Xpresso – Content Update Project

Xpresso Mobile Coffee Van Franchises approached me through a referral from a client I was working with. Xpresso had an existing CMS-based site that had been up for almost 4 years. Sadly, in that time the only changes had been to remove pages and the template was broken in some browsers. So the site was looking rather flat.

Before & After – Overview

Home: Before - broken template and no engagement

Home: After - headline, leaders & call to action

The new-improved site may still look a bit dated because of the template from 2005 but the page is now engaging for visitors, giving them a clear idea of what Xpresso does in seconds.

The leader buttons to “Book a Van” and “Get an Expresso Franchise” give a clear call to action path for users to follow to either get a nice coffee delivered to them or investigate a new business opportunity. The focus on the menu brings the products to the fore. And the Franchise Operator humanizes the business opportunity.

If you wish to know more about this project through its stages read on.

Site Assessment
Xpresso Site Before

Stage 1 – Strategy

We began with one of my typically forthright Site Assessments to see if the client and I had the same aims for the project. We got into it with a series of 2-hour meetings where we discussed the deeper strategy:

1. Why Xpresso wants a web site and what they want to achieve from it?

Xpresso needed a web site to improve the visibility of the business but particularly to a) get customers to order an Xpresso van to their workplace or event, b) show Xpresso Franchises as a great business proposal.

2. Who are the customers and what do they want from Xpresso?

We discussed and broke the site down to appealing to two main customers; a) office and factory workers who want a good coffee, b) potential franchise owners. These are the main aims of the site. We also identified a third group from the needs at Q.1 and decided to carry extra content on the site. This third group are a kind of sub-plot but will help to increase overall traffic and links for SEO purposes. The third group are a combination of customers and franchisees with an element of people interested in coffee (see the Coffee Heads section below).

3. What sections will the site need?

Once we knew who our users for the new site content were it became pretty easy to work out what content we needed. Coffee drinkers needed to know how an Xpresso van visiting their work would make their day better and to be able to book a van. Franchisees need to know that an Xpresso franchise is a good choice and to have answers to their basic questions. We ended up with a navigation menu of:

and a lot of pages with line drawings of what the pages would look like with the elements laid out. The line drawings helped the client to know what his pages would look like and made the later build process faster as all the decisions were already made. We also worked on headlines for the two main sections; Home and Franchises.

Home Rough

Menu Rough

Franchise Rough

FAQ Rough

The sections were to operate as follows:

Home - main page skewed to coffee drinkers as potential franchise owners would be happy to see the company working on promotion to gain more end-user customers. Elements: Headline, Book a Van, Menu Feature, Coffee Head of the Month, Get an Xpresso Franchise, Franchisee of the Month

Menu – full menu with all drinks and food listed in order of popularity. Elements: Menu with images, sizzle sell and prices, Book a Van, Coffee Head of the Month

Coffee Heads – a mixed bag of bits and pieces on coffee, headed by profiles of Xpresso customers. This section was to become an activity centre for the site, drawing in traffic. Elements: Coffee Head of the Month, Tid-bits and coffee articles, Book a Van

Events – Xpresso vans and carts for Events with an emphasis on corporate functions. Elements: Copy showing high-profile events Xpresso has worked at, Menu link, Form

Franchises – this section is to provide prospective owners with everything they need to decide to investigate a franchise further. Elements: Headline, Image, Copy, FAQ leader, Franchisee of the Month

Franchise FAQ – real, deep answers to the core questions prospects ask. We identified 5 core questions:

1. How much does it cost? (incl. comparison table)

2. How much can I make? (incl. earnings table)

3. How many hours a day do I have to work?

4. Where are territories available?

5. Do I need skills? (incl. training overview)

Main page has overview answers and then each answer breaks out to another page with more detailed answers.

Franchisees – pages of articles for, and interviews with, franchise operators. Elements: Franchisee of the Month, Testimonials, Support/How To Articles

About Us – brief introduction to the company

Contact – contact details and form.

Stage 2 – Build Structure

This step was not really necessary as we were updating content in the existing template. It was acknowledged that the existing template was showing it’s age but it was more important to get the right content generating results than have something prettier with poor content. Lessons learned with this content would help build the new template in 6 -12 months time.

The template did require some fixing for Firefox, Safari, Chrome and Opera browsers which was completed in a few hours by the CMS provider, AbSoft.

Stage 3 – Build Content

Content pages were built fairly quickly in two stages. Firstly I built the main structure key pages (sometimes using dummy content as final content was not completed) and showed the pages to the client. After approval I went on and built all the final pages, including an article or two of my own to flesh out the Coffee Heads section. Having a very clear structure made the build go fairly quickly as I needed only complete the brief, not making any major layout or structure decisions.

All that was left was to check everything for the usual spelkyng mikstakz and to ensure that all the links worked. Once this vital stage was done both by myself and the customer the changes were published. Over time the site statistics should be monitored to see what is working and what isn’t. This information will help them to design their new site.