How Content Helped Us Scale
- 1. Content, Scaling and Small Budgets Ida Aalen (@idaAa) CPO & Co-founder
- 3. But first, we need to travel back in time. March, 2020 The remote-friendly startup Confrere is meeting for their quarterly off-site in Oslo.
- 4. We hadn’t met in a long time!
- 5. At first it was just business as usual…
- 6. Bad weather
- 7. Good food
- 8. …War room?
- 11. Our off-site begins Doctors asked to use video immediately Norway goes into lockdown
- 12. Feb-02 Feb-09 Feb-16 Feb-23 Mar-01 Mar-08 Mar-15 Mar-22 Mar-29 Weekly a!ive users x10
- 14. In March 2020, 96% of the video consultations done in Norway were done via Confrere.
- 18. How The Heck Did We Get Here
- 19. September, 2018 The little video calling startup Confrere has decided on focusing on physicians.
- 23. A Tiny Budget…
- 25. CEO Full-stack Part-time Design Frontend CTO / Backend CPO / UX Sales CMO / Content Backend Part-time
- 26. We had a product to build!
- 27. Nobody was working solely with our website. How could we make room for a well-founded content strategy for our website?
- 28. Do the research when you’re there anyway
- 32. We visited more than 10% of the do!ors offices in Norway (!)
- 41. How we learned without a dedicated user research or content strategy team: • Everyone on the team had direct contact with (potential) users, either through sales, customer support or both • All interactions with (potential) users were seen as an opportunity to learn - a botched sales meeting could still give valuable insight • Continuously sharing our observations and hypothesis with each other, so we could triangulate and challenge each others insights
- 42. Won’t it be a lot of hassle? What about remuneration? I’m not that tech-savvy… And the EHR system? What does it cost to install? Is this prudent practice? Payments?
- 43. We got thorough insight into user needs, but how to transform this into a website?
- 44. The Core Model
- 45. Home page
- 46. Home page
- 47. Home page
- 48. Home page
- 49. Home page
- 50. Home page
- 52. Googled Clicked a link on Facebook Many users will never see any other page
- 57. The Core Model 1.The Core is where your users complete their tasks and you reach your business goals 2.Paths, not hierarchy 3.No dead ends @AreGH
- 58. @AreGH
- 59. Read this for info on how to run a core workshop :)
- 60. The Core Model leads you toward timeless content. Content that is likely to still be valid in a year, rather than e.g. listicles or blogposts.
- 62. Disclaimer!
- 63. Inward paths Forward paths Core content Core page: Business goals (achieve at least one) User tasks
- 64. Step #1 Identify your core pages This is done by matching business goals and user needs
- 65. Won’t it be a lot of hassle? What about remuneration? I’m not that tech-savvy… And the EHR system? What does it cost to install? Is this prudent practice? Payments?
- 66. Are you integrated with our EHR system? Sign ups
- 67. How to use Confrere with your EHR
- 69. Determine how much you can earn from video calls
- 70. • Renumeration for video appointments • When are video appointments suitable? • Information security and video appointments • Video-hours or scheduled video appointments? • Here’s how patients can pay for video appointments • How to use video appointments in combination with your electronic health record system • Prudent practice and video appointments • Free trial period, fair pricing, and any-time cancellation
- 71. Inward paths Forward paths Core content Core page: Business goals (achieve at least one) User tasks
- 72. Step #2 Inward paths How will the user get here? How will they find this content?
- 73. Inward paths Forward paths Core content Core page: Business goals (achieve at least one) User tasks How will the user find their way to this core page?
- 74. Inward paths Forward paths Core content Core page: Business goals (achieve at least one) User tasks How will the user find their way to this core page? We’ll get back to this ;)
- 75. Step #3 Core content What content elements do we need to make sure the user completes their task (while respecting our objectives)
- 76. Inward paths Forward paths Core content Core page: Business goals (achieve at least one) User tasks What’s the optimal solution, for the user and for us?
- 77. Inward paths Forward paths Core content Core page: Business goals (achieve at least one) User tasks What’s the optimal solution, for the user and for us?
- 80. Step #4 Forward paths After the user has completed their task, where do we want to send them next?
- 81. Inward paths Forward paths Core content Core page: Business goals (achieve at least one) User tasks Where should we send the user, after they’ve completed their primary task?
- 83. Problem was… nobody was visiting our website.
- 84. Step #2 Inward paths How will the user get here? How will they find this content?
- 87. We’re now offering video consultations
- 89. If nobody visits your website just mail it to them. !!!!
- 90. When content is timeless, answers user needs, and supports business goals, it becomes more reusable, and less dependent on channels.
- 91. Website Tour Print Tour
- 93. Even if you are yet to figure out how to build traffic, the core content will be building blocks you can refer to and build on later on.
- 94. The core content also creates a stru!ure where you can contextualise new content in a way that makes it more timeless.
- 97. Creating content based on user needs and business goals is not the same as creating effe!ive content. Did the content a!ually do its job?
- 98. Method #1 Buns & Bicycles
- 104. “Hugging”
- 108. Feedback on needs, not grammar and typos
- 109. Method #3 No surveys, just ask
- 111. • How do you organize your video consultations? Are the hours e.g. agreed in advance or do you do it more ad-hoc? (Maybe it depends a bit on the patient group / issue?) • How do you inform your patients that they can get appointments via video? • How do you use the text message invitation feature? When do you send out the text message and do you usually write something special in the message?
- 113. tidstyv — time thief noun (plural tidstyver) an activity or process that consumes an unnecessary amount of time, disproportionate of its usefulness ORIGIN from Norwegian tidstyv, a combination of the words tid (time) and tyv (thief)
- 115. But what if the feedback or insights could come from a language or market you’re not familiar with yet?
- 117. Having zoomed in on core content, you also have a better starting point for localised content.
- 118. How core content helps you localize on a small budget • What core content topics can we be confident is relevant in other markets? • What core content is general enough to be translated, without additional research? • What core content is helpful, even if it’s very short?
- 123. Growth was rather flat, though
- 124. "
- 126. Feb-02 Feb-09 Feb-16 Feb-23 Mar-01 Mar-08 Mar-15 Mar-22 Mar-29 Weekly a!ive users x10
- 127. Feb-02 Feb-09 Feb-16 Feb-23 Mar-01 Mar-08 Mar-15 Mar-22 Mar-29 Number of calls x100
- 128. “Springfield doc center” “Dr John Doe”
- 130. Feb-02 Feb-09 Feb-16 Feb-23 Mar-01 Mar-08 Mar-15 Mar-22 Oh yes, they talked to us.
- 132. The Good News: They still had the same questions.
- 133. The Core Model had helped us create the content that was important to both us and the users.
- 134. The Bad News: How are we gonna answer them all???
- 135. Bring in the bots?
- 136. First though, bring in more humans! Hired Marie as Head of Support and 10 Support Representatives in 1 (yes one) week.
- 139. Feb-02 Feb-09 Feb-16 Feb-23 Mar-01 Mar-08 Mar-15 Mar-22
- 142. Some bot starter tips • Always give some sort of “other” alternative. If not, you risk so locking someone into a dead end. • Always give a route to talk to a human. If not, you’re closing the potential feedback loop, and probably also pissing people off. • Don’t start building the bots before you have the feeling “I’ve had this exact conversation a zillion times”. Build the bot to have the best version of that conversation. • Don’t humanise the bot.
- 143. Lessons learned?
- 144. The Core Model • Does not create x100 growth #
- 145. The Core Model • Does not create x100 growth # • Helps align understanding and efforts across disciplines • Eases governance, as the focus is on creating core content, rather than more content • Is efficient, as it steers you towards timeless content that can be repurposed across channels, be it print or bots • Gives you a focused starting point for localised content
- 146. Don’t hesitate to reach out on Slack or Twitter!