The New EMC.COM

Today, we launched an entirely new version of the company's portal, EMC.COM

Now, you might think that not worthy of a blog post.  I mean, how interesting can this be?

Well, it gets a bit more interesting when you consider some of the thinking that went into the new site, because that's a reflection of how EMC is evolving.

After all -- your web page *is* your company these days, isn't it?

A Bit Of Background

EMC has changed a lot in the last few years, it only makes sense that our primary portal -- EMC.COM -- would need a bit of re-thinking.

We've acquired a bunch of companies.  Our value proposition has changed.  But, more importantly, how we think about our web presence has matured as well.

Operational Issues

Over the years, EMC had a bunch of related web presences that weren't integrated.  Some were the result of acquisitions.  Others were various corporate initiatives that maybe had come and gone. 

Regardless, it was a pretty fragmented bunch of properties.

The new EMC.COM reflects one EMC. 

Gone are the half-dozen or so splinter sites.  VMware is still separate (they're a separate company, remember?).  And we made the decision to keep RSA seperate as they have a very different audience and a very focused set of topics around information security.

But, for everything else, there's one place (and only one place) to go find things.

All About Us vs. All About You

The previous EMC.COM was all about EMC -- what we did, how we were organized, our products and offerings, and so on.  It was, to put it mildly, pretty self-centered.

The new EMC.COM starts from a completely different design point -- who are you, and what are you interested  in?  As a small example, you'll have to look hard to find the usual corporate boilerplate stuff.

The majority of the site is now devoted to helping people find what they want.  It's not an afterthought, it's the fundamental design point.

If you're a business person, you'll be shown information that speaks your language.  If you're a technical type, we can help you navigate by different classes of technology solutions.  If you're familiar with EMC products, a third way to navigate.  And a fourth, and a fifth, and so on.

I tried out a prototype, and -- shockingly -- it was easier to find stuff I was interested in.

And Then There's Finding Stuff

If you're a really big company like EMC, there's a whole lot of stuff to find.

It turns out there was an interesting debate around search. 

On one side, there was a clear opportunity for an enhanced search that could be pretty smart about the search domain, and the kinds of things people were looking for.  Call this "context-sensitive search"

On the other side, there was a powerful argument that search should be a consistent experience with other search experiences you'd have outside of EMC.COM, e.g. Google.  Call this approach "standardized search".

The debate raged for quite a while.

I like what we did -- rather than have something that was arguably better for our specific world, we went with something that would provide a consistent search experience that people were familiar with, e.g. Google.

Behavioral Changes Matter

Writing for the web is different.  On the old EMC.COM, you'd find content that was written for a data sheet, or something else.  Not good.

When you're browsing, you want the relevant points made up front, in about 0.1 seconds.  You're not going to wade through several paragraphs of marketing goop to get the gist of what you're looking for.

To solve that problem, the EMC.COM team came up with writing standards for the web.  And we've had over 300 people take the course and pass the test.

I've seen some of the content that people have generated after the course.  It's not perfect, but it's much better.

Presumed Open vs. Presumed Secure

Another important way I think we've changed is in how we look at different kinds of content.  We had gotten into the habit of presuming most interesting documents were for "authorized personnel only" -- this meant an EMC employee, a customer, or maybe a partner perhaps.

Well, the world is different now, isn't it? 

And the new default is to assume that anything created should be viewable by just about anyone: customers, partners, consultants, competitors.  After we looked at it, we realized we really didn't have too much that needed to be locked away from prying eyes. 

Better that everyone can see everything, warts and all.

And, if there are a few exceptions, we'll manage those separately -- the default is an open environment, rather than a closed one.

And Some New Sections

I was looking at the mockup for the new site, and one top-level category caught my eye -- "Leadership and Innovation". 

OK, I know that sounds kind of sappy, but I was very pleased that, not only did we have enough to say on the topic that warranted a  separate tab, but that we collectively thought it was important enough that it deserved top-level billing.

If you have a moment, go check out my favorite bit of web-bling here; it's a timeline of EMC innovation done very nicely.

The Bottom Line

If you're one of the +1m unique visitors that come to EMC sites every month, you'll probably notice an improved browsing experience. 

Well, I hope so, because we've spent over a year and umpteen million dollars so that you'll get just that.

But I think the more interesting story about the new EMC.COM is that it reflects how we've started to mature as a company.

And that's good news.

[oops -- someone pointed out I forgot the link.  My bad.  It's at www.emc.com]

Comments

[Mike Volpe]

Kudos on the new website launch! It certainly is beautiful, and makes an improved statement about your brand.

You might be curious to know though, that when you search for "data storage" in Google, EMC does not come up at all as far as I could tell. On the first page are companies like www.quantum.com, www.iomega.com, www.overlandstorage.com and even HP! Whoever designed your website did a fantastic job making it beautiful, but they also made it impossible for people to find your website in Google. But, maybe no one uses that Google thing anyways...

[Chuck Hollis]

You know, it's funny -- you're not the only person that thinks Google ranking is the be-all and end-all for brand recognition.

Given EMC's target market (relatively sophisticated consumers of IT technology), I don't think spending big bucks to get to the top of multiple search engines.

It's hard for me to imagine a scenario where someone wakes up one morning, thinks "gee, I want to spend a boatload on storage today, I better go Google for it".

For certain products and audiences, there's no argument -- investing in keyword ranking is smart money spent, but not for us, at least at this time.

So -- here's the question, is Google placement more about bragging rights, or finding new customers?

[Chuck Hollis]

Hi Mike, did a bit of research into you and your company, and this comment of yours is starting to look a bit spam-ish in context.

HubSpot has something to sell, and this is how you're selling it.

Fair enough, but I don't have to play now, do I?

[Mike Volpe]

According to a Marketing Sherpa study, 83% of IT buyers always start their earliest part of the buying process with a Google search. Only 26% always go to an IT vendor website. (page 9 of http://www.marketingsherpa.com/tele/IN-BTBG7-9306.pdf)

Sure, EMC has an amazing brand and no one is going to visit a website one time and drop down a credit card for a million dollar purchase. But, if they are using Google (over 83% are) wouldn't you want them to find you, rather than the competition?

Here's the point... for a term like "data storage" Google actually wants EMC to be at the top of the rankings. You're the industry leader, and one of the most relevamnt websites in the world for that term. So, why are you not ranked for that search term? It is NOT because you are not spending enough money. This has nothing to do with budget or spending. EMC's website makes it hard for Google to understand what your website is about. With some relatively simple changes to your own website, you can make huge improvements. Have one of your web marketing people read a few free SEO blogs ot buy the $80 SEO Book (www.seobook.com) and then make the right changes to the website. I really think that for a small investment of time, you will see some good results.

This is not a sales pitch for my company. I've been a big believer in search engines, blogs and social media being a very important component of the marketing mix for a long long time (years) and I've only been in my current job not quite a year.

Plus, EMC is not a good fit for our product, you're way too big of a company and we could never support your needs, so believe me, this really is marketing advice, not a sales pitch. You can even remove links to the company where I work, and references to the name if you want. I am honestly just a huge believer that search engines, blogs and cosial media are the most powerful marketing tools available.

Anyway, I do really like the new website. It really does a good job of accomplishing the goals you laid out. I guess I would have just added one goal, which is to "make sure our website gets found online by people in our target market as much as possible".

[Doug Wald]

Hi Mike-

Nice job on the site.

I, too, have gone through a recent global redesign for a technology partner of EMC's that has encountered similar branding and integration challenges to serve multiple audiences and verticals (through acquisitions), all while trying to keep content fresh, succinct, relevant and localized for our international partners and customers.
Love the idea of the true web content style guide and having all content providers take a test. Were your authors hooked up to electrodes and when they write something ripped out of brochureware or use jargon like "value-add" or "mission-critical", they got zapped with some high voltage juice??

BTW we're also sailing into the SEO/SEM boat and looking forward to the experience.

Continued success....

[Chuck Hollis]

Hi Doug

As far as the "behavior change", a lot of work on self-service education, style guides, etc. I think the real "core" of it was a "wall of shame" approach -- the team shared broadly the really bad examples.

This name-and-shame approach produced all sorts of immediate behavior change, IMHO.

Best of luck in your journeys!