Creating Better Web Content

Written by on May 18, 2011 in Content Strategy - No Comments

Most web projects wait until the last minute to develop content for the web. As a result, the quality of the content is seriously compromised. It’s important to treat your web content as a valuable asset, not an afterthought.

The content for your website, or other project, can always be improved. It doesn’t take a lot to do so either. A lot of people focus on the technical aspects and design before they really focus on the “meat” of their campaign. In an effort to improve your content, first you should consider the following five concepts:

  1. Less is more.
  2. What do you have and where is it coming from?
  3. Learn how to listen.
  4. Put someone in charge.
  5. Ask Why?

Less Is More

Information overload is a very common problem. How many times have you attempted to search for information and been overwhelmed with what you found? People tend deliver as much information as possible through various efforts such as web database searches, blogs, twitter feeds, RSS feeds, etc. What they are not thinking about is how they’re flooding their users with TMI (too much information). In general, your content is useless unless it either supports a key business objective or supports a user in completing a task.

I once worked with a client who hired me to assist with a clean interface design. We achieved this and successfully launched the site on a new platform. After doing so, they decided they would take over any graphical and content related tasks to save costs. I was fine with this and could certainly understand. However, after doing so they went overboard with content in an effort to increase their Google search ranking. What they ended up doing was destroying the elegant design I worked hard to create and made it impossible to find anything on their site (easily). It just became a big ugly mess, all in an effort to save money while simultaneously making things complicated.

When creating informational, marketing, or promotional content for online initiatives, more is almost never more. It’s OK to have a full featured site, but make it easy for the end user to get what they’re looking for. Ultimately, you make their search efforts easier and increase your conversions/sales at the same time. Remember a few things and you’ll succeed at the “less is more” concept

  • Less content is easier to manage.
  • Less content is more user-friendly.
  • Less content costs less to create.

What Do You Have & Where Is It Coming From

Content creation is a complicated process. Planning to create, deliver and manage content requires input from multiple sources, such as designers, developers and marketing strategists. This process can result in a messy undertaking.

If you don’t know what content you currently have, you can’t make smart decisions about what needs to happen next. To accurately assess your current content, you need to conduct a content audit. This process will evaluate your web content. It’s a wise step to pursue and usually is approached when doing a redesign of a site or developing a marketing strategy. The content audit requires for an accounting of all currently published web content. After an inventory of your content is completed, an analysis of this content is pursued and followed by a series of reports to determine whether its meeting your business goals.

Learn How To Listen

When doing research and discovery that will inform your content strategy, it’s important to do equal amounts of talking and listening. Here are a few reasons why:

  • Responsibility for content is shared.
  • Insight from fellow employees can be useful.
  • Input from customers is valuable.

It’s easy to begin talking about your product/services and why your targeted audience needs them. But maybe your customers have a perspective that you have not thought of yet. Their input could prove to enhance your business. Listen carefully and implement any recommendations they may have to your online content.

Put Someone In Charge

Your business needs to have someone responsible for the content you’re publishing. The magazine and newspaper industries have been working with distributed publishing models for decades. Working in this same fashion is a wise route to follow. The person in charge will be an empowered and informed individual responsible for all things related to web content. This doesn’t mean that they’re the only person responsible for creating such content. They just need to be the one who corals, edits and acts as the editor. The editor will be the one keeping a close eye on such content – what needs to be created, how it will get online and what happens to it once it’s live.

Ask Why?

The process of developing a content strategy will force an organization to examine its reasons for delivering content online. It’s not uncommon to hear things like:

  • “We need to create a blog”.
  • “Go create a Twitter account”.
  • “Our catalog needs to go on the website”.
  • “Let’s create more articles for the site”.
  • “Everyone is doing video, so we should too”.

OK . . . Why?

This is a great example of jumping right into execution rather than developing a strategy first. People tend to dive right into delivering content. This is usually a result of being under a lot of pressure to produce results. Therefore, people jump right onto a task rather than thinking through the process first. Plan out your content strategy and you will be more efficient with your time and money.

Create Awesome Content

Written by on May 2, 2011 in Advertising & Marketing, Social Media - No Comments

It’s an undeniable fact that social media has modified the landscape of the marketing industry. The rules have changed and we no longer can just rely on traditional media as a way to build our businesses. So, where should we focus our efforts in a growing world of social media? Creating awesome content.

As with everything else in the world, quality plays a huge role in how a customer perceives things. When you go to buy a car you don’t expect to see a vehicle with a broken rear view mirror (if you do you go to the next dealer). The same concept goes for marketing your businesses product or services when developing your social media content.

Master Your Subject

The first step is to know your subject inside and out. If you’re selling widgets then you should know everything about your widgets. Do your research before you develop a blog post or a video of your topic. Make sure you understand how your competitors are selling their widgets, but one-up them with your knowledge. You should be absorbing everything you can about your topic by – reading magazines, books, newsletters, websites and taking classes or attending conferences about your industry. By mastering your subject, you’re showing your audience that you’re staying on top of your widget knowledge and building their confidence at the same time.

Tell A Story

One of the many challenges when creating your content is keeping it interesting. It’s far too easy to deliver information in a boring manner. You should always be thinking of a way to make content interesting – remember not everyone is a pro at your topic so you should consider delivering it with a story to keep them interested.

If you’re a chef and selling a special sauce to cooking enthusiasts try adding some spice to the description. Maybe tell them how you stumbled upon your recipe by accidentally spilling your coffee into a dish you were preparing and just like that you had a great idea for a new recipe for your special sauce.

Choose Your Medium Carefully

Next you’ll want to decide what medium you will be using for your awesome content. Do you want to write instructions to your audience or create a podcast? Will video or audio be more affective? The decision is yours. Maybe one of your strengths is writing and a blog post will do the trick. Or maybe a video of you cooking a recipe with your new special sauce would be more appropriate. Which ever the medium, choose it carefully and work hard on delivering the best possible content on your subject. It could lead to sales down the road.

Reeling Them In

Finally, you need to reel in your audience (in a gentle way of course). After researching, creating and posting your content you should consider giving your audience a way to communicate back with you. Give them a way to post comments or communicate directly to you through email or on the phone. Before you know it people will be giving you constructive criticism or quite possibly contacting you about where to get their hands on that delicious special sauce you created.