Merchandising Your Content: Inspirations from the Retail World

Jen Bullett

The Idea Behind Content Merchandising

+Hello My Name Is

Julie Smith

In-Store Marketer

Shelves are crammed full of products

Websites are crammed full of content

Products compete for attention

Attorney/practices compete for attention

Every product thinks it’s the best

No comment

Product Development is costly

Content Development is costly

Get the right eyeballs in front of the right products and drive selection

Get the right eyeballs in front of the right content to drive selection

The Goal is the Same

Improve content ROI through better audience engagement, new cross-sell opportunities and the possibility of incremental sales

Key Takeaway for Today

Principles from Merchandising

In-Store Product Positioning

• Departmental• Vertical• Product• Cross-aisle

Departmental “Head to Toe” Look

Vertical “Category” Expert

Strategic Product Grouping

Cross-Aisle Promotions

Cross-Aisle Promotions

A case in point is the combination of chips and soft drinks. When displayed across from one another, soft drink sales increased up to nine percent while chips remained the same.

http://www.retailwire.com/discussion/14773/study-cross-merchandising-drives-sales Texas A & M Study

Cross-Aisle: Slightly Disturbing

The most surprising cross-merchandising result came from the successful placement of disposable

diapers near beer and wine

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Visual Merchandising

• Pyramids

• Odd Numbers

• Storytelling

• Colorization

• Focus

Pyramids Bring Eyes Up then Down

Pyramids Bring Eyes Up then Down

Odd Numbers Keeps Things Balanced

5 Olympic

Rings

3 Pharrell Fragrances

Odd Numbers Keeps Things Balanced

Storytelling Improves Engagement

Colorization Visually Unites

Colorization Visually Unites

Focal Point Highlights One Piece

Focal Point Highlights One Piece

Takeaways For You

1. Use visuals to make your content more interesting and engaging?

2. Present your content with an eye towards optimize cross-promotion, repurpose in new context and drive selection/action?

Head To Toe LookTheme Section of

Website

Le Creuset “Experts”

Vertical Emails

Interesting Product Groupings

Fresh Ways to Present Content

Compelling StorytellingContent

Packaging

A Very Clear Focus

AbsoluteFocus

Intriguing Use of ColorSimple Color Cues

Typical Search

Use Storytelling to Show Content

Experts in Local Neighborhoods

Present In Engaging Fashion

Use Channels to Focus on Content

Exercise (5 minutes)

1. Make a list of content you’ve recently created

2. Are there new/better/different ways to present that content?

3. Could you make it more visually appealing or engaging?

Present Head to Toe “Look”

Present Head to Toe “Look”

“Vertical” Expertise

“Vertical” Expertise

Focus on What Differentiates

Focus on What Differentiates

Use “Themes” & Solutions

Use “Themes” & Solutions

Cross-Promote Content

Cross-Promote Content

Compelling Storytelling “Hook”

Compelling Storytelling “Hook”

Compelling Storytelling “Hook”

Attention-Grabbing Visuals

Attention-Grabbing Visuals

Attention-Grabbing Visuals

Content “Packaging”

Content “Packaging”

Content “Packaging”

Content “Packaging”

Exercise--Group

1. What merchandising principles do you think are most applicable to law firms?

2. Share one of the pieces of content you identified earlier and brainstorm how you could make it more visually appealing or position it differently?

3. As a team, come up with one cool content merchandising “big” idea you would love to see a firm implement?

Take a few risks

Be smart

Test it out

Have some fun

Thank You &Questions

jbullett@onenorth.com@jbullett