Post on 19-Jul-2018
Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance? How IBM’s digital marketing leaders drove change and optimized website usability
Marjorie J. Madfis, Worldwide Editor, IBM Software home page
Daniel Burstein, Director of Editorial Content, MECLABS
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Presenters
Daniel Burstein, Director of Editorial Content, MECLABS, @DanielBurstein
Marjorie J. Madfis, Worldwide Editor, IBM Software home page, @marjorie_m
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CEO
Software Systems Services
Lotus Tivoli Websphere Rational Information Mgt
Consulting
Corp
Marketng
Web lead Web lead Web lead Wweb lead Web lead
Marketing
Marketing
Marketing
Social Media
Software Mkt
Me
The corporate landscape
1. Corporate marketing strategy • Smarter Planet • IBMers as experts
2. Software marketing strategy • Capabilities and acquisitions
3. Business unit (“brands”) marketing • Leads and revenue
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IBM Software – evolution from “brands” to “capabilities”
Awareness
Consideration
Preference
Action
Loyalty
Before 2010 2010 and forward
Software capabilities
Product families •Business Analytics •Enterprise Content Management •Information Management •Lotus •Rational •Tivoli •WebSphere
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1.Understand the business Who is my stakeholder? What are the business goals?
2.Understand the customer Who are they? What are their goals? What to they want, like, dislike?
3.Identify goals for the design Use words, simple pictures, and wire-frames; get agreement.
4.Design & evaluate …with customers, re-design, evaluate with customers, re-design…
Driving change through research
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Design A:
"Very soon, people will be searching
not for content, but for experts– not
just anyone who has the time to blog
or tweet, but people who actually
know what they’re talking about." Jon Iwata, IBM Sr. VP Marketing
2009 speech
Control
Design A
Design B
Experts: Business mission matches visitor desire
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What we learned
Findings
Navigation : Mega menu
CHQ Too many choices
Navigation: Tabs
SWG Larger size, distinctly separated
Experts CHQ
SWG
Larger, easy to see how to connect
Offers B U Registrations on deeper pages
Communities SWG Interest in engaging with peers
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Japan
Poland
Flexible design still meets objectives Deployed in 60 countries: local language, local experts, local content
Variations:
Length of copy
Number of experts
Communities
Twitter feed
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Research Steps 1. Understand business priorities
– Interviews with 8 executives
2. Understand Geo Web marketing requirements and priorities
– Online survey of IBM country Software home page owners
3. Identify current visitor goals – Intercept pop question link on 8 country SWHPs to poll visitors
about their current goals for visit to the page
4. Identify prospect/customer requirements and priorities – Online UserZoom study with N=291 end user prospects (Worldwide)
5. Evaluate 3 designs– Customer reactions to initial designs – One on one, 90-minute phone sessions, usability study
6. Live “A/B” evaluation with 2 designs and current page – Determine winner – Then, iterate to optimize the design
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Resources
“Website Testing: Research and testing leads to new IBM Software Group homepage, 23% increase in demos” http://www.marketingsherpa.com/sample.cfm?ident=32009
Landing Page Optimization: Goodbye stock photos and Happy Man, hello social media
http://sherpablog.marketingsherpa.com/website-and-landing-page-design/lpo-photo-social-media/
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Connect
• Web: www.ibm.com/software
• Email: madfis@us.ibm.com
• Twitter: marjorie_m
• Linked In: Marjorie Madfis
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