 So I know I'm probably talking to a room full of designers. So I want to preface this talk with the idea that everybody wants a website. You're working with a company that's like, I need a website and I need the Facebook and I need this and I need that and I need an email marketing program. Everybody wants that but a few companies actually know what that means. So by going through this talk I'm hopefully going to put you in a better position to be able to help them connect the dots, right? Because everything that you do on your website is going to touch everything digital. So let me provide you with a little bit of experience. I've gained through redesigning websites. Let's get forward a little bit. I've worked with two companies that have been through web redesigns. They went through two web overholes. Right now the company that I work for is going through a web redesign with a company, a local company called Think. So I'm hopefully going to share some of the insights from that web redesign with you today. Because I've learned a tremendous amount through going through that process. So to get started I want to kind of touch on in-bell marketing. How many people have heard of in-bell marketing? Okay, so hopefully you know a little bit about it. And I want to talk a little bit about how an in-bell marketing program can impact some of the essential parts of your WordPress site. But I want to talk about some basic ideas first. If you're unfamiliar with in-bell marketing and how that differs from traditional marketing, let's just say that your focus is more on attracting customers than just selling. It means that customers have a need or a desire that needs to be filled, and they seek you out through digital channels, right? So if somebody is on Facebook and is like, help, I'm going to be in Charleston and I need a recommendation on a good hotel, you're like, dude, I was just in Charleston and this is where I stayed. And Facebook programmatically pulls in a Google Map restaurant and you put one of your specials on Instagram. Somebody is right around the corner. They go up to your profile and they click through to your website. That's in-bell marketing. Traditional marketing along the lines of display advertising. So when you open the newspaper or you open a magazine, that's display advertising, billboards, rate advertising. It's more of a one to many. When you're talking about digital marketing, it's more of a one to many. Okay, you think of it as a one to many. I also want to preface this talk with the terms of design thinking and customer sentiment, okay? And when I say design thinking in reference to talking about is that the design is solution based and it focuses on being human centered, okay? You're putting the user and the user's problems at the very center of what you're designing, okay? I say that building strategy is customer centric. I mean that you want to sell goods and services, that's how we make our money. But you also want to keep in mind how those goods and services fit into the lives of your customers, right? If you're a company that makes products for women, how does that fit into women's lives? You know, we're not just one flavor, we have many flavors. Some of us have children, some of us don't, some of us are married, some of us aren't. So how does your woman centric product fit into our lives, okay? As a user, I can tell you that every time I go to a website, the design and the content, I can go to, when I go to that, I can tell how the company feels about me just in the way that they're interacting with me through their design, right? If I go to a website and I'm immediately bombarded with interstitial ads or interstitial pop-ups, or I'm looking for more information and I'm just given a phone number, I'm gonna bounce, right? That is not a company that I want to deal with. And let me tell you why. If I go to your website and I see the product that I want but I'm not given any more information that I'm given a phone number but I'm not ready to buy, that tells me that you're willing to sell to me before I'm willing to buy. And you don't really have a grasp on how the funnel works in the digital space, okay? So just something to keep in mind. So as a starting point here, I told you guys, I told you guys I was gonna lose track of my slides and I totally did. So the starting point here is your customer. And when you look at designing your digital program, whether it's a website or a social strategy or a campaign, you need to understand your customers. And the best way I've seen to handle this as a starting point is to ask questions your users seek to answer as they travel through your website, right? What are they seeking to answer? When they hit your homepage or other pages through your search, what problems are they trying to solve? What solution do they hope to find on your website? Metrics like your bounce rate and your dwell time will tell you how well you're answering these questions, right? If they go to your site and they're there for 30 seconds and they bounce, that means it's something in search that they found in search that they thought they would find on your website. And what they found on your website are not aligned, right? And Google takes those metrics and ranks you based on those things. It's important for users to not only feel like they're understood, that you empathize with them, but that you're consistent. Designed elements in messaging are important from touch point to touch point. So their journey needs to make sense. If they start on Facebook and go to your website and are jarred by that experience, there's something that you need to kind of take a look at, right? And how many people have been on Facebook and you've clicked through and you're like, whoa, this is not what I asked for, right? That is a problem, right? I won't click on stuff. I see a company come up and I see something doesn't make sense to me, or I've clicked through and something doesn't make sense. That company's off the table, okay? There's something about you I don't trust, okay? So as a developer, you're working with people who are trying to guide people through to their destination. And it's important for you to see through how your website is touching all of these digital points. Like for you to understand the content strategy that's available. Everybody wants a content marketing program that's huge and you've got one writer. We're kind of dealing with that right now. And it's important for you to understand your site so that people can find you in search. All of these signals for users are promises that you can provide solutions and that's why they're gonna stay on your site. Through to find something and then they find something else and then they find something else. You form the connection with them and they'll probably be back, right? All about brand, all about the feeling. Your strategies from social media content strategy SEO and through building your website should align with your business goals, okay? In creating business goals and helping your customers, you're aligning these two things. To do all of this, you need to craft business goals that state exactly what you want to accomplish, okay? Companies don't really, I want to make money. Well, okay, well how does that translate to the website? If you're an e-commerce site, what key performance indicators do you need to show that you're actually making some progress? You need to be able to measure the effectiveness of your efforts. Okay, it's important for you to understand and have drafted your business goals before building your inbound marketing program. So your inbound marketing program is gonna look something like this and for companies it's gonna look a little bit different. For our company, it fits under the marketing strategy umbrella, okay? It might look different for smaller companies. It's gonna include social media strategy, content strategy, search strategy, and measurement strategy. That measurement strategy is really important because you're gonna have stakeholders who are like, I'm gonna need you to put this up on the website. And you're like two people who visited that in the last six months. And that's how you can tell them that that's not a really good piece of content because you know what Google does when it realizes that people are not liking the content on your site? You drop, you drop like a hot rock. All of this would be a great inbound marketing program that should increase traffic, helping people to find you because the more people find you, the more people like you, the higher in the rankings you go. And if they like what you do, they're gonna pass that along. And that's ultimately what you want, right? You want people to go, I like this brand and I want you to like this brand too. You wanna move people from being customers to being evangelists. Like you've gotta eat at this restaurant. Like I have never had anything like this hamburger ever. This is the best, you've never seen pictures of hamburgers in Instagram, have you? Like it's always like fluffy salads. I don't wanna eat that, I want a good hamburger. So if you guys find me on Instagram with a good picture of a burger, tag me because I wanna see this, I wanna see this happen. In addition to writing your goals and measuring your measurement strategy, you should consider the templates that best suit your purpose. And we're getting back to the word press, okay, I'm bringing you back. The templates which best suit your purpose, site architecture, that helps users easily accomplish what they need to do. Easily accomplish, okay? And functionality that serves only what the customer journey, to make the customer journey easier, okay? We don't wanna make it harder for them. You know what happens when you make websites hard? They go away and they never come back. So let's talk through some of these things on your word press site and what that means for your, I'm gonna catch up with my PowerPoint. What does this mean for development? You wanna pick a template that's customizable to your brand, okay? I've seen some templates out there that are locked down. You can't adjust the color palette, you can't adjust the typography. You need to be able to do this. If you're a company and when I was talking to somebody before the talk about this, you should have brand guidelines. What is the color palette for your brand? What is the typography? What is the look and feel, okay? We're sitting in a meeting and my mark somewhat conservative financial company. So using a template like Apple, you might wanna rethink that life decision. You need to go for something that's consistent with your brand identity and what users expect, okay? It's a jarring experience when they come in from Facebook and they don't find something that they think they should expect, okay? Keep in mind also as you're picking the template, what does that funnel look like, okay? The layout will help customers to meet their goals. Ultimately, we're concerned about customers meeting their goals. So along with the questions that you think the user would ask, you wanna know what you want them to do. So if they're asking, well, I wanna learn more about this, I want more information, what do you want them to do? Do you want them to fill out a contact form? Do you want them to go to an additional page? What is the action on the page that you want them to take, okay? Are they ready to commit and they wanna take some action? They wanna buy something. What is the best template that will help you to help them achieve that goal, okay? Overall, your template needs to account for all of the reasons why users might be on your site and you can't account for everybody. But I'm here to tell you if you don't run user surveys on your site, if you don't collect data as you're testing, you need to. You need to consider the fact that people are willing to give you this information if it makes their life easier in the long run. If they like what you do, they will be willing to help you, okay? With little or no incentive. People are funny that way with brands that they like. Additional considerations which you guys know if your developers are responsiveness, load time, whether the template works well with your plugins, for all that's holy, just make sure you test your site. Like make sure those play well together. Site architecture is equally important. You wanna build a site that is usable for the user. It's great if it works for you. If you're sitting around with your development team and you can click through and find things, that's great. But is it okay for your user? Is it easy for them? Because ultimately, that's what your focus is on. Can they find what they need? Can they easily move around the website? Have you thrown up obstacles? How many people have been on the TurboTax website? Yeah, yeah, I got lost in a loop on that website last year and lost some money and then had to go through customer service and then got lost in another loop. It was horrible and I will never use TurboTax again. And not mentioning any names. Really, I gotta say that dead ends hurt my heart. They really do. I like when I get on a website and I don't know where I am, it angers me and it hurts me. Like I don't, why do you hate me? Why do you hate me? So make sure that you test your website. Make sure you take users and you test your website. Feedback helps you build a better product. Functionality, no problems. They had a CFO that was like no shiny bobbles. I know that everyone has their pet plugin. You have your thing that you want to do. And back in development aside, you want to make sure every plugin that you're using for functionality sake helps your customers to meet their goals. It helps them accomplish what they want to do. So if they're wanting to stay in touch with you by signing up for a newsletter, you have something that helps them do that, right? If they have to ask you a question, because they just can't find the answer on your website, you have something that helps them to accomplish that mission, right? There's nothing more frustrating than having a question that you can't get answered by somebody. So keep that in mind. Functionality should add to the ease of use for website users. And finally, customer management. Everything on your site should support your users in meeting their goals. Everything. Everything is set up for them. How do you feel when someone helps you? Let's loop back around to that question, right? The question that I asked at the very start of my talk. How do you feel when someone helps you, right? There's a warmth in that. There's a sentiment in that. There's an authentic human connection in helping people accomplish what they need to. Well, and you've reached back out in a measured strategic way to continue their relationship with your customers. They're going to think better of you, right? They're going to think fondly of you. You want to seek to understand their experiences and make them better. And that's how you will build a digital tribe. So that's all I've got. And do you have any questions? Oh, I have dumbed this crap. Yes. Have you always had a Ford? OK. What's your connection to Ford? When you first bought a Ford, what was the thing that you thought about when you first bought it? Was it price? OK. It was free. Oh. Well, if all Fords were free, is there a look at the Ford look that you think? Like you're thinking. My first car was a Volkswagen. It was a Volkswagen Bug, 1972. And it was orange. My first memory of that car was seeing how many people we could fit inside it while it still ran. 15. It only went 30 on the highway, though. I'm just saying not a good idea. I've had a Volkswagen ever since because I love the brand. I love the feeling of Volkswagen, OK? When I see the Volkswagen symbol, I'm like, yo, how are the people? Volkswagen! You know? I would almost assume that Ford owners have a similar type of symbol, not a brand, that is provocative to people. When you see the colors and you see the logo and you see the messaging, you know that that brand is convenient. So in everything that you do on your website or your digital properties, need Ford, Chevy, all of the car companies under the hood are speaking for. Ford is putting out the Ford Tuck. What's it making to you, right? I can't remember Volkswagen's tagline. Probably drive fast, live dangerously, I don't know. No, I can swear it was. But that's over time. As people get to know your brand, as they see you around, they'll form that emotional connection. It's not something that happens overnight, you know? Google has slowly infiltrated our language. When you see it, people automatically know I'm going to be able to find what I'm looking for. Whether you like them or not is besides the point. It's the fact that they provide a service that a business support aside for Google began with just Google branding around its search. They can deliver search within five seconds. We should be able to do everything in five seconds. So offline, tangent, yeah, yes. OK, so there's a couple of things you can do. If you have a development site, you can have people go to your site, have them navigate it, and then maybe fill out a survey or provide you with open-ended answers on how they navigated the site. With Think Company, it's a little bit bigger. We have a little bit more complicated website at Janney. So we're doing decision trees, which were really confusing until we realized it was confusing because our navigation sucked. So we're like, oh, OK, well, we need to fix that. But for smaller sites, you have SurveyMonkey or Google, have free options for surveys. You probably have a client list. So there are people that you can reach out to and say, hey, we're getting ready to reboot our website. Can you help us out? We would really love if you could help us out with our new website and our new look and give us feedback. And people who love your brand will absolutely participate. Oh, in the back, in the dwell time. Well, I think there's a lot of things. So one example from our work is that we, all of our digital properties are on different CMSs. One of them is Blogger. Responsiveness, OK, we needed a responsive site. The content on that site is really popular, right, because of them to go. Going back up the page, the bottom of the page I'd be able to do is take a look at the time. If there's a minute or two, they like the content, but there's nothing for them to do on the bottom. They're like, oh, well, see, you don't know. My last one was to make sure some of them are really long. So they get down, and sometimes they click on the footer, but usually they just leave. Whatever dentists read about. And they had to take some time to really consume that. I love the, maybe, I don't know. No, that's scary. I am not going to go to the dentist now after that. And are they going to get this? And then the back will do something about how the project is constructed. There's a lot of different reasons why people get on-site and out. You're welcome. You mentioned, frankly, it could be as a point of view. Are they on WordPress? So all of the questions that would be, how would you achieve them on WordPress? OK, so my own websites are on WordPress. So I run a website called Gave Friendly Pennsylvania. It's a directory platform that allows people who are in the LGBT community in Pennsylvania to go and find companies who we love the gays. I maintain that through WordPress. And I chose WordPress because I'm familiar with it, because it's accessible. And because I know all of you guys. And if I have a problem, I can say, oh my god, Susan, what am I going to do? I just crashed my website. And she's like, just write the hosting company. I'm like, bingo. The decision-making process that went into Janney's websites were varied, because we're still in 1.0 at Janney. And by 1.0, I mean early 2000s. Their IAPS is our main CMS for our website. And that's a .NET. And it hasn't been updated in nine years. All of our infrastructure for Janney, and from what I understand, larger companies, is .NET. So in choosing the CMS for design, we went through. And WordPress did make the final cut, because I was pushing for it. But ultimately, we needed a cloud solution. And we have 30 issues that we need to be mindful of. And .NET provides 30. It was felt from my IT team. So an issue. So for me, WordPress is accessible, because the templates are free. And if I want to buy a template, I can. It's accessible in that way. But for larger companies, I think some of them probably get away from WordPress, because it's open source and cost isn't an issue. So does that make sense? Cool. Five minutes? OK. Oh, OK. One more? No? OK, one more. So how many in here know David Dill and Thomas from Content Strategy? OK. David Dill and Content Strategy have a developer who's working through the development aspect with us. And then we have a designer and a researcher. And so they're doing user research. They're doing industry research. They're doing, to end up the interviews with our company to find out what the company wants and needs and the direction that we want to go. And right now, we're in the process of design. So we're doing wireframes. So they're doing much everything, and they'll help with implementation. They're also doing our branding for us. So does that answer your question? Cool. Thank you guys. I appreciate it. Remember to connect with me. If you have any questions, I'm always happy to help out.