What if these Personas could be used beyond the experience architecture phase, and into the website optimisation and testing phases?

Just to be clear, using Personas in web analytics is not a common practice. But here at Bienalto, we like to push the boundaries and test new ideas so that our clients are getting the best services possible.

Before we look at the possibilities, let’s see how Personas are developed.

Creating a Persona

The first step is the contextual inquiry, whereby an experience architect visits a website user in their workplace or home, to observe them in their ‘natural environment’. A short interview accompanies this observation of them using the web, and profiles are created for each user.

From here, groupings of different user types are compiled – for example, James might be grouped with those who use a Dell to search the web, never use Facebook, don’t like faceted search, and so on. This creates your Personas.

The reason why Personas are so important is that traditional audience segments provided by the marketing department aren’t rich enough – or they segment in ways that don’t take into account online variables.

Putting Personas to long-term use

Current practice sees Personas gathering dust on the shelf once the experience architecture and design stages are complete.

But there is a longer life for them. They can – and should – become an integral component of your online marketing campaigns, as well as ongoing website management and optimisation activities.

For example, for site optimisation, instead of relying on the traditional segments, you can use your Personas to add a new layer of richness to the process. In doing so, you will start to achieve better results against web goals such as conversions.

Econsultancy ‘Conversion Report’: work needs to be done

A recent report released by Econsultancy shows that 39% of companies are not happy with their website’s conversion rates. Given that conversions – be it sales, sign-ups, downloads, video views or others – are the ultimate goals of most corporate sites, improving the conversion rate is a top priority for web owners.

Significantly, the report found that segmentation improves conversion, with those companies that used more segments enjoying higher conversion rates than those who use fewer segments.

The main types of segmentation carried out were: demographic (39%) geographic (36%) and behavioural (33%).

We believe that, by using Personas to create more targeted segments, organisations will start to see better results in their conversions. Segments become richer, tailored messages become more meaningful, and customers feel like they’re really being spoken to.

What do you think? Are Personas the new black when it comes to segmentation and site optimisation?

Speak to Bienalto about the power of Personas
Read more findings from the Econsultancy conversion report

Camden Soil Mix provides products and services to customers in horticulture, agriculture, viticulture, civil works and commercial landscaping; as well as services in earth management to local councils.

Customers rely on the diverse range of sustainable, organic products on offer, and need the ability to find the right product to suit their growing or landscaping application.

Following acquisition by WSN Environmental Solutions, the business undertook a market analysis and segmentation project and, from this, developed a focused strategy to engage key categories of customers. They sought to re-design the website with these customers top of mind – so that each market segment could find what they were looking for quickly and easily.

Bienalto was engaged to devise the new site. The resulting architecture – which utilises faceted search on the WordPress platform – intuitively guides customers to the products they seek; whilst remaining supportive of WSN’s design aesthetic and sustainability focus.

Challenge

The acquisition of Camden Soil Mix by WSN in 2008 was a great incentive to update the company’s website.

We really needed to reflect our current activities – that is, producing and delivering organic materials throughout NSW – while building a site that would support our plans for diversifying the business,” said Kate Concannon, Marketing & Communications Officer, WSN.

With the new site, Camden Soil Mix sought to identify each market segment the business seeks to deal with – and group relevant products and environmental messages under each segment.

Working out how to channel customers to the right products was probably our biggest challenge. Having Bienalto clarify and convert the vision for the look, layout and functionality of the site into spot-on design and architecture was the easy part,” said Concannon.

Solution

To cater for all market segments, simple search functionality wouldn’t cut it. Bienalto sought a more intuitive, user-friendly approach – and faceted search fit the bill nicely.

Faceted search (or faceted navigation) – which allows a user to hunt for information via a number of different pathways – is popular on e-commerce sites for its ability to help users find what they want much faster.

Although Camden Soil Mix is not yet an e-commerce site, faceted search works well here too. It enables the logical grouping of products according to their ‘application’ (e.g. Civil Works, Nurseries, Orchards) and ‘type’ (e.g. Mulch, Compost).

Bienalto recommended WordPress for the site’s content management framework. Offering clients’ incredible ease of use and flexibility, WordPress is Bienalto’s platform of choice from a cost and performance perspective.

For Camden Soil Mix’s site, Bienalto started with a blank WordPress theme, designed the site to align with the client’s brand and incorporated proven WordPress plug-ins to match the client’s exact requirements.

Bienalto is one of the major WordPress developers in Australia now, and our expertise is being passed on to our clients in the development of sites such as this one,” said Hurol Inan.

“Our knowledge of WordPress, coupled with our strong background in information architecture and usability design, means that clients are getting the best of both worlds – a cost-effective build and a high-performing website.”

Results

The new site achieves the business objectives of driving brand awareness and providing segment-tailored education around products and their associated environmental benefits.

Camden Soil Mix now has an easy-to-use interface, which makes site updates and the addition of new products and services a breeze.

The Bienalto team managed to strike a balance between realising our vision and providing valuable input of their own to help shape this. They were very attentive to our objectives and put forward insightful and practical suggestions that significantly improved the end result,” said Concannon.

The campaign seeks to change the way Australians think and talk about engineering. When asked what an engineer does, most of us would say, “They build bridges”. But, in fact, they do so much more.

Make it so will show everyday Australians that engineering teams make things happen.

We encourage you to show your support for this fantastic campaign – read on to find out more and see how Bienalto is involved.

About Make It So

The campaign asks general Australian public to share their dreams – from the serious to the esoteric. Some of these dreams will be chosen by Engineers Australia, and teams of “Make it so” engineers will turn these dreams into reality.

The whole campaign is explained on the Make it so website.

Our role in the campaign

The Make it so campaign site was proudly built by Bienalto, and uses Events Manager to capture registrations and send out email updates. Events Manager synchs with  Salesforce.com CRM platform, for quick and accurate updates to participant details.

Events Manager will be used throughout the campaign to manage all communication with participants – update emails, requests for help, events and so on.

Today’s launch of Make it so marks the start of phase one: mobilisation of engineers. We will be working with Engineers Australia throughout each subsequent phase of this exciting campaign, and look forward to keeping you in the loop.

Show your support and find out more by visiting Make it so today.

These business leaders are asking the right questions. In most cases, there is room for improvement – and a strong business case, too, given that online is a low-cost, proven channel that generates measurable results.

That is, attracting more customers, generating leads, creating buzz and awareness, or simply improving business efficiencies.

Quantitative analysis is the fastest and most effective way to find out how you can better leverage the online channel.

Quantitative analysis the key

The best way to understand how well your website is currently working is through quantitative analysis. This strategic tool paints a clear picture of the best and worst aspects of your site; and, as long as you are prepared to act on the findings, your site’s performance will improve.

I have talked in the past about the importance of quantitative analysis, and the message is as relevant as it ever was.

When we help our clients analyse their websites, we start with the absolute basics:

• Are customers coming to your website?
• What are they doing on your site?

From this baseline, we can identify the gaps or pitfalls, develop a roadmap to plug these gaps and ultimately improve the performance of the online channel.

It sounds simplistic, but of course we cannot reach any conclusions without a comprehensive understanding of our client’s business and their strategic marketing approach.

Reassess your KPIs

During the assessment phase, it’s important to cross-check the stated objective of the site against its KPIs. Setting up good KPIs is critical for the ongoing monitoring of a site’s performance, and it ties in beautifully with a quantitative analysis.

With a vast array of measurables to choose from - page views, cost per acquisition, new visitors, the list goes on - there’s absolutely no point in trying to do it all. Rather, you should realign KPIs to match current business priorities and focus on getting accurate, timely data to support these KPIs.

The right KPIs enable you to track issues, identify opportunities and provide relevant recommendations to senior management about the online channel.

Augment with benchmarking

Once you have identified gaps in your website, it pays to check out what the best of the rest are doing. Seek out best practice in your industry and benchmark against comparable sites. This enables you to gather fresh ideas and set a clear direction for your own site.

We use a tool called Position Pundit to professionally benchmark our clients’ sites, looking at the user experience and customer acquisition/retention mechanisms. These insights can be invaluable in planning the future direction of your own site.

In conclusion

Rationalising your website. Realigning it. Resetting it. Call it what you will – but any form of strategic re-evaluation of your online channel now will pay off in the long term.

I know it works. Having provided website analysis services for many clients in the past few years, and seen these clients reap measurable rewards from the changes enacted, it’s a proven investment.

Knowing that your website is doing OK is more than just about peace of mind. If it’s not up to scratch, you need to know how you can fix it. If you just ignore the problem, then you run the risk of losing customers – and at a time like this, every single visitor counts.

Want to know more? Read about Bienalto’s website analysis, benchmarking and web analytics services.

Or contact me today to discuss your site.

In July 2008, the investment attraction function previously administered by Invest Australia was rolled into Austrade as part of its overall trade facilitation function.

Austrade’s existing website lacked the scalability to simply ‘plug in’ a new section of content and was ready for a refresh to improve usability and content.

Austrade engaged Bienalto for one month of intensive strategy and collaboration to devise a new information architecture and content rationale for the site. The new website, which was launched in February 2009, creates a dynamic, progressive platform for the future growth of the agency.

Challenge

Until 2009, Austrade had operated different websites for its local and overseas audiences: www.austrade.gov.au and www.austrade.com. There were issues associated with marketing the two sites; as well as the challenge of overcoming misconceptions around the US domain of the international site.

There were also content issues. The typical Austrade customer would come from a particular industry or market – and without creating too many headaches for content managers, Austrade sought a better way to channel users down their chosen pathway.

“In addition, we faced the challenge of incorporating all of the information from the Invest Australia website – in the knowledge that we had no extra funding to manage a whole new sub-site,” said Shannon Kolbe, Web Project Manager of the e-Business Team, Austrade.

This challenge of managing new content on a shoestring was picked up on by Bienalto, which came up with innovative ways to reduce the cost of upkeep on the new site.

Solution

Bienalto benchmarked investment sites from around the world to gain a clear picture of what information investors need to aid the decision-making process.

Guided by this research, Bienalto recommended an interface rich in graphics and video content; with clear navigation from the home page to channel users into different sections of the site.

“After consultations with the investment specialists, we saw that what they do is no different to a professional services firm. That is, they provide advice. So we started thinking within the context of what is best practice for professional services firm,” said Hurol Inan, Managing Director, Bienalto.

The rationale behind the video content – which appears within the “Invest” section of the site – was clear:

• Investment specialists are located all over the world, and are always on the road; and while they are more than happy to talk about their expertise, they are much less willing to write about it. Video and audio are a quicker and easier way to capture their messages and establish dialogue with customers.
• The video solves multilingual issues, with recordings made in different languages according to which country the investment specialist is based in.
• Potential investors are more likely to engage with Austrade’s investment specialists after listening to them speak in a video or audio recording.

Another new area of the “Invest” section addresses the content management issues. “Investor Update” is a blog-style communications piece, which gives Austrade a manageable platform for getting new messages to market and keeping the content fresh.

“Investor Update is the first port of call for any potential customers who want to stay up-to-date with Australia as a market. All the investment specialists have to do is send a bulleted list of hot topics to the Corporate Communications team every few months – and we’ve got the content we need,” Shannon said.

Bienalto’s aim was to build a site that would grow with the organisation, whilst remaining mindful of the strain content management would place on internal resources.

“Many sites make the mistake of designing for the launch; that is, creating a whole lot of content that the company has no resources to manage down the track. The content on Austrade’s site can be refreshed on an ongoing basis, and can also be rotated to ensure a fresh appeal for repeat users,” said Inan.

Results

The simplicity of the new Austrade website is winning votes with Austrade staff around the world.

“I keep hearing how proud people within the organisation are to be able to promote the website to customers,” said Shannon.

“A priority for the new site was to encourage more customers to talk to our investment specialists. Bienalto has really nailed this with their solution – the video recordings of our investment specialists discussing current economic issues really boosts their credibility.”

As Austrade sets forth with its new investment role in place, Shannon believes that the new site forms the centrepiece for clarifying the service offering.

“We’ve now got a new, clear way of looking at content, and incredible efficiency in delivering this content to our main audiences – which frees us up to explore new opportunities and ensure this site remains as progressive as it is today,” said Shannon.

Visit the new Austrade website.

It costs a fortune to get a customer to decide to take an action online. Don’t frustrate and loose them at the last minute with poorly designed web forms.

Unfortunately most forms we encounter have problems. They are the least glamorous, underloved part of websites. Product managers, marketing and designers are not interested.

That is ok but we can still do a good job by addressing common issues such as labeling, placement and design of elements, calls to action, help.

A good starting point is Luke Wroblewski’s Web Form Design which provides web form design best practices from labels, input fields, actions, help text to error handling.

Once you redesign your forms, don’t forget the analytics and optimisation.

• Removes usability dead-ends of the old site design
• Emphasises additional paths beyond search to explore products by brand, price, genre
• Introduces faceted search features to facilitate refinement and improve product findability
• Smoothes the path from browse/search to purchase with a decluttered and simplified design

Our approach was a combined in-depth understanding of online retail, analytics-driven insights into user behaviour, an expert review of the current site and competitive analysis of local and international online retail sites.

For small arts organisations, every penny in the piggybank counts. They are always on the lookout for ways to extract more value from minimal budgets – while still conveying a professional and appealing image to customers.

The Song Company, a Sydney-based vocal ensemble that has set the world alight with its distinctive and dynamic sound, is now achieving significant cost and time savings with the launch of a new website and online ticketing system.

The new-look website, designed and built by Bienalto Consulting, has online ticketing, album purchasing and subscriptions functionality. It all ties into a Salesforce.com database, which stores crucial ticketing and marketing information.

“We are a small arts organisation that is low on resources, but recognised as one of the best in the world. It is important for us to be able to pull above our weight in commercial dealings – and this requires a professional online projection of our image,” said Antony Jeffrey, General Manager, The Song Company.

Challenge

Until now, The Song Company managed all ticket orders by telephone and mail. With approximately 10,000 tickets sold each year, and ticket sales taking up to five minutes over the phone, valuable administrative time was taken up with processing sales.

In addition, the team had little way of tracking where the sales were coming from, or which marketing brochures or campaigns the customer was responding to.

The Song Company sought a website redesign that would enable them to manage ticket purchases, album sales and subscriptions; while also tying in with their marketing efforts to save both time and money.

Solution

Upon the recommendation of branding and design company, Principals, The Song Company engaged Bienalto Consulting to design and develop the new website (Bienalto also recently developed the Principals website).

The first thing that Bienalto did was to implement a Salesforce.com database to house ticketing and marketing information. Using this database, an email marketing program was soon up and running.

Emails are sent to the subscribers of The Song Company, with special promotions, upcoming performances and other information about the ensemble.

The website integrates with the Salesforce.com system, as well. With its online subscriptions and ticketing capabilities, The Song Company is on its way to realising the goal of shifting ticket purchases from telephone and mail to online.

“We expect to transform our customer marketing processes, moving everything online over the next couple of years. We will build in more sophistication, such as segmentation, until we reach our goal of 100 per cent of ticket purchases and subscriptions online,” said Jeffrey.

Using the Salesforce.com system, The Song Company has the ability to send out emails with dynamic content – which means they can personalise content according to subscribers’ preferences and behaviours. For example, if a subscriber purchases tickets to a particular concert, a follow-up email with details of the accompanying CD could be sent one week after the concert.

Results

“Our new site is an enormous improvement on the old one. It is easy to update, logical and a delight to our customers – I’m convinced that this time, we’ve got it right,” Jeffrey said.

The Song Company now has a clear picture of where customers are coming from, and what campaigns they are responding to. The tracking capabilities within Salesforce.com provide a clear snapshot of marketing successes.

“From our first meeting with Hurol Inan, we were deeply impressed with how switched on he was. Bienalto is a truly professional outfit – with incredible knowledge in both technology and online marketing. This combination has delivered a winning result for The Song Company,” said Jeffrey.

Using this model, the time between identifying a problem and resolving it to unlock value can be as long as three years. Clearly, this is not ideal.

Fortunately, along came Web 2.0. One of the main principles of Web 2.0 product development, which has underwritten the rapid rise and success of its products, is the concept of ‘always beta’.

‘Always beta’ simply means designing and launching online web assets rapidly and frequently. At every redesign, as long as user-centred design principles are applied, the business notches up an incremental improvement on the experience.

Embracing the ‘always beta’ principle requires a major shift in mind-set for the heads of e-business, the online channel, and website managers.

It’s a huge departure from doing one major overhaul every three years – which involves an element of crystal ball gazing as you try to build a site that will work for your business over that period. With ‘always beta’, you manage ongoing development all of the time.

To overcome the organisational challenge of mobilising this approach for managing the online channel, you need a plan.

First, gain the full support of the internal and external technical development teams, so you are all working together on this ongoing optimisation path.

Secondly, arm yourself with the right tools. A key tool in capability development is a platform to conduct real-time user testing, also known as multivariate testing (MVT).

The notion of MVT is to get users to help you discover the optimum online experience. The qualitative research and expert knowledge is the basis of your product design. Once built, put it to the test in a democratic environment, where real users vote with their clicks.

MVT isn’t limited to website redesign. Marketers can use this technique to optimise email or paid search campaigns, or to optimise conversions on a website landing page.

For more information about transforming your business from a three-yearly web updater to an ‘always beta’ updater, get in touch with Bienalto today.