Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance? How IBM’s digital marketing leaders drove change and optimized website usability Marjorie J. Madfis, Worldwide Editor, IBM Software home page Daniel Burstein, Director of Editorial Content, MECLABS
Presenters Marjorie J. Madfis, Worldwide Editor, IBM Software home page, @marjorie_m Daniel Burstein, Director of Editorial Content, MECLABS, @DanielBurstein 2
The corporate landscape CEO Corp Marketng Software Systems Services Me Consulting Software Mkt Lotus Tivoli Websphere Rational Information Mgt Web lead Web lead Web lead Wweb lead Web lead Marketing Marketing 1. Corporate marketing strategy Marketing • Smarter Planet • IBMers as experts Social Media 2. Software marketing strategy • Capabilities and acquisitions 3. Business unit (“brands”) marketing • Leads and revenue 3
IBM Software – evolution from “brands” to “capabilities” Before 2010 2010 and forward Awareness Consideration Software capabilities Preference Product families • Business Analytics Action • Enterprise Content Management • Information Management • Lotus • Rational • Tivoli Loyalty • WebSphere 4
Driving change through research 1.Understand the business Who is my stakeholder? What are the business goals? 2.Understand the customer Who are they? What are their goals? What to they want, like, dislike? 3.Identify goals for the design Use words, simple pictures, and wire-frames; get agreement. 4.Design & evaluate … with customers, re-design, evaluate with customers, re- design… 5
Experts: Business mission matches visitor desire "Very soon, people will be searching not for content, but for experts – not just anyone who has the time to blog or tweet, but people who actually know what they’re talking about." Jon Iwata, IBM Sr. VP Marketing 2009 speech Design A: Control Design A Design B 6
IBM Software home page 3-way test Control B A 7
IBM Software test results heat map Control B A WINNER 8
What we learned Findings Navigation : CHQ Too many choices Mega menu Navigation: SWG Larger size, distinctly separated Tabs Experts CHQ Larger, easy to see how to connect SWG Offers B U Registrations on deeper pages Communities SWG Interest in engaging with peers 9
Flexible design still meets objectives Deployed in 60 countries: local language, local experts, local content Variations: Length of copy Number of experts Communities Twitter feed Poland Japan 10
Research Steps 1. Understand business priorities – Interviews with 8 executives 2. Understand Geo Web marketing requirements and priorities – Online survey of IBM country Software home page owners 3. Identify current visitor goals – Intercept pop question link on 8 country SWHPs to poll visitors about their current goals for visit to the page 4. Identify prospect/customer requirements and priorities – Online UserZoom study with N=291 end user prospects (Worldwide) 5. Evaluate 3 designs – Customer reactions to initial designs – One on one, 90-minute phone sessions, usability study 6. Live “A/B” evaluation with 2 designs and current page – Determine winner – Then, iterate to optimize the design 11
Resources “Website Testing: Research and testing leads to new IBM Software Group homepage, 23% increase in demos” http://www.marketingsherpa.com/sample.cfm?ident=32009 Landing Page Optimization: Goodbye stock photos and Happy Man, hello social media http://sherpablog.marketingsherpa.com/website-and-landing- page-design/lpo-photo-social-media/ 12
Connect • Web: www.ibm.com/software • Email: madfis@us.ibm.com • Twitter: marjorie_m • Linked In: Marjorie Madfis Visit IBM at the B2B Summit 13
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