Case Study: Ebay
Confab
4:30 pm, May 9
Nikki Tiedtke, EU Senior Content Strategist | ebay GmbH
Lucie Hyde, Head of Content Mgmt & Strategy - eBay Europe
Notes by @brianjameskirk, @technicallym
All notes for the conference available here:
http://simp.ly/publish/5GMHGD
1. Need for Content Strategy
2. Business seller communication
3. Key learnings: implementing a content strategy
4. from chaos to content strategy
5. Where are we now?
6. Examples of deliverables: process: workflows and roles diagram; quality management; brand opportunity and communication strategy; messaging hierarchy and information architecture; user research and logfile analysis; briefing and content templates; editorial style guide
1. Need for content strategy
- Create copy for 12 websites in 7 lanagues for different formats, channels
- 25 people, 11 teams, 5 countries
- No clear editorial process and planning, roles, methods or tools
2. Topics: new selling formats and tools, managing inventory, policy changes
Objectives: create customer-friendly comms that drive awareness, build trust with users
3. Learnings: identify internal needs, identify user needs, resolve conflicting interests; constantly test and refine process
4. Chaos to CS: Siloed teams, unclear roles and responsibilities; no editorial process; no training; no tools and templates, no no editorial guidelines;
Solutions:
1. Build strong relationships between teams and identified internal and external needs
2. Defined editorial roles, responsibilities, process, project plan, methods, tools
3. Tested CS for one publishing cycle, refined it, used it again, refined it
4. Created editorial guidelines and quality standards based on brand objectives, usability standards ad user needs
5. Implemented editorial guidelines by training 60 stakeholders
6. Defined and implemented a qualiy management process for documenting, measuring and sustaining the content quality of content strategy and editorial copy
7. Implement this approach in more Euro teams and likely globally
TIMELINE
2010
Building relationships, 6-7 months
Testing, 3 mo, 3 mo, 3 mo
Regular market user research, 12 mo
Editorial guidelines, 3 mo, refine, 3 mo
style guide 6 mo, trainings 3 mo
Defined quality standards, 6 mo
2011
Refined process and strategy, 6 mo, already seems like its working smoother
In process of implementing quality management process, team went from 1 person to 4 people, and dedicated content strategist that takes ownership
Update editorial guidelines, 4 mos
Offer trainings across marking and communication, 8 mo
Develop global content strategy framework, 8 mo
WHERE ARE WE NOW?
Deliverables: roles responsibility docs, publishing content project plan, etc etc etc
Identified teams who were creating content, identified high level business goals;
After implemting CS, positive feedback increased, negative feedack decreased
Notes by @brianjameskirk, @technicallym
All notes for the conference available here:
http://simp.ly/publish/5GMHGD