The Words First Approach
When you support people as people in digital…
…you win not only the business, but their:
✓ Trust
✓ Engagement
✓ Recognition
✓ Relationship
✓ Loyalty
✓ Respect
How we’ll show your audience the support they need to do business with you online:
Audience-Focused Strategy
Compassionate, human-centric digital experiences that treat people like people. Because last I checked, robots don’t have wallets, bank accounts, families to support, or business relationships.
Collaborative Process
We’ll do this together, combining your subject matter expertise with digital strategy guidance via self-service tools and real-time advising discussions where decisions are made and solutions are found.
Content as a Business Tool
When we work together, we’ll talk content. A lot. That’s because content has huge impact in the success of your site or digital project—not just the content in your blog posts and emails, but also the interactive messages, actions, and interactions that turn leads into business online.
Customized Strategy + Results
No two digital projects are ever alike. You need custom strategies and solutions that are so unique to your organization’s goals and desired results that they wouldn’t even make sense for anyone else. My self-service tools are designed to adapt to your vision, and my collaborative action planning sessions are the epitome of informed, customized digital decision-making.
Services
Plan your site.
Action plans, self-service and expert collaborative session options for:
New Site
Redesign
Digital Transformation
Content Projects
Network and learn.
Learning community membership for anytime, continual support & resources includes:
Digital Advisor Library
Member Discussion Channels
Exclusive Classes & Events
Book a talk.
Inspire your group to make informed, compassionate human decisions in digital:
Keynote Presentations
Workshops
Corporate Events + Trainings
Hi I’m Words First founder and digital strategy advisor, Bailey Lewis!
For more than 15 years, I've been championing a more human approach to the digital world.
My mission? To help organizations and digital leaders like you create compassionate, strategic online content experiences that engage their audiences and drive success for digital business.
My unique approach, which clients praise as “revolutionary,” transforms the digital playing field for who work with me—including Fortune 500 companies and other organizations you would know by name.
If you’re ready for expert guidance to make informed, people-first decisions about your digital endeavors, let’s connect! One of my self-service products or collaborative advising options might be just what you need to set you on the path toward the digital success you’re looking for.
Facts about me:
15+ years in digital + content leadership
User experience (UX, UI) professional
Content strategy and information design expert
Audience and user research expert
Award-winning author, featured by Adobe, Progress, and similar platforms
Work across industries and org structures
MFA, creative writing
Love travel, books, the sea
After the 2008 recession, I was the technical content lead for multiple literary magazines migrating their publications online for the first time to reduce rising costs and extend their reach. Ask me about figuring out how to put a poem online without destroying its line breaks…
One interesting thing about my career:
Why is it called Words First?
You may have noticed that I’m not a copywriter or a content writer or even a done-for-you content strategist.
Rather, Words First is named after the most powerful yet untapped tool you already have to drive business and engage audiences:
Your words.
Philosophy
Compassion is something you do.
Audience connection that drives the gold-standard success that every organization wants online doesn’t just happen.
Nope. It takes intentional decision-making that prioritizes humans every step of the way with kindness and thoughtfulness.
A digital experience that exudes respect, understanding, and care is one that wins engagement, trust, and business.
Words First’s processes are rooted in compassion for the humans on both sides of the screen—the well-being and empowerment of both your audience members and your team members.
Together, we will prioritize the real humans behind the code and pixels, in every piece of research, planning, and decision-making for your digital strategy and content.
And speaking of content? That’s something you do, too.
(Watch my archived presentation: “Content Is Something You Do”)
You may already be familiar with some of the common compassionate content areas we help our clients practice:
Digital Accessibility
Inclusion & Authenticity
Transparency & Ethicality
Customer Experience
User Experience
UX Content Strategy
Emotional Intelligence
Empathy Mapping + Empathic Research
Audience-Centric Storytelling
Compassion in Action
Philosophy
Inside, we are all ooey gooey creatures.
Our human emotions make the decision about what we engage with and the business we do online way more often than we realize.
The reality of digital business is messy, emotional and surprisingly human.
Yes, you have an inner ooey gooey creature, too.
And your team and your peers and your stakeholders and your higher-ups and everyone you work with. Even that big scary executive who tries very hard to pretend otherwise.
Yes, also your customers and audience members.
In fact, your audience members bring their ooey-est, gooey-est selves to your site and digital spaces without even realizing it.
It’s really tough and emotionally fraught to be a human on the internet, even though we never talk about it.
And yes, especially when we’re trying to get things done online.
The inner ooey gooey is actually the one who determines whether your leads convert into customers, whether audience members engage with your content, whether your brand is recognized and understood, and whether your digital business sees lukewarm or piping hot success.
Support your audience’s inner ooey gooey and their ooey gooey will support you.
Compassion for Business Impact: E-MAKE Framework
Words First’s proprietary framework for translating the dimensions of compassion into effective digital business practices and impact.
It’s all about this. Successful sites, apps, and digital ecosystems act on the understanding that each audience member is a whole person with a journey and story outside of this digital space—one that you may not know very much about yet.
E - Experience
Not just a buzz word you use to get yourself to drink more water. Customers and audience members trust and engage with digital experiences that show the brand has intentionally considered and acts on their needs, expectations, and viewpoints—even when those may differ from your own.
M - Mindfulness
The best digital business results come from interactions and content that support easy action. The experience does whatever it can to support the audience journey to the final screen to buy, register, join, call, etc. And then the audience knows exactly which actions to take on their pathway through the experience so that they feel confident in completing their business in your digital space.
A - Action
Resonant, connective digital experiences that enhance engagement and trust treat people how they want to be treated. (This is often different from how stakeholders would want to be treated in the same situation.) Make the audience feel heard, seen, and understood and they will happily give you their business and loyalty online.
K - Kindness
People are way more emotional in their online business decisions, interactions, and engagement than we like to admit. Gold-standard digital experiences seek to understand and validate the audience’s feelings, anticipating how any given interaction or touchpoint will make them feel, whether created by the content itself or an external factor.
E - Emotion
Case Studies Under Construction!
I know that you care about compassion and people-first strategy in digital. I know it can also be a hard sell to number-minded executives.
I’m in the process of developing a few of my most impactful and intriguing projects into case studies for you to see how I apply the Words First approach to projects like yours.
In the meantime, feel free to schedule a call to chat with me about any of the following recent projects I’ve advised, and others.
Transforming Digital Strategy Across 70+ Projects at a R1 Research University
Expanding Audience Understanding for New Site Impact with a Statewide Nonprofit Team
Strategic Audience-Based Enhancements to Existing Website for an Award-Winning Health Care Provider
Not sure where you stand with your digital direction?
Complete the Content Compass Questionnaire
This 8-question self-evaluation tool helps you pinpoint your current position so you can chart your course forward to human-centered content optimization and digital strategy success.
If you're ready to engage after completing your Content Compass, our journey begins with a 30-minute fit call to discuss your questionnaire answers and determine which services may be the best fit.
Let’s collaborate.
What to Expect in Your Fit Call
Most importantly, this is not a sales call. There is no pitch, no canned spiel, no hard-sell tactics involved.
We’re either a fit or we’re not, and many factors will determine if we're meant to work together. During the call, we’ll discuss your vision, needs, and goals. Then, I’ll share about my process and services.
We'll determine from there if we're ready to move forward together or part ways for now.