Telling your Digital Story Visually: How Great Website Design can Drive Conversations

Smarter Software for Communities

May 27, 2015

Telling your Digital Story Visually

How Great Website Design can Drive Conversations with Your EDO

2

Smarter Software for Communities

YOUR HOSTS

Gus Delaporte – Content Writer •  Experienced in creating persuasive,

action-oriented digital content •  Former journalist with a background

covering real estate, economic development and municipal finance

@AtlasAd #AskAtlas

Michael Vinluan – Designer •  Former digital creative at the IBM

Design Lab •  Experience as a Digital Art Director for

brands such as Charles Schwab, Heineken, Dos Equis, Jaguar Cars, and Hersey’s.

@AtlasAd #AskAtlas

3

In this session you will learn…

1.  How layout, messaging, and other factors drive digital engagement

2.  How to develop your community’s digital brand

3.  How to develop engaging key messaging

4.  How to select a design and layout for your website

5.  How to select designs for your email, social, digital documents, and prospect proposals

6.  How to select and source photography

4

Smarter Software for Communities

Your Website is Your Online Brand

5

The best community brands, like the best communities, are relevant, truthful and different. As a community competing in the global marketplace, the most important thing you can do is differentiate yourself. Your website isn’t a silo. And it’s not just about design. Your website affects your social media, email marketing, lead generation, brand awareness and sales strategies. The Internet rules in this “digital era,” and Google controls 80% of the search results, so make yourself stand out. Search engines want to reward the brands that real people find valuable. A branded website gives a clear picture of your company through the information that’s presented, the way it’s presented, and the user experience of the site.

It’s your brand.

Your Story. How you connect to the world.

6

•  Your Brand Personality "

•  The Overall Feel and Experience "

of your Community"

•  Messaging Consistency "

•  Engaging, High Quality Content "

What Does A Branded Website Communicate to the User?

7 Messaging Best Practices

The average reader will stay on your page for just 15 seconds. There are three important components of website messaging that must be consumed in that time:" What is your organization and your community about?!!What does it look and feel like?!!What makes you different?!

8 Who are you?

It’s important to quickly communicate the value you creates for your target market. People don’t know your business like you do. To get them up to speed in a matter of seconds, you have to be crystal clear.! Think about how you describe your organization to someone you have just met. Does your website do the same?

9 What do you look like?

We are all visual learners, and “a picture is worth a thousand words.” ! You can use an image on your homepage to help visitors SEE the value of your community and EDO.! When you can clearly communicate to a new visitor what you do in the first few seconds, you answer the most important question in their mind.!!

10 What makes you unique? Not only should your website messaging communicate the value you create and what differentiates you, it also plays an important role in establishing credibility and converting visitors into leads.!!Think about what your community truly offers that stands out. !

11

12 The Most Engaging Key Messages… Concise: Optimally three key messages on one page; each statement only one to three sentences in length or under 30 seconds when spoken. Strategic: Define, differentiate and address benefits. Relevant: Balance what you need to communicate with what your audience needs to know. !Compelling: Meaningful information designed to stimulate action. Simple: Easy-to-understand language; avoid jargon and acronyms. Memorable: Easy to recall and repeat; avoid run-on sentences. Tailored: Effectively communicates with your audiences, adapting language and depth of information.

13

Smarter Software for Communities

Design & Layout

14 Top 5 things to consider when designing for a community/place. 1)  Have a story to tell

15 Top 5 things to consider when designing for a community/place. 1)  Have a story to tell 2)  Have a clear and easy to use navigation and prominent CTAs

16 Top 5 things to consider when designing for a community/place. 1)  Have a story to tell 2)  Have a clear and easy to use navigation and prominent CTAs 3)  Bring your brand personality to life

17 Top 5 things to consider when designing for a community/place. 1)  Have a story to tell 2)  Have a clear and easy to use navigation and prominent CTAs 3)  Bring your brand personality to life 4)  Flexible space to keep things up-to-date

18 Top 5 things to consider when designing for a community/place. 1)  Have a story to tell 2)  Have a clear and easy to use navigation and prominent CTAs 3)  Bring your brand personality to life 4)  Flexible space to keep things up-to-date 5)  Change is a constant, so adapt

19 Responsive Design Since the number of mobile users surfing online is breaking records every year, the current trend in the market is that they will actually be a MAJORITY in just a couple of short years. A recent study found responsive websites are achieving about 11% higher visitor-to-lead conversion rate increases compared to non-responsive sites, which only receive a 2.7% improvement in performance year over year. Google has actually come out with a guide that states responsive design is PREFERRED. We have to stay on Google’s good side, since it can single-handedly determine your search rankings and, in turn, your organic traffic numbers!

20

Smarter Software for Communities

Conversion Best Practices

21 Website Conversion: An Overview

•  Although usability and intuition form the basis of a good design, you need to think beyond the basics and use design subtleties to drive visitors toward your conversion.

•  Try to strike a balance between your website’s conversion goal and aesthetics to come up with a “design that sells.”

•  For every page in the website they ask: “What do you want people to do on this page? What is the end result you’re trying to achieve?”

22 Great Conversion-Centric Homepage

23

Conversion Design Tips

Focus on what you NEED visitors to do to drive inquiries about your community. Is your site design intuitive and user friendly? Could your mom figure it out? Have conversion-centric design features. Certain design features have a direct influence on conversion. •  Large, clear headlines •  Authentic images •  Easy-to-use navigation •  Message hierarchy •  Important elements and conversions above the fold

24

25 The top 5 Design Elements that Influence Conversion 1.  Navigation and Accessibility - This creates a clear

conversion path so visitors do not feel overwhelmed with a million different choices

2.  Simple, Clean Content - You need to make sure that you leverage your design to reach all types of people — “readers, scanners, and bottom-line viewers.”

3.  Calls to Action - Pay attention to colors, shape, placement and messaging.

4.  Photography and Infographics - Beautiful websites generate better results.

26

Smarter Software for Communities

Selecting and Sourcing Images

27

People process visual information 60,000 times faster than narrative information. People no longer want to browse a website – they want to experience it. Using the right images and infographics can boost your site’s conversions and get you to connect better with your target audience. Great photos help tell the real story of your place and organization in a way that makes a remarkable visual impact and connects with users. Tip: Caption your images! Captions under images are read on average 300% more than the body copy itself!

Show off your Assets!

28

Don’ts Use stock photographs that are obviously stock photographs — use real images! Just because a stock photo is attractive doesn’t mean it will be effective. Use poor quality images of any kind — better to not show anything than to show something pixelated, over-compressed, badly resized, of a low resolution, or otherwise shoddy-looking.

Do Use images with story appeal — It evokes a strong sense of curiosity in your reader! Use images which demonstrate something you’ve said in the copy. Pay off your content with illustrative images that show it!

The Do’s & Don’ts of Website Photos and Infographics

29

Just say “No” to Stock Photography!

30

Yes! A REAL person and a great photo!

31

Yes! An infographic illustrates data in a consumable way.

32 Video

•  Video is a powerful way to increase user engagement on your website.

•  Visitors can see what your location is like, in a dynamic, experiential way.

•  Videos can showcase your expertise.

•  Videos give you a relatable face and engage users with your brand.

A one minute video is said to be valued at 1.8 million words, according to Dr. James McQuivey of Forrester Research.

33

Video Do’s and Don’ts

•  Don’t - post long videos to your site. 1- 2 minutes in length is ideal!

•  Do - be creative and think about what will engage your audience.

•  Do - use real people! It takes more research and planning to find those real-life stories, and you may have to spend more time to get them to be comfortable on camera, but the authenticity of the finished product is worth the extra effort.

•  Do - repurpose video! Posting your finished video to sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Vimeo will drive traffic to your website and reach your target audience on a variety of platforms.

Tip: What matters is relevance and quality of content! Useful added-value content is what your customers will love you for.

34

A Great Use of Video…. !http://www.greaterri.com/!

35

Smarter Software for Communities

Designs for your email, social, digital documents, and prospect

proposals

36

Comprehensive campaign for Parker, CO

37

What’s Next?

Managing your Digital Presence: Developing an Ongoing Content Management Competency in your EDO June 10, 2015 11:30 - 1:00 MST " To access previous webinar recordings, go to: http://communitysys.com/Restricted-Webinars/Webinars.aspx. " If you’re a Community Systems client, your username and password for the CMS Desk will grant you access to the page. If you’re not a Community Systems user, your username is your first and last name with no spaces (e.g. JohnDoe), and your password is DigitalEDU (for all users). " If you have questions, please email Whitney Daly - whitneyd@communitysys.com. " "