The ZEDA Compass

The ZEDA compass is a step-by-step process to build digital experiences that help you sell every time you launch.

In order to have a successful online business you need to do FOUR things really well.

Z – Zero in on your customer
E – Establish a solid foundation
D – Design an amazing experience
A – Attract the right attention

Each letter in ZEDA represents a stage in our process and within each stage are four tiny ‘engines’ that need to be built. When you execute all 12 engines in your business you’ll have created a lean, mean fightin’ machine to help you run your biz.

Z – Zero in on your customer

You know how people say, “Build it and they will come.” They lie! You can’t just ‘hope’ they’ll show up. All profitable, effective websites BEGIN by identifying the customer first.

Which is interesting because most entrepreneurs completely skip this step, a few get lucky and hit the mark. But if you could minimize the risk of failing before you even start, you’d take it wouldn’t you?

When you write a book you don’t just sit down and write! You do your research and create an outline. An online business is no different, you’ve got to know who you are serving and where you are going before you start.

This allows you to customize the experience for your target customer. This is where design begins and without it, you’re just throwing darts in the dark.

This stage is about gathering intel and doing recon work.

Customer Research

How do we know exactly what will make your customers go crazy for your product or service? Do we possess a clairvoyant superpower?

User Testing

Do your visitors understand what you’re offering? If they don’t… well that’s certainly good to know.

Analytics Analysis

To understand how effective your site is you need to know: What’s driving revenue? Who visits? How they got there? What did they do?

Competitive Review

Future-proof your biz by evaluating competitors: understand what works, what doesn’t, and how to be different.

E – Establish a solid foundation

Your team and the processes and technology used to support your business represent the bedrock that enables a kick ass experience. Without a system or brand guidelines each hire will create on a whim. Over time, this leads to stuff going all over the place.

Trust is built on consistency, experience, and image. It’s important to have a brand and website that is not only smart and easy to use, but is also visually and technically consistent.

From site structure to design systems and brand guidelines to functionality and tech stacks, your business needs a cohesi1ve foundation that works for where you are and where you are going (with room to pivot).

A system with well-defined guidelines ensures consistency and professionalism across all platforms, no matter the usage. It’s like constructing your empire on a granite base instead of quicksand.

This stage is about building systems to scale your business (and keep it future-friendly).

Vision

While it may seem boring, a vision is the “North Star” of your biz. It sets important boundaries which enable you to delegate both responsibility and authority.

Site Structure

Strong site structure gives your site an unbreakable SEO foundation, reduces bounce rate, and increases time on site all of which lead to improved rankings.

Style Guides

By establishing clear brand and design guidelines, you ensure that your audience will recognize you—in every context and nobody on your team creates on a whim.

Wordpress

We use wordpress as the foundation for all our sites because it has great flexibility for strong UI/UX and can easily be integrated with other platforms.

D – Design a great experience

If you’ve read this far, by now you know we don’t treat design and branding engagements like an art project. For us, it’s not about just making something look beautiful – although we’re pretty damn good at that. It’s all about helping you achieve your business goals and realize your vision.

You can’t design a system for profit unless you understand where that profit comes from and how the current system works. Designing an experience is not just about how something looks, it’s about how it functions.

Once we’ve discovered the DNA of your business we are ready to communicate the essence of it’s personality through design. When you match the right visual system with a well thought out user path, you enhance credibility, build your reputation, and amplify results. It’s like taking your customer by the hand and guiding them on a journey to accomplish your shared goals.

Once we’ve hand-crafted an unforgettable experience for your customers, you won’t just have the best product/service in your niche, you’ll look and feel the part.

This stage is about using our recon work to build a solid foundation.

Conversion Copywriting

Most Important Element. Words are what establish you as an authority, how you connect, inspire, impart value and — at the end of the day — words are how you sell.

Branding

A good brand is a mixture of psychology and science; it conveys quality, purpose, personality, and most of all, it inspires trust.

Illustration Assets

Do you want to connect with your audience or give their eye rolling muscles a workout? When you use stock, you look like everyone else.

UX / Website Design

Smart sites provide visitors with the right guidance to direct them where they want to go and where you want them to go too.

A – Attract the right attention

Content marketing, display advertising, social media, email marketing, A/B testing, analytics…

Many entrepreneurs get stuck here in what we call tactical hell… trying tactic, after tactic and wondering why their site isn’t working. Tactics are great, but until you have the fundamentals covered, people show up, and then they leave without becoming customers.

To focus on marketing before mastering the other three points on the compass is like flushing both your time and money down the toilet.

That’s why it’s important to take care of the first three steps before employing growth tactics. Once we’ve learned about the customer, strengthened our ability to serve them and have designed the perfect experience, we are ready to make the most of the traffic generated with smart funnels.

A visit to the four points on the compass isn’t just a once-and-done exercise. We continue to learn about your customers, utilize analytics and data, and continue to build upon our initial results.

This stage is about building funnels, driving traffic and compounding improvements.

Funnels

Like a machine we will set up your site to acquire new prospects and leads, convert leads to buyers, and get them to buy more often.

Content Marketing

By creating interesting, valuable, and entertaining content your biz will attract the right potential leads and position you as an industry leader.

Marketing Data

Tracking customer data and KPIs will help you determine what you are doing right and how to keep creating for your audience.

A/B Testing

Incremental increases to conversion rate compounds results and directly impacts the bottom line.