What is the difference between a goal, an objective, a strategy, and a tactic? Simply put, a goal is the desired end result, an objective is a nearer-term benchmark in the direction of your goal, a strategy is the path toward your objective, and a tactic is a single element of your strategy.
In our work, the project goal is dictated by the client. A client’s goal could be to become an industry leader, for example, and their objective could be the specific digital project they bring to us. We would then develop the strategy to meet said goal, with individual tactics as the nuts and bolts of the strategy. While different team members will be tasked with different tactics, at the end of the day we’re all strategists, as every team member contributes to the project strategy. We’re an agency of 20 strategists who, in partnership with our clients, can surmount any challenge. Here are some examples of our strategy work in action.
Every Problem Has a Solution
The Shops at Santa Anita, a busy shopping mall in suburban Los Angeles, came to us in December 2022 with a major problem. With a transition of ownership underway, the client discovered that their existing website would be shut down by the end of the month. The mall’s management needed a functioning website, capable of accommodating holiday levels of traffic, built in two weeks.
This very tight timeline required some outside-the-box thinking. We decided to take a two-part approach, starting with a temporary site and culminating in a full-fledged Drupal site developed over the course of months. Instead of building a CMS-based solution, we built a front-end in Next.js and tied it to a Google spreadsheet. The spreadsheet’s cells functioned as content fields and were communicated to the front-end via Google APIs. The result was a single-page site that communicated basic information about the mall, like hours of operation.
We successfully launched the temporary site on January 1, 2023, just in time for the lights to be switched off on the old site. They now have a beautiful, super-fast site built with Next-Drupal, but this creative temporary measure saw them through for several months while we created their more robust web presence.
Well-Laid Plans for Vital Services
When Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) came to us, they needed to get out of Drupal 7 ahead of its end of life, and they needed the migration done without interruption to this vital urban public service. They also wanted to improve the editorial experience so team members could update and create website content more easily.
Thanks to a solid strategy and superb team coordination, we were able to transition the site from Drupal 7 to 9 (and later 10) without any interruption to the BART website. We also used the migration as an opportunity to take stock of the site and make some changes that made it faster, more efficient, and easier to use, including enhanced the editorial experience, eliminating old and redundant modules, and upgrading the media library. The forward-facing site looked very much like the old site, but the back-end was completely overhauled. We completed the project on time and on budget, which the client appreciated.
We Also Do Content Strategy
Our role as strategists at Chapter Three also converges with our role as content therapists. Our approach to content strategy generally begins with an audit and analysis, followed by strategic communications planning, content planning, content creation, and ongoing management. We don’t create your content per se but we can offer sage counsel on how to best approach it.
One of our more recent content strategy projects was the Oregon State Bar. They needed a new website for low-income individuals eligible for low and no-cost services, as well as others seeking answers to legal questions. We created a friendly, accessible, plain-language site, available in multiple languages, to give users customized results while ensuring anonymity and making them feel safe and secure.
In addition to giving them the full Chapter Three treatment with a decoupled Next.js front-end to make everything fast and robust, we also developed a comprehensive content strategy. This included an intuitive language strategy, emphasizing natural language phrasing and terminology as much as is possible to make the experience accessible and friendly to the public. Much work was also done on content architecture so as to facilitate a smooth user journey through the site.
Oregon Law Help is where great design and cutting-edge development meet thoughtful content strategy, and we believe the results speak for themselves. The site is still a work in progress, with expansion expected to continue until 2025, but it’s already doing heavy lifting helping low-income Oregonians get their legal needs met.
We’ve Got Solutions!
In our 18 years in business, Chapter Three has yet to encounter a digital challenge we weren’t able to overcome. Whether it’s tight timelines, logistical challenges, or audience sensibilities, we can strategize a solution, and we’d love to work with you. Contact us today and let’s talk strategy!
