Designing a New Site Experience
Last week, I was fortunate to attend the MFEA Digital Council event in Kansas City. I’ll share a few tidbits from our content marketing panel in a subsequent post. Here, I thought to touch on a topic brought up my numerous people. I heard a half-dozen people say we are starting the process to redesign our digital properties (Web site, social media experience, tablet apps). The context was different for each firm (context included timeline, scope of design, and working relationship with a digital agency).
I wanted to touch on the digital agency selection process. Many times our digital strategy engagements end where an agency’s engagement begins (our recommendations become a main component of a detailed creative brief). From those experiences and conversations with clients, I thought to offer two questions to ponder before selecting an agency.
#1 – Are we going to value the capabilities of a large firm? Agencies come in very different sizes; from 2 – 3 person organizations to global advertising agency subsidiaries. Larger agencies often construct large project teams including people with financial services, digital design, content creation, and project management expertise. We’ve seen asset managers appreciate and benefit from having these additional (to account management and execution) resources as working sessions can become more thorough and comprehensive from the additional brainpower. We’ve also seen organizations find the additional headcount frustrating as it can slow down timelines and require additional ramp-up. Think ahead. Will your project team enjoy in-depth initial conversations with an agency team recollecting and including insights from multiple previous experiences? Or will your team want to get down to work and quickly expect mock-ups to select from?
#2 – Is out-of-industry experience genuinely important? Many times Digital Marketers think agencies unencumbered by previous industry engagements will provide a “fresh” or “unique” design? That may be true. Equally true, agencies without asset management or insurance clients will struggle to understand the non-transactional nature of “retail” distribution. There will be some learning curve required for the out-of-industry agency. Are you (or someone on your team) willing to educate the agency?