Semetrical: how a digital agency uses Craft for dazzling documents and dashboards

 

How do you think agencies could benefit from using Craft?

Agencies tend to do a lot of recommendation documents. For example, when we do an analytics project we would create documentation with suggestions for what to implement and how to implement it.

Previously, we would just use a Google Sheet to share information, but with Craft you can create a client dashboard document which then links out to the deliverables. You can create a section for SEO deliverables, a section for analytics deliverables, and a section for paid media deliverables, which can all be linked to each other and other relevant documents either inside or outside of Craft.

It allows clients to find everything that’s been planned or delivered very easily, without having to delve into an email or a Google Drive folder.

Big documents can be quite daunting for people to read, especially when they’re technical. But with Craft, you can organize and create pages within pages, which makes big documents far more digestible and easy to navigate. It's almost like an architecture within a document, which not many other tools really do.

This not only makes things more discoverable but it’s also far more aesthetically pleasing than a regular file directory.

What are the three most common mistakes you see when you first onboard a new client?

From my team, the most common problem we encounter is data accuracy. Either, clients don’t have the correct analytics tools in place, or they have been set up incorrectly.

The next thing is just a lack of visibility. For example, perhaps a developer has implemented analytics somewhere but no one else uses the reports because they don't know how to access or analyze the data.

Another common issue we see is a lack of vision. We often see clients repeating the same approaches because they sort of worked in the past. But they don't always have the ability to look at where new opportunities are.

We help clients with the process of developing audiences and personas because that dictates what content you produce, how to market to them, and where to allocate your budget.

How can clients avoid these mistakes and improve their marketing and Return on Investment?

Firstly, make sure you've got a solid base to collect your information. That means looking at what tools you're using and how they are implemented. Get someone to set up some form of analytics software like Google Analytics.

If you don't have that expertise in-house that's absolutely fine, not many companies do, which is why people like me exist.

Then, the next most important thing is understanding who you want to target. Finding this out might involve analyzing historic data in your email system, sending out questionnaires to users, etc. You can also look at who your competitors are targeting to understand who you're actually going to engage with.

Once you know who you're going to engage with, you can then decide how you engage with them. Everything is quite logical once you've got a framework in place; it lets you know what's happening, when, and who it’s for.
 

How would you describe Craft?

I would say Craft is an aesthetic communication tool, which is far more appealing and engaging than Google Docs!

What are your favorite tools and software to use?

Slack is one of my favorite tools at the moment. I love the flexibility and that you can add a lot of extensions and that it can integrate very well. It has the ability to be catered to your use case; I don't really like particularly rigid tools.

I also quite like Gmail as a whole, because of how you can do the extensions. I like the task structure and that they've added quite a few productivity features.

Finally, I like HubSpot for its community structure where you can discuss ideas and recommend new product features that you find useful. It has its upvote function, so you feel like your voice is being heard, which is a really nice thing to have and can be a big source of frustration with some of the bigger companies.

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