eBay Content Strategy Applied 2014

Editor's Notes

• #2: Matt Hobbs, Content Strategy Lead at National Builder Supply down in Atlanta, GA. National Builder Supply is… Before NBS, spent time working for a digital agency in Midtown Atlanta, doing research (technographics, user behavior trends, etc), SEO oversight, channel strategy for a major web builds and campaigns.
• #3: Title slide – big picture of blue oyster cult and a broom (plug how I like musical puns – musical improviser)
• #4: This is what happens when a UX / Content strategy guy gets involved with revamping a database driven catalog – this is just a different way of thinking when it comes to managing content – but a crucial one! Because you can’t let developers run this shit. That’s how we started. This year was a lot of time working with them to retroactively make this work. A pain, as you could imagine.
• #5: 100,000 SKUs from more than 80 manufacturers It’ll be ok – they’ll provide content and product data. it’ll be easy! They even have videos (which they’re super proud of). It’s like asking your cousins, aunts, and uncles help you come build a house. Each can help with a few tasks, but you ALWAYS end up having to sweep through after them and make it better. Sure they helped you put together each room, but if each room turns out completely different – that’s a loss
• #9: Search engines put a lot of emphasis on nesting of ideas and hierarchy Assign products/articles anything to a node in a primary path.
• #12: Google loves product pages – when was the last time you searched for a product and saw an amazon result set? It was a product page. Google PLAs? Product pages (better data here helps them too) Maybe poll the audience – how many people just go straight to amazon or ecommerce site to search for products? (and not start with google or bing?)
• #13: Product pages are primary landing pages for the bulk of our paid channels, organic search channels, and direct links.
• #16: Price, image, availability – two of three most important pieces of content are controlled programmatically
• #18: Dynamic content that changes a lot – user generated. Do I even need this slide? – not relevant to catalog
• #19: Price, image, availability – two of three most important pieces of content are controlled programmatically
• #20: They’re managed by databases. And require programmatic updates. Maybe a – wait a minute matt (a la morgan freeman slide – all these are managed by databases? A little different animal than writing articles?)
• #21: OREOS! They’re managed by databases. And require programmatic updates. Maybe a – wait a minute matt (a la morgan freeman slide – all these are managed by databases? A little different animal than writing articles?)
• #23: strauss
• #24: Our old system: give us everything – we want any and all data about products Result: noisy product information and noisy navigation for filtering result sets (database-driven navigation)
• #25: Our old system: give us everything – we want any and all data about products Result: noisy product information and noisy navigation for filtering result sets (database-driven navigation)
• #26: We used to call them “questions” or “Facets” – they still are that, but we needed to align them moreso with our organization’s service focus Result: what matters to customers Examples! Also – gets rid of noise and bullshit – like light bulbs for faucets, etc Human benefits – focus on pro and non pro audience Search crawlers, seo
• #27: EVERYTHING THAT’s HERE is here for a reason – no more haphazard stuff Also needs to have an image, etc Not all of these are navigable
• #29: Also search volume
• #30: HDF Section Step 1 – take an example product category Step 2 – list out a bunch of possible descriptors / data points Step 3 – classify each one direction by audience as “pro-worthy” “retail-worthy” “Universal” or “wtf” – where we validate our decisions – inputs include what data points do pretty much all manufacturers give us? (if everyone provides it, it might be important) what do our competitors use? What do our customers (pro and retail) ask for on the telephone – example – 1 piece vs 2 piece toilets is ALWAYS step one in helping a customer whittle down a decision. Step 4 – classify each another direction by navigable or non-navigable GOAL: we’re a service focused organization – my area is technology tools – to replicate the service and logical thought processes our trained product experts give customers on the telephone. Other notes: setting conventions to follow – measurements… length is always left to right, etc – mention phase three – extra boxes like Best Buy or tool tips like Build.com
• #31: Database developers: cleaner parameters for which data is required (easier automation) Customers: they don’t have to sift through nonsense to find their personal HDFs Manufacturers: easier to anticipate our data and content needs
• #32: Our new system: Human Decision Factors (HDFs) Added benefit – because we didn’t have to look through all facets for each category, page load times dropped, organic search indexing rise. SCORE! Show graph.
• #34: New products, discontinues, updates, we find a way to layer on new hdfs to sell widgets better as we learn more about customer preferences (how can we make their lives easier) – plus adding new brands
• #35: Finding a lot of opportunities, waiting forever for nothing, ugly navigation. And that guy is me (the product owner) and the customer. We
• #36: Our new system: Cat Man User interface for non-developers Rolling out hot night
• #37: Our new system: Cat Man User interface for non-developers Rolling out hot night
• #40: Why elkay? A main brand of ours, TONs of other etailers have the same copy and don’t do much extra to sell them, a popular brand. So based on REVENUE impact to our organization, we move on elkay because we think we can win. Covering ground for 6000 products – same elkay blurb for every water fountain – present on every other ecommerce site…
• #41: That’s why categorization is key – you rely on that system to prgrammatically bucket out how to write this stuff
• #42: Use this when writing those marketing copy blurbs – of there’s more to explain… (next slide) for supporting buyer guide content
• #43: Buyer Guides for customers Appropriate for each audience – some customers need to understand the difference between a widespread or centerset faucet – a plumber however doesn’t have much interest in reading about what makes pvc different from cpvc and when it’s used… he already knows. And just wants to see your price.
• #44: Training guides for sales and support teams Example – rough plumbing 101 guide Taking a team of people who knew enough about finish plumbing (most people know what a faucet is) – and making them plumbing supplies experts? How we learned – trips to warehouse, walking aisles at home depot (believe it or not)
• #45: And then – less buyer guide explaination articles and more open topics But THEN – if you have the products in the catalog and the audience there, why not try to make worlds collide? “Uses for pvc” article – we sell that shit! Social media currency, etc
• #47: Also Pinterest trends? These insights are huge – also google adwords keyword planner toolsfor general keyword trends – align with topics your users are demanding content about