Preparing Content For Your Website Build
Creating content that grabs the attention of your prospective clients is the difference between a website that is effective in generating business and one that doesn’t do much at all. Fortunately, with a little planning, you’ll find that pulling together the content for your website build isn’t that difficult. Here are some things to think about as you begin the process.
Site Introduction/Site Welcome
Your first-time site visitors will be coming from different places. They may have found you on Linkedin, found you through a Google search, or met you at a networking event. As they arrive at your website, you need to show them that they’ve arrived at the right place. A brief introduction to your business and what you offer will let them know that they are on the right track.
Your introduction can be as short as 2 or 3 sentences, or as long as 2 or 3 paragraphs of a few sentences each. The introduction gives the visitor a quick, high-level description of what problems you solve for your clients. For example, a handyman offers many services like repairing sagging gutters, fixing squeaky doors, or hanging a flat-screen TV. The problem he solves is helping homeowners to beautify and maintain their homes, protecting their largest investment. As a part of the job, a Leadership Coach conducts assessments, gives performance feedback, or trains a new manager on how to give feedback. In this case, the problem being solved is developing skills and improving performance so that employees can take additional responsibility on the job.
Your introduction will give your visitor a glimpse of how you can help them meet their needs.
Show Off Your Services
The services section will go into more detail about what you have to offer your site visitors or potential clients. Depending on the size of the website, the description of your services can be 1 to 2 sentences, a paragraph, or a page unto itself. It is important to have an idea of what your target customers are looking for when they are searching for a service provider. Be sure that when you talk about your services, you balance both features and benefits. Features are “the things”, benefits are “what the things do”. A good guideline for a one-page website is to describe your 3 to 4 primary service offerings. On larger sites, you can spend more time elaborating on the full range of your services.
About Your Business
Your site visitors will want to know a little about you or your company, the about section or page is the place to tell your story. It’s a good place to share information about your background, experience, and credentials. It’s another good place to talk about how you solve your client’s problems. Just like dating, your prospective clients are trying to see if you’re a good match. Try not to go overboard talking about yourself.
Help Them Make Contact
If you’ve done a good job with the other sections, your site visitors will want to make contact. Be sure to include not only your preferred method of contact but other ways prospective clients can get in touch. This can include both local and toll-free numbers, fax numbers, email addresses, and links to social media profiles. To make it easy for your visitors to send a message directly from your website, consider including a contact form.
Choose Engaging Media
Using media gives life to your website. Images, audio, and video can help communicate your message and keep your site visitors on your site (which is a good thing). You can use your own photos if they are of high quality; poor-quality images may leave visitors with a negative impression of your brand.
If you don’t have your own media assets, you can easily find and purchase them online. Many sites offer stock photos, video, and music at affordable prices. Warning: don’t be tempted to use images that you “find” on the internet. The cost for using images and other media without permission can be hundreds or thousands of times higher than the price of a legally purchased item.
Building a new website isn’t something that you do every day, so it’s definitely worth investing some time beforehand. Taking the time to gather your website content upfront will make your website build go much smoother than if you have to stop and start along the way. It also has the benefit of reducing the stress involved.
Ready To Start Your Website Build?
If your business needs a website, we can help. Whether it’s a simple website refresh or a much more complicated project, the web design team at The BLÜ Group – Advertising & Marketing can help you solve the puzzle and make the process enjoyable.
Source: Made For You Media
