Online Content:What do they want?

And who are they, anyway?

Kathy SantosMass Audubon Webmaster

Zucchini

Recipes

Zucchini

Chocolate Fudge

Zucchini Cake

The Dreaded April Vacation

I hear Mass Audubon has programs…

What happened here?

THIS entire page was read

THESE pages were

only scanned

In a later slide, you’ll see what this information is called.

Online is DifferentIt’s harder to read text

online– Use short paragraphs– Use short sentences – the

comma rule

Short attention span theater & the 5 second rule– Findability– Lots of headings– Good organization

More then just text – Rich content– Diagrams, maps, quotes

So who ARE these people?

• Who visits our website?– Demographics– Motivations– Politics

…and What Do They Want?

Website visitors have GOALS– It’s not about what YOU want to TELL

them– It’s giving them what interests THEM– And making it easy for them to fulfill

their goals

WE should have web goals too

– Why do we want a given page?

– What problem will it solve for us?

– What goal will it meet?

– If it doesn’t support mission or money goals, why do we need it?

What do we want people to DO as a result of seeing this web page?

It’s All About Behavioral Change

What Makes Us Special?“We need to ask questions such as: What's our most important content?

What content do we have that people really want to read and can't find anywhere else?”

“The content itself must be compelling. It must drive action.”

Gerry McGovern

author of The Web Content Style Guide

Designing a Home PageJared Spool, User Experience expert,

says there are two important functions for a home page:

1. Deliver the content that the user is seeking

2. Provide a strong scent to pages that contain the content the user seeks

Analyzing Our Home Page

Google Analytics Overlay ModePercentage of clicks to a given page(not from a given link)

Home Page A/B Testing

Google Website Optimizer

• Shows 1 of 2 versions

of a page

• Keeps track of conversions

50% more click-thrus to the donation page

Online DonationsJakob NielsonOnline Usability Researcher

“Non-profits would collect much more from their websites if only they'd clearly state what they are about and how they use donations…

“That is: What are you trying to achieve, and how will you spend my money?”

More from Jakob Nielsen

“Email newsletters are the best way to maintain customer relationships on the Internet.”

eNewsletters

Tracking eye movements

“…the average time allocated to a newsletter after opening it was only 51 seconds. “

Email takes a lot of thought

• CAN-SPAM act• Spam-blocking• Many different

email reader programs

• Hard to get peoples’ attention

Email

Overload

Online is Informal

• Email is all about relationships/loyalty/trust/respect/friendship

• Email style should be:– Personal– “Breezy”– Connect with readers

• Have a From Name and/or signature• Write in active voice• First person

More from Jakon Neilson

"Reading" is not even the right word, since participants fully read only 19% of newsletters. “

“The predominant user behavior was scanning.” “Often, users didn't even scan the entire newsletter:

35% of the time, participants only skimmed a small part of the newsletter or glanced at the content. “

“People were highly inclined to skip the introductory blah-blah text in newsletters.””Although this text was only three lines long on average, … 67% of users had zero [eye] fixations within newsletter introductions. “

Just because we write it,

doesn’t mean they’ll read it.

Measuring Success and Iterating• Email statistics

– Opens, clicks, forwards, unsubscribes• Web statistics

– Pageviews, Visits, Visitors– Interactions: online donations, membership

signups, emails & contact form submissions– Bounces, exit pages

• Analyze Change Test Review

It’s all about empathy

• Who are we talking to?

• What do they care about?

• Why should they listen to us?

• How do they know who we are?

• Is what we have to say worth their

time?

• Are we fulfilling their needs?

AnyQuestion

s?