4site studios new website content plan
TRANSCRIPT
4Site Website Redesign Content PlanProject: 4Site Studios Rebrand
Prepared For: 4Site Studios Staff
Prepared By: Riche Zamor, Director of Strategy
Last Update: May 21, 2013
Summary4Site Interactive Studios seeks to redesign their existing website to better communicate the capabilities and experience of the agency. In the
first quarter of 2013, we have undergone an agency rebrand with the goal of positioning ourselves as a top-tier digital creative agency that
specializes in work with the nonprofit sector. Although the website, is not our primary marketing tool, going forward it will act as the base
from which we build brand awareness and lead generation through digital communications.
In order to increase brand awareness and lead generation, we plan to redesign and redevelop the existing website to better showcase our
new brand; demonstrate the extent of our creative abilities; and provide more information about our project successes and processes to
aid organizations in deciding whether 4Site will make a good strategic partner.
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Business Goals
As outlined in our marketing plan, we have set three high level goals for 2013:
1. Position 4Site as a top-tier digital creative agency working with the nonprofit sector
2. Increase lead generation
3. Deepen client engagement to increase recurring business
Please reference the 4Site Studios 2013 Marketing & Communications Plan for more details.
Project Goals
In order for the 4Site Studios website to be a tool in helping us reach our 2013 business goals and objectives, we will need to accomplish
the following:
Goal Recommendation Priority
Communicate our new brand purpose and pillars throughthe website
Redesign the website based on our new brand; seed thenew site with our new brand slogan and key messages
High
Produce new content to better communicate our capabilitiesas an integrated digital creative agency
Rewrite content from new brand voice; let our work speakfor the level of service we offer; provide better descriptionsof our services and how they work together
High
Change the architecture of the website markup for better Improve page markup within theme templates; consistently High
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search indexing use alt text and titles for images; consistently use metadataacross website content; use metadata to optimize contentfor sharing on social platforms
Improve the information architecture so users are findingkey content quicker and easier
Streamline navigation into a single menu; removeunnecessary pages from the site navigation; use moredescriptive, personable navigation nomenclature
High
Change calls-to-action to improve click throughs to keylanding pages
Use unique and descriptive calls-to-action for everymarquee banner on the website
High
Improve visual representation of content to increase clickthroughs
Change project teaser images on the website to images ofour work, which yield higher clicks than images of icons orlogos; use color images to draw people’s eye to content;strategically use images to direct a user’s eye tocalls-to-action on the website; where possible, replace textwith visuals to minimize the time a user needs to spendconsuming content before taking action
Medium
Increase the number of pages visited per visit and amountof time spent on pages
Show users content topically related to the page a visitor isviewing; increase use of photo galleries, videos, andembedded documents within content pages
Medium
Better showcase our thought leadership content Decrease the number of items in our portfolio to highlightonly case studies of our best work; highlight blog poststhroughout the website that we are proudest of and aremost popular
Medium
Improve social media integration Change configuration of social share buttons to displaynative like/share icons; showcase our social media presencein a more prominent and visually attractive way; possibly
Low
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aggregate posts from social networks other than Twitter
Improve upon interactive features of the website Change commenting system to a 3rd-party service with abetter user experience; provide an easier way for users tosign up for our email list; create other ways for visitors tointeract with us, like downloading thought leadershipdocuments, etc.
Low
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Website AudienceOur target market consists of two client bases: medium-to-large size nonprofit organizations and social businesses, and small-to-medium
size PR and advertising agencies that have a small or no digital practice in-house. Within these organizations, we seek to reach decision
makers who can allocate budgets to projects and either decide on, or play a key role in choosing, partner agencies.
Audience ProfilesBelow are high-level profiles of the type of organizations we intend to target our content to. As a B2B business, our target audiences are
other organizations made up of many types of people. To that end, we will focus on creating content that will appeal to the broader
audience making up these organizations with the goal of specifically reaching decision makers further defined in our user personas below.
Social Orgs. and Businesses Agencies
Type/Focus Environment, Science and Technology, Health, Education,Community Development, Arts/Cultural, Issue Advocacy
Public relations, advertising, or direct mail, with afocus on public affairs, cause or social marketing
Mission Progressive-focus Progressive-focus
Size Varies Varies
Annual Revenue $5MM+/yr Varies
Location Northeast & Mid-Atlantic Northeast & Mid-Atlantic
Examples American Cancer Society, Conservation International,Care2, Smithonian
CommunicationWorks, Levick Communications,HagerSharp
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User Personas
Jessica FreeportDirector of Online Communications,
Environment Defenders of America
Age: 29Location: Alexandria, VA
Bio:
Jessica Freeport is the Director of Online Communications for Environment Defenders of America (EDA). Jessica has over ten years of
experience in the environment movement, driving organizational growth and legislative change through effective communications strategy,
media outreach, and social media. Prior to joining Environment Defenders of America, Jessica served on the communications teams of a
number of local and national environmental organizations helping them to integrate their online and offline communications to gain
influencer support and drive supporters to take action.
Jessica, as many digital strategists in the nonprofit sector, is an accidental techie. She stumbled into blogging while managing
communications and media outreach for Friends of the Rose Kennedy Parkway. Since then, she has leveraged her background in social
media and knack for gaining influencer support to bring about legislation change on many key environmental issues.
Situation:
Jessica has been frustrated with the EDA website, and her job, for quite some time. She inherited a system that was built by the former
technology director over six years ago, and it has not been updated since. Her boss is reluctant to allocate budget for redeveloping the
website, although her and her team feel the current system is costing the organization valuable man-hours.
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User Need Statements:
“ I am so ****ing frustrated with this website! I wish we could just rebuild this thing so I don’t have to spend so much time replicating work
in multiple places.”
“ She doesn’t get it! She doesn’t have to deal with this everyday. How can I show her that we can save time and money by redeveloping the
website.”
Motivators:
● Frustration with the current system
● Need for improving efficiency in content administration
● Gain (further) trust and respect of colleagues, especially
senior leadership
Depressors:
● Lack of trust/support from senior leadership
User Behavior:
Goals Key Actions
Get approval of a budget for redesigning the EDA website Search for web development project guides; seek advice fromprofessional network
Write an RFP for redesign/redevelopment of the website Search for RFP’s online; request RFP advice/guides on listserves;seek advice from professional network
Find a vendor for the project Ask colleagues and friends for a reference; Google search foragencies that specialize in working with nonprofits; requestrecommendations from industry listserves; search throughindustry vendor lists
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Solicit proposals Call/email desired agencies about project; send RFP out overindustry listserves; post RFP to organization website
Select a vendor Call/read references; review vendors’ past work; askfriends/professional network about agencies
Desired User Interaction:
In descending order, we would like this user to do the following:
1. Contact us to engage their organization in developing a strategy and development plan for their new website, which will lead to
development of the website by us or development of an RFP
2. Send us a project RFP developed by the organization’s staff or another consultant, requesting we submit a proposal
3. Subscribe to our email list or download a white paper/case study to learn more about what we do and our approach
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Dave ZimmermanVP of Digital Strategy,
Merritt Communications
Age: 36Location: Washington, DC
Bio:
David Zimmerman is a pioneer in the use of social media for cause marketing. David played a critical role in the development of the Pepsi
Refresh Project, and has advised Fortune 500 companies and Philanthropy 400 organizations on the strategic use of social media to build
awareness or change perception of their brand.
Previous to joining Merritt Communications, David worked as an Account Director at Powell Tate Social Impact, and previous to that as an
Account Supervisor on Edelman Digital’s Public Affairs team.
David hales from Michigan, where he received his BA in Communications from University of Michigan Ann Harbor. He then moved to
Cambridge, MA, where he received an MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School.
When not working, David can be found training for a crossfit competition, debating policy with his buddies on the Hill, or exploring new
restaurants DC has to offer.
Situation:
David joined Merritt Communications because he saw the opportunity to take a leadership role within a reputable PR agency founding their
digital practice. He is the first person to be hired to focus exclusively on digital. He will have the assistance of a few Account Executives who
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have an interest in social media, but no full-time junior staff will be hired until the agency can bring in additional work. He needs to hire a
firm that he can turn to when he needs to develop websites, apps, or digital content/assets for client projects.
User Need Statements:
“I kind of miss being able to walk down the hall and talk to a tech team when I just need to get stuff done quickly.”
“ Jane and Will are awesome, but I need someone who knows more about digital to just bounce some ideas off of once and awhile.”
Motivators:
● Growing an award-winning digital practice
● Impressing his colleagues and senior leadership
Depressors:
● Being the only person with a background in online
communications within the agency
● Lack of larger-scale digital projects
User Behavior:
Goals Key Actions
Find a creative/development shop he can outsource productionwork to
Pull from relationships he has with past vendors; ask professionalnetwork for recommendations; Google search small digitalagencies in the area
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Desired User Interaction:
In descending order, we would like this user to do the following:
1. Contact us about to being a long-term strategic partner for his agency
2. Send us a RFP for a client project, requesting we submit a proposal
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Messaging Hierarchy & Framework
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Information Architecture
AnalysisAfter performing a thorough analysis of the current 4Site website analytics, we were able to gain a few valuable insights into the ways
visitors currently use our site:
General:
● Users follow our navigation left-to-right through the navigation, with about 20% drop-off as users click from page to page
● People are not scrolling far down our pages, especially on the homepage, so key content needs to be above the fold
● No one visits our website to access our client portal
● People are not clicking on the link to sign up for our email list, we may need to expose the form to generate signups
● We make very little use of taxonomy on the website, so we have no data on how this may impact pageviews or time on site
Homepage:
● Very few people click on the slides in our slideshow to access pages, they defer to the main navigation
● Less than 4% of people click on a link below the slideshow
● People are not clicking to slide through our portfolio items on the homepage, and only visiting items that display when they hit the
homepage
● In the portfolio section, people are mostly clicking on images of websites, not images of logos
Portfolio:
● Very few people click to expand the groupings of projects on our portfolio page
Services:
● Page receives the highest bounce rate of any landing page on the website
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Blog:
● Our blog page gets very little traffic
○ People typically visit individual posts they discover through search
● Visitors typically do not visit other content after reading a blog post
RecommendationsGiven these discoveries, we should streamline the site navigation into one main navigation ordered based on page popularity and
relevance to user need - portfolio, services, about us, blog then contact us. By doing this we are putting the content needs of our target
users first, allowing them to quickly access what they are looking for and make a quick decision about our agency.
We also want to make better use of content as a way to direct people to key pages and posts on the website. Visual banners with specific
calls-to-action can be just as powerful a tool in directing traffic as our streamlined navigation, but provide us with the opportunity to have
an explicit ask for each person who clicks through to that page.
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Website Navigation
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Annotations:
1. The features project page should contain filters for project type and cause
2. The service pages should display related content from Our Insights and Portfolio, as well as contain a webform so clients can contact
us about our services
3. Our insights will be a collection of various content types with filters for content type, topic, etc.
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Taxonomy Schema
4Site’s new website will leverage a shared taxonomy structure that will power a lightweight content recommendation engine. We will tie
key content types - blog posts, projects, and resources - together based on the following vocabularies:
Vocabulary Description Example Terms Type of Field
Topic Shared vocabulary across all
blog posts, resources and
projects; should allow selection
of multiple topics on any of
these content types, but no
freetagging
NTEN Conference, DrupalCon
2013, Content As Media
Webinar Series
Multiselect
Client Should contain an image field
for attaching client logos and a
field for Cause
NetCentric Campaigns, National
Building Museum, Say Yes to
Education
Single
Cause Description of the type or cause
we were working for
Advocacy, Science and
Technology, Advocacy
Multiselect
Resource Type Descriptive taxonomy White Paper, Case Study, Single
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describing the contents of each
resource node
Tutorial Video
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Page Inventory
Below is a description of the major pages of the website, as outlined in the sitemap above.
## New Page Purpose Content/Page Type Source Content New? Note
0.0 Homepage Communicate our
primary message of
being an integrated
agency and direct
people to key
landing pages
View N/A Y
1.0 Our Work Present a gallery of
the various projects
we have completed
for clients
View http://4sitestudios.co
m/portfolio
M Only 8-12 projects should be
featured
1.1 Case Studies Highlight case
studies from the
work we have done
with clients
View http://4sitestudios.co
m/portfolio
M
1.1.x Projects Describe the
solution we
provided for a
Project http://4sitestudios.co
m/portfolio
M
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particular client’s
need
1.2 Clients Display a listing of
our clients
View Y This view will pull from the
client taxonomy
2.0 What We Do List our various
service areas with
descriptions of each
View http://4sitestudios.co
m/services
Y
2.1 Strategy Describe our
strategy services
and display related
work
Basic Page http://4sitestudios.co
m/services
Y The webform on this page will
be a standard webform block
added to all of Services pages
2.2 Design Describe our design
services and display
related work
Basic Page http://4sitestudios.co
m/services
Y The webform on this page will
be a standard webform block
added to all of Services pages
2.3 Video Describe our video
services and display
related work
Basic Page http://4sitestudios.co
m/services
Y The webform on this page will
be a standard webform block
added to all of Services pages
2.4 Development Describe our
development
services and display
related work
Basic Page http://4sitestudios.co
m/services
Y The webform on this page will
be a standard webform block
added to all of Services pages
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2.5 Services-on-
Demand
Describe how we
offer fast-delivery
services for small
projects through
our client support
packages
Basic Page http://4sitestudios.co
m/support
Y The webform on this page will
be a standard webform block
added to all of Services pages
3.0 Products Landing page
describing our
various product
offerings
Webform N/A Y
3.1 Hub CMS Detail our
distribution of
Drupal
Webform Y
3.2 Dub Player Detail our custom
video player
product
Webform Y
4.0 Who We Are Give an overview of
the agency and
what we do
Basic page http://4sitestudios.co
m/about-us
Y
4.1 About 4Site Give the history of
the company
Basic page N/A Y
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4.2 Our Team Show a listing of all
the staff at the
agency
View http://4sitestudios.co
m/about-us
Y
4.2.x Staff Bios Give a detailed
description of a
team member’s
experience
Bio http://4sitestudios.co
m/about-us
Y
4.3 Our Process Describe how we
work with clients
Basic page N/A Y
4.4 Giving Back Outline our
contributions to the
nonprofit and open
source community
Basic page N/A Y
5.0 Our Insights Showcase our
thought leadership
content
View http://4sitestudios.co
m/blog
N
6.0 Hire Us Allow people to
contact us about
particular projects
Webform http://4sitestudios.co
m/contact
M
7.0 SERP Display search
results
View N
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Content Structure
Below is a description of the types of content that will be published on the new 4Site website, taxonomies that will be used to organize
content, and metadata that should be used to optimize content for SEO. The below recommendations are derived from the content needs
defined in and discovered through our website audit, personas, and recommended information architecture.
Content Types
The following content types will be used to represent content that 4Site will publish to the redesigned website:
Content Type Description Field Taxonomy Notes
Basic Page Page containing static
content
● Title
● Body
● Attachment
Blog Post Informal posts to share
our latest thinking or
current affairs within the
company and industry
● Title
● Banner Image
● Body
● Video Embed
● Attachment
● Service Reference
● Topic
Client Represents data about ● Client Name ● Cause
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clients that will be
referenced on Project
nodes and other content
types
● Logo
Project Describes various client
projects we have
completed
● Project Name
● Project Slideshow
Images
● Project Video
● Short Description
● Client Reference
● Client Testimonial
● Challenge
● Challenge
Thumbnail
● Our Solution
● Solution
Thumbnail
● The Results
● Results Thumbnail
● Service Reference
● Topic
● Cause
There should be either a
slideshow or a video, not
both.
Service Represents the services
we offer to clients
● Service
● Service Icon
● Service
Description
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● Capabilities (Field
Group)
○ Capability
Title
○ Capability
Image
○ Capability
Description
● Form
Resource Displays whitepapers,
case studies, reports, and
any other downloadable
thought leadership
content we produce
● Title
● Body
● Attachment
● Embedded Media
(Youtube, Vimeo,
Slideshare)
● Service Reference
● Resource Type
● Topic
● Client
● Cause
Should have the option
require o require people
complete a form before
completing the
Bio Gives a detailed
description of the work
experience of the team
● Name
● Title
● Bio
● Fun Fact
● Cover Photo
● Social Media
Profiles
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● Service Reference
Webform Allows us to create
custom online forms for
landing pages
● Title
● Body
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Microcopy
To ensure content portability and optimization across various platforms, every content type should have the following fieldset enabled:
● Microcopy Title
● Microcopy Description
● Microcopy Thumbnail
These fields will populate metadata for content shared on social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, with properly formatted
titles, descriptions, images. See Metadata section below.
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Metadata
The following metadata should be associated with each piece of content:
Metadata Description Notes
Title Title optimized for SEO Variable per node
Description Description optimized for SEO Variable per node
Keywords Targeted keywords relevant to thecontent published
Variable per node
Canonical URL Informs search engines that the nodeURL is related to the default CMS URL(i.e. node/1)
Varies per node
og:description Facebook Open Graph description Variable per node
og:image Image that appears when content isshared on Facebook
This should default to any thumbnailattached to the node, or use the 4Sitelogo as a fallback
fb:app_id ID that ties our website to our Facebookpage
This will be the same across every page
Twitter Card metadata Formats attachments to Tweets forproper display on Twitter using Twitter
Variable per node
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cards
Rel tag Links our Google+ page to all indexedpages on the website
Will be persistent on every page. Shouldlink to our Google+ page.
Google Site Verification Verifies ownership of your website andindexing by Google
Will be persistent on every page
MS Validate Verifies ownership of your website andindexing by Bing
Will be persistent on every page
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