As a business owner or marketer, there's nothing worse than realizing you've spent a lot of time, money and energy building something, only to realize you've neglected an entire critical element.
You need more than good design for your website to perform well – good content is critical
Before you hire a designer to build a new site or revamp one that's not working, here's something to think about.
Your website is the central hub of your online presence, and it has a purpose beyond being a container for contact information, hours of operation, and company bios. It's not just a glorified business card or brochure. It's home base for content marketing and lead generation.
Yes, the way your site looks matters, because appearance influences how visitors perceive you and your business, but just as important as its appearance is your site's content performance.
An overall strategy and a content marketing plan that maps out ongoing, regular contact with your audience through one or more content platforms (newsletter, blog, email, video channel, podcast or social media) is the other part of the equation, and this is true even if you plan to use online advertising to pull traffic.
Is your content working to pull in viewers who will become buyers?
SEO revolves around your website content. There's nothing a search engine loves more than quality content, especially if it is regularly and consistently updated.
Your site, and everything on it, is your best chance for turning someone looking for a solution into a buyer and a long-term customer. If all you give them is a selection of goods or services to buy, you become just like every other seller within your niche.
Consistently add content like blog posts or videos, however, and you're able to highlight all the things that differentiate your business, optimize your site for search engines, and add subscribers to your email list.
- Let your audience of potential customers really get to know what you're all about, in a way that relates to them. Not just the boring facts, but your story, and how that story relates to their experiences and their needs, and why they should care about exploring further.
- Ensure they can find all the in-depth information about what makes you the best choice and about what makes you worthy of their trust.
- Give them access to tutorials, downloads, tip sheets, videos and other material that answers their questions and helps them get the most out of what you offer.
- Make sure potential buyers find the information they will no longer buy without.
Whether they first encounter you in person, by search, or find you on social media, pull people who've shown a bit of interest in you back to your site, then give them content that makes them want to hear more from you, then provide them a way to sign up to receive that additional content. That is the path to gaining customers who buy from you over and over again.
Content strategy is key
With this in mind, you start to realize that you need more than a designer. You need a content strategy and a way to make your plan happen.
Yes, that container for the content you'll publish has to look good and function well, but getting the site up and running is just step one. When the designer has finished building your website, it's not the endpoint – it's only the beginning if you want to market your business online.
An overall strategy and a content marketing plan that maps out ongoing, regular contact with your audience through one or more content platforms (newsletter, blog, email, video channel, podcast or social media) is the other part of the equation, and this is true even if you plan to use online advertising to pull traffic.
Even if you create content on other platforms, your website is your home base. For example, podcasts and videos, even if published elsewhere, may be embedded in a blog post with transcripts, show notes, and additional content.
What else do you need to build a content-rich site?
A strategic plan
Make a plan for creating content that will open up an inviting path for visitors to your site to become customers of your business. This plan should include:
- what to produce
- the reason for it – what's the business goal?
- content format
- who produces it
- how evergreen and new content fits together
- how it will get noticed and shared
A content creation process
A good strategic content plan will give you some excellent content ideas so you know the right content to create, but there are a number of elements that go into actually making great content.
- Quality source material. This might be subject matter experts inside your company, interviews with people in your niche, or online research.
- The right infrastructure. This will vary depending on whether your content is in written, audio, or video form. Keep in mind you can embed audio and video in a blog.
- Appropriate apps, tools and equipment. Audio? A good microphone makes a difference. Video? If you're speaking on camera you might need a teleprompter app and a tripod, and of course, the camera itself should be good quality. The one in your phone might work just fine. Blogging? You need a tool for keyword research and a system to organize interviews and other research.
- A content creator. For blogging, a good SEO writer is essential. Or, if you plan to write in-house, a good editor can be a lifesaver. Even audio and video content requires some degree of research and writing, in addition to recording and editing skills.
Since you're visiting this site, let's assume you're looking for help with content creation in addition to strategy. You can find out more about my services here.
A system to get your content in front of readers
The best content is useless if no one sees it, so part of your content marketing strategy has to be how you're going to put it out into the world.
A way to turn readers into buyers
Finally, you need a way to convert visitors into paying customers, which is the goal of any business website, whether it happens immediately or further on down the line.
Not every customer will buy on the first visit, and your site's content won't necessarily be consumed all at once, so it's up to you to give visitors both a reason to return and a way to remember how to find you again.
That's why an email list is so valuable. It's as much a builder of trust, familiarity and relationships as it is a way to announce sales or new products.
If a customer is ready to buy, then there needs to be a clear path for them to do so. They need to know what to do next, and what will happen when they click a button or fill out a form. Good sales pages give buyers all the information they need, and help them feel good about making a purchase.
A comprehensive content mix and a strategy to get there
Design, content, and copy are all critical elements that work together to help you get what you really want – quality repeat clients.
That means more than developing ‘this bit' or working on ‘that part' without a thought about how they fit together. It means thinking about the process in a cohesive way, with all the pieces in place.
- An inviting, functional website that works on mobile.
- A strategic plan for content that will attract and keep the attention of your niche.
- A content team with the skills to create quality content in the form that's right for your business
- A way to use social media that actually benefits you.
- A way to turn subscribers and followers into customers, with calls-to-action that pull readers further down the conversion path.
If you're starting to think that it all sounds like a lot of time and effort, you're right. Large companies have entire departments devoted to it. But even if you don't have all the content marketing resources you need in-house or a full-service marketing agency at your disposal, here's the good news.
Building solid content for your home base is a process
You don't have to do it all at once, and you don't have to do it alone. As a content strategist and writer I can help you methodically work through a series of steps to develop a strategy, then help you implement your plans. Success with content marketing is all about the followthrough.
This is not a stand-alone marketing campaign; it's an ongoing process. Develop a content strategy, take one step at a time and build up your platform, bit by bit. Assess existing content, layer on more, re-assess, and repeat.
Make incremental changes to what you have already. It's not a question of throwing everything out to make way for something new. It's about making a strategic content plan, then following through, then monitoring results to see how things can work better.
This approach is not a short-term fix. It's a long-term solution based on proven modern marketing principles. Need help? Contact me here.