Must Design

Building Engagement In

There are ways to BUILD engagement into a website's design. Here are three secrets to promote engagement not included in this excellent Slideshare:

* Place Email Subscription High Up and Prominent. 
* Include curated User Generated Content on every page.

* Create CTAs with CONTRAST.

Email Subscriptions
When your "Subscribe To Our Email List" Call to Action is high on the page in a Can't Miss It spot you communicate a clear "we want YOU" signal. 

UGC Everywhere
When you curate User Generated Content to your site you communicate how well you listen and care for community members. The website isn't all about YOU and what you think the inclusion of UGC says.

CTAs
I see to very common mistakes in websites I'm asked to review as Director of Marketing for Atlantic BT in Raleigh (http://www.atlanticbt.com ): NO CTAs or poorly contrasted CTAs. I PREFER CTAs to be buttons and usually test red, orange or green (depending on the background color). I'm convinced there is no ONE magic CTA color but the contrast is what makes a Call To Action helpful or not, clicked on or not, converting or not.  

A great Question was asked on SlideShare (where the link goes), here is that question:

Gael de Talhouet, Global Digital Director at Henkel Hi Martin, Great pres. Now, you worked for P&G so you will understand my question : I perfectly get story telling for brands like Patagonia, but what can that mean for detergent or dishwashing brands ?

My Answer
Every brand must build an emotional connection. Tide does 'Loads of Hope' when they bring truckloads of washers and dryers to disaster relief areas so people can have clean clothes. When they do that the brand's dimensions include emotional connection and social relevance. If you think of Jim Stengel's book Grow you realize Tide is about PRIDE and so restoring pride after a disaster is perfectly aligned with the brand. Good question. Hope that helps.