Washington DC, 2018 - Word Count helped AARP’s Family Caregiving website develop content and platform strategies, as well as create and implement an online measurement framework to track content performance and platform success.

These efforts guided decisions that truly met the needs of first-time, early caregivers, providing them with information, online tools, and touchpoints with agencies and other resources that help clients care for their loved ones.

Market Scan and Analysis

Word Count began by conducting a competitive analysis of similar family caregiving websites and content platforms to understand what gaps existed in the online caregiving landscape. This understanding informed fresh, new content, platform and partnership strategies for AARP.

User Validation

Word Count used rapid, iterative testing of content and platform features to quickly test different interactive features and pathing through online content. This quantitative and qualitative testing provided insights into user needs and behavior that informed future platform and editorial decisions. As a result, AARP could optimize the platform roadmap and the editorial calendar for content.

Platform Performance

This project also saw Word Count work with AARP stakeholders to develop a measurement framework based on online user behavior and online transactions. The framework measured soft goals, such as building caregiver expertise, that weren't tied to one specific conversion on the website. This ensured the platform empowered caregivers with the legal and healthcare knowledge they needed and to find support from local community resources.

Content Performance Analysis

Washington DC, 2016 - When AARP needed to increase web site traffic that was interested in it's automotive-related member benefits, it turned to Word Count Strategy to get what they were looking for.

Word Count performed in-depth analysis of site content to identify high-performing automotive articles and slideshows. From the analysis, it formulated a new plan for the marketing mix, content, and organization of the automotive section of AARP's website.

The lynchpin?

Basing content performance on engagement and revenue contribution.

As a result, the analysis provided by Word Count not only informed AARP’s new platform strategy and design, but went on to increase their conversions with great success.

Life Stage Content Marketing for Credit Union

Lansing. Michigan, 2014 - Lake Trust Credit Union is one of the top three credit unions in Michigan.

They wanted to center their content marketing on the various life stages and financial needs of residents local to the area of Michigan where Lake Trust had a physical presence.

Mr Crisman, owner of Word Count Strategy, developed personas based on marketing research and implemented personalized website content that relied on website behavior that correlated to key target audiences represented by the personas. Appealing to and meeting the needs of Millennials, for example, was a key credit union goal.

Using these findings, Mr Crisman developed appropriate content for the union’s website, email and direct marketing copy utilizing key visuals and messaging relevant to the personas. 

The result – more focused and successful engagement with Lake Trust members.

Social Media Program

Ann Arbor, Michigan, 2010 - The Ann Arbor public transit system, also known as TheRide, desired a massive jump-start to their social media program.

Taking on the assignment with relish, Mr. Crisman (owner of Word Count Strategy) used his expertise and built The Ride’s new social media program from the ground up.

First, he evaluated the social media program of another comparable transit system in Grand Rapids, MI. He then used insights from that research to develop and implement technologies, processes, and a social media content strategy to engage public transit users

through Facebook and Twitter. It worked like a dream.

As part of this project, the client’s staff was coached on social media best practices and how to use those systems.

The Ride was taken on a grand social media tour and came out with flying colors.

Travel Trends and Strategy Analysis and Recommendation

Analyzed AARP's Travel platform for the 50+. Identified relevant travel trends and incorporated existing 50+ travel segmentation research to provide recommendations on platform development and content marketing strategy that were aligned with AARP capabilities, target audiences, and social mission and business objectives.

Market Scan and Analysis

Analysis of online travel communities and web sites to inform content and platform strategies around user generated content and online communities.

User Validation

Focus groups, web analytics, and other research suggested that the destination pages on AARP’s travel site were not fully meeting the needs of travelers using the AARP site. Word Count Strategy designed and implemented user testing to identify what types, formats, and topic areas would best help users evaluate different destinations for travel.  

AARP launched a pilot program for member-exclusive premium content that was more in depth and comprehensive than other content on the web site. The premium content was collected in an online library on the AARP web site. The content included PDF files, HTML articles, audio, and video.

The landing page for the library provided an index of the all the premium content organized by categories such as health, money, entertainment. As new content was created, the landing page was reorganized, so content placements on the page varied from week to week.

To create a forecast, data from past landing page click-throughs was modeled through a linear regression analysis that incorporated location on page, content topic and format. A regression model was created for desktop and phone landing page layouts.

After creating the models, it was possible to forecast click-throughs for the various pieces of content and compare against actual click-throughs. A visualization was created to capture the over and under performing content.