussed the symbols and type styles you can make site wide changes really easily. No more multiple photoshop files. Because of the rapid uptake of sketch Adobe are bringing out a competitor next year called Project Comet. If you guys are interested we can hold a separate webinar on sketch best practice. Build out from your lo-fi stage with Sketch – go mobile-first Define the mobile functionality you require Prototype in Marvel to assess user flow and demonstrate navigation.
25. Build out from mobile – what functionality does desktop require You’ve got keywords – you’ve got IA – wireframing allows you to define what goes where & what is needed to help the client journey progress as you want it Marvel App is another game changer, it allows clients to click through designs in a browser and see rollover effects and even transitions. Making prototypes has never been easier.
26. Explain the purpose of the document Why do we need a Scope of Work? We know from experience that projects can evolve as they go on. If you’ve done the foundations, you know exactly what the client wants, the client knows exactly what they want, and you can both agree on it. Define the functionality required, list the services & the project stages, define what is deliverable – what is bespoke – and when it can be delivered. THIS is the brief, but YOU have written it with the client’s help. Now everyone has confidence. List the team members involved List the project stages List the services Outline the standard deliverables Outline the bespoke deliverables Specify the timescales and dependencies Costs and payment schedule Signature
27. There is a standard level of deliverable that applies to (almost) everyone Make sure the client knows this.
28. Use gantt charts to help the client see when things are happening, when things are deliverable, and what’s next This gives them confidence in your ability to deliver on time (that is key btw)
29. Again, it’s about client confidence. Establishing the foundations is one thing, keeping up the communications and making everything crystal clear is the next part. Basecamp is the best SEO project management tool available – there are others, and we’ve used Strikebase, Wryke, and a bunch of others, but we keep coming back to Basecamp (and Harvest as an add-on). Skype calls again comes back to crystal clear comms and confidence – it’s better than phone calls – and you can share the files you’re talking about, share screenshots, share screens even…
30. The tightest brief possible… Once everything is signed off, you can move on with confidence. The SOW establishes all the functionality you need to meet your objectives The keywords you are targeting The site architecture The layout (wireframes) The people you are targeting The functionality you require to deliver the project The final, nailed-down cost This is all about nailing down the cost & the resources required. Ballparks are useless – if you have defined the scope, you can define an absolute price and avoid scope creep and avoid having to go back and ask your client for extra budget because you didn’t establish the foundations in the first place.