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Category: Content Strategy

4 reasons for choosing an all-in-one design and development agency

Posted on by allison

Whether for your higher education institution, nonprofit, or your software as a service (SaaS) firm, a website build is often thought of as a two-phase process during its construction. 

Firstly, you need a platform design and strategy. You’ll want to study your typical website visitors, organize and audit your pages and content, and create an information architecture while thoughtfully choosing fonts and colors for your user interface. The UX design process is a crucial part of every platform build, ensuring your site will be a pleasure to navigate while meeting website visitors’ needs.

Website development naturally follows once you have your design. Engineers code, test, debug, and retest every component of your site to ensure it’s functional, accessible, and secure before it’s ready to go live. 

It’s not uncommon for companies to think of each of these vital phases — design and development — as two distinct and separate entities. Because of this, folks often consider partnering with one agency to design their platform and another to develop it. 

We don’t deny this strategy can produce fantastic websites. In some instances, choosing a specialized agency to focus on a single phase of your site build makes sense. However, we’d like to highlight how design and development are not as independent as some think, and there are advantages to having the two phases connected. 

Working with one agency that’s mastered both design and development can save you time and money while ensuring your site is a joy to use and will be for many years to come. We’ve pulled together our top four reasons firms should consider choosing one agency for designing and developing their website.

Four reasons for choosing an all-in-one design and development agency: 

1) You’ll launch faster.

When gaining both design and development from the same agency, your project life cycle is more efficient, meaning your website is able to go live faster. This valuable time-saving is the result of consistent alignment between designers and engineers.

Whenever Kanopi inherits a platform designed elsewhere, we ensure the strategic thinking isn’t lost in the transition as this is one of the most common blockages when your platform moves from the design agency to a development agency. Accessibility issues, missed content requirements, and an unworkable CMS can also crop up when working with separate design and development firms.

One agency can ensure your site is accessible.

Design agencies that don’t offer website development in-house can sometimes create design specs that don’t meet accessibility and usability guidelines. When it comes time to build your site, engineers may need to do extra work or modify your agreed-upon design to meet the needs of everyone who uses your website. 

With design and development working together, accessibility isn’t an afterthought and can be included in the strategy and design of your website from the very beginning. 

Understanding your content requirements is more seamless.

Another challenge that can extend project timelines are missed content requirements, as design agencies can occasionally overlook your company’s content requirements due to focusing on aesthetics. Unfortunately, we’ve seen designs break when it comes time to migrate a company’s actual content over to the platform design. Without a technical review of the actual content that needs migrating, designers might miss any number of needs, including not taking image size requirements into consideration, ensuring that content isn’t being broken up into multiple components, or creating space for headlines that are too short to accommodate actual headline length. 

Conversely, what if the designers create visuals around content that doesn’t yet exist? It can look great having all the bells and whistles in the design, but if the content doesn’t exist, someone has to make it, or the design may look flat.  Make sure things like images, videos, and content fields exist or can be created before signing off on that design.

With development and design working hand-in-hand, engineers are able to provide expertise on content needs while designers are beginning to craft a beautiful website that’s functional. 

You’ll get a CMS that’s easier to use. 

Lastly, disjointed design and development can sometimes leave behind the unique needs of content managers. Busy content teams need a content management system (CMS) that’s a breeze to use. With a focus on front-end design, design-only firms sometimes provide designs that do not lend well to editing specific assets in the CMS (for example, image sizes that require Photoshop or another outside tool to crop to proper sizes). Development can lean into the design process to help integrate a CMS that’s user-friendly, no matter the skill level of your content team members. 

Additionally, having a pattern library within your CMS is crucial to keep your site’s design consistent over time. Design firms tend to design each of your web pages, but rarely design full pattern libraries that work across an entire site that help maintain a smooth workflow between design and code when it’s time for development. Creating every web page in isolation leads to multiple ways to display content, slowing down your project.

When Kanopi develops websites, we look for patterns we can apply site-wide to eliminate gaps that commonly appear through separate page design. Without pattern libraries, numerous patterns may be created for similar content, which can lead to increased complexity, longer development time, and the need for additional project management support with a heftier price tag.

2) Feature development is easier.

When you decide to partner with an agency providing both design and development, designers and engineers work in tandem and are able to understand the nuances of the features necessary to make your website the best it can be. 

When the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy and Institute of Golden Gate partnered with Kanopi, we were able to take a strategic approach to their visual design, factoring in their complex infrastructure and functionality requirements. 

Mapping, in particular, is a complex feature for the park and one that needs to look great while providing an intuitive user experience and a CMS behind the scenes that’s fit for purpose. Kanopi created a content administration experience, allowing for polygon drawing and mapping files to direct intricate paths for hiking in the park: 

An example of one of the many available maps of the trails managed by Parks Conservancy. This one overlooks the Golden Gate Bridge.

3) Project management is more cohesive.

When you partner with an all-in-one agency, you ensure the smoothest transition possible as your platform passes from the designers to the engineers.

Designers within an all-in-one agency understand the skillsets, workflow, and limitations of the engineers with whom they work. They’re familiar with what design practices are going to make the job of the developers as smooth as possible, and which ones might come up against issues in the build phase. Those built-in efficiencies make a huge impact on time and budget.

Working with separate design and development agencies can lead to numerous layers of project management with a costly transfer (in terms of both time and money) between them all. 

Working with an all-in-one agency can also help your internal project management go more smoothly. You can avoid misaligned team expectations with the help of the agency, which will work to meet with senior-level stakeholders regularly and keep them up to date on your web strategy. Learn more about this process in our guide to avoiding the “Swoop and Poop.”

4) Your designs will have more longevity. 

The final reason for choosing the same agency for both design and development comes down to the sustainability of your site. Websites designed and developed by the same team prove the test of time because designers, engineers, and project managers can collectively gain a deep understanding of your company’s mission and long-term goals. They are able to strategize a plan for your website post-launch, so it continues to support your business goals and remain a great site to interact with next year and the year after next.   

With design files at the ready, simple navigation enhancements and tweaks to key elements can be made quickly and easily, keeping your website looking sharp and delightful to navigate.

Weeks can stretch into months for design updates that need to go back to an original contractor that crafted your initial platform design. An all-in-one agency becomes an expert in your business, armed with a thorough understanding of your history and unique growth plans.

Build a better, more sustainable platform with Kanopi.

Kanopi is a close-knit team of designers, engineers, and project managers, who are all working towards the same mission of pairing creative solutions with solid and sustainable architecture while keeping our client’s entire ecosystem in mind.

We’re incredibly proud of the award-winning websites we’ve designed and built for our clients. In addition to design and development, we provide robust support after your website goes live, going above and beyond basic bug fixes and security updates. 

‘When I describe Kanopi to others, I talk about customer service, great services, a sustainable site, and a relationship that gets better over time. Every project we have done with Kanopi has improved our site and made it work harder and better for us.’

Laura H, Digital Marketing Manager, Stratford Schools

Are you interested in partnering with us? Reach out if you want a better, more sustainable site. 

50% Of All Big Projects Fail, including Websites. Why?

Posted on by allison

Marketing leaders have the best intentions going into an expensive and large six-figure website overhaul. However, according to the Harvard Business Review, as many as half of big projects like these are considered failures when all is said and done. And you’re left wondering…

  • Why did this take longer than I was told?
  • Why was more funding needed than was estimated?
  • Why were there so many surprises and scope changes?
  • Why do I feel so burned by the agency my team selected?

Now you find yourself facing down another big website overhaul and all the risk associated with it. How will you feel confident it will be successful this time? How will you be sure you won’t be left with heartburn and the same frustrating questions as last time?

In my 15+ years working in this industry, I’ve learned there are three key elements to ensuring a big website design and development project is successful.

Think of it like a three-legged stool…

1) Stakeholder Alignment

Performing candid and skillfully focused stakeholder exercises which tease out the goals and intentions of important leaders in your organization. These exercises force invaluable conversations, and ultimately lead to buy-in.

2) User Experience

Target audience data mitigates risk by replacing assumptions with defined needs and specific pain points. These eventually inform the site experience that’s most helpful to each audience.

3) Design & Development Planning

With stakeholders aligned and users defined, design and development planning can begin using models such as sitemaps and wireframes. Technical and functional requirements can start to be dialed in as well.

Unfortunately, most agencies focus only on one or maybe two of the legs described above, resulting in a shaky foundation to your project. But not Kanopi. We focus on and thrive at all three, and we make it fun along the way. 

We call this endeavor the Website Growth Plan (WGP). Through this proven process, we’re able to answer questions such as:

  • I know my site is not working for me, but how do I improve it? 
  • I will need to migrate from Drupal 7 to D8 or D9, but what will that budget look like?
  • How can I improve my SEO? How is my site performance now?
  • I need a new content strategy, but how can I do this properly when I am already so busy?

After taking factors (like the ones illustrated below) into account, the WGP delivers an all encompassing action plan for your website. By setting expectations early and often, this helps avoid the heartburn-inducing questions you were left with after your last website project.

Which website growth plan is right for me?

More information can be found here, but below is an overview of our various plans:

Website Reimagine

This plan is a concentration of UX research, content strategy, and a bite-sized amount of design. It helps formulate a game plan that drives clarity for the team and gets some early design thinking on the table. Plus, it is actually a wonderful use of time as it is the first step in an overall design and development project, as the deliverables include a roadmap to launch.

Usability and Design

This is a data-informed optimization plan incorporating user experience, visual design and content recommendations delivered in an actionable plan for next steps.

Content Strategy

Amplify your message through a powerful analysis of important information, including user needs, competitor analysis, personas and Customer Decision Journey mapping — from Awareness to Advocacy. This plan focuses on storytelling content, user experience, visual design recommendations, and more.

Drupal 7 Transition Plan

You should feel secure planning and budgeting for the transition from D7 to D8/9 or to WordPress. This plan removes the “unknown” and illuminates the details for your organization to make an informed decision and take action on next steps.

Technical SEO

This is a deep-dive to analyze your website’s SEO technical health and set you up for search engine optimization success.

GDPR & Compliance

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a legal framework that sets guidelines for the collection and processing of personal information from individuals who live in the European Union (EU). This plan gets you compliant.

Accessibility

Reach your audience and meet compliance with Website Compliance Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1 AA or higher) through a skillful analysis and recommendations action plan.

Technical Review

A comprehensive technical deep-dive into your site’s code and technical health to provide foundational recommendations for optimization and stability.

And if one of those doesn’t quite fit? Don’t worry. Our nimble nature finds us creating custom packages for our clients to best meet their needs. Contact us to chat about which plan is the best fit.

The Donor Journey: Creating Smarter Digital Experiences

Posted on by Nexus Marketing

Similar to the choices in our everyday lives, the decisions your donors make can impact how and if they decide to give to your organization. This is known as the donor journey.

Regardless of whether you’re a long term fundraising professional or you’ve just established your nonprofit organization, the donor journey shouldn’t be an unfamiliar term. It’s pretty self-explanatory—it describes how a potential prospect makes their way to becoming an official donor and an advocate for your mission.

But why is this important?

Understanding the donor journey will not only help you track how and when your supporters give, but also provide some basis to why they donate. The more familiar you are with your donors’ journeys the better you can engage with them and garner more support down the line.

Table of Contents

What is the Donor Journey?

Your donors are one of your most important assets. They provide you with the essential funding needed to continue your meaningful work and serve your community. It makes sense that you do everything you can to not only recruit donors but also retain them. This is where the donor journey begins.

Whether you’re working with a nonprofit, higher education institution, or other fundraising entity, the donor journey is a key resource that fundraising professionals leverage to better understand their supporters and secure funding for their organization. Each stage of the donor journey clues you in to how you can best engage with prospective donors and successfully receive that gift. 

Mapping out a donor journey provides the framework that tracks how and when your supporters give and communicate with you, as well as why they make the giving choices they do. Incorporate this into your nonprofit digital strategy and regular marketing efforts to guide how you interact with your supporters.

This can result in more completed donations or event registrations, and even increase the lifetime contribution of donors.

The Elements of the Donor Journey

What makes up the donor journey? This will differ depending on your organization and your supporters, but it will likely follow these elements regardless of your unique situation: Awareness, research, decision, appreciation, and repetition.

Here are the basic steps of the donor journey.

Donor Journey Step 1: Awareness

This is the very step of the donor journey. Whether it’s through your website, a post from a friend on social media, or just word of mouth, this is the moment that the prospect becomes aware of your organization and mission.

Without awareness, the donor journey never begins. How can you raise awareness and increase the chance of new supporters? Here are some tips:

  • Invest in optimizing your nonprofit website for SEO.
  • Create user personas to better understand the type of audiences discovering your organization.
  • Actively use your social media channels to give updates on your mission.
  • Update your website with recent accomplishments and major changes, as well as news stories and blog posts related to your mission.
  • Keep your content human-centric to appeal to new supporters.

Donor Journey Step 2: Research

Once someone is aware of the need for your mission, they’ll likely do further research to figure out if they want to support the cause and how they can support it.

This entire stage is about building trust. You need to give potential donors a reason to give to your organization and support your efforts.

First off, ensure your nonprofit website is optimized. After all, this is likely the first place a prospect is going to look when researching your cause. Your website should be regularly maintained and updated to hold valuable content on your mission and organization. You can:

  • Use success stories and infographics to relay accomplishments and important metrics quickly.
  • Show concrete metrics and give data to back up your claims.
  • Practice transparency by being honest about where your funds go and by being open to answering questions.
  • Compile and share an annual report that summarizes your yearly accomplishments and progress.
  • Include testimonials from other donors or from specific community members you help.

While being honest is a priority, try to focus on the value you bring to the community and stay away from “the bad.” Users are less likely to donate to sad stories.

Donor Journey Step 3: Decision

Now that the prospect is familiar with your organization and the work you do, they’ll show their intent in some way. This can be opting into email newsletters or following your social media accounts. They might even finalize their decision and make their first gift. 

To encourage prospects to take the leap and donate, consider the following:

  • Make your donation forms and page easy to find on your website. A website user’s attention span lies somewhere around eight seconds, so including a link to your donation page within your menu or with a bright button is key.
  • Ensure the target action is prominently displayed in all marketing content, including social media and email. Incorporate CTAs like large buttons and easy-to-find links that send prospects to your donation form.
  • Make recurring donations a primary option. Within your donation form, add a simple box that your supporters can check off if they want to give regularly. Making recurring donations a primary option encourages your donors to become consistent givers.
  • Show the value of suggested donation amounts. Sometimes it can be hard to contextualize how a gift will help an organization. List a couple of suggested amounts as well as the direct impact it has. For example, a $100 gift will pay for 10 meals at a local homeless shelter.
  • Design your website with an accessible user experience (UX) in mind. Ensure that your nonprofit website is accessible to all, no matter the location, language, ability, or device. This not only enhances the user experience but opens up your supporter base to more people. Learn more about this topic with our article on demystifying website accessibility compliance.

Donor Journey Step 4: Appreciation

Once the gift is made, this doesn’t mean the journey is over. In fact, this is the perfect opportunity to set the foundation for future engagement with a thank you letter and a summary of impact.

Showing donor appreciation is an integral part of the donor journey. Your supporters must know just how much their contribution has impacted your mission. The reason that many donors stop giving is often that they simply don’t know what their previous gift did.

Here’s what you can do:

  • Use your email solution to automate thank you messages to send as soon as a gift is made.
  • Take advantage of data automation to personalize each message with name and gift size.
  • If known, describe the specific impact the gift has made.
  • Include a “next step” in your letter, such as signing up for newsletters or reading about a success story.
  • Follow up once the campaign is fully completed and use data metrics to report on the full impact of the gift.
  • Add an option so that donors can share their contribution to social media, further spreading awareness of your mission.

Donor Journey Step 5: Repeatable

Ultimately, the final goal of recruiting new donors isn’t the gift itself. It’s the meaningful relationship established and its foundation for long-term support.

With the donor journey, you’ll be going through the same cycle over and over again. (However, that doesn’t mean you have to update your website or marketing materials—but it is a good idea to review them to ensure they are fully up-to-date.)

In order to continue donors on this journey, you’ll have to keep inspiring them with valuable messaging, update your website with the most recent accomplishments, and continue to build these important relationships.

Your relationship should be built on open communication—not a marketing initiative. Make sure to welcome feedback, share successes, alert to upcoming events online or off, and show appreciation at each step. 

How to Map Donor Journeys for Your Nonprofit

The donor journey for your own nonprofit will follow the basic elements above. But to understand the specifics, this will require some careful consideration and planning:

  • Define your key performance indicator (KPI) metrics. KPIs help you measure organizational success. However, this refers to more than just fundraising dollars. Website visits, email opens, and more can all be helpful KPIs to track. Make sure to also review benchmark data to see how other organizations similar to yours are measuring success.
  • Analyze your audience personas and the channels they use to interact with your organization. Many marketing leaders will use audience personas to better understand their supporters and create more targeted content and strategies to reach them. Consider the types of supporters your nonprofit has and the ways they engage with your organization. Do they often check out your website for new updates? Do you interact with them a lot on social media?
  • Isolate the aspects of your digital user journeys that apply to the donor journey model. In an increasingly digital world, the way people find out about your mission is primarily going to be online. Keep track of and isolate how your digital users engage with your offerings to help determine if you need a tech upgrade.
  • Review the elements of an effective donor journey and make note of any areas you might fall short. Do you find yourself lacking in the amount of researchable content on your website? Do you have a lot of supporter engagement but not an increase in gifts? Making note of these elements will give you a clue on the touchpoints you need to work on.
  • Look at your nonprofit database to see if there are any common areas where donors fell off the journey cycle. Similar to above, see if you can pinpoint the donor journey step where prospects typically fall off. This can also give you a clue into what improvements you can make to your recruitment and retention strategies.
  • Ensure your donor data is in alignment with your personas, metrics, and organizational goals. This will guide how you map your donor journey and if any elements need tweaking.
  • Revisit, refine, and retest often! Don’t just outline your donor journey and stop there. It’s critical that you continue to review and track how your supporters engage with your offerings and whether or not they give. Whether it’s due to new modern solutions or a global pandemic keeping everyone home, the donor journey is sure to change over time.

To accurately flesh out the donor journey and apply its insights to your own organization, turn to a nonprofit technology consultant, like Kanopi.

By working closely with a professional, you gain a better sense of not only how your supporters engage with your organization but also how you can take those findings and use them to improve outreach and retention strategies.

How Kanopi Can Help

We at Kanopi are a top partner for nonprofits, helping to develop over 150 active sites and start their digital transformation.

Our continuous improvement team works closely with your own organization to become fully familiar with your goals and supporter base. With thorough research and key insights into the larger nonprofit and web industry, Kanopi can help you map out a donor journey and:

  • Create user personas to determine your nonprofit audience and come up with an outreach strategy that best targets their needs.
  • Design your website with the donor journey in mind to ensure it is SEO-optimized and funnels prospects to your online donation page.
  • Analyze your content strategy for areas to optimize that journey.
  • Offer any insight as to the best ways your website can aid your donor journey.
  • Ensure your website is keeping up with accessibility and compliance guidelines.

Partner with us to start leveraging the donor journey for your own organization. We can help ensure your nonprofit marketing methods and website meet your needs and help you with your goals. Contact us here to learn more.

Storytelling is key to a successful brand

Posted on by allison

Great movies and books have an interesting plot with characters who evolve through the length of the story. Those stories capture the reader or viewer, engaging them on an emotional level as they get invested in the journey of the character.

But good stories aren’t relegated only to books or to movie creators. Your organization likely has some pretty interesting stories to tell; why it exists, who it serves, and how they are served. By writing your organization’s story and gaining an emotional connection with your audience, you can keep them engaged, and create excitement to tell others about you. The way you frame yourselves in the eyes of your audience can be a powerful thing!

At Kanopi, we think the most engaging websites use storytelling as much as possible. This is why with each project we map out our client’s audience segments in Customer Decision Journeys (CDJ), with the goal of determining the right, custom approach to push those audiences through each step of the story, eventually leading to whatever conversion is appropriate for your website. And beyond that, the ultimate goal is advocacy, where they become brand ambassadors for you and spread the word to their peers..

Start with the story. 

We are big fans of the book and methodology written by Donald Miller called “Building a StoryBrand” which outlines a simple storytelling framework that works if you apply it to most of the great stories in movies and literature:

A character who wants something encounters a problem before they can get it. At the peak of their despair, a guide steps into their lives, gives them a plan, and calls them to action. That action helps them avoid failure and ends in a success. [1]

But why limit it to entertainment? This framework can also help you to write your organization’s story! Kanopi workshops with our clients through this framework to support them as they write a compelling narrative to their audience. 

The below principles will define the areas above in bold. 

StoryBrand Principles [2]

  1. The customer is the hero, not your brand.
  2. What barriers/hurdles does your customer face to resolve? Define your hero’s three types of problems: Internal, External, and Philosophical.
  3. Companies tend to sell solutions to external problems, but customers buy solutions to internal problems. Identify the internal, external, and philosophical problem that needs solving. Define your offer.
  4. Customers aren’t looking for another hero; they’re looking for a guide. Establish yourself as the trusted guide. Identify and fill story gaps with your solves.
  5. Customers trust a guide who has a plan. Construct a visualized representation of your plan.
  6. Customers do not take action unless they are challenged to take action — what would happen if they do not work with you? Give them appropriate and easy ways to take the ‘next step.’
  7. Every human being is trying to avoid a tragic ending. Understand your “villains” and what would happen to the hero without you.
  8. Never assume people understand how your brand can change their lives. Tell them. Be clear with the actions to progress the hero.

Some of these principles have been historically known by marketers, but remembering #1 in particular helps to start the foundation of your messaging. Understanding how each of these principles applies to your business will help your organization become the perfect guide for your customers.

But personally, what I find extra insightful is identifying #3:

“Companies tend to sell solutions to external problems, but customers buy solutions to internal problems. Identify the internal, external and philosophical problem that needs solving.”

Breaking down the internal, external and philosophical problem is key. 

Let’s break this one down a bit further:

External problem:

Description: “In literature, a villain’s job is to wreak havoc on the hero, to place barriers between them and their desperate desire for stability. But ill intentions are not enough. Something, that is, some thing (or things) must represent this barrier.” [3]

This problem is really why your organization exists. What barriers do your customers experience? If you’re a cleaning service that only uses organic cleaning products, the external problem you fix is a dirty home. 

Internal problem:

  • Description: “In almost every story, the hero struggles with the same question “Do I have what it takes? This question can make them feel frustrated, incompetent, and confused. What stories teach us is that people’s internal desire to resolve a frustration is a greater motivator than their desire to solve the external problem.” [4]

Remember: customers buy solutions to internal problems. If you’re the organic house cleaning business, your customer’s internal problem could be embarrassment over a dirty home. They might not feel that they can have company over, lest they be judged for their housekeeping skills. 

Philosophical problem:

This is my favorite part: taking a stand against a larger issue within your industry!

  • Description: “The philosophical problem in a story is about something even larger than the story itself. It’s about the question why.”  [5]

Is there a larger purpose to which your brand contributes? A cleaner house make customers feel a certain way, and certainly they can feel good about using an organic cleaning service means they’ve cut down on chemicals and helped the environment.

To me, the internal / external / philosophical problem step is the most critical and exciting piece of the StoryBrand framework: if you can clearly identify — and clearly state for your customers — the internal, external and philosophical problem that needs solving, you are way ahead of most of your competition. 

Be the best guide you can be.

Think of all the greatest brands out there, and most of them are completely dialed in to their story. They know how they help their customers avoid obstacles, and ultimately succeed . . . with their brand helping guide them of course.  

At Kanopi, we love a strategic approach. Resources like StoryBrand expand our ability to help our clients’ and their websites reach their full potential. Connect with us to learn more about how we can help you be the best guide you can be.

[1], [3], [4], [5] Building a StoryBrand — Donald Miller

[2] Building a StoryBrand — Donald Miller, slightly adapted by Kanopi Studios

What is an Inclusive Content Strategy?

Posted on by allison

You’ve likely invested in your content strategy to some extent, and know it’s an important part of any good business. But the term ‘inclusive content strategy’ may not be something your organization has considered. Many value-driven organizations are overlooking this vital part of creating content that puts their audiences’ unique needs at the forefront. 

The Content Marketing Institute defines it this way: We define inclusive marketing as creating content that truly reflects the diverse communities that our companies serve. It means that we are elevating diverse voices and role models, decreasing cultural bias, and leading positive social change through thoughtful and respectful content.

What is Inclusion?

“Diversity is being invited to the party. Inclusion is being asked to dance.”

Verna Meyers, Public Speaker

Often Diversity and Inclusion are lumped together, or used interchangeably. But it’s important to make the distinction, especially when creating an Inclusive Content Strategy. 

  • Diversity: Refers to the vast array of human differences.
  • Inclusion: Refers to the intent of individuals or systems to actively include and support this vast array of differences.

In other words, diversity is the “what” and inclusion is the “how”. And, that’s exactly what we’re going to cover in this article: how you can create and implement an Inclusive Content Strategy.

Inclusive Language 

The foundation of an Inclusive Content Strategy is inclusive language. When we strive to understand the ways that language often unconsciously makes assumptions about people, we can work to increase inclusivity. There are many ways we unintentionally reinforce dominant norms (like language related to gender, sexual orientation, race, class, ability/disability, and age).

To really understand what it means to use inclusive language, it’s helpful to compare it to language that isn’t inclusive. 

Ableist Language

Ableist language is any word or phrase that devalues people who live with a disability. Though often inadvertent, ableist language suggests that people with disabilities are abnormal.

Inclusive content strategy takeaway:

  • Use “people with disabilities” instead of “the disabled”
  • Use “people living with HIV/AIDS” rather than “AIDS victims”
  • Use “people who use wheelchairs” rather than “wheelchair-bound” or “someone confined to a wheelchair.”
  • It’s become rather common to use descriptive words like “crazy,” “dumb,” or “retarded” in the workplace, Using “crazy” might seem harmless, but giving negative value to words like crazy or insane can marginalize people.
  • ADD, ADHD, and OCD are common terms that are misused and can be hurtful. Obsessive-compulsive disorder is a mental illness that means so much more than a knack for organization. It is an obstacle that some people live with every day. Use words like “clean” or “organized” instead.

Gendered Language 

Another aspect of inclusive language is being sure words are gender neutral. Use words that encompass all genders, rather than only two.

Inclusive content strategy takeaway:

Use gender neutral terms:

  • Nouns
  • Titles and names
  • Pronouns

Gendered words and their better alternatives:

  • Man the booth → Work the booth
  • Man Hours → Work hours
  • Freshman → First year student
  • Stewardess, Steward → Flight attendant
  • Man-made → artificial
  • Mother / Father → Parents
  • Waiter, Waitress → Server
  • Sissy → Coward
  • Forefathers → Ancestors
  • Mr. and Mrs. → Mx.

Racial Undertones

Our language is littered with symbolism of white as positive and black as negative. Let’s eliminate using the word “colored” when describing people, instead use “people of color,” which is a widely accepted umbrella term that includes any non-white person.

“Gypped” comes from the word “gypsy,” which refers to Romanian people who are often characterized unfairly as swindlers. 

“Ghetto”  is suspected to derive from an Italian slang term for waste, and dates back to the concentration camps of World War II. it also has been used to label the neighborhoods that marginalized communities were forced to inhabit due to social and economic disadvantage. Classism and racism come into the picture when you call a place, or a person “ghetto.”

Cultural racism in phrases like “culturally deprived,” “economically disadvantaged” and “underdeveloped” are other terms which warps the truth to and frames a sense of  superiority.

Inclusive content strategy takeaway:

Avoid negative or demeaning language:

These common phrases unfortunately have negative origins:

Privilege

There’s also a lot of hidden bias around the idea of privilege when it comes to our language

For example, we shouldn’t assume that all people have graduated from high school and/or gone to college (or will go to college after high school), and we should use language that keeps this in mind.

It’s also important to use language that does not assume a certain level of financial means or certain type of vocation. For example, we should not assume that everyone is presently employed, has a stable living situation, or can afford to meet their basic needs. Using phrases like “real job” and “honest living” can be problematic by perpetuating discriminating against certain sectors of the labor force.

Inclusive content strategy takeaway:

Consider areas of privilege when writing content:

  • Level of Education
  • Socio-Economics
  • English as a second language
    • Situational privilege 

Be mindful in your writing.

It’s unfortunate how many non-inclusive examples there are in our language that have snuck in over the decades, and we aren’t even aware of it! This is why it’s important to be mindful of what you write.

Want to learn more? I’ve created an entire presentation around inclusive content strategy. 

If you need help creating an Inclusive Content Strategy, we’re here! We’ve helped many organizations create accessible and inclusive websites. Reach out to us to start the conversation. 

Three Content Strategy Improvements You Can Make Today

Posted on by allison

We’ve all heard it: content is king. But anyone who’s tried to audit their content — much less get a full handle on it — has come to understand how big of a call that is. Your content makes you relatable to users as you guide them through their journey (with the goal of conversion) while also communicating the value of your content to search engines too. Your content needs to entice the new visitors that you want to attract, gently suggest to your non-target market that this content is not for them, all while delighting returning users again and again. It’s a lot! 

So, instead of taking on the word, or your content all at once, let’s look at the 3 content strategy improvements you can make now to optimize this incredible asset. 

“Success is making those who believed in you look brilliant.”

Hubspot

Define & Track Success

Until you know what it looks like for a user to convert, you’ll never celebrate an accurate conversion rate. Define your macro and micro conversions. What do you want your readers to do with your content? Is there a form you want them to fill out, or a way you want them to engage?

To continue winning the internet marketing game, your content has to be more than just brilliant — it has to give the people consuming that content the ability to become a better version of themselves.”

Michelle StinsonRoss, Managing Director of Marketing Operations, Apogee Results on Hubspot

The key to all content marketing is to make the end-user the protagonist — the hero of their own story. Before they can strap on that cape and tights they need a goal, which is  that point when they convert. Clearly define what your users need to do to be their own hero. Some common conversions are:

  • contact form submitted
  • donation made
  • chat engagement
  • responded to an ad or social media engagement
  • download gated content
  • video watched to completion
  • blog article read to completion

Once that’s done, track it. Utilize Google Analytics’ goals, events, and functions. Build funnels and review the behavioral flow. See where users are coming from, and where they are going. If you have the option, optimize a tool like SEM Rush to see how your search engine rankings for keywords and phrases measure up to your competition. Set yourself up for success to not only say your users are making a difference, but to demonstrate how well you’ve accomplished this. 

Navigation

Ok great work! You now know what success looks like. Time to break out the map to get them there. I know, we don’t typically envision Superman stopping up in the clouds, pulling out his phone and looking up an address on Google Maps, but our heroes need a bit more help than he does. Simply put, your navigation is there to help the user along their journey from point A to point B. So… how clear are your pathways? 

Often, even the best-maintained sites suffer from sprawl; content is added in a hurry and different teams are updating all the information as regularly as possible. The problem is, over time this can blur the steps a user will take to get where they’re going. Navigation dropdowns can collect 10 or more links and users are so overwhelmed with choices they often just click anything, which isn’t the best way to move them towards their goal. So let’s break down a few basic rules to apply to your navigation:

  • Try to keep it limited to about 4-5 options per navigation: this includes your main nav, your hero nav, and each dropdown. Perhaps the only exception would be your footer, but even then, each column should only include 4-5 options. Make it easy for your users. Either a path will lead them to your goal or it won’t. 
  • Use clear language: you don’t have long before an end-user gets frustrated and clicks anything (including the back button). Make the language consists and representative of the page. And remember: if your menu items are outputting your properly formatted page titles, these menu links will also be what shows up on search engine result pages,helping your hero get to you as well as move within your site. 
  • Make sure it’s accessible: this isn’t only for the 20% of self-identified disabled users out there, this is for everyone. From a poor internet connection to a cracked phone screen to a user who hasn’t had their coffee yet and is prone to ‘fat fingering it’ (The Thing was a hero too!) accessible menus make it easier for everyone.

Engaging Calls to Action (CTA)

“A strong CTA is far more than a combination of words that hopefully compels people to click on a button — it’s a powerful statement of intent, a rallying cry to our tribe, the crescendo of a rousing speech that leaves the audience exhilarated, clenched fists raised triumphantly to the sky. Well, that’s the idea, anyway.”

Dan Shewan, Wordstream

What if Commissioner Gordon never called Batman on his red phone, or the random person never yelled help as they point to the villain descending? The hero would never know where they were needed next. Your CTAs are the same thing: they show your user, the hero, where to go next to accomplish their goal. 

Make them clear. 
Make them engaging. 
Direct to the next step.

And for accessibility purposes, don’t be vague. “Click here” doesn’t give tell a screen reader what the user will gain by clicking. Use words and directions that tell assistive technologies what clicking will accomplish. 

A few great CTAs include:

  • Get involved today!
  • Make a difference in someone’s life.
  • Start the conversation.
  • Tell us what you think.

There is a lot more you can do with your content, but these are three critical steps you can take right now to make an impactful difference that will add value to your site. Think about it: you know your user, your company, and your goals. You’re already in the best possible position to help your users do more than visit your website, you’re empowered to make them the hero. Start with these three steps and verify how they are working. And if something isn’t working, just adjust and try again. 

If at any point this starts to feel overwhelming, and we get it, you’ve already got a lot on your plate, just drop us a note and we’ll talk it through content strategy improvements. You’re the hero of our story and we’re happy to write that together.