Angle and Focus: how Optimization and Targeted Content can help tell your Story(ies)

Last year, when I started to sketch, I was struggling. I knew – kind of :-) how to draw but my sketches were ugly. Too busy, too colorful; no angle, no harmony. After some time observing and interacting with other sketchers, the piece of advice I received that resonated the most with me was from a fellow sketcher who told me ‘Look first. Observe and ask yourself : why do I want to draw this? What do I find memorable, would it be beautiful or ugly, peaceful or busy, colorful or plain? What is that something that makes me stop and that I want to capture.’

It was the revelation I needed.

Landscapes, people, cities are surrounded by huge amount of information that I didn’t need to meticulously capture in my sketches. I would isolate one or several elements I want to highlight. I might even change some colors to enhance the end results because it reflects the general feeling I want to transmit.

So now, even before I take my sketchbook out, I answer this question first: ‘What’s in there that I want to remember?’

Similarly in Digital Marketing, we need to ask ourselves the same question.

When creating a digital interaction (email, mobile app, website/web page), we need to select what it is that we want people to do/remember. And only the meaningful elements supporting that activity will need to be positioned on the page.

Selection is critical.

Stuffing a campaign web page with videos, infographics, along with animation and interactivity in the hope that the accumulation of content and fancy features will demonstrate the efficiency of the campaign is wrong.

It’s not up to the user/customer to find out the information that interests them in this maze you created. What do we want them to remember? What story do you want to tell? 

Unfortunately, unlike a sketcher, you can't make that decision unilaterally. You may be lucky to have a UI/UX team helping you design the best experience based on data you gathered. But it may not be the case, or may not be sufficient.

Test your content. Run A/B/N tests and based on the results, personalize and target your content to your audiences. ABM coupled with personalization tools can help you serve different content to different segments, improving customer experience and lead gen. Nowadays, it should be the every day normal in any Digital Marketing Department.

Start sketching your Digital experience with angle and focus!