AgencyCritique

Agency Website Gaffes: #5. Textarea Scroll Boxes

2008-11-24T17:46:18Z

One of the symptoms if the “Creativity Barrier” as observed in many agency websites is the rigidly controlled textarea. This is almost universally seen in Flash-based agency websites since the boundaries of a Flash based web page’s layout are locked to the dimensions of the movie file. If there are too many words for a particular page the designer must add scroll bars or up/down arrows to enable text scrolling.

But this practice is not limited to Flash-based sites. It’s also common in standard HTML-based agency websites. When print designers take to the web they’ll usually execute their designs in Photoshop. There’s nothing wrong with that Photoshop is a great tool for web design. But when laying out a web page, designers need to keep in mind that even though Photoshop documents have a definite height and width, web pages do not. When the design process takes place within a fixed layout environment, the results often do not take the expansion of the depth and width of a web page as viewed in a browser into consideration. And so the layouts end up with static design elements that don’t float or stretch very well. Then, when multiple paragraphs of content are introduced, the inflexible layout won’t accommodate. Enter the scrolling text box!

Now the “Textarea Scroll Box” mistake is not the worst of all agency website gaffes. In the non-Flash cases, if the site is coded properly, all the words inside scroll boxes can be indexed by search engines. But this common mistake does betray an agency’s web strategy priorities. When the desire to control web page layout trumps a strategy that would include and accommodate the ongoing production of thoughtful content, the designer’s impulse for control has gone too far.

Example of a fixed textarea. The content of any page on this site must fit in this space.

Scroll bar textareas demonstrate wrong web strategy priorities–but what’s worse is writing and editing copy that always fits inside a fixed area of a layout–never allowing more words than would fit in that spot. At least with a scrolling box you can add a few extra lines of text. Copyfitting into a fixed layout is far more injurious than a scrolling textarea. But both push the priority of content well below the priority of tight page layout.

Not only should agencies avoid web page layouts that include the use of scrolling textareas, they should engage in web strategies that emphasize a robust and ongoing content strategy that makes much of the words on the page, and not so much of tightly-controlled, fixed-sized page layouts.

The Crit: closerlook

2008-11-18T21:56:34Z

Overall
Score:

4.5

Positioning 5

Content 5

Platform 4

Design 4

scale: 1…5

Chicago agency closerlook is a relationship marketing firm specializing in healthcare (pharmaceutical, health insurance, and health information technology). They have an excellent agency website that builds upon tight positioning with a significant content strategy. So let’s break it down:

Positioning: Here’s how closerlook states their positioning in the first paragraph of their home page,

“closerlook a relationship marketing firm specializing in healthcare. We help clients in the pharmaceutical, health insurance and health information technology industries establish long-term relationships with their customers.”

This focused positioning is also evident by the industries listed in the main navigation and the two featured projects on the home page. If you dig one click deeper into the “About closerlook” page, their focus is restated in a big blue heading, “closerlook is a relationship marketing firm specializing in healthcare.” When executed properly an agency’s positioning and its content strategy reflect and reinforce each other–which makes it difficult for me to know when to segue from a review of their positioning to their content. Since the closerlook website does succeed in integrating positioning and content let’s proceed to a review of the content.

Content: The closerlook site strikes a balance in terms of the amount of content on each of their top level pages. They provide adequate depth and detail without overwhelming with too many words. They could do a little better job pulling their positioning down into these main sub-pages. For example the strategic capabilities page has excellent content, including descriptions of specific capabilities like “Segmentation and Targeting,” “Instructional Design,” and “Usability Testing and Analysis,” among others. However, aside from the case studies contained in the page’s side bar, there is little to reveal the firms specific expertise in healthcare relationship marketing. This is an important consideration since search engine traffic most often leads visitors directly to these content-rich sub-pages first. And considering how quickly visitors evaluate a site–especially when in “search mode,” getting to the point quickly–with as few additional clicks possible, is a high priority.

It’s a worthwhile exercise to examine each sub-page as though it were your home page. After all, these pages will function as surrogate home pages (at least in terms their first impression function). You’ll want to help the visitor who hits a sub-page first to catch the plot of the site without having to click much further. Adding phrases about healthcare and relationship marketing to each sub-page can really help. In addition, the use of a tag line in the logo and strategic browser titles can also help frame in the positioning on each sub-page.

closerlook fleshes out on their content strategy with whitepapers, case studies, a news section and two blogs. Their general agency blog is called “Work + Play.” I like the title because it points out how agency blogs can have multi-faceted effects. They can demonstrate expertise while at the same time offering a glimpse into the agency’s personality and culture. Blogs are also effective at simply sharing information and engaging with the design community at large. Their second blog is called “Experience RM,” and focuses on how their approach to customer relationship management is unique.

Oh, and closerlook also uses video quite effectively. They have a Flash based video on the home page (it’s okay, this is one use of Flash that is very appropriate and effective). They’re very considerate to only play a silent video montage by default–allowing the visitor to start the full video via the play button (thanks!). They’ve also used video on their Experience RM blog to explain their concept of relationship marketing.

One thing that is oddly missing is a section about the principals or employees. This is a fairly ubiquitous form of content for most agency sites, and is generally helpful in getting to know the firm. I’d add a section to the Company area with bios and photos (and link to any blog contributor’s posts).

Platform: I cannot detect a CMS under the hood, though the content is kept up-to-date, so I’m assuming there is a system in place. If so, it’s well configured with clean URLs, ability to affect meta info and browser titles. While the site does provide unique browser titles on each page, the choice of words could be refined, and made more effective for search engine optimization.

Design: The visual design is clean, professional, and easy to read. I like how they’ve consolidated content by truncating lengthy paragraphs with a “more” layer and link that reveals the rest on click (see the Strategic Capabilities page). closerlook has been very restrained in their use of graphic typography. They’ve managed to create a well crafted typographic design with straight text and CSS styling. Even their main navigation and sub navigation is text based!

My only area of discomfort with the user interface is the two click main navigation bar. The first click opens the sub panel then the second click brings you to your destination. This is a pretty minor issue, but I think a standard drop down menu would better serve the visitor and speed up site exploration. There is also a very minor bug in the home page video (at least on my computer–Vista/Firefox 3.0.4). It seems to start playing the audio on load but then stops–producing a one chord sound before catching itself.

All in all, this is a notable example of a successful agency website.

The Sharp Axe of Positioning

2008-11-14T17:14:20Z

Creative Commons Photo Attribution

When I perform my crits of advertising agency websites the first aspect I evaluate is positioning. Positioning is a foundational element for an effective web strategy.

Positioning is defined as “what you do,” “who you do it for,” and “what the benefit is to them.” For example the positioning for AgencyCritique would be broken down like this. What do I do? I advise about web strategy. Who do I do it for? Advertising agencies. What is the benefit? I help them transform their websites into powerful new business engines.

Defining a sharp position statement is critical for an effective and sustainable web strategy. That’s because web strategy is primarily expressed through a content strategy. And developing compelling content on a regular and sustained basis is hard work. But hard work is always made easier when you have the right tools. A good sharp axe makes the task of chopping wood easier–you can exert less force with fewer blows.

Think of your positioning as the edge of your axe. If your firm’s positioning is sharp (focused, narrow, and clearly defined) the effort needed in content creation will be much less than if the positioning is dull (over-reaching, broad, and generalized).

Not only is content creation easier with sharp positioning, it’s also more compelling and effective. Conversely, an out of dull-edged content strategy is hard to sustain and its results are ineffective. Most agency sites I’ve seen that have made a stab at devising a content strategy (such as blogging) they usually do okay for a few months. They’ll start out with a few posts per month, but soon the fatigue sets in. Ideas run dry, and the posts don’t bear much fruit. It’s not surprising that such posts are ineffective. Their subject matter tends to be about typography, design awards, new projects–stuff that’s only marginally interesting–and that only to other designers. This is the kind of content that flows from an undefined content strategy which results from generalized positioning.

But blogs from specialized, narrowly positioned firms are far more interesting–especially to clients and prospects who are interested in content that relates to their industries. Let’s try this on. Imagine for a moment that your firm had a super sharp positioning, something like “trade show marketing for technology startups–we help you make the most of your trade show events.” This is perhaps an extreme example, but just imagine for a moment that this was your focus and expertise. Can you come up with half a dozen subjects that you could write about, if that was your expertise? Even without having the expertise I bet you could come up with a decent list. And for specialized firms compelling content ideas are easy to come by. And when a prospect discovers them, the sales process is near to closing even before your phone rings or your email comment form gets filled out.

Web strategy is like an axe, the blade is a content strategy, and its sharpness is defined by your positioning. So sharpen your axe, and you won’t have to exert as much effort in your marketing.

Advertising Age Digest: October 20 - November 10, 2008

2008-11-14T16:05:34Z

Here’s a list of articles from the past month’s issues of Advertising Age that are worth a second look from a digital media and web strategy perspective. If you only read one I’d recommend the article from the October 27th issue by Rupal Parekh and Abbey Klaassen–”As the Lines Blur, Digital Agencies Are Taking Lead.

Also, the 2008 Search Marketing Fact Pack is always worth reviewing. When it comes to marketing and web strategy search marketing is still the biggest and most effective area to focus on.

October 20, 2008

How to Build Brands in Digital Age, By Allen Adamson.

Social Web Speeds Ahead Despite Slowing Economy, By Steve Rubel.

Google’s Upward March Continues — but for How Long?, By Abbey Klaassen.

October 27, 2008

As the Lines Blur, Digital Agencies Are Taking Lead, Posted by Rupal Parekh and Abbey Klaassen.

Web Ad Growth Falls Off — and So Do the Salaries, By Michael Learmonth.

LinkedIn’s Promising New Revenue Model: Sending You Surveys, By Jack Neff.

Google Gives Marketers More Places to Put Ads, By Danny Sullivan.

November 3, 2008

AOL CEO: It’s Our Fault You’re So Confused About Digital, By Randy Falco.

Why News Feed Is Growing While RSS Has Stalled: Peers, By Steve Rubel.

November 10, 2008

The Watershed Moments That Pushed the Web Forward, Posted by Mat Zucker.

Social Networks Steal Time From TV, but There’s Hope, By Mike Vorhaus.

Agency Website Gaffes: #4. Graphics as Text

2008-11-07T01:06:41Z

In my RISD days I studied letter-press printing and wood engraving. Achieving great typography when setting metal type is a laborious task. For example, tightening-up letter spacing (kerning) requires taking file to metal. The process of setting type by hand gave me a deep appreciation for the subtleties of excellent typography. So I sympathize with designers when they make this common web design mistake of using graphic text in place of real text.

How to determine if text is text: You can select the words and letters individually and copy them to the clipboard.

How to determine if text is a graphic: You can’t select the letters, options allow you to “Save Picture As.”

When “setting type” on the web there’s a smaller set of options and controls than you have in print. On the web you can control size, color, line-height, and to a limited degree, the typeface. But even these controls are not precise. Any typeface choice is dependent on the fonts installed on the viewer’s computer. The range of safe font choices is quite limited (Helvetica, Verdana, Times, and a few more). Not only are the choices limited, but the precise display of a font can change slightly from system to system. So subtleties like controlling the rag of a copy block are virtually impossible on the web.

That’s why so many designers choose to use graphics in place of readable text in web layouts. Photoshop allows you to choose any font you want, adjust it until it looks perfect, and then save it as a jpeg. Such graphic text treatments are commonly used for main page titles.

Problem is, the use of graphics for text keeps that text from being meaningful to search engines. To Google a graphic is just a blank rectangle, whether it looks like a word or not. So when you opt for graphics instead of text, you are removing whatever meaning that word has when it comes to search relevance. The most common use of this technique is for a page’s main title. And a page’s main title is among the most weighty elements search engines use to determine relevance. So using a graphic instead of text throws away one of the most important elements for search engine optimization.

Using graphics for page titles is bad enough. But a far more egregious error is using a graphic for body copy. It’s a pretty big deal to decide to substitute a main title with graphic text. It’s utterly irresponsible to replace a paragraph of meaningful words with a graphic substitute, all for the sake of more precise typographic control. In my opinion when an agency places typographic nuance above the most basic functions of how the web works, they discredit themselves with regard to their competence in web design and web marketing.

Typography on the web is very different than in print, but there is an art to typography on the web. Just because the options are more limited does not mean you can’t create beautiful expressions of typography (after all, typographers of old had only the font choices and sizes available to them in their type cases). Check out my delicious links tagged “typography” for more resources on how to be a web-based typographer with out resorting to Flash and graphics (especially check out this article from ilovetypography.com).

Second Wind Network

2008-10-27T14:06:14Z

I’m honored to have been made an official consultant for the Second Wind Network! Anthony Mikes founded Second to “help smaller and mid-size advertising agencies, design firms and related businesses to be better.” Second Wind has been offering resources, communities, articles, white papers, books, conferences and consulting to agencies for over twenty years. Running an advertising agency or design firm can be particularly challenging. Especially since many owner/principals come at if from creative backgrounds rather than a business backgrounds (like in my case, letter-press printing and wood engraving didn’t exactly prepare me for the intense task of managing a web development company). Second Wind provides a rich environment and excellent resources to make this job a little easier.

Specifically, my role as a consultant for Second Wind is in the web strategy and digital marketing areas. I’ll be answering questions in their online forums. I’ll also post articles and look forward to producing rich content like webinars and white papers on digital marketing, web strategy, search marketing and social media.

I’ll also be offering a special Second Wind network discount for my regular consulting services. So if you’re already a Second Wind member you just got another perk, and if not, you might want to consider signing up!

Advertising Age Digest: October 13, 2008

2008-10-21T16:08:49Z

Last week’s Ad Age had a lengthy white paper insert on “How Commercial Ratings Changed the $70 Billion TV Market,” by Claire Atkinson. I’m fascinated by how digital technology is changing the way advertising is delivered and sold on television. The white paper traces negotiations between advertisers and media now that there’s quantifiable data on how well commercials perform in light of ad skipping and time shifting technology. One reason I follow this subject is that it’s one of the most tangible and measurable microcosms (or is it a macrocosm?) to witness the impact of digital technology on traditional marketing channels. While disruption can be threatening, and sometimes hard to manage, it ultimately improves things. Mediaedge:cia’s Rino Scanzoni, a top buying executive, commented “We made the change and the world did not end…what resulted was a better world.”

On the subject of changes in the television industry, Michael Learmonth’s article “Suddenly, Rivals Want to Jump on Hulu Bandwagon” notes the rising success of NBC and News Corp’s online television portal Hulu.com. If you haven’t checked out Hulu yet, you really should.

Brian Steinberg evaluates the production quality of many of the surprising YouTube hits. The piece, “It Surely Isn’t ‘Lost,’ but Online Video Finds Ad Niche,” uses “Wine Library TV” as a case study. The upshot–online video content does not need to be polished to be compelling.

In “Even Search Not Immune to Financial Malaise,” Abbey Klaassen points out that while marketing budgets are getting slashed, search may actually benefit. Since search advertising is much more measurable and quantifiable than other forms of advertising, it’s a safe choice in tight times. But additionally, because consumers evaluate and scrutinize their purchases more carefully in tough economic times, there may be more online ad clicks–since search is where we spend most of our consumer research time.

The “Digital Next” section had to articles of note. Stephen Thompson asks, “Is Your Snazzy New Site Cloaked in Invisibility?” He points out that most creative service firms cloak their websites when they build them entirely in Flash. Amen Stephen, preach it!

Finally, B.L. Ochman calls “for a Ban on ‘About Us’ Pages.” She questions the almost universal presence of the “About Us” page on our websites. She points out that companies should be able to state what they do in a single sentence–which should then be easily declared on the home page. We shouldn’t need another page to do that. I disagree with her conclusion of banning “About Us” pages, but she’s right on that we should be able to state our positioning (what we do, who we do it for, and its benefits) clearly in one sentence. If we have done that successfully I don’t see any reason to abandon the “About Us” page. A deeper explanation with some background and history can be a helpful to visitors that are trying to get to know our companies. But we shouldn’t rely on the “About Us” page if we haven’t done the hard work of stating our positioning clearly on the home page.

Advertising Age Digest: October 6, 2008

2008-10-14T15:56:52Z

The October 6th issue of Advertising Age included their annual list of the best magazines. Sadly, as a group, they are all suffering decline in the face digital trends. On an up note, magazines did show growth in their digital revenues. It will be interesting to see how the downward economics of the magazine industry will cause it to change shape.

Another article “Distributors, Networks Push for More Ads in TV Shows Online” made me think more about how digital revenues may accelerate these changes. The online TV article described how networks are just now beginning to measure their revenue from online distribution. It’s pretty meager–they may even be operating at a loss. But as delivery moves more and more to the Internet, there’s no doubt that rigorous cost/revenue analysis will take place. Already they are considering putting in more ads (while contemplating the willingness of viewers to endure them). But back to magazines, it seems to me that the monitization of many online advertising programs are pretty weak. Campaigns often sell online ad space as a part of an overall advertising buy–almost as an after thought. But as digital revenue grows, and print declines, these avenues will be measured and balanced more appropriately. We really are in the middle of a fascinating economic shift in the marketing industry.

The Digital section has two interesting features. Steve Rubel’s column “Current Woes Could Lead to Collaboration Economy” imagines how the tightening operating budgets inside advertising agencies may push them toward inexpensive online collaborative tools. This would certainly be one positive effect of an economic downturn. Many of these tools, as Rubel points out, should already be used by agencies, perhaps a little push will awaken them to the benefits to be gained by collaboration and online efficiency.

The other Digital column was Beth Snyder Bulik’s piece “It’s Not Just What Bloggers Are Saying, It’s Who They Are“. Beth examines how PBS is using reputation management and social media monitoring to engage their customers and discover top influencers among their audience. Such practices are quickly becoming standard practice for consumer brands. Monitoring is a little less urgent for many small B2B clients–there’s much less chatter about them. But on the other hand, monitoring them is so easy and requires such little effort it makes sense to monitor all your clients’ buzz.

The Crit: Remedy

2008-10-13T17:03:48Z

Overall
Score:

3.5

Positioning 5

Content 3

Platform 3

Design 3

scale: 1…5

In the recent HOW magazine article, Rock Your Website, Chicago-based Remedy was one of the featured website examples. Remedy is a good example of an agency website, but I’m not quite ready to push it into the great column. It’s on the edge though, and with a few adjustments I think it could become one of the great examples of an agency website.

Positioning: Remedy has already done the hard part. They’ve taken the step of defining a narrow positioning in the healthcare market. And they’ve identified their approach to healthcare marketing–they move healthcare brands toward expressions that overcome our consumer aversions and negative pre-dispositions of hospitals and healthcare services in general.

The only positioning weakness (as it’s represented in their website) I see is on their services list. It contains a few too many categories, and uses the word “Brand” a bit too much.

I also see “public relations” listed at the end of the list. Whenever I see this it makes me immediately think that the list is just trying to cover too much ground. I may be completely wrong about this criticism as it applies to Remedy (for all I know they may have significant public relations expertise) but I see it so often, and usually at the end of the list–that it casts doubt. I’m always is favor of shorter, more defined service lists that relate more closely to expertise.

Content: The content strategy is framed-up and heading in the right direction. But this is where the site needs a bit of work. Their portfolio content is excellent. They’ve provided written details covering several facets of each project’s strategy and process.

In addition, they just stared a quarterly newsletter–so there is only one issue so far. In my opinion quarterly publication is the absolute minimum schedule for an agency newsletter, bi-monthly would be better. Hopefully, they’re working on the 4th quarter newsletter. For some reason, the link to the newsletter (and come of the other areas of the site) launch new browser windows. I’m not sure why they’d do this, it feels awkward to me.

They also have a “New” section. It’s almost a blog–and that’s the problem. If it’s not a blog it’s purpose is a little confusing. It might be intended as a simple “News and Events” list, in which case I’d simplify the layout and add dates to each item. But if it is supposed to be blog-like, I’d press it further into blog form by including RSS, author, comments, categories, link bait, etc.

Platform: Y’all know what a big fan I am of Flash. While Remedy does use Flash for their homepage, they are commendably restrained its use inside the site. They also provide text links into the main sections outside of the Flash movie. Nevertheless, I always feel that the choice to use Flash for impact on the homepage is a poor one. It’s hard for me to understand why you’d relinquish the powerful opportunity to leverage your site’s content by linking to it from the home page–for the sake of one dynamic graphic. But that is the “creativity barrier” in action.

I can’t detect the use of a CMS. The site is written in PHP, so there may be some site updating tools available. I suspect, though, that it’s hand-coded, especially since I randomly encountered a broken link on the sitemap page (Jessica Daly’s bio). This is usually just a typo in the coding–an automated CMS wouldn’t likely have this kind of error.

And finally, as far as platform goes, the browser titles need optimizing. The home page’s browser title, for example, should contain “healthcare marketing” in it. This is an almost universal oversight so I don’t usually knock too many points off for this.

Design: My design comments relate primarily to information design and usability. Most agency sites are going to look good. The main navigation system is a little weird. When I click one of the main links (Who, What, How, and New) I don’t go anywhere. Yet if I click the same links in the footer navigation they do resolve to overview pages. The final critique on interfaced design is the main navigation for the portfolio. The navigation area allows for scrolling and clicking their list of clients and projects. But the space only allows four items to be viewed at any time. This makes it difficult to browse. A rollover, drop-down that lists all the items would be much more usable–especially since there are only about eight or so in the full list.

I think remedy is on a trajectory toward an excellent agency website. Opening up their platform and pushing the content strategy a bit further may get just them there.

Recommendation: Brain Traffic - website copywriting

2009-04-11T14:41:13Z

At the core of any web strategy is a well defined content strategy. And writing content for the web can be a challenging, time consuming endeavor. Web copy functions in many ways and is read with varying degrees of thoroughness. At first it’s usually scanned quickly, but once there’s interest a reader may go very deep. Web copy also gets read from many directions and perspectives, one page does not always follow predictably from another. In fact, sometimes a deep level sub-page may be the first page viewed, especially when traffic originates from search engines. On top of the structural issues, there are also technical search engine optimization matters to consider. And the larger the website, the more complex the inter-relationships of its pages become.

Kristina Halvorson is a web copy expert. She founded Brain Traffic as a specialist in writing copy for the web. Brain Traffic offers content strategy and website copywriting services as well as web copywriting seminars.

Brain Traffic clients include large companies in the healthcare, financial, high-tech and medical fields. They usually have complex sites, sometimes with thousands of pages. Brain Traffic knows and believes in the power of content on the web. Their clients know this too, and look to them as a valuable adviser and implementation partner. They don’t just take copywriting orders for “x” number of web pages. They help craft and implement the overall web content strategy.

Most adverting agencies would not have sites large enough to qualify as a Brain Traffic client themselves, but many of your clients may very well may need their help. Especially if you’ve done your job persuading them of the importance of a robust content strategy for their web marketing.