Tag Archives: copywriting

Content Strategy, Creative Direction, Experience-Design

Putting the X-Factor In XMatters

XMatters homepage
Why XMatters page
IT Communications page
Proactive Communications Solutions page
XMatters Community homepage

Challenge: 

XMatters creates “Relevance Engines” that deliver relevant information about business interruptions, disasters, ad community alerts to individuals and group audiences based on their geographic location, job group, availability, channel preferences, and other key factors.

Their Relevance Engines have myriad uses for organizations across industries. However, XMatters needed to clarify their offering in order to grow their customer base and increase value to existing customers.

Strategy: 

There are few industries and few professions that couldn’t put XMatters to use but we needed to start with their Super Fans and Early Adopters–groups for whom the use cases were apparent and the success metrics and stories were easy to share.

We also needed a simple way to share the learnings of XMatters’ existing customers, Super Fans, and Early Adopters–and to leverage this to grow value with new and existing customers.

This was the basis of our content strategy for the XMatters website and the online community.

We ultimately delivered…

  • A redesigned website with completely new messaging and content that was targeted to Super Fan/Early Adopters and easy for like audiences to understand;
  • An elegant UI, taxonomy, and ontology that made the information easy to discover–and “breadcrumbed” site visitors to contact XMatters; and
  • An integrated community that allowed current and prospective customers to share their XMatters knowledge and experience.

My Role In The Solution:

I was part of a great team of talented designers, developers, program and project managers. To this team and project I contributed…

  • Developing the initial design concepts (sketches) for the new visual design
  • Leading visual and UX designers to design a new visual design, information architecture and interface.
  • Developing the content strategy for the redesigned website and community
  • Writing copy and managing copywriters, designers, and HTML developers who produced content for the site
  • Providing creative direction for the website and community
  • Developing IA and UX for the website and community

Results: 

Increase in the percentage of website visitors who engage with video and other interactive content and who complete a lead form (demo, contact sales, request info). Growth in number and percentage of website visitors who join the XMatters community. Lower percentage of level one questions being escalated to higher level support.

Content Strategy, Experience-Design

Growing Customers And Value For American Express

American Express Corporate Cards homepage
“Fat Frame” AMEX Corporate Card homepage
AMEX Card Detail Page
“Fat Frame” for Card Detail page
American Express Solutions Finder

Challenge: 

American Express, a global financial services corporation and the world’s largest card issuer, needed to grow the number of qualified leads they acquired via their website corporate cards and services websites–and to grow the lifetime value of their existing customers.

“Selling” corporate credit and charge cards and commercial payment tools is a complicated business with a relatively long purchase path that requires multiple stakeholders and approvals and a complex account setup process–none of which can be completed online.

Strategy: 

Given that we were asked to sell a product online that can’t be sold online, we focused on what we could absolutely deliver–more traffic, more engagement, and more lead forms completed.

Our approach was simple: Target, measure, and optimize.

We identified the primary, secondary, and tertiary audiences for the sites, analyzed the data to understand how those audiences responded to existing website content, online ads, and micro sites driving to the website.

We discovered four insights about our audiences:

  • Virtually all had completed at least some, if not a significant amount of, research prior to visiting the AMEX website
  • The primary audiences visited the site to validate that AMEX products/services had features superior to their existing payment solution
  • While executives would make the final purchase decision, program administrators and managers reporting to those executives gathered the lion’s share of the information on the executives’ behalf
  • Executives were less likely to visit the website for general content but were more likely to read/watch/download more technical or expert content

My Role In The Solution: 

I was part of a great team of talented designers, developers, program and project managers that ultimately developed a new visual design for the website, revised the messaging, copy, and CTAs; identified and included relevant written and video content AMEX already owned; designed landing pages and lead forms; and defined and tagged paths within the website to understand traffic patterns and paths to conversion.

To this team and project I contributed…

  • Leading the creative strategy
  • Developing the content strategy for the redesigned website
  • Writing copy and managing copywriters, designers, and HTML developers who produced content for the site
  • Developing an interactive recommendation tool to help site visitors identify the right product/service
  • Devising a tagging strategy for Sitecore CMS

Results: 

Marked increase in qualified leads generated via sites’ landing pages. AMEX grew their business with us.

Content Strategy, Creative Direction, Video, Writing

Reinvigorating a Pioneering Brand With Cord Blood Registry

CBR homepage
CBR category page with video
Drop-down Nav
CBR media page – video
Get Info On Clinical Trials
“Gateway” to Cord Basics microsite
Pricing calculator page
CellAdvantage Product page
CBR print ad
CBR email to prospect

Challenge: 

Cord Blood Registry (CBR), a pioneer and leader in the cord blood stem cell banking industry, needed to grow the number of expectant parents who choose to bank their babies’ cord blood stem cells with CBR.

In researching the market and interviewing and surveying expecting parents, both CBR’s customers and parents who chose not to bank, we learned that there were four challenges we’d need to overcome in convincing parents to bank:

  • Low awareness of cord blood banking among expectant parents
  • Low understanding of stem cell science and medical applications
  • Relatively high cost of banking
  • Lack of agreement among physicians on the benefits of banking

We also discovered three barriers to growing preference and the number/percentage of banking parents who choose CBR:

  • Confusion around the Cord Blood Registry’s private banking offering and nonprofits that offer let parents donate cells free of charge
  • Competitors co-opting CBR’s branding and messaging, making differentiation among un-savvy expecting parents challenging
  • Low understanding of the benefits of CBR’s superior quality and research-backed offering

Strategy: 

To counter these challenges, we’d need to…

  • Make the science accessible;
  • Position CBR’s superior offering in plain English and in terms of things parents value;
  • Reach parents outside the current target audience; and
  • Leverage the credibility of physicians, parents, and others who believe in banking.

We repositioned the brand–crafting new brand messaging, value proposition statements, product benefit and feature statements, and a new brand identity.

CBR's new logo lockup
CBR’s new logo lockup

 

New storage kit design
New storage kit design

 

We redesigned and completely reimagined the responsively designed website and mobile website. The content strategy was built upon the above insights and prominently featured videos of CBR customer and employee stories and physician testimonials, info graphics to explain stem cell science and CBR’s clinical trial outcomes. We also developed an online enrollment process, designed landing pages and lead capture forms and downloads to grow qualified leads.

We developed email marketing campaigns to persuade existing customers to bank the stem cels of their second (or third) babies and to refer CBR to expecting friends in exchange for a discount on their annual storage fees. We also targeted prospective customers via email, print, direct mail, mobile, and wall boards and brochures in physicians’ offices.

CBR Mobile App Reductive Design
CBR Mobile App lead forms
CBR Mobile Ads
CBR Sweeps email
CBR print ad

Finally we created a patient education microsite that supported physicians in educating patients on cord blood banking.

Cord Banking Basics Patient Education Microsite
First stop
How It Works stop
Benefits stop hover state
Benefits Stop
Final Stop – More Info

My Role In The Solution: 

I was part of a great team of talented designers, developers, program and project managers. To this team and project I contributed…

  • Developing new positioning for the brand
  • Developing a new tagline that aligned with the company’s long-term vision–“Healthy Futures Born Here”
  • Developing the content and creative strategy for customer and prospect email, online, print, direct, billing, and medical office campaigns
  • Wrote scripts, created storyboards, and directed videos
  • Writing copy and managing copywriters, designers, and HTML developers who produced campaign content
  • Serving as creative director for the website, patient education microsite, and marketing campaigns
  • Designing the A/B testing strategy to identify highest-converting pages and copy
  • Developed taxonomy, tagging, personae, and tracking for Sitecore CMS

Results: 

Double-digit increases in brand awareness, preference, and referrals. Online enrollments contributed to significant percentage of new enrollments.