It starts with a vision, not a detail
It’s springtime and construction season is about to begin. Perhaps now is the time to replace the panels on your house or to install some new decking. Timing is everything. So it’s no coincidence that SCA SmartTimber is launching its new website just in time for Easter. Nor that it is filled with inspiration and images to help you picture the finished result and feel your dream becoming reality – all before we start looking at the details around wood fibre and various technical solutions.
For me, it has been exhilarating to work with a team that puts forward so many concrete ideas and which takes a bold and clear-sighted approach to the problems which come up along the way.
From vision to value
No matter whether you’re building a house, a porch or a website, the job always begins in the same way. Why are we doing this? What do we want to achieve? What impression do we want to create?
It’s not just the future homeowner who wants to see the bigger picture before the details. That’s also the approach we have taken together with SCA SmartTimber.
The entire conversation began at a strategic level where we discussed what the future for timber might look like and what business goals will be important to attain first. If you understand your arena, it is much easier to develop a hypothesis around the best way to achieve the desired results.
Increasing organic traffic to the website was something we identified as being a central goal. It was quite simply a prerequisite for all other values.
We recognised the need to create a stylish, fast and secure website with a high degree of flexibility that would give SCA the right tools to attain key goals. Both today and in the future as well.
I consider the workshop series prior to commencement of the project itself as time very well spent. It gave us a very clear plan over our case which was something I am sure will be of benefit even going forward as well.
In order for a digital tool to be of value to an organisation, an engaged receiver will always be key. But now in 2020 it’s in fact even more difficult than that. Digital channels can no longer be thought of as a detail on the periphery away from the business’ core – on the contrary, all solid business ventures begin with a chat about how digital channels, services and platforms can attain business goals today.
So the road to success passes through an engaged project owner. No matter how much we want to build stylish, speedy and secure websites; it can’t be done without transparent dialogue.
We’ve had broad and efficient dialogue which has proven to be incredibly important in attaining certain goals.
Is content just content or is it an experience?
We believe in the latter. Even the best texts may still fall flat without an image or a properly functioning link, like in SmartTimber’s case with their "find your nearest distributor". It’s about creating the right feeling in everything from site navigation through to visualisations in the form of images and text that speaks to the reader. Some functions might seem simple, but if they have previously been missing then they may prove crucial to sales.
Crisp results, speedy and secure
The fact that we can achieve more by making the most of each other’s strengths is no secret. And the same applies to technology as well. By building up the architecture using the best building blocks for each respective area, we were able to optimise the whole system and to make it both speedy and secure. This has enabled better control over all processes from start to finish, from data to presentation.
The technologies we use allow us to spend more time on appearance and quality instead of optimisation and data
SCA’s knowledge from the collaboration
Our philosophy is that the value of our collaboration does not lie just in the deliverable itself. Rather it lies in the knowledge and skills that are built up along the way together with the customer.
One of the greatest lessons from working with Esatto for a marketing employee such as myself has been what it’s like to work closely with technologies. We found a good way to collaborate which was decisive in allowing us to launch a multilingual website in just two months. The AARRR model which we adopted during our preparatory workshop has proven to be very interesting and enriching. I am in no doubt that we will continue to use it as a common thread in all of our marketing work going forward as well.
