Digital blog
Improving online reading experience | Website
Team
1 Digital Marketing Director
1 Creative Director
1 Designer
1 Engineer
1 Creative Director
1 Designer
1 Engineer
Duration
2019, 3 months
(pre-development)
(pre-development)
My Role
Working with 2 directors, we strategized the blog’s brand position, message, and its site structure. I designed and delivered the blog’s branding and visual system and its page templates.
See the blog here.
See the blog here.
Background
In 2015, Schumacher started producing a bi-annual printed magazine. It has been a great hit since its debut in the interior design community.
The company wanted the same success for its blog. As to borrow the magazine’s accomplishment, all of its contents were repurposed and uploaded to Schumacher’s blog. However, the traffic to the blog remained low.
The company wanted the same success for its blog. As to borrow the magazine’s accomplishment, all of its contents were repurposed and uploaded to Schumacher’s blog. However, the traffic to the blog remained low.
The Challenge
The blog was hosted on WordPress (WP) and entirely image-based. None of the content was searchable except for the post titles. There were no actions provided on the posts for the readers to engage with the content.
There was no visual consistency. Every post looked differently, and the sizes varied.
Only a small number of members in the interior design community were aware of Schumacher’s blog. “Pattern 162”, the blog’s name, was not registered well with its audience.
There was no visual consistency. Every post looked differently, and the sizes varied.
Only a small number of members in the interior design community were aware of Schumacher’s blog. “Pattern 162”, the blog’s name, was not registered well with its audience.
The goal was to raise awareness in the blog’s own label, gain more readership, and grow the audience.
Insights & Findings
Top results were all irrelevant to the blog in search engines when searching “Schumacher blog”.
The majority of traffic driven to the blog was from linked sections in the company’s email newsletters.
There are 3 major types of stories: a feature story with long written text and images, a listicle story of curated product recommendations, a shortlist story with just photography and captions.
It was a labor-intensive manual process for the Digital Production team to create and upload the posts and maintain the WP site.
The majority of traffic driven to the blog was from linked sections in the company’s email newsletters.
There are 3 major types of stories: a feature story with long written text and images, a listicle story of curated product recommendations, a shortlist story with just photography and captions.
It was a labor-intensive manual process for the Digital Production team to create and upload the posts and maintain the WP site.
Outcomes & Impacts
A fully rebranded blog with a new name (the Edit by Schumacher) and a consistent visual system offers a much more cohesive digital reading experience.
The new style guide and templates help the Digital Production team reduce the time to produce and upload one story onto the blog. The team can create a lot more content efficiently.
With actual text content, the new blog appears in the top search results when searching ”Schumacher blog” or “the Edit by Schumacher” 2 months after its release. SEO is much improved.
The new style guide and templates help the Digital Production team reduce the time to produce and upload one story onto the blog. The team can create a lot more content efficiently.
With actual text content, the new blog appears in the top search results when searching ”Schumacher blog” or “the Edit by Schumacher” 2 months after its release. SEO is much improved.
By mid-2020, the audience size and monthly visits on the blog had doubled since its launch in late August 2019.
The new system of colors, logo, and typography.
The new story templates.
Micro-interactions on a story page allow the users to share at both the story level and image level if they like the content.
Different story tile templates. It gives the production team the flexibility to arrange and organize content in different ways on the blog homepage and catalog page.
Sections on Schumacher’s homepage (top) and the blog (bottom) help grow the audience size and generate more traffic.