Last week, we chatted with the folks over at MIMA about digital marketing buzzwords and how SEO shortcuts can destroy a company’s long-term digital strategy. In our experience with clients over the years, it’s been amazing to see the enabling power of a well-researched and defined SEO digital strategy.
But when it comes to content, SEO is only half of the battle. And while optimization is often step one to increase the quality of content, it’s not enough to ensure success once a user is on the page. Think about it this way: SEO is like the tech crew that sets up the stage before a big performance. Just because the lighting and microphones are properly wired doesn’t guarantee the actors will put on a stellar performance.
Like any Broadway show or big production, study, reflection and preparation are critical to a website’s performance. So when building a new website, what can you do to ensure your copy is accomplishing your marketing goals? Better yet, how do you create a website that performs well? Here are three things to remember as you are getting started:
Know Your User
Identifying precise buyer personas is an essential part of building a strong website foundation and overall content strategy. Great sites are not built on guesswork. They are built on robust, precise target demographics and analytical insights. You have to know who your users are before you can start writing for them. Companies get the most bang for their website-redesign buck when they spend time learning about who they need to create content for.
As puts it: “The only way to win at content marketing is for the reader to say: ‘This was written specifically for me.’”
Develop a Content Plan
In the world of responsive web design, layout is not the only thing that is important. In addition to excellent design, marketers should understand the purpose of the site’s content and how the overall content hierarchy affects the user experience. What questions need to be answered upfront? Where should calls to action be placed? What forms might you want users to fill out from the homepage? Discovering the answers to these questions is another component of a strong website content strategy.
Steal the Show
You have one chance to win a user over. So steal the show! Educate and entertain users. Give them a reason to go deeper into your site by providing them with new information or helping them answer problems they might have. Don’t tell them stuff that they already know.
The bottom line? Create high-quality and relevant content that is useful to your user, and you have a better chance of winning them over.