Previously I had jotted a brief note about the idea ‘user experience’.
As a postscript to that I was recently involved with a website project and not for the first time it was made clear “We don’t have to worry about the SEO - that’s done by another agency. They’ll just give us their requirements and we’ll plug them in.”
These words are usually uttered within marketing agencies when the various strands of marketing activity are split across a number of agencies, and sometimes with the telling addendum “because we’re not the lead agency.”
(This default is because “we” are not tasked or paid to be the lead agency, why should “we” take a lead and direct everyone else?)
The website I was working on was going to receive a handover from some hardcore online visibility (SEO, PR) work, a television ad campaign, a smattering of press ads. The website was to be measured by its ability to pass across “high quality” propsects to a really good, helpful team in a call centre.
The position of the website in this audience journey is important. As is the positioning and purpose of all aspects of the activity across that journey. Not just for this project - all projects.
Joining all this up is necessary for the project t succeed, for the client to succeed. And yet joining it all up? Rare.
How do people get to the website, how do they find it? What do they expect when they are there? What do they do there? What will they do next? How can we help set that next step up? Is there a way of linking the journey between these elements?
For the audience they need consistency and an expectancy, an awareness of what happens next.
The website in this case is part not just of a journey, but part of a range of engaging interactions that together form a service.
Whether you’re the “lead” or not, ensure you consider a website, or/and any other activity, as an element or a product within an overall system or service.
Have it all mapped out so you know, everyone else working on that service knows what they are collectively doing to ensure that service succeeds.
And if that means taking the lead, grasp the opportunity.