Managing your shopfront on ESI.info

Before Christmas, we looked at the new client dashboard and the new interface for reporting metrics that help you assess the return on investment you get from your marketing with ESI.

This month we look at the interface for My Shopfront, which has been designed to help you promote your products, services and expert capabilities to professional decision makers and influencers. The ESI.info content management system has been restyled and is easier to use.

Below the screenshot is a summary of the features:

My Shopfront

Your marketing subscription: a summary of your marketing subscription, how many entries you are using and a photo of your account managers at ESI.info. Further developments are planned for this view, including the number of email bulletins that may be available to you.

My Company and Brand: your brand identity including the company name that is displayed, company name variations, your default web address, your social links and your company and brand logos.

My Online entries: all of your promoted content including products, case studies, news, CPD and articles. You can edit existing entries or create a completely new entry here.

My Downloads: review and update all of the downloads that are attached to your online entries. You upload a new version of a download and manage which entries a download is attached to.

My Button Ads: you can add a button ad in any category that you have an illustrated entry in. Button ads appear alongside search results and at the bottom of category results. Use button ads to promote company branding and reinforce messaging.

FAQ: how do I access the new dashboard?

To access the dashboard, sign in when you come to the website. A drop-down menu will then appear, giving you access to the dashboard. Choose any of the items in the menu to load the view.

If you have forgotten your password, please ask for a password reminder.

Fine-tuning case studies to attract prospects

Many companies view their projects and case studies from their own point of view and typically reference the product name and location prominently in the title and the opening paragraphs of text.

Does this approach resonate fully with prospective buyers or is there more you could be doing to maximise your conversion opportunities?

Of course, a good bank of case studies are like a portfolio of work – they demonstrate where when your products have been installed, how long they have stood up to real-world use, the types of building you have worked on and the sectors you may specialise in.

But does this help the architect, landscape architect, engineer or interior designer – the people you are trying to target for your next project – find out how you can help them with the problem they are working on now?

Case study / project pages that have the product name and the building / location strongly foregrounded in the title and text tend to be discovered by people researching the specific products and locations that are referenced.

If a specifier knows you or your product, they will search for the brand name or your company name. If they are researching a particular building or location, they will naturally search for that location. Think about two example case study titles below, who they are likely to be found by.

• Narrow: “Glasgow Commonwealth Games”
• Still limited: “XYZ street furniture, Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games”

There is a large pool of designers, specifier and buyers who don’t know your product, are undecided about what to use, or are looking for an alternative to what they used last time. These people may search for their requirement, such as ‘street furniture for regeneration’ or ‘street furniture for place-making’.

• Better; references the benefit: “Street furniture for Glasgow regeneration area”
• Better still; benefit highlighted more prominently: “Using XYZ street furniture to regenerate Glasgow”
• Best; appeals to specifier searching for similar solution: “How XYZ street furniture created a sense of place”

If you can highlight the requirement in your case study title, or at very least the benefits of the product, this will help people in a similar position, who have a requirement to fulfil. In your case study text, it is also important to summarise the consultant’s project brief, or the problem that the client was trying to solve. In a previous post, we provide tips on how  to structure your case study pages on ESI.info.

Case studies address a specific requirement, and at the outset of a project there can be a number of challenges that demand a specialist solution.

Sign in to your content management system and optimise your content now.