Archive for the “Web writing” Category

The holidays are here, and I’ve got stocking hangers on my mind.

One of my favourite U.S. home retailers is Pottery Barn. But with only one storefront here in Vancouver, I do much of my browsing online. I know from past shopping that Pottery Barn has beautiful Christmas décor, so I went to www.potterybarn.com to see what they’re selling this year.

Here was Pottery Barn’s homepage (above the fold) from a few days ago.

Other than the “peace” ornament, I couldn’t immediately see a link or image taking me to a holiday décor landing page. (And I say “immediately”, because there is indeed one. Read on.)

This is roughly how my eye tracked the page, starting in the upper-right part of the screen (pardon my sophisticated tracking “software”).

The ornament gave me some clue that there was a décor landing page. But I wasn’t interested in ornaments specifically, nor free shipping on said ornaments, and so I didn’t bother reading the copy under the image.

Being the patient shopper I am, I decided to use the Search feature to look for the hangers. Lo and behold, near the search feature was a link to Holiday Décor.

Meeting multiple customer objectives

Pottery Barn has chosen two primary customer objectives for their homepage: gift giving and sales shopping. Given the season, choosing gift giving as the main focus makes sense, and likely meets the objectives of a large percentage of their audience.

However dedicating four boxes to specials and sales (in some respects, a very “bricks ‘n’ mortar” tactic), ignores one of the top reasons people surf: to gather information and research.

By seeding these boxes with trigger words that address objectives other than just sales shopping (which could be accomplished with one box), Pottery Barn has an opportunity to be relevant to a wider audience.

Compare PB’s homepage to Crate&Barrel’s. Crate&Barrel’s homepage is a lot busier above the fold than PB’s, but look at how they’ve used categories in five boxes to appeal to different buying objectives. You can also see that “Gifts” and “Holiday” in the navigation are in red, making them very easy to spot.

I do think some of Crate&Barrel’s copy is a bit too clever (“deck the halls” could have simply been called “holiday décor”). And what is behind  “give red, save green” took me too much guesswork. But overall, their homepage tries to appeal to more kinds of buyers and their objectives.

Here are the takeaways from my shopping excursion:
- Seed your homepage with trigger words that meet more than one buying objective (e.g. just browsing, bargain hunting)
- Use words that your buyers use, and avoid anything too clever
- Keep your homepage clean and focused, with the information most relevant to your shoppers above the fold (i.e. before scrolling is required)

p.s. I’m still sans stocking hangers. I’m holding out for Boxing Day.

Coast Capital Savings is a financial institution that isn’t afraid to poke fun at itself.  Visit their web site and you’ll find Julie, a customer service “representative”, on the homepage. During one visit, she may be imploring you to click “Say hello to Julie”; on another, she’s knitting; on yet another, she’s ordering take-out.

How can a financial institution, in an industry that is quite conservative, push the envelope when it comes to their branding?

Credit unions typically position themselves as friendly, grassroots alternatives to big banks. Even the credit unions’ umbrella organization, Credit Unions of BC, runs its own tongue-in-cheek ads. The brand image is carried into the branches, where you’re apt to find modest office carpeting, a coffee station, and friendly staff. No marble or suits there.

Now, can you imagine a TD or Bank of Montreal poking fun at their services? You might even find it disturbing! For a big bank to try to project this type of image simply doesn’t fit into the mindset of your average consumer. (Although Scotiabank’s “You’re richer than you think” TV ads do border on the amusing.)

The lesson to take from these examples is that you want to be as human as possible with your web site copy. You want to convey your company’s personality. But you want to do so in an authentic way that doesn’t run so far counter to your customers’ views that they think you’re faking it.

Inject as much personality into your site as you can, but keep it real.