image courtesy of stuart miles/freedigitalphotos.net
My recent post, “Anatomy of a Website Creative Brief for Content” prompted a question from a reader working on a large site. He said my post was helpful but he felt as he interviewed sales and service managers that he was going in without a clear map of what he should ask everyone. He was getting bogged down a bit. Was there a structure I followed to get the info needed for the content?
The question got me thinking about how easy we make things sound when we write posts or articles offering tips and techniques to help our audience. The reality is usually much more complicated for people who haven’t done the exercise before.
It’s like learning the golf swing from a book. It’s easy to read the instruction, “Hesitate at the top while starting the downswing with a downward motion of the left foot to the ground.” The pro golfer writing the book has done it a thousand times! But when do you hesitate and how do you get that foot going first when you want to start down with your hips?
(This is why golf instruction books and magazine are insidious! They’ll ruin your game! At least that’s my excuse.)
So, here’s what I suggested to that reader who asked me about that big website he was in the middle of working on.
The structure I follow when gathering information for optimizing all of the content for a website is to find out all I can about the following: the client’s customers, features/benefits of their products/service, most important benefit of each product/service, proof they can do what they say, and, finally, what they want the visitor to the website to do.
Sounds simple enough. But business people and marketers don’t generally have time to think this way. Any more than the amateur golfer has any idea playing only once a week how to control his or her body to actually swing like the golf book says. You don’t invest the time it takes to think about your business because day to day demands always come first.
When are you going to come up with your Unique Selling Proposition or write down the benefits of your products or services? People are interrupting and you have to take care of them.
So, understand that if you’re serious about your website and you want one that gets found in the search engines, that engages customers…then prepare for some work. You have to get to the practice tee to get the feel of the right swing with enough repetitions so it becomes second nature.
In the same way, see if you can allocate some time every day or every week to analyzing your business. You may suffer from a serious case of information overload, but after a while, it will all come together. You’ll start to see patterns in the way your products are purchased by your customers. Categories will develop and your marketing structure will appear.
You’ll discover the one thing that best separates you from the competition. Yes, it will all come together for you…after much contemplation and effort.
The thing is, how many golfers actually have time to get to the practice tee? And how many business owners and marketers can afford the extra time it takes to get it all together?
I try to inform with my blog posts and not sell. But I understand what day to day business is all about. And I know how tough it can be to get it all done with everything that comes up each and every day.
Because there is so much bottom line potential for your business when it comes to the wider marketplace online, it might be a good idea to think about some help. Getting someone on board who has “hit lots of shots.” Who not only takes the time to get the content right, but offers an experienced insight into what it really is that makes your business great.
Shoot me an email when you’re ready and we’ll talk about optimizing your business website.
Until next time,
Nick
Nick Burns is an SEO web writer specializing in persuasive copywriting and content marketing. He provides clients a winning content strategy plus the special web writing to make it work. You can contact Nick here.
