wright de ann-more than words

More Than Words Importance of messaging hierarchy and tone of voice

DeAnn Wright

Lead Content Strategist, eBay

What’s included in a Content Strategy?

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Content

Strategy

Technology

• What are the business objectives?

• What do the users need and want to do?

• What does the brand stand for?• How does the content align with business

and user goals?

• How will users interact with it?

• How will it be structured?• What will it look like?

• How will be build it?

• Who will maintain the technology?

• What do we want to say?• Where will we get the content?

• Who will maintain the content?

* From Karen McGrane, Bond art + science:

http://www.slideshare.net/KMcGrane/why-ux-design-needs-content-

strategy

Defining Hierarchy

Information hierarchy is used to:

• Communicate messages

• Illuminate actions

• Organize information

• Present data

Why is hierarchy important?

• Enable usability

• Reflect priority

What is a messaging hierarchy?

• The positioning of messages in a way that creates an intuitive understanding of message importance for the reader.

• An effective messaging hierarchy needs to map to prioritized user and business needs

• A messaging hierarchy enables you to focus

your content on the things that matter.

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Elements of a messaging hierarchy

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A good messaging hierarchy helps you create content that:

• Guides users through a sequence

• Suggests distinct choices

• Quickly communicates:

• What is this? Usefulness

• How do I use it? Usability

• Why should I care? Desirability

• Answers key questions:

• Where am I?

• What do I do now?

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Having a well-thought-out messaging hierarchy helps you decide

what content is needed, craft it,

and defend it!

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Creating a messaging hierarchy in

three easy steps:

1. List out required actions and messages

2. Prioritize the list

3. Map messages and visual elements to

the page

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Creating and prioritizing messages

User research

• What are the user goals and needs?

Overall content strategy

• What are your guiding principles and strategies?

• What does the content need to communicate?

Competitive analysis

• What are our competitors offering?

Content inventory and analysis

• What content do we already have?

• How do users find and use our existing content?

• What keywords are they using?

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Consider your content principles and

strategies when creating a messaging

hierarchy

List and prioritize messages: Examples

eBay Bucks Messages

Primary:

It’s free

It’s easy

It has real value

We are glad you’re here and that you chose eBay

Understand how the program works

Secondary:

You don’t need to do anything other than sign up

We are not like other rewards programs you’ve

experienced (and forgotten)

We want you to win.

Understand the percentage of earn

Understand that some products are not eligible

Understand that eBay is paying for and providing this

benefit

Understand that eBay will do all the heavy lifting

Understand that it is different from other rewards

programs

We won’t spam you

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Messaging Hierarchy is NOT Content!

• Your list and hierarchy should consist of messages not content.

• Don’t spend time wordsmithing content and getting the phrasing just right. That happens later.

• Just focus on the high-level messages, NOT the actual content.

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Myth #1: Place messages in order of importance

Myth #1: Place messages in order of importance

What are the top 3 messages to communicate in this list?

Myth #1: Place messages in order of importance

Now, where does your eye actuallygo on the list?

The Truth: The most important points should go at the

top and the bottom of a list.

(The middle of a list gets overlooked)

Myth #2: Just make the important stuff bold.

Myth #2: Just make the important stuff bold.

What messages are bold here?

Myth #2: Just make the important stuff bold.

And where does your eye actuallygo?

The Truth: Place important messages near an imageand less important messages elsewhere.(Work with where the eye naturally goes)

So. . .

• Use images & icons near messages you want to communicate most

• Expect people not to read the middle points in your list (or keep them to 3s)

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OK, I have my list of prioritized messages.

Now what do I do with them?

1- Map messages

• Map the primary, secondary, tertiary messages to the page.

(Sketching is a great way to do this)

• Work with design to ensure that messages and visuals work well

together.

• Refine key messages (based on user research, team reviews,

etc)

2- Finalize terminology

• Create and finalize key terms, and document them (glossary)

3- Write copy

• Craft content to support your messaging hierarchy

Mapping messages

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Think about visual elements

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Examples

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Not enough

hierarchy

Examples

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Central message and clear hierarchy

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No clear

hierarchy

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No clear

hierarchy

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Prioritizing content and labeling

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Time to wrap up and

review what we’ve learned so far. . .

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List and prioritize

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eBay Bucks Messages

Primary:

It’s free

It’s easy

It has real value

We are glad you’re here and that you chose eBay

Understand how the program works

Secondary:

You don’t need to do anything other than sign up

We are not like other rewards programs you’ve experienced (and forgotten)

We want you to win.

Understand the percentage of earn

Understand that some products are not eligible

Understand that eBay is paying for and providing this benefit

Understand that eBay will do all the heavy lifting

Understand that it is different from other rewards programs

We won’t spam you

Step 1: Define and prioritize messages with stakeholders

(Remember, messages are not final user-facing content, but high-level

messages)

Map messages

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Step 2: Map messages to page

Add visual elements

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Step 3: Sketch with visual ideas for more specific message mapping

Place in framework

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Step 4: Work with interaction designer to place high-level messages and

preliminary labels into framework

Add final content and visuals

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Step 5: Create final content and visuals that adhere to, and enhance, your

messaging hierarchy

Map messages to a framework

1. Selling is easy and you can make money

2. You can list anything 3. Get inspired by others and

what’s selling on eBay 4. eBay is a great place to sell

stuff5. You can list anywhere6. We’ve got you covered. We’re

here to help. We’ll guide you through it

Add content and visuals

FAQs

I want to have an effective messaging hierarchy, but every stakeholder wants their content or feature to be prominently displayed. What should I do?

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• Separate the discussion about hierarchy from the actual design and content.

• Create a list of potential messages and actions on the page and work with stakeholders to prioritize it.

• Include any data you have about usage or importance of the items on the list.

• If a stakeholder complains about the prominence of their message/visuals, offer to revisit the priority list with all stakeholders (those that have agreed to the prioritization).

FAQs

Most of my work involves small incremental improvement

and not a full redesign. How can I incrementally develop an

effective messaging hierarchy?

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When adding a message element to an existing page consider how it relates to the whole.

• Is it more or less important that the other messages on the page?

• Is it very similar or very different from other messages on the page?

• Does it logically fit within specific content or actions?

• How does it relate to the overall goals and vision for the page?

Document these relationships to begin building a messaging hierarchy.

Apply that messaging hierarchy each time you make incremental changes.

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What

Why

How

Where

When

Who

topics are we going to cover?

formats are we going to use? (newsletters, brochures, videos, online pages, blogs

etc.)

does anyone care?

does this provide business value?

are we delivering the message?

should we say it? (tone of voice)

will we get the content?

can we syndicate the content? (feeds, social media, re-use in other channels)

will this be published?

will it need to be updated?

is responsible for the content?

will maintain it over time?

* From Karen McGrane, Bond art + science: http://www.slideshare.net/KMcGrane/how-to-do-content-strategy

Voice and tone

Who are we? What do we want to be known for?

Since consumers can shop from a variety of brands, we need to be relevant but also differentiated.

Our brand strategy is based on key areas of focus: eBay’s emerging strategy, the changing shopping landscape, and our customers.

Our new brand positioning was based on a deep understanding of the emerging needs of general shoppers, but with a focus on the shopping enthusiast.

Who is ?

Our brand personality attributes

Fun

Friendly

Human

Inspiring

Authentic

Passionate

Smart

Trustworthy

Our research also helped us understand how our brand’s personality is perceived by consumers, and how this compares to other brands

• Visual- What does it look like?

• Audio- How does it sound?

• Touch- How does it feel?

• Smell- How does it smell?

• Taste- How does it taste?

Sensory Branding

“A brand has to transform itself into a sensory

experience that goes far beyond what we see. The

way a brand sounds should never be

underestimated. It can often be the deciding factor

in a consumer’s choice. ” -Martin Lindstrom, Brand Sense

What is fun?

What is friendly?

What is human?

• Start with customer feedback. How do customers perceive our brand?

• We conducted voice and tone focus groups in the UK, NYC, and San Francisco

Lots of questions, here’s another one:Where to begin?

What our customers told usCustomer segment Preferred tone

US buyers Consistent, everyday, natural languageDon’t want to be told what to do – prefer friendly guidance

UK buyers Wary of “generic politeness” as it comes across as insincerityeBay should apologize only when necessary

US casual sellers Positive, polite and active voiceBenefits led – but not “wacky”

US business sellers Prefer conversational, natural languageStay away from corporate speak

UK casual sellers Professional, but not corporate speakEveryday language

UK business sellers Dislike waffleWant direct, to-the-point language

We held “brand design dialogues” with designers and content strategists to tease apart what these words mean for eBay.

In these sessions, we created:

Word affinity maps

Experience captures

Mood boards

Next step, gain internal perspectives

Fun experiences

Fun mood board

Friendly experiences

Friendly mood board

Human experiences

Human mood board

Then, we created content examples

Fun

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Friendly

70

Inspiring

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Fun

72

NOT so Smart

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I clicked on a

“live help”

link to get

here. So why

is the button

at the bottom

of the page

under the

header “Need

more help?”

This is only

superficially

friendly.

Does it look

like eBay

wants me to

call? Or is this

just lip

service?

Let’s see some examples!FUN is FUN is NOT

That page is not available, but Doug is.

Page not found, and an engineer just lost his wings.

Error 404: Page not found

FRIENDLY is FRIENDLY is NOT

Here’s how it works. Don’t worry—we’ll guide you every

step of the way.

You shouldn’t have bought an item from a seller with less

than 100 feedback. You can only return an item if the seller

lets you.

HUMAN is HUMAN is NOT

Rats! We can’t find that page. In the meantime, here are

some links that might help.

eBay is proud to announce a new product feature for

sellers. eBay Selling 2.0 is designed to be the greatest selling

tool of all time.

SMART is SMART is NOT

Getting a refund is a simple. Here’s what you need to do:

1- Ship item to seller with our easy return label

2- Get money in your PayPal account

Are you sure you want to return this item?

INSPIRING is INSPIRING is NOT

Want to know what’s hot for spring 2013? Let our style

director point you to the trends that everyone will be

wearing this season.

We have millions of items from millions of sellers, a million

different rewards programs, and a million different ways to

buy. All just for you.

It’s all about context!

How to make this global? Will we have US, UK, and DE guidelines or sections?

Creation of guidelines

What will this be? • A pdf? Some sort of online tool? • Integrated with a CMS? Acrolinx?

Rollout, evangelize, and adopt!

Thank you!