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01: MarketDial
September 2022 to January 2023
UX Writer
Interviewed leadership, product, and sales teams and wrote the copy and microcopy for entire website revision,
including home page, product pages, industry pages, about us, and resources landing page.
The problem
The original website was a hodge podge of pieced-together pages from MarketDial's start-up roots. The language was very technical and text heavy, geared primarily towards an audience of data analysts familiar with our competitor.
The goal
Make the website user friendly, simplifying content to make it easy to understand what MarketDial does and how in-store A/B testing can support retailers. Reach both audiences who are familiar with testing software solutions along with those retailers new to the testing process, while concurrently speaking to more experienced users who may be looking to advance their processes and governance models.
Research summary
The research was two-pronged. First, we had our design firm conduct usability studies with clients to determine how the website could better support them. Second, I interviewed internal teams to help write brand guidelines and understand personas and product. Each team provided crucial information. The leadership team guided the development of voice and tone. The most informative question I asked ended up being, "If MarketDial was a celebrity or fictional character, who would they be?" The responses ranged from Q in James Bond to Bill Nye the science guy, but they enabled me to see how the company aims for serious science mixed with personable support.
I utilized Jamboard to record responses, then I organized the responses by themes and was able to generate brand guidelines and messaging centered around the primary themes.
The sales team was crucial in helping us understand each persona we were marketing to and the challenges we were facing in appealing to both the primary user and the primary decision makers, who often are not the same people. We needed to create a website that could prove our software is intuitive and robust enough to handle the users' needs while also providing clarity for the decision makers on how this will increase their return on investment.
Lastly, product interviews were collaborative, working together to figure out ways to present the product to potential buyers without getting too far into the weeds of how it works. We wanted visuals and language that could help users see the usefulness of the tool without distancing users with overly-technical language.
Small Title
Before
After
The process
The design team worked alongside us to create the sitemap. They then provided me with a master document for each required page. I generated a chart that would allow me to organize the content hierarchically for each section of each page, and I would write and submit my content in this format, enabling other relevant team members to easily edit or approve content before handing it over to design.
"I had the pleasure of working with Annie on a recent large web project, and I can confidently say that she was a critical component of our team’s success. Annie went above and beyond to understand exactly what we needed from the project and helped us be as efficient as possible with our deliverables. Her content writing was exceptional and brought our designs to life in a way that exceeded our expectations. She is a talented and dedicated professional who consistently produces high-quality work. Her ability to understand the team’s needs and bring their vision to life is truly exceptional."
Amber Sawaya, Anchor & Alpine
Before
After
One of the primary changes we implemented was amping up social proof. We secured permissions from vendors to use both logos and quotes, adding color and validity to our home page.
The results
The industry pages on the former website were primarily repetitive, saying the same thing for each industry. We worked to personalize the page for each industry, including case studies specific to that vertical.
Before
After
None of the resources had been optimized for search engines (SEO). I standardized the content according to the style guidelines I had created based on leadership interviews, then I selected key words and optimized all the content in WordPress.
Key takeaways
The most challenging part of this was to know when to collaborate and when to stay in my own lane. The team on this was huge. We had internal designers and external designers. It involved leadership approval, sales guidance, and product support. Coordinating all the moving pieces while not stepping on toes was not the easiest endeavor. But ultimately we were able to find a space where each contributor could listen to the input of others and then take the lead in implementing their specific expertise. By the end, everyone felt proud of their contributions and the final product.
However, the true measure of success isn't team satisfaction, it's conversions. Our largest potential client to date did discover us organically, though we are still working on getting them through the rest of the sales pipeline. We have also found value in continued A/B testing online to ensure our messaging is resonating with the most relevant audience and is adapting to market shifts at the speed of business.