eCommerce UX & Content

Educational Content & Buying Guides Drive Traffic to eComm Site

Client

Musical Instrument Manufacturer

Industry

Musical Instruments, eCommerce

Roles

UX Strategy
UX Design
Image Design
Content Creation

Results

Crafted robust content and design strategies for the site’s Beginner Guides and Resources section
Wrote ~12 pieces of content, architected new templates, and created dozens of custom diagrams
Contributed to a 3x increase in organic search visits and assisted revenue

Project Strategy

A major manufacturer of musical instruments engaged our team to help bolster its presence in search engine results, focusing on its app for learning to play acoustic and electric guitar, bass, and ukulele.

My background as a lifelong musician was a huge benefit as I contributed to the strategy and execution of this project.

In the strategy phase, as UX lead, I:

Reviewed analyses, including search intelligence, site analytics, a Reddit forum analysis, and audience research
Formed a content strategy with our heads of SEO and Content. The plan hinged on capturing key search terms related to buying your first guitar (or ukulele) and learning to play it.
Crafted a design strategy to engage readers, lead them through robust content, and drive them to relevant product pages

Empathy Mapping: A Framework for Centralizing User Needs

Conversion Heuristic: A Framework for Driving Action

Rejecting Surface-Level Content

We rejected surface-level blog posts solely meant to capture search terms (but provide little value). Instead, our team launched a large-scale, multidisciplinary effort to strengthen their educational content. To push the editorial experience with meaty content that explained complex concepts, incorporated examples and imagery, and celebrated the magic of music.

Our goal: to make beginners feel good about embarking on their musical journey with a new guitar and the resources to start playing it.

To build this kind of content, we needed the UX to support it. I proposed new templates for the Resources section — a homepage with scannable entry points to categories and top articles. And an article template with enhanced UX features:

An interactive table of contents with a progress indicator to help navigate longer guides
A range of interactive components to make the content digestible, educational, and fun
Helpful calls to action for relevant products, lessons, and content
A layout that maximized the readability of text and showcased large, educational imagery

Initial Sketches

Building Robust Content

In the execution phase, I:

Built detailed wireframes based on feedback from the initial sketches
Wrote ~12 pieces of content within a year, including a 5,000-word guide on buying your first acoustic guitar
Created dozens of educational diagrams explaining musical concepts and the nuances of picking out a guitar or ukulele

Empowering Buyers Contributed to Sales

The collaboration of our agency and in-house teams drove results. Within a few years, “SEO content” composed 30% of the site’s revenue and 5M+ organic search visits annually, a 3x increase compared to 2019.