the branded biography

The Branded BiographyStrategies for Biographies that Sell, Sell, Sell

September 19th, 2012

what you will learn:

how to “think” like a portal or minisite ideal organizational strategies best practices for effective formats:

preview what it’s like to work with you inspirational content great photography: how to achieve it,

sustain it and use it the rules for great video… and what never

to do

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to think like a portal, understand how great sites are designed

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the thelma and louise effect(pennywise and pound foolish)

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homepage

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interior pages

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beyond the homepage, all creativity disappears and the

“template” takes over.why? $$$

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the mall analogy

failing to think like a portal, being hostage to template

stunts marketing effectiveness: thought leadership is buried

in a news archive

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failing to think like a portal, being hostage to template

stunts marketing effectiveness:office pages offer directions,

not a reason to buy

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failing to think like a portal, being hostage to template

stunts marketing effectiveness:biographies have no clear goals

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yet biographies are the most visited pages on your site. so why the great homepage

followed by the high school resume?

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to think like a portal, understand the goals of each destination page

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what’s the goal of a biography? to be important, confident, a leader preview what it’s like to work with you establish expertise encourage a call to action

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Finding

Expertise

Choosing

Intellectual Expertise

when people look for services…

Emotional Comfort Comfort

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Finding

Expertise

Choosing

Intellectual Expertise

Emotional ComfortComfort

Finding Choosing

Intellectual

Emotional

when people decide to buy…

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before we tackle expertise, let’s talk heart to heart

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emotion governs all our behavior, driving our unconscious reactions,but also determining what becomesconscious!

LESSON FOUR: DECIDE

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before we can pay attention, we must attract attention.

LESSON FOUR: DECIDE

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“Since emotion plays a key role in directing our attention, the task of the ad is to evoke emotion in us.”

Edward du Plessis, The Advertised Mind

LESSON FOUR: DECIDE

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“Affective content drives advertising effectiveness and our ‘thinking’ merely supports a decision that may already have been made.”

Tim Ambler, Memory-Affect-Cognition

LESSON FOUR: DECIDE

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“Liking an ad is much more predictive of its success than any other factor.”

Low Attention Processing

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Emotional factors account for a significant and substantial portion of the variance in perceived risk even after the effect of rational factors (perceived differences between alternatives) has been taken into account.

—A study of reason and emotion in products and services, Journal of Consumer Behavior

LESSON ONE: REACT

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design strategy does not work out on the margins; it works at the core!

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we’ve talked about the role of emotionbut not how to engage it;

but first let’s talk about expertiseand how to prove it

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what’s the goal of a biography? to be important, confident, a leader preview what it’s like to work with you establish expertise encourage a call to action

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nobody reads first. they scan.quick, you’ve got three seconds,

what’s your takeaway?

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preview what it’s like to work with you

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give them a voice with a quote

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the challenge of getting quotes

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alternative to the voice of the lawyer

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the voice of authority

the voice of the client

be important, confident and a leader

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invert the typical picture to text ratio:the individual is the star

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LESSON ONE: REACT

“a picture is worth a thousand words.”

Fred Barnard, Printers’ Ink 1918

“the memory of a picture is stronger than the memory of a word describing the same object.”

How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School,

National Research Council, 1999

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what’s the goal of a biography? to be important, confident, a leader preview what it’s like to work with you establish expertise encourage a call to action

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sidebar

inline

illustrated practices

organizational strategiesfor delivering experience

(that rhymes with “expertise”)

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tabs“first they wouldn’t scroll,

now they won’t click”(i.e., to another page)

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widgets and sidebars“first they wouldn’t scroll,

now they won’t click”(i.e., to another page)

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the challenge of building a bio page for all attorneys

so the associate doesn’t look bad*

*good design can be said to be not much more than common courtesy visualized

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what goes in the middle; what can be hidden and what should be

displayed ALL the time

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ideal length: setting limitsthe wisdom of <more>

or <view all>

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creative writing

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use headlines, not labels

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oh, yeah, SEO.

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1. identify keywords2. write headlines with keywords3. write keyword rich copy—first 25 words4. build links to rank higher

optimizing your biographies(it’s a minisite, right?)

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give them a voice with video

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LESSON ONE: REACT

video

47%

53%

average length

2.85 minutes

inline

75%

25%

average load time

10:28 seconds

click to play?

93% 7%

on bio page?*

0% 100%

YESNO

DOES THE WEBSITE HAVE

FEATURES OF AMLAW 100 FIRMSVIDEO

*Careers, 45%, About Us, 13%, Practices, 2%, Elsewhere, 40%

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and it’s not just for the young

Gen Y (18 – 32 yr. olds) has the highest percentage using the web to watch video

but the same percentage of Gen X do so almost half of young boomers watch

video online

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Americans move briskly to online video 100M Americans watch online video daily, up

43% since 2010 (source: comScore) average view length is up from 5 minutes to 5.8

minutes video ad volume up 20% to 7.1B served 30% of Internet traffic is video

… in other words, video is now part of marketing

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1. unearth a driving concept2. connect left brain to right3. brevity is a common courtesy4. be authentic, but practice, practice … 5. create and maintain a firm style6. lousy video undermines your authority

but not just any video…

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what’s the goal of a video? to be important, confident, a leader preview what it’s like to work with you establish expertise encourage a call to action

bottom line: the humanization of the technical expert

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turn attorney profiles into viewpoints

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invest in video case studies

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get your clients to share their ideas

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photography must be central to your design, not a stamp on the envelope

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1. have a creative style2. develop consistent art direction3. have a plan to sustain the style (economical and scalable)

but not just any photography…

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what’s the goal of a biography? to be important, confident, a leader preview what it’s like to work with you establish expertise encourage a call to action

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now imagine there is a set of best practices for every single page of your website…

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“I’m superficial, but I’m deeply superficial.” Andy Warhol

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questions?

www.greenfieldbelser.com

burkeyb@gbltd.comgbmarketing@gbltd.com

202.775.0333

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