Posted by Imagine the ideal web representation of your business. What will it look like? What functionality will it need? What software will you use to build it and what platform will you host it on? But wait…before you answer those questions, you may want to consider a few basic content questions.
What kind of website do you want?
- Online Business Brochure/Catalog Website. Do you want a static website that will represent the company mission and/or value proposition?
- Informational/Educational Website. Do you plan to update content regularly and, if so, will you use that content to educate your audience while building the number of your repeat visitors?
- Community Building Website. Do you want your site to be a destination where clients and potential clients can be part of an ongoing community experience?
Where will your content come from?
- Existing Content. Every business has a mission statement, value proposition and list of benefits/services they offer. This is always the best starting point.
- Easily Assembled Content. Beyond the obvious, there are other kinds of content you either have already or can fairly easily assemble:
- Profiles of your principals
- Client case studies
- Charts/graphs of your corporate results
- Marketing copy
- Research results
- Creating Content. Although the above content types serve as a good content base, the most effective way to encourage readers to return on a regular basis is to publish new content on a regular basis. There are many ways to create new content. Here are a few of them:
- Publish a daily news of the market blog
- Publish regular interviews with clients
- Publish an educational blog, either written by the experts at your company, or by some of your most knowledgeable clients
Never underestimate the value of peer-to-peer connections for generating content.
- A website that incorporates social media that is well used and well loved by clients can serve to exponentially grow your business.
- Encourage clients to post questions to your blog and have your experts post their answers. Most companies tend to underestimate the number of questions their clients have but may be embarrassed to ask.
- Host online blogging events between your clients and your experts, and keep the resulting posts in a knowledge base that future readers can refer to.
Use advertising promotions on your site to highlight your updated content and services.
The standard rules of public speaking apply to websites as well: first, tell your readers what you are going to tell them (i.e. in a website promotion banner); then, supply them with the content; then sum up what it is you have told them (create a repository where readers can go to review the content you have created).
Now…what were you thinking about the “look and feel”?
All of the Above 