Needless to say, setting up your business’ first website can be a very daunting prospect – especially if you’re not terribly technologically savvy.
But the way you present your website plays an important part in the sales you make. It reflects your business, values, products and services, influencing whether a customer likes you or not.
For this reason, you want to make sure you get everything right – and fantastic design alone is never the answer. In addition to designers, developers and programmers, you need a web content strategist and writer.
The web content strategist’s role
You wouldn’t build a house without drawing up plans. Similarly, you shouldn’t build a website without coming up with a strategy. This is what web content strategists are for: they are problem solvers that brainstorm, strategise, create and implement.
1. Brainstorm and strategise
To come up with ideas, a web content strategist will go through your entire site and analyse what you’ve got.
Alternatively, if you are setting a website up for the first time, they will read through any marketing material you might already have, such as printed brochures or flyers.
To brainstorm, the strategist will then ask:
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What do you like/hate?
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What do you want to change/not change?
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Which pages are the most popular?
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What are the most useful links?
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Why are you doing this web project?
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How will it be different?
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Who are your users and what do they want?
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How will people find you?
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What are your competitors doing?
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Where do I find the content I need?
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How will you maintain the site once it’s live?
To come up with a strategy, they will:
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determine how your content can be improved
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figure out what needs to be changed, deleted and/or updated
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remove clutter unrelated to your marketing objectives
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reorganise pages to better meet your users’ needs
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research and source information to fill in any gaps
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ensure the personality of your website reflects your company’s branding
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plan an interactive and pleasant browsing experience, and
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make all the content fit within new templates (or provide direction on a completely different web design).
Factors that are taken into consideration related to the web development process include:
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sitemap / Information Architecture (IA)
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user experience and functionality
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SEO (search engine optimisation)
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mobile / responsive design, and
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accessibility.
Other important things covered in web content strategy include budget, timeline and any legal requirements or agreements that your business must comply with.
2. Create (write) and implement
Your web content strategist is likely to also be your website copywriter – or the key lead that works with your content writer. It is crucial the strategist and web writer work closely together to address the points above.
Once the content has been written, the strategist must pass it on to the web designer/developer. The strategist needs to oversee that the content is uploaded and published correctly, and that everything is in the right place.
Be aware that there are usually several stakeholders to liaise with throughout the entire process, including information providers, marketing managers, and of course business owners and directors.
If you’d like to know more, contact us at Avion Communications and we’ll talk you through the process, and how we can step in and help.
