It takes one mistake to undo a lot of good so it’s important to plan and execute your personalization really well.
James Keeler is the Chief Experience Officer for the award-winning whiteGREY AMEA (Asia/Middle East/Africa) and longtime digital marketer. whiteGREY is the Australian arm of GREY, a strategic partner of WP Engine, and one of the world’s top advertising and marketing organizations. Their clients include Volvo, Haleon, Scentre Group (Westfield), HSBC, WWF, Adyen, Danone, Meta and Sheldrick Wildlife Trust.
In this episode of Velocitize Talks, James Keeler, who derives some of his inspiration from his son’s love of gaming, shares his thoughts on WordPress, personalization and the brand experience.
Creativity + Technology = Gutsy
whiteGREY incorporates three separate disciplines into its overall mission: a collision of creativity and technology; a philosopy of tension to create extraordinary work; and platform orchestration. Adhering to these principles allows the agency to explore the “gutsy” side of things. According to Keeler, there is value created across multiple touchpoints and channels, but even more value if you can orchestrate the consistent delivery of your brand.
It’s really about delivering a great customer experience but just as importantly a consistent brand experience.
The Art & Science of Web Design
How can a business’s website adapt in order to remain relevant today? Keeler is a big believer in human-centered design. Since consumers visit your site at various stages, you have to be prepared to cater to a host of behaviors. This applies to any marketing tool, from a website to SMS messaging, based on your target audience.
The visual design, the animation, the colors, the typography provide the art; how we connect with people emotionally, how we tell the story we want to tell.
whiteGREY is currently developing a progressive web app for Sheldrick Wildlife Trust based in Kenya, which operates the most successful orphan elephant rescue and rehabilitation program in the world. The app, named Mammoth, will allow rangers to collect data in real time, instead of jotting things down in a notebook. The app was built using WordPress and hosted by WP Engine.
Another campaign from whiteGREY involved building a new website infrastructure for all six websites of Melbourne & Olympic Parks, a venue that hosts large entertainment and sporting events, including the Australian Open. The updated infrastructure provides a much smoother and more efficient digital guest experience.
Headless From Front to Back
whiteGREY and WP Engine partnered with Volvo Australia to build a Dealer Toolkit and app. This included an easy-to-use pricing tool through a headless WordPress configuration. The new configuration helped streamline the content process leveraging a mobile-first approach. According to Keeler, headless WordPress helped to integrate data sources on a secure back-end, while freeing up the front-end to deliver a smooth and engaging user experience.
There’s both static and dynamic content in a number of these tools and the headless approach makes it really easy to input the static content but also gave us a secure and reliable way to bring in the dynamic content.
In Brands We Trust
Whether you want to associate yourself with a brand is more commonly driven by other factors such as the brand purpose and how well the brand supports local communities.
The way a customer feels about a brand directly impacts whether they buy from that brand. It’s difficult to overstate the importance of earning customer trust. In fact, according to Edelman, over 80% of consumers say they must trust a brand before making purchases. “A brand sits a layer above personalization,” Keeler says, and personalized service helps build customer loyalty. Personalization is a great way to make customers feel attached to your brand. It can be as simple as including the person’s name in all communications.
Smart Investment
Where do you put your dollars when it comes to marketing expenses in order to accelerate your overall digital presence? There are many factors competing for the same marketing budget, from web design to navigation, but Keeler advises investing in a secure, flexible, and scalable technical architecture first.
It’s really important to get that foundation right; it’s much easier to build upon that foundation when it is right.
Learn more about whiteGREY on their website and follow them on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram. To keep up with James Keeler, follow him on LinkedIn.
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