In January of 2022, Hitachi Vantara made the strategic decision to revamp its corporate news site with a news format to better present the stories that were shaping our company, from product launches and industry accolades to pieces on innovation, customers, and partner collaborations. Prior to the revamp, the site featured a mosaic of stale corporate videos. The redesign of elements at the top of the page enabled the Managing Editor to post fresh content with appealing graphics and headlines in a “Top Stories” section on a weekly and at times daily basis. In addition, the navigational design was enhanced providing easier access to sections on press releases, media contacts, media coverage and the corporate news blog.
By presenting Hitachi Vantara news & views on a consistent and frequent basis, we were able to improve both new and repeat viewership throughout the year, improve our bounce rate, and our overall pageviews. In the fiscal year 2022, we generated more than 120,000 pageviews, a dramatic jump from the 3,700 pageviews in the previous year, and a bounce rate of a whopping 41.2%.
Once the design elements were in place, the Managing Editor worked closely with the web development team to support a new rapid cadence of content – stories, links, and graphics. All along, the team knew Hitachi Vantara had great stories to tell, we were only missing an outlet to share them regularly and intuitively.
The Managing Editor developed Edit Guidelines for the new Newsroom and Corporate Blog and set about managing each new story with the parameters of tone, length, and treatment well in hand. Headlines would be pithy, graphics would feature people, not abstract art, and stories would be formal and concise. Contributors jumped on board within weeks, adhering to the new guidelines, as did senior leadership.
Hitachi Vantara’s social team worked in lock-step with the Managing Editor to understand every single new story and amplify each across our social platforms, including LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. In addition, every single story features links to sites within the Hitachi Vantara domain, as well as helpful external links. Both helped drive trust as well as improve the bounce rate.
We surpassed our goal of 100,000 pageviews by year’s end in early November of 2022 and were thrilled. The incredible bounce rate of 41.2% demonstrated to us that our strategy of providing content in a format that would entice & engage was working. As a side note, we also learned during the course of the year that some of our largest competitors were taking an interest in our Newsroom. One of the largest had visited our Newsroom 600 times during the year.