The Fabulate redesign can be best described as an evolution of the existing platform. The new platform will benefit from its visual overhaul and is a result of taking significant user data and feedback on board. At a top-level, we have fine-tuned the original platform to give you a quicker and more enjoyable experience. Beneath the surface, we have included some tools that will make the content creation process even simpler. No stone has gone unturned, with every pixel on every page painstakingly obsessed over and transparency the ultimate goal. I won't spoil all its features, but here are the top eight that will make the life of a creator easier.
Insight: Make it clearer, cleaner, simpler.All elements of organisation tables have been clearly marked, and designed in such a way that you can easily sort by time and priority. Using search, you can filter each of your opportunities even further.You will have increased control over your active jobs, your pitches and open briefs within the platform.
Insight: The ideal number of pitches for a client is between 4-6. Displaying the number of pitches has been a heavily requested feature and one we are rolling out with the redesign. Each active job in the marketplace will now display how many pitches have been submitted for it. The goal here is to balance the number of pitches a client receives (as wading through tens of pitches is not a great user experience) and not waste the time of creators on jobs that have already received enough interest. As a creator, you will still not be able to see who else has pitched, or their idea. This means your idea will always be safe from competing creators.
Insight: Make it faster, make it shorter.Getting the delicate balance of providing the client with the right amount of detail that allows them to inform a decision while making it a painless process for creators to respond, has been the goal with these revisions to the pitch process.Using a combination of platform data and user feedback, we've been able to remove content input fields, which should reduce the overall time it takes to pitch without impacting the quality of the work. In fact, from the tests we have done, the new structure builds the response more effectively and improves the way pitches are read.Each pitch covers three steps:a) Your pitch summary - think of this like your cover letter or your compelling hook that will make the client stop and take notice. Your pitch summary includes a headline (or title), an overarching outline of your response and the option to add a cover letter. Your cover letter should detail who you are, your experience and if there is anything interesting you can bring to this topic.b) Your creative concept - broken down by the number of content jobs. This section really helps clients form a decision and the successful pitchers spend most of their time here. A punchy headline and a great synopsis can be the part that makes a pitch stand out from the crowd.The goal here is never to provide more than 50 words of copy for each idea. It's an entrée, not the main course.c) Summary of your pitch - this displays your pitch before you submit to a client. It gives you the option to go back and make changes if required.
Insight: Your brief is great, but...An old colleague was famous for the ‘quick question', but it was what helped him get the last remaining nugget from a client and increased his close rate. Sometimes a brief is just missing a few details and you aren't sure that your angle is in line with the client's expectations. Sometimes they need a little bit more work. We've made it possible for you to message the client directly prior to pitching. It's a small change, but one that I am sure will make a huge difference to pitching on the platform. All messages are still linked at a job level, so finding your communication is easy.
Insight: Fill the workroom with advanced text editing features.The workroom is the hardest working part of the Fabulate platform, which is why it is important to make sure that it is as nimble as possible. Before we launch improvements such as redlining and opening up the text editor to real-time collaboration, we needed to implement some additional features:a) The chat module compressed the workroom too much. Its function has now changed so that it pops over the screen (on user initiation) and easily closes when not required. b) Renaming of workroom tabs - you can now edit the name of the tab to correspond with the content piece. This will make it easier for clients to identify and navigate to the right area.c) Advanced text editor functionality - the platform now supports paste formatting (allowing you to keep the format of original documents) if you are copying and pasting from Word etc. and format painter, allowing you to apply formatting to existing text easily. Your text will look and behave as you originally intended.
Insight: My copy is perfect, take me to editing/publishing.The Fabulate workroom is designed to allow two rounds of client reviews, but a common issue we were coming across on jobs where you had either worked with a client before or nailed their tone the first time, was that additional reviews were not required. The fact that we work with some amazing creators probably helps as well!Up until the redesign, this required admin system intervention. It will now be possible for a client to do this themselves from within the workroom. With this feature, we hope that you will be able to work through jobs even faster.
Insight: We've got the text, now give us access to images.You can now search and add stock Getty images (from their creative library) direct from the workroom into your articles or creative pieces. We are really excited about this one, as not only is it fast, but once a client approves your proposed image, it will automatically download and attach as a file.Clients who request image recommendations as part of their jobs can now use these images as part of their content piece, wherever it is published (online or offline).
Insight: Make my profile information simpler.There is a lot of information that goes into creating your portfolio, so making the input fields as easy to use as possible is really important. We have reorganised everything so that it makes more sense logically and bundled options together so that everything builds for your profile.With the new tabular approach, it also means that we have more available page real estate to better layout certain elements for ease of reading.You have always been able to update your password from within the platform, but this now sits in its own section, making it easier to find.Not released in this update, but in the near future, you will also be able to regulate the notifications that you receive from the platform. If you've used the Fabulate platform before, you will still feel at home, but like you've just refurbished and renovated that home.We can't wait for you to get your hands on the new redesign and put all these features through their paces. If you ever see something that could be improved, please let us know. Every suggestion is read and considered, and a lot of the ideas above would not be live within the platform today if it weren't for valuable feedback.Plans are well under way for our next major release with the theme of collaboration. We think you'll like what we have planned.
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