Improving the UX of Industry Dive's advertising page

Re-evaluating the UX of the advertise page based on its goals and desired messages.

UX Research

| Posted September 19, 2018

Industry Dive’s advertise page explains the value the company brings to clients and welcomes marketers to download the media kit.

This past spring the design team updated the style of the page to look more modern and consistent with our design systems. While the design improved, key goals of the page were not addressed. These latest changes re-evaluate the UX of the page and optimize the copy to convey the page’s desired message.

Goals and Requirements

I began by interviewing key sales and sales operations stakeholders. Based on these interviews, I determined two main goals and five message priorities.

  1. The first goal was to communicate the value of our audience. Industry Dive’s audience is the product. We provide a unique, targeted audience of industry executives, distinguishing us from our competitors. While marketers care about our offerings, the main selling point is that our audience is a good fit for their product.
  2. The second goal was to incentivize the user to contact our sales rep. The sales team will always provide better, more personalized information than the media kit. We want to avoid customers making assumptions about our placements and products, so we prefer to walk them through the opportunities we offer.

Finally, I defined Industry Dive’s messaging priorities and ordered them by importance.

  1. We help marketers create successful campaigns
  2. We are a modern media company
  3. We are an industry publication providing key insights through an email newsletter
  4. Our clients are well-known industry brands
  5. We have successfully helped clients achieve goals using our offerings

Goal assessments and solutions

Next, I compared the page’s current UX and copy to the goals and messaging priorities I outlined. The page’s success rate of each goal fell into three buckets: success, ok or failure. Based on the success rate, I made design changes to better address each goal and message.

1. Communicate the value of our audience

Status: Failure

Problem: The value of the audience was explained in a paragraph as part of a three-column section. The sentence listed the number of executives we reach, but there was no visual emphasis or further explanation of who our readers are.

Solution: I added an audience section to breakdown our analytics and emphasize the reach of our audience and the speed at which it is growing.

Before and after of audience section
The before and after of how audience numbers are highlighted.

2. Incentivize the user to contact our sales rep

Status: OK

Problem: The page encouraged marketers to download the media kit through the form and a CTA at the bottom. However, the copy was not clear on why the reader should download the media kit or who they should contact with any questions.

Solution: I added an inline CTA to further emphasize contacting our sales representatives. I also changed the copy of the other CTAs to encourage marketers to reach out or download the media kit

Before and after of CTA section
The before and after of the calls-to-action sections.

3. We help marketers create successful campaigns

Status: Failure

Problem: There was no clear explanation for how Industry Dive helps marketers. While the company’s product offerings were listed below-the-fold, there was no context or explanation for how they could help.

Solution: I moved the about us and our product benefits to the above-the-fold section. I switched the list of products with copy that focused on how Industry Dive can help the marketer.

Before and after of header section
The before and after of how the header section changed to better explain the product benefits.

4. We are a modern media company

Status: Success

The design of the page was already modern and slick as well as cohesive with the rest of the company’s sites. Because the focus of this project was to improve UX and copy, there was no need to change the overall design aesthetic as it was already successful.

5. We are an industry publication providing key insights through a newsletter

Status: OK

Problem: The only context for what our publications do was a paragraph in the three-column section.

Solution: I addressed describing who we are the same way I solved goal #3. I moved the information to the top header section so the marketer would have context as soon as they hit the page.

6. Our clients are industry name brands

Status: Success

There was already a comprehensive logo section with client logos. There was no need to change this section as it already successfully highlights the big name brands that advertise through our sites.

7. Our clients have found success using our offerings

Status: OK

Problem: While we offered one marketer testimonial at the top of the page there was no context as to why you should care. We also provided other testimonials at the bottom of the page but these focused on readers and not clients.

Solution: I restructured the testimonials to emphasize successful clients rather than our readers. I also adjusted the copy of the header to better explain that we are focused on solving markters’ problems.

Before and after of testimonial section
The before and after of the testimonials section.

By encouraging marketers to reach out to our sales team and conveying our audience quality, I was able to create a design that better communicated our value to our clients.

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