Hangout Lighting
Sometimes the work I do is is more behind the scenes and involves far less copy on the actual page. It's about success at launch and down the line. An articulate, flexible tone, a multi-platform style guide and an ongoing plan that can actually be followed can educate and empower future content makers. That foundational work can take a brand voice from merely present to potent.
Hangout Lighting is a Chicago, woman-owned company known for highly customizable, super affordable, totally lovely lighting. With the rapid success with online customers and growing opportunities to create relationships for B2B projects like restaurants, stores, cafes and more, the founder looked to The Profit as a chance to tighten down processes and systems on all sides.
A recommendation for a new site led to One Design Company, another fantastic Chicago creative crew. Under a tight timeline, we collaborated on a new ecommerce site that would allow for a better customer experience. Copy wise, we needed a standout story and a system for ongoing content that would help this growing company find and project its voice.
We started with a deep dive, multi-day discovery. Using exercises and learning insights I shan’t discuss in full, we examined personalities and wants of the various kinds of customers as well as differentiators and opportunities for Hangout. It was fun, full of how-bouts and what-ifs and ultimately got us all on the same page and ready to create. Putting the time and energy into that work early on is an investment, sure, but it always yields better results, faster.
From our discovery work, I turned to distilling down a brand voice that would be flexible and extensible as I worked. And more, that voice became the narrator for ongoing engaging content.
That brand voice was applied to high level messaging on key landing pages. Folks are there to shop, so we didn’t clog the pages with cute and clever copy. Beyond some top level copy on the Home and About pages and a quick line introducing product lines, we kept things to a minimum and let the lights lead.
Small touches, like the MEET page divider paired with a playful icon, brought opportunities to infuse personality.
For Hangout, much of their traffic comes from social posts. An envious Instagram following means they need to be mindful about a consistent tone but one that can adapt across media. For the evergreen site content, a friendly but we-got-this vibe. For the blog and email marketing, a shift towards an even more informal, conversational narrative would be successful. Then that left social for the silly and the standout, where personality and a little risk taking is always worth it.
One of the saddest things to a content creator is a neglected blog. In the excitement of a project pre-launch, big plans for consistent new content are usually in the works. Then, six months after going live the content goes stale. That’s why it was fantastic Hangout had a designated go-to for good words and editorial consistency.
To assist, I created a guide that included resources on blog concepting, writing and scheduling as well as a quick overview of the brand voice work we’d done. A giant list of potential editorial ideas, grouped by category, would provide fertile
As we had moved efficiently through the needed site copy and resources, which was in large part due to the trust built and knowledge gained during discovery, we had time left to play with. For four of the major blog categories, content types they knew they’d revisit time and again, I drafted exemplar posts. It would give them a few good weeks of content to build off after launch, and as they moved forward.
Thank you for the foundation you've built for us. Your guidance, tips, and resources have tremendously helped our approach in creating compelling copy."
I won't lie, seeing the winning headline pop up in print collateral on TV was pretty cool. What's cooler is knowing the Hangout crew is just down the street doing great work and now served by a great website.
Dying to watch The Profit episode featuring Hangout? Here's ya go.