Interactive White Paper - Executive Summary

Content that works

Content that works 2001 netdefinition Ltd.

Executive summary
> 1.1 What is content? On a simple level, content boils down to telling (and often selling) somebody something. It is "whatever is presented to you" or "any stuff that keeps you on a web site" It is a mixture of information types (words, pictures, video, sound), served through a variety of delivery channels, for a range of purposes and encapsulating what a company wants to say to somebody > 1.2 What is content that works? Content that works does not necessarily mean content thats fun, content thats spelt right, content thats designed prettily. It means content that best serves the purpose of the site, the business and most importantly the user The challenge is in identifying your audiences, isolating their needs and reacting to those needs Content that works is one of the primary drivers for user acquisition and retention, provides a key means of differentiation and can make you money > 1.3 How to create content that works Create content that works via a 4-phase process:

>> 1.3.1 Understand The purpose of the site, the business and the user >> 1.3.2 Plan Areas of content: - Keep to what your users have asked for - Start to think about how the content will be structured - Consider the scope of information needed within each area - Establish a prioritisation scale - Work out which content will have the greatest (and least) potential for revenue generation - Talk about it with your colleagues - Keep it simple

Content that works 2001 netdefinition Ltd.

 Technology: - Explore the Content Management System (CMS) market fully - Decide whether to source from an external CMS vendor or to create in-house - Think very carefully how your content can best be stored in a database: what information (either direct or related) will be relevant to the user; ensure it can be served to all parts of your site where it might be relevant; consider how you need to cross-reference it; index it efficiently - Ensure that it is simple for your producers, editors etc to create and update - Consider whether the CMS allows simple redistribution through other delivery channels - Consider syndication, localisation into foreign languages and shared information needs between multiple sites you operate - Remember the technological issue from the users side - Ensure you possess software to track and analyse users behaviour with regards to your content proposition - Examine your personalisation and Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology needs Delivery channels: - Start with your narrowband proposition - Gain a clear understanding of exactly what broadband and wireless mean - Remember how viewing styles differ between delivery channels, requiring different approaches to content development - Examine which areas of your overall proposition could be enhanced by development of broadband (and wireless) content - Carry on developing content for narrowband and experiment with developing broadband and wireless content to see what works and what does not - Keep up-to-date on which platforms and providers seem to be achieving prominence Personality: - Articulate the characteristics of your brand and decide how you wish this to be presented online - Draw up formalised guideline documents for both online graphic and editorial styles - Use personality to achieve differentiation from your competitors Resources: - Be realistic about what you can afford its better to do fewer things well than many things badly - Look at more cost-effective routes to obtaining content, eg. syndicated content feeds, user-generated content - Put recruitment high up, or at the top, of your priority list - Examine your staffing requirements right down the chain, covering all stages of the content process planning, strategy, creation (design, editorial, technology), commercial, analysis - Advertise vacancies on your own site/newsletter - Incentivise staff to use word-of-mouth/e-mail to fill vacancies - If paying to advertise, consider where you get most bang for your buck trade magazines, newspapers, web - Remember that outsourcing often provides the most cost-effective solution via specialised consultants and/or recruitment agencies - Ask to see examples of candidates previous work and find out how they interacted with other members of their team

Content that works 2001 netdefinition Ltd.

>> 1.3.3 Create User interface and information architecture: - Understand the distinction between the concepts of user interface design and information architecture - Make a distinction in user interface design between navigation interface and individual page content - Offer something of interest for the widest possible range of users on the homepage, while avoiding cluttering - Design your navigation system to be simple and intuitive - Remember that the eye naturally goes to the top-left of the screen first - Present your most valuable user proposition where its most likely to be seen - Provide differing levels of information detail on site / section homepages catering for differing types of user - Think about how you want to segment and group areas of content - Consider what information (direct or related) will be relevant to the user - Ensure the information can be served to all parts of the site where it might be relevant - Put your most in-depth content (eg. lengthy texts and information tables) deeper inside the site - Involve editorial, graphic design, technological, commercial and strategic teams in a collaborative process Design and write: - Ensure design and editorial style accurately reflect the site personality identified during planning phase - Consider colours, shapes, images, graphics, buttons, menus, typefaces - Expect to design for 800x600 and version 4+ browsers (unless under special circumstances) - Use Javascript, DHTML and Flash where appropriate as a value-add - Ensure copy and graphics function in harmony - Write in a specific style for web concise, distinctive, personal, flexible, involving - Check, check and check again for factual and grammatical correctness Syndicate: - Syndicate in if you need a broad range of up-to-date, relatively inexpensive content - Syndicate out to generate revenue from your existing content and/or increase brand awareness - Conduct an examination of who might benefit from your content not forgetting corporate Intranets - Create good quality content of your own to maximise chances of 3rd parties paying you for it - Negotiate hard at all times - Ensure your own CMS is versatile enough both to import and export content - Possess sufficient content of your own to give your site distinctive personality even if you have some syndicated content

Content that works 2001 netdefinition Ltd.

 Personalise: - Examine opportunities for deploying personalisation on your site(s) - Adopt a cautious approach, analysing elements that are most popular with users - Remember that customer expectations are rising personalisation is becoming almost expected Localise: - Remember that every countrys audience is different not only in language - Source as much content as you can from the local target country - Ensure the structure of your CMS can easily handle translation and multi-language sites - Examine whether agency, freelance or automated translation best suits your requirements >> 1.3.4 Evolve Analyse: - Constantly analyse your users using both quantitative and qualitative techniques - Examine which areas of content are most popular do they match your own expectations? - Use site forms and newsletters to encourage users to give feedback Update: - Keep your site fresh to enhance user acquisition and retention - Make use of automation to keep content changing either 3rd party feeds, selections of your own existing content or user submissions - Encourage users to generate content of their own views, reports, polls, message board postings

Content that works 2001 netdefinition Ltd.