A products consultant who works with growth oriented product teams on the intersection of product UX, narrative strategy, and content strategy so that they can make right investments in their design processes for sustainability and growth.
Joy, check out my discussion with Anand of Stripe, here: https://twitter.com/vingar/status/1306525279733592064
We exchanged a few emails too and Stripe is not good enough for many use cases for businesses in India. Set up a call with me if you want to know more.
The product page is the lifeblood of an ecommerce. Please check out Baymard studies to understand the gaps in your product: https://baymard.com/product-page/articlesand have a strategic roadmap to fix these.
If you have a team (internal or outsources), do not rush for the quick fixes on the page. Tighten your architecture for taxonomy and metadata so that the architecture stays adaptive and scaleable. I have worked with ecommerce on the right positioning within the right product UX for their CRO. DM me for more details.
While some experts have already share their thoughts, I am excited to share this excellent post by Price Intelligently, at: http://www.priceintelligently.com/blog/value-based-pricing
In general, their blog is GOLD for SaaS pricing. I am sure you will make the right decision!
If you have never spoken at an event before, consider joining meetup.com and find relevant meetups. First attend 1-2 meetups to understand their goals, theme, and topics that interest the participants - and then you can propose speaking there.
If you use slides, update your Slideshare profile and it builds your speaking portfolio. Next time, use this Slideshare profile to send proposals to other events - city level, and then regional and others.
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Identify people who are speaking at the events where you want to speak. Engage with them (social, emails, or in person if they are in same city), and exchange value. They should be happy to propose your name as a speaker in future events.
Important: "Value" is the keyword. Good luck for your book!
Identify the topics and subject that you know well enough so that when you write (share updates), the community trusts that you know the subject. Building 'trust' is the first step towards engagement, and it is as true for individuals as it is for organizations.
Once you share an update, add your own perspective for the right CTA. Why should anyone engage with the post - are you giving them some food for thought? Are you questioning some industry recommended practice? Are you seeking opinion?
When you combine (a) your expertise that builds trust (b) Right CTA, people will be encouraged to contribute.
Important: Tag the sources as required. It adds authenticity to what you post. And then be timely and courteous while responding via comments.
Think of your business goals and how content can help these goals before you plan to hire *content writers*. Most often, organizations who need an architect for their building's positioning, end up hiring brick-layers.
To me, there is no role as such of *content writers*. You should look people who can understand your business goals, plan content audit and gap analysis for WHY the blog may help your business, plan a voice and tone for your brand, and then work on a calendar. They should be able to measure the effectiveness of content too.
Mere content writers rarely (very rarely) bring any value to the table. You need content strategist who can work with marketers and product team to ensure that content is relevant, meaningful, and is aligned to your goals.
Can you promote without content? No. However it does not start with content either, it starts with 'strategy'. What exactly do you want to communicate, what you want your audience to expect in your blog, how you want to hook them, engage them, and participate in discussions. What are your strengths - webinars, ebooks, tutorials, reviews?
1. Prepare an inventory of what all you want to offer, and why.
2. Plan a calendar so that you can stick to a schedule. Remember that all blogs start at 'Hello World' and a many end at this post itself.
3. Plan how to reward your audience.
4. Now comes Content and Promotion strategy.
If you want more details, write to me or setup a call anytime! :)
I have used Zendesk, Freshdesk and GrooveHQ. Zendesk scores the point because of its ease of use, its support, and an excellent knowledgebase platform to complement your support process. When you setup a help desk system, plan a few support articles in the Knowledgebase (Zendesk helps you here) to reduce the support calls.
I have helped business setup this support process, including the KB. Let me know if you need more details.
The leading players are Zendesk, GrooveHQ, and FreshDesk. I have used all of these and my vote goes to Zendesk.
I talked about it as a case study for a documentation task, see http://www.vinishgarg.com/2014/09/kb-case-study-pain-points-and-analysis/. I am also co-founder of @In23Hours where we develop product KBs in Zendesk.
If you have any specific questions or doubts, setup a call and I can explain everything that you may need to know.
When you say "I have a plan.." What does it mean? You have a business idea that you want to validate? I am working as an information architect and content strategist for a travel app, for last 3 weeks. Here are some steps:
- Think of your product as independent of the technology. Plan it for desktop and mobile, draw some sketches of user journey throughout the product, and be the first customer of your product.
- Talk to a few customers who may be interested to use it. Plan customer surveys (See http://sixteenventures.com/ for some great references).
Now you should be clear for what exactly you want, and what your customers need.
- Find a dev team for first prototype.
- Don't focus too much on logo or branding. Rather, focus on customer acquisition and engagement strategies, where 'content' is critical. Let users believe in the product value, and talk, discuss, gather feedback, follow up.
- Use metrics (MixPanel helps)
Remember that since you are particularly talking about 'travel' industry. many users may need to use it while traveling. So, a mobile version is a must. I am not saying a Mobile app (that may add to the cost to validate the idea). At least, plan a responsive desktop product, with adaptive content.
If you need more directions, setup a call and I will share my experience! Good luck!!