T H
SHU
B2B INFLUENCER MARKETING AGENCY
VARIETY
COLLECTIVE
A B2B marketing agency website that demonstrates the company's works, service, values, leadership, etc.
Project Overview
Background information
Variety Collective is a marketing agency based in Silicon Valley that focuses on influencer marketing in the B2B industry.
As the only UX UI Designer in the team, I worked closely with the project manager and the marketing team to gain insights into the needs of the target audience as well as translate our business concepts into visual features.
Our main goal was to depict and value the agency’s brand recognition in the B2B influencer marketing landscape and deliver our business message to our target audience.
The Challenge
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Design the agency’s brand.
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Create a professional website to showcase its works, service, values, leadership, etc.
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Provide a way of communication between the agency and target audience, and generate business plans
My Role
​​Branding design, User research, UI UX design
Research Process
My Role
​​Branding design, User research, UI UX design
Desk Research
Before diving into the specific user research, we did marketing background research by searching and studying marketing reports and resources about influencer and B2B industries in recent years. As a result, we identified the need to expand on the ever-growing B2B industry within Silicon Valley. We discovered B2B corporations are seeing the value in utilizing budget towards influencer marketing.
Also, to better understand ourselves in an already mature and competitive market, we did competitive studies and analyzed other successful agencies ’ websites. These researches helped us gain a comprehensive understanding of the project’s background, environment, and workflows in the early stages.
Target Audience
After the background and marketing research, we identified our target audience:
Individuals like Marketing Managers, Marketing Directors, and Chief Marketing Officers in B2B organizations would seek our B2B influencer marketing agency’s services.
User Survey
We conducted a survey that consisted of 16 questions and shared with B2B industry professionals to aid our website design efforts. We received 22 answers.
The survey captured information on the following:
Believe hiring a marketing agency is important
The value of hiring a marketing agency :
The main reasons for choosing a third-party agency are to “amplify the right content” and “save time.”
Their companies have an in-house marketing team
Believe hiring an marketing agency is important
The expectation for new marketing trends :
77% of respondents said that "social media video" should be incorporated into their marketing as a new emerging trend.
Barriers in choosing a marketing agency :
72% of respondents said that “unclear ideas of the agency provided” is the most detractive reason to prevent them from choosing an agency, followed by “website is too wordy,” “poor navigation,” “not enough visuals.”
The needs for a future potential agency:
“Past work and case studies” is the one that respondents want to see the most.
Synthesis & Insights Generation
01/ Easy and Clear Navigation:
Making a website design easy for website visitors is essential for building a relationship.
02/ Find a balance between user needs and
business goals:
Website content should highlight the agency’s services and past works.
03/ Create visual content:
Avoid heavy text or meaningless visual elements. Repurpose information and insights as visuals.
04/ Give users what they want to see
Incorporate new emerging marketing trends such as social media videos.
Define
How might we create a user-friendly marketing agency website that can deliver the VC agency’s brand message and help clients reach the right marketing services?
Ideation
Sitemap
After balancing the user needs and our business goal, I developed the Sitemap, which highlights the website's key points, with a clear and simple structure
Home
Services
Case Studies
Join Us
About Us
Contact Us
Wireframing & Validating
After defining HMW, I developed the low-fidelity wireframe. Then I sent them to 5 users and gained some feedback to reframe the final wireframe:
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Add "What we are" to the Home page
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Give each "Case study" more Space.
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Make "Contact" as a separate page
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Add recruit influencer form
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Delete sub-menu
Also, I updated the Sitemap to highlight the website's clear structure and key points, according to the feedback we received.
UI Design & Prototypy
Validation
We conducted user testing on​​​​​​​​ the clickable prototype with 5 individuals. The testing Walked through all pages and tested users' reactions to navigation, layout design, visuals, and content. Overall, the participants were very positive about the design and prototype. The results are as follows:
Creator and Collaborator:
Good ideas come from the best team collaborations and friendships on their way to become valuable solutions. Because of Covid, I collaborated remotely with one project manager, one copywriter, and one social specialist. Fortunately, by following best practices and using the right collaboration tools such as Frontify, Smartsheet, GroupMe, our remote collaboration was very effective. This teamwork was an enjoyable experience for me. It’s also a great practice for my future career since remote design work has gradually become a common workstyle.
Business goals vs. User experience:
This project allowed me to touch on the design goals from the business side and user side. Balance business goals and user experience could always be a challenge for UX designers. For this project, the business goal is to depict and increase the agency’s brand recognition. After user research, we saw opportunities to build a concrete and detailed connection with our users. However, the degree of challenge varies a lot from project to project. UX designers always need to continuously study and explore better to align UX strategy with business goals in different projects.
Visually Appealing:
From the user testing, I got very positive feedback for my UI design and prototype. They feel the UI design is eye-catching and fit with the brand tone. UI design is a crucial part of the overall experience and usually is the first impression on the user end. Applying appropriate visual design to align with the brand, keeping aesthetic appeal, and confirming pixel-perfect should always be remembered.