Gerry McGovern’s gems of the day By Marisa | December 8th, 2005
My apologies to Gerry if I have misquoted anything and please don’t be angry that I am spreading your gospel truth all over the internet. I hope this links helps in some small way:Choose Gerry McGovern for all your Content Management needs.
Quote of the day:
“The hippie period of the web is over.”
Infrastructure and Architecture are givens. But it’s CONTENT that wins you the game. The way you structure your headings, your Gallery pages, the graphics, the combination
If commerce is selling with people, e-commerce is selling with CONTENT.
Aside: (I love listening to Gerry McGovern, the combination of the sexy Irish accent and the passion in his voice is so charming!)
It is words that move you through the space. You search using words, you click on words. All our websites schould drive a task, and the words are your primary vehicle.
You’re not going to innovate with architecture because a huge element of web architecture is navigation.
People browsing your website don’t really care about innovation. Be very careful about innovation with architecture (example of changing red to mean go and green to mean stop in stoplights - may be innovative but lands people in the hospital.)
What should the words be in the navigation??
There’s a changing of the guard in IT as well.
Peter Drucker(?) said,
“We’ve spent the last 50 years focusing on the T in IT. We’ll spend the next 50 years focusing on the I.”
The CIO is becoming the Vice President of Electricity or Wagon Wheel Manufacturer - outdated and unnecessary.
70% of websites are in the situation where … most people involved in the website are the “putter-upper”. There is not much future for the putter-upper. Some content has tremendous value. But most of it has little or no value. Killer web content vs. filler web value - the filler not only adds no value, it smothers the killer content’s valoue.
A large website is no achievement. A 50,000 page website is something you should admit at an AA meeting.
Be a leader. Refuse to put up worthless content.
Do not be the putter-upper.
Don’t be the busy bee. Anybody can be busy. It’s easy to be busy. Look at me, I’m lifting bricks, I’m plowing a big field, I’m really busy. I put up 50 documents today. Look at all the applications we have. Come off it!
Spend as much time compiling your “not to do” list as you do your “to do” list.
It takes leadership, it takes management to identify the parts of your website that is not delivering value and take them down, or refuse to put them up in the first place.
Stop being busy and start looking at value and productivity.
Publish the website you can professionally manage. There is no reward in saying, I’ve got 5,000 page website and a staff of 3.
Great editors spend most of their time out with their audience.
There is nothing in your job more important than a deep understanding of your customer and how they behave.
How do you develop a nose for your customer? By being out there with them.
Web teams lock themselves away. It’s very easy to forget that real human beings visit your website.
The one word that describes people on the web, in 35 countries, is IMPATIENT. You must understand their desire to move through the website as quickly as possible.
The customer could not care less about your organization. The customer is selfish. There are common human characteristics. There are things we share. One of the things is that when we are on the web, we are cheap. We want a deal. We are impatient.
Most people look at the first couple of words and only read on if those words draw them in.
When you get the meaning into the beginning of the sentence, not your company name, you get higher click-thrus.
LEAD WITH THE NEED
Get the meaning into the beginning of the sentence. Never your company name. Not your product name.
Simplicity: the double-edged sword. To achieve simplicity, you have to hide complexity. Google. Their homepage has not changed since 1998.
Keeping that page that simple has required an awful lot of effort and work on the part of one person: Marissa Meyer. It is her job to say no to everything that wants to get onto that homepage.
What are the three key tasks on your site? Move the other 30 or 40 tasks to the background.
Piling everything on: it does - not - work!
There is a certain type of content - the killer web content - the content that really drives value for your organization.
Repeat the mantra: WE ARE NOT THE CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE. THE CUSTOMER IS THE CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE.
Stop showing off. Your customer does not care.
The most powerful word in the english language is YOU.
Don’t be a putter-upper. Be a commissioner. Be a manager. Be a leader.
Don’t react to content. Commission content.
Don’t wait for content. Create content.
Be Marissa Meyer - the manager of google’s homepage. Put somebody in charge, with genuine authority.
There are 50 ways to say no.
A good editor or web manager has 50 ways to say no to content.
If the writers are running the publishing company, the lunatics are running the asylum.
Provide the right content to the right person at the right time at the right cost.
From data storage - to content management - to web publishing
This a challenge and an exciting challenge.
6 C’s of content management
6 key skills you need to have in your toolbox
- Care. Who cares and what do they care about? Relentlessly focus on what your customer cares about. What you customer cares about is often different from what you care about.
- Compelling. How do you make it compelling?
- Clear. Get rid of the marketing gobbledygook! Call it menswear or womenswear. especially in your navigation. Clarity of language.
- Complete. Task completion. Focus not on bringing the customer to your site, focus on helping them complete their task on your site.
- Concise. Remember the Gettysburg Address.
- Correct. The pricing, the promises, not leading people down wrong paths.
Other little gems from the Q&A session:
Personas are great, but use no more than 2 or 3 main personas, and they are born when you launch but thtey mus t be nurtured and loved so they can grow up.
Imagery is nice but if there’s no text-based action item associated with it, it’s useless.
Move from the marketing perspective of “getting attention” to the web perspective of “giving attention”. The Flash intro is an example of the getting attention. Waving and shouting at your customer. 99% of people will “skip intro”. Focus on giving the people the facts, what they need. Stop shouting at them.
You can be sure I’ll be attending tomorrow’s seminar. Gerry McGovern is a Content Management God. If you aren’t a member of Marketingprofs, get out your wallet and go become one now so you can get all this juicy Gerry McGovern goodness for a laughably low amount of money. That sexy irish accent alone is worth it.
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