Your website is your company’s most important marketing tool. It’s how you reach out to potential customers and build relationships with existing ones.
That’s why it’s important to write your content first before we start: so that we can make sure the website layout supports the messages you want to convey.
Before we get to the design, we need you to write your site content.
Think of your website as a store. The content is the store’s product. You can’t sell anything without it. Your website will not convert visitors into customers unless you have some kind of compelling content that convinces them to buy something from you or sign up for your email list.
Content should be king, but most businesses don’t realize this fact until they’ve lost money on failed marketing campaigns and lackluster sales conversions. If you want to bring in more leads, build stronger relationships with existing ones, and increase revenue per customer, then good content is critical.
But what do we mean by “good”? And how does one write copy that converts?
You might think “content” just means the text on your site, but it’s actually a lot more than that.
You might think “content” just means the text on your site, but it’s actually a lot more than that. Content is the story you tell about your business, the experience you create for your customers, and why they come to your site in the first place—it’s everything!
For example, a content-before-design approach would mean focusing on creating an excellent blog post before worrying about how it looks. As we all know: good design can help make content more accessible and engaging. But what happens when there isn’t any great content? A pretty design won’t do much to keep people reading if they don’t understand what they’re reading or find it boring.
Here’s a brief list of questions to consider:
- What are the key messages?
- Who are your target audiences?
- What are the goals of the website?
- What benefits do we want to offer our customers/clients/visitors, and how will they make use of those benefits?
- How do we convey this information to our audience in a clear, concise way that makes sense for them (and not just us)?
Content first, design second
As a content strategist, I have to do my best to explain that content is king. Yes, you might think of your logo or brand as the most important part of your website, but it’s not. Content is what drives visitors to stay on your site and read more about your product or service — and ultimately become customers!
Content first and design second is an approach I encourage for every client because it gives businesses a strong foundation for success online. The first thing visitors see when they arrive at your site is the primary call-to-action (CTA) button: “Get started with our service today!” If there are no words telling them how they can do so, they will leave without any intent whatsoever. How many times have you been browsing through someone’s LinkedIn profile only to find nothing but their picture? It happens all too often these days; imagine how much more likely people would be to click through if this person had written something interesting in his bio section instead!
We know how frustrating it can be to sit on your hands while we gather information, but we also want to make sure that all the money you’re spending on your new website isn’t wasted.
By starting with messaging before moving into design, we’ll be able to make sure that you have a persuasive website before spending time and money creating it.