NARRATIVE STRENGTH IS MEASURABLE.

CANDIDATES’ WEBSITES PROVE IT.

NARRATIVE STRENGTH IS MEASURABLE.

CANDIDATES’ WEBSITES PROVE IT.PART

1

Narratives win hearts and minds.

When they’re powerful.

But how do you make a narrative powerful?

First you measure.

You can measure how strong your narrative is.

We can use candidates’ websites to demonstrate.

For the purposes of this discussion, we’re only looking at candidate websites.Yes. That’s a big simplification. But we’re making a point, not a campaign. So far.

Oh. You want to know what a narrative is?

Here are 3 useful definitions:

1. A narrative is a system of beliefs that effect how you interpret the meaning of things.

2. Your organizational narrative is the core of what you believe and why you matter.

3. Your narrative is the basis of the many stories you need to tell to customers, prospects, employees.

STORY VS NARRATIVE

NARRATIVE

STORY

SO. HOW DO WE MEASURE NARRATIVE STRENGTH?

WE NEED SOME CRITERIA. SO I’VE IDENTIFIED FIVE.

PRESENTATIONHow well is the narrative is presented? Can I find it and follow it?Do I want to?

ONE

How easy is it to understand? This can be the key issue in complex or technical narratives.

CLARITYTWO

Does it make me feel something? Does “it make sense”? Does it have supporting evidence?

RESONANCETHREE

If I see it, and I get it, can I explain it to someone else? Do you encourage me to do that?

SHAREABILITYFOUR

This measures how well your organization is managing its narrative internally. We have no inside knowledge of the campaigns, so we will skip this criterion in our assessments.

ORGANIZATIONFIVE

So let’s check out HillaryClinton.com with this in mind.Note, we aren’t evaluating the merits, just the strength of the narrative.

HOW STRONG IS THE NARRATIVE ON HILLARYCLINTON.COM?

This is a simple page designed to engage existing supporters. “I’m with her” has morphed into “She’s with us” in recent days.

Scroll down and you see links to her “Racial Justice Plan” and “Economic Plan” People are probably interested in those. Wonder where that college plan is? Keep scrolling….

The likely next stop is this page.

Generic text. Generic image. Generic.Massive opportunity to do better.

Scroll down to an Issues List. It’s alphabetical .No prioritization, emotion, vision. No imagery. None.

There are themes here, however. A little jiggering could slot all 28 issues into “Justice, Prosperity and Security”

That would be better.

OK. There’s some vision and substance. Not very readable.

Further down the page. Good sharing buttons. A deeper, downloadable paper for nerds like me to read.

FINDINGS

The narrative on this site is subtle and not particularly well presented. It is hard to point to the main message or themes. It would be challenging to explain it to someone else.

We are surprised by the lack of interesting imagery or reference to her massive body of public service outside of her bio page.

We note a lack of any future focused theme or attempt to make an emotional connection with would be voters.

SCSCORE – 8/32

8/32. That score leaves a lot of narrative power, a lot of influence and a lot of impact on the table. This site is not serving its organization well. The only candidate site with a lower score was Jeb2016.com (we archived screenshots)

8/32. But with a clear sense of what can be done to make it stronger. This score is both an “As-Is” and a way forward.

If her campaign wanted to improve that score, they need to build out a narrative hierarchy and a presentation strategy.

We’ll talk aout this more at the end.

First, let’s check out DonaldJTrump.com with this in mind.Note, we aren’t evaluating the merits, just the strength of the narrative.

HOW STRONG IS THE NARRATIVE ON DONALDJTRUMP.COM?

Vague but dramatic tag line.

Smirk face. Victory sign. Or maybe a peace sign?

Scroll down. This section changes frequently. This week it’s about his wins and anti-Rubio. Trumps site is very much about Trump.

6 “Positions”. Of all the candidates, this is the fewest number of issues. It is challenging to infer his likely position on other issues. Layout is OK.

Positions pages aren’t optimized for online reading and scanning. Easy to navigate on right. Yes. The wall is in there.

Look hard and you’ll find an Issues page in addition to the positions page. These are shorts of Trump speaking to the camera on hot topics. These are updated frequently.

FINDINGS

The main theme of the home page “Make America Great Again” is referred to at the conclusion of each Position paper, but not elsewhere on the site.

The presentation is tidy and businesslike, but not exciting or engaging, though the issue videos are dramatic.

His position papers are clear, but not backed by data or details.

There is minimal opportunity to share and minimal connection to social, which is surprising given the strength of the campaign’s social presence.

Again. We’re not evaluating the merits here.

SCORE – 13/32

13/32. Still leaving a lot on the table.

Hard to make recommendations about DonaldJTrump.com but there is a clear gap between “Make America Great” and the other information presented on the site.

Check out Part 2For BernieSanders.com and TedCruz.org and a look at what this means for you, your narrative, and your website.

Want to talk about narratives?www.narrativebuilders.com@deb_lavoydeb@louisonlavoy.com