Yes, visual design is more visible, duh, but how is it more measurable than content? And why has content been a second-stringer after visual design when it comes to expressing brand values?

It seems to me that businesses that neglect content neglect the needs of their customers. They disrespect the integrity of the business-customer service relationship, and in doing so lose out on valuable opportunities to strengthen and reinforce brand value in the eyes of their customers–because after all, brand is about how people feel about your business or product.

Nice blog you have. I’m looking forward to reading through the other posts!

Agreed we need metrics to make our case, but the opportunities are maddeningly few and far between. Colleen, I would LOVE to see the Holiday Inn example and hold it up as what good content can do for conversion.

I understand the company I work for is a business, and shockingly, would like to make money. It’s just hard for me to see bad content existing on the site – no matter how subtle – that I can’t change because of a lack of metrics.

We’ll get there, and yes, baby steps are best (but very hard to do that when you want to speed skate). So let’s get those case studies out there. Let’s collect victories like Beanie Babies or Pokemon cards or whatever the kids are collecting these days.

I’ll do the same here. Now, if only I had access to a South African user experience researcher with a personal interest in good content… Hmm…

I think that content strategists need to get more involved in the full research and testing lifecycle. That way, content is evaluated all the way through the design process, not just as a web analytic. For instance, early interviews with users should talk about content. Usability testing need to include questions and evaluations about content. And so on. Addressing content this way gives us a greater set of “data” than web analytics to support content efforts.

I also like to milk the opportunities to isolate content as the variable affecting conversions. For instance, IHG tested the same Holiday Inn design with “old” and “new and improved” content. Conversion skyrocketed with the new and improved content. We can’t test like this in every situation, but we need to seize the times it makes sense. That way, we can say if content made a big impact here, it likely will make a big impact there.

While I agree with your impassioned call to action, however, my opinion is that we’re a long ways off from this way of thinking. Qualitative measurements are nice to have, but they’re nearly impossible to identify how they directly affect the bottom line.

Yes, fixing our crappy, robotic web content provides a better customer experience. No, we can’t really say how much money it’s going to make us.

To that end, I think content strategists need to start with the metrics. It’s the only way we’re going to grab the attention of the people holding the purse strings.

I get your “how did that brand of flour affect your cake enjoyment” simile, and that’s a challenge. Baby steps, here. Sometimes there *are* copy-only changes. How can we measure them? Even little numbers add up over time.