News & Insights

Time For A New Website? Don’t Forget The Content

September 20, 2024
Content Marketing Digital Marketing
Time For A New Website? Don’t Forget The Content

So, your company is gearing up for a website makeover. Exciting times ahead! If you're like most businesses, you probably update your site every 2-3 years. As you embark on this digital facelift, there's one crucial element you simply can’t overlook—your content.

Great Content: The Unsung Hero of Your Website

I know what you're thinking. "Content? Seriously? Can't we just reuse the old stuff?" Well, unless your current digital content is a flawless masterpiece that perfectly communicates, motivates, and converts, it’s time for a refresh.

Before we dive headfirst into this content adventure, let’s clarify something. Website content isn’t just text. It’s everything that communicates your brand’s message, which commonly includes:

  • Copy
  • Images
  • Videos
  • Articles
  • Blog posts
  • Podcasts
  • Infographics
  • Forms
  • Alt tags
  • Metadata

You get the picture—digital content is robust, and it’s the lifeblood of your website. It tells your story, answers questions, entertains, engages, motivates, and ultimately drives decision-making. It's the reason people visit your site in the first place. That makes your content—and a strategy around it—imperative in today’s competitive landscape.

Crafting a Winning Content Strategy

Alright, let’s roll up our sleeves and get into the nitty-gritty of creating a killer website content strategy—one that anticipates the problems your customers are trying to solve, what they need most, and what information they’re searching for. For example, the Sleep Foundation achieved increased engagement with their target audience by curating strong and relevant web copy that leveraged their team’s credibility and expertise. Remember, this isn’t a one-and-done deal—it’s an ongoing process that evolves with your target audience, marketing strategy, and business goals.

Step 1: Identify Your Audience

Start by painting a picture of your target audience. Create detailed buyer personas based on demographics, online behavior, and preferences. Ask yourself:

  • Who are my ideal customers and prospects?
  • What are their biggest concerns, needs, and interests?
  • Where do they find information online (search engines, social media, blogs)?
  • What types of web content do they prefer?

Digging deeper, consider what motivates their decisions and what challenges they face. Understanding these nuances can help you tailor content that deeply resonates and moves your audience beyond transactional relationships. 

Step 2: Audit Your Existing Content

Gather all your current website content and take a good, hard look at it. Decide what to keep, what to tweak, and what to toss. Sometimes, what you leave out is just as important as what you include.

Identify gaps in your content that need to be filled and look for opportunities to repurpose or update existing material to make it more relevant and engaging. This will ensure your content remains timely and targeted.

Step 3: Establish Content Governance

Organize your content by mapping it to different stages of the buying cycle:

  • Awareness: Blog posts, landing pages, infographics, press releases
  • Research: E-books, webinars, white papers, FAQ pages, interactive content
  • Comparison: Case studies, demos, testimonials, comparison charts, testimonials
  • Purchase: Detailed product information, pricing pages, customer support information

Keep everything organized and easy to find. Appoint a "content keeper" to stay on top of it all (this is often a content strategist or content creator). 

Set up a routine for regular reviews and updates to keep your website content fresh and relevant. Clear guidelines and workflows will help everyone stay on the same page and work efficiently—something that's key to a successful content strategy.

Step 4: Plan with an Editorial Calendar

Here’s where the magic happens. Plan out your content creation schedule with an editorial calendar. Decide what to create, which topics to cover, and which buyer personas to target. Then, schedule when and where to share this content. Consider incorporating a mix of blog posts, case studies, white papers, customer testimonials, and press releases into your content plan. By diversifying your content production, you can keep your audience engaged and cater to different buying cycle stages.

An editorial calendar helps you stay organized and ensures a steady flow of effective content ideas. It also allows you to plan around key dates and events, maximizing the impact of your content distribution.

Step 5: Optimize for SEO

Keywords, my friend! Research what your audience is searching for and optimize your website copy accordingly. This will boost your visibility and improve your search engine ranking.

Don’t just focus on high-volume keywords, however. Consider long-tail keywords that are more specific and less competitive. Regularly update your SEO content strategy based on performance data, competitive insights, and changing search trends to maintain your online visibility. Consider embracing AI tools to help optimize your content.

Step 6: Set Clear Goals

Every piece of content should have a purpose. Define clear goals for each asset to measure its success. This will help you tweak and improve your strategy over time.

Goals can range from increasing website traffic and engagement to generating leads and conversions. Use SMART criteria (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) to set and evaluate your goals. 

Step 7: Track and Measure

Here's where you find out if your content is striking gold or striking out. Track and measure its performance using these metrics:

  • Consumption Metrics: Page views, downloads, video views
  • Engagement Metrics: Time spent on page, click-through rates, comments
  • Lead Generation Metrics: How many leads does your content generate?
  • Sales Generation Metrics: How many leads turn into customers?

Regularly check these metrics to spot trends and gain insights (Google Analytics is invaluable here). Use this information to make smart choices about what content to create or improve, ensuring your strategy evolves and stays effective.

Think Like A Publisher

Now more than ever, businesses need to think like publishers. Consumers crave quality content, and the barriers to creating and distributing it have never been lower. So, when the time comes for that website refresh, share content that resonates with your audience and make it a core part of your digital marketing strategy. This approach will enhance your website's effectiveness and help you build a stronger connection with current and potential customers, earning your brand trust and loyalty in the years ahead.