How do we get our new website right?
“We need a new website but how do we get it right? What content should we include? What do we say? What’s the right team to pull it all together and where do we start?”
A good website will strengthen your business
If you get your website right you will win more business. That’s the reality of promoting and selling pretty much anything today. It really matters. Your website is at the heart of your marketing universe. It’s home to all your fabulously valuable content, and the place where you communicate what you do.
Get it right
A good website builds trust and helps people to refer you. Get it right and customers and clients will be drawn in to buy from you when the time is right. Your offer will be clear, navigating will feel intuitive, your service and product pages will be compelling, it will house a bank of content that helps and inspires your ideal customers. You’ll feel confident, and keen to get people to visit.
Get it wrong
There are so many things that can make a website fail – the wrong content, lack lustre design, poor writing, bad UX, crummy SEO. But whatever the reason, if it’s not right you’ll know about it. It won’t be pulling in the right leads, and you’ll find yourself constantly apologising for it. It will be source of frustration and will stop you moving the business forward. Nobody wants that.
So what’s the right approach to a new website? And what content will lead to success?
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7 valuable tips for your website project
Here are a few tips we’ve picked up from our involvement in over 100 website projects in the last few years.
- Think content first. Successful website projects start content first. What does this website need to say to the world? Who are you talking to? What content are they looking for? So think content first (before you get the web designers in)
- Get the right talent onboard. Modern website creation is a specialised affair – content, design, development, UX, SEO, brand. It’s hard to find all the right skills in one ‘full service’ agency so collaboration with a team of experts is key.
- Involve your clients and customers in the thinking process. If you want to create a site that really engages people, look at what you do from the outside-in. See your business through their eyes by asking clients and customers for feedback.
- Effective websites are grounded in a strong story – a golden thread that runs through all the content and illuminates what you do. Get this right and the rest of the content will flow.
- A website that works is way more than just an online brochure. Yes, the company is clear about what it does and how it helps, but these websites are packed with helpful, inspiring and downright valuable content too. In fact, when it comes to the helpful valuable stuff vs. sales information they follow the 80/20 rule of content. Let that be your aim.
- Content for every step of the sale. Effective websites equip the visitor with the information they need at every step of the sales process – from just researching to just about to buy. Think through what your buyers need throughout the journey to becoming a loyal client.
- The work doesn’t stop when you’ve launched your website. Remember, it’s a platform to build on, not an end in itself. Be clear on your content strategy, create a publishing plan for the months ahead and keep adding and sharing great content if you want to get found and loved.
“Build content around the customer, and the website around the content.”
Hands on help from Valuable Content
We’d love to help you to get your website right, so that it becomes a valuable asset to your business. Here’s how we can help.
- Want to learn the approach? Sign up for Pub School. We’ll take you through the process of creating a valuable content strategy and planning the new site so that you’re inspired and equipped to take the project forward yourself.
- Looking for hands on help with your new site? Hire us as your content partners – we call this service Content Lab. If you’re in a business selling complex services and you could do with some expert help at the start of a website redesign project, we’d love to help.