Wednesday 02 November, 2011 at 10:22 am / 0 comment

Target Your Content Strategy

This month is all about content strategy and I want to focus on 3 key things a website with great content strategy has: visual appeal, targeted content, and functionality.

by Jessica Lee, Marketing Team, Ephox

My candidate, Target, encompasses all 3 aspects.

When you first visit Target’s website, you quickly take in how visually appealing their site is. The entire website has a unified theme with the red and white colors, much like walking through the actual store itself. You can imagine yourself walking down the aisle by scrolling down the page and seeing all the items they have on sale through the pictures and promotional phrases. The big and small lettering along with the use of the Target RED makes things pop out.

The catchy phrases are focused on promoting their ongoing discounts and sales which naturally coincide with their tag line: “Expect More Pay Less”. The combination of the catchy messaging and complementary images help visually attract people to their promotions. The big, bold lettering and the colors of the text draw attention to themselves. The witty messages and key words such as save, coupons, discount serve as action words that incentivize people to click through and check out the sales.

Target also puts on display the most popular brand name items that will catch your eye. Then they make use of their free shipping policy to encourage you to reach a speedy check out. All along the way, they provide subtle suggestions about other things you might be interested in based on what you have looked at so far.

Have you ever noticed that all Target stores have the same layout? No matter what city you are in, when you enter a Target store, chances are the beauty supplies, electronics, and household products will all be relatively in the same area as your Target store back home.

With that being said, functionality is also another important aspect of having a good content strategy. A good website has to be able to function well for it to be successful. The overall look and feel of Target’s website is simple, clean, and familiar. The familiarity comes from Google; Target’s website resembles a Google search page. With roughly 300 million users using Google search a day, structuring your website to have the same look and feel of Google would bring a familiarity to your visitors. Anyone of the 300 million users who use Google, will also be able to browse Target’s website with ease. Looks like they carried over the concept from their stores. Smart.

The take away: we can all learn a little something about content strategy from Target. That and I can get a PS3 for less than $300! Happy shopping!