The bane
Content, the bane of our existence (well website designers and developers anyway).
When I look back at those ‘troublesome’ projects, i.e. projects that overran in terms of budget or timeframe, often content was at the centre of the problem.
Why?
Well there are a myriad of reasons but the one key factor is always ‘underestimating the amount of work involved’. Content and copywriters exist for a reason – sitting down to write effectively pages and pages of content is simply not a straightforward task.
It doesn’t matter if the content is a company biography, a personal biography, a product description, a service overview, your mission statement or ethos. Once you’re put on the spot and your design agency is breathing down your neck you suddenly realise ‘I’ve underestimated the amount of work involved’.
The importance of content
From an agency perspective – any great website is designed and built around your content. If we don’t have it, it’s hard to design it and if we can’t design it we most certainly can’t build it.
As for you (the client) writing content for your website is one of the most important elements of creating an effective online presence. Content is the cornerstone of any website and can be a powerful tool for engaging users and motivating them to take action.
Great content helps to create an emotional connection with customers, making them more likely to engage with your business. By telling your story and explaining your service or product in a compelling way, you can create an ethos that resonates with customers, and helps to differentiate your business from others.
It is also important to take into account the search engine optimisation (SEO) of your website. SEO helps to make sure that your website is visible to search engines, so that more people can find your website. Writing content with SEO in mind will help to increase your website’s visibility and ranking.
Some helpful hints
So, let’s explore some experiences, hints and tips that might help you deliver meaningful, engaging content to your chosen design and development agency on time and on point.
Time, Time, Time
Writing content takes time and there’s no way around it. Sure, you may be able to bang out a few words quickly, but if you really want to create content that resonates with your website users and conveys your message clearly, then you will need to put in the work. Planning and preparing your content is a critical part of the process and can take up a good chunk of your timeframe. Do your research, compile notes, create an outline, and then finally, write your copy.
Make sure you give yourself enough time to write content that is meaningful and valuable. Set up a timeline for yourself and plan out the steps you need to take to write your content. This way, you’ll be able to stay on track and make sure you’re producing quality content in a timely manner.
Most of all, talk with your design/development agency to ensure your potential time-frame to deliver content fits in with theirs.
What’s the worst that could happen?
A lot actually, let’s say (for example) your chosen website agency informs you your project will take approximately 8-weeks to plan, design, develop and test your new shiny website. And you agree to deliver your content within 3-weeks of this timeline.
Week-3 arrives and no content (or at least not enough for your agency to work with). This will stall the project, remember “any great website is designed and built around your content”.
Not only will it stall the project, but it could throw out timelines altogether. Keep in mind that time is money for everyone involved. The designer and/or developer scheduled to work on your project could be reassigned to another piece of work adding weeks to your desired go-live date.
Content strategy
One of the most important tools you can use when writing website content is a content strategy. This will help you figure out what your target market wants and needs, and it will help you create content that speaks to them. When you have a clear vision for your website and your target market, writing website content becomes much easier.
Another important factor when writing website content is tone. You want your copy to be engaging and interesting, without being too aloof, distant or aggressive. You also want to make sure that your tone is consistent throughout your site, so that visitors feel like they’re getting the same experience no matter where they are on your site.
Keep in mind your audience, how informed are they regarding your product or service?
For example if your service is very technical and your speaking to a knowledgeable audience then you can afford to be more direct and to the point, use industry terms and for the general tone to be professional/technical.
However, if your audience needs a level of education in relation to your offering – then you need to take more of a ‘layman’s’ approach.
Outsource
As we have mentioned, there’s a reason content and copywriters exist. If you feel you are going to struggle with time or finding your voice do consider engaging a professional.
Like your design/development agency with some research, an understanding of your client base and an overall brief they will write your content keeping in mind everything we discussed in content strategy. They are also used to working to deadlines and alongside side design agencies.
[UPDATE] Don’t rule out using AI even for some foundation content. While it will need work (adding your own bespoke message, tone and spin) it may go a long way to reducing your time. Check out this more recent article on AI: https://www.bigdog.ie/ai-artificial-intelligence/
Be SEO conscious
We have discussed the importance of ensuring your content is engaging, informative and pitched at the right level/tone. It should also be SEO friendly and structured in a way that makes it easy for readers to find the key information they are looking for.
The process of creating SEO copy involves researching the right keywords and phrases to target, and then crafting content that is rich with those keywords and phrases. This will help ensure that the content is more likely to show up in search engine results when users are searching for related topics.
In addition to creating SEO copy, it is also important to keep track of the performance of the content. This can be done by using various analytics tools, such as Google Analytics. These tools will provide insights into how the content is performing, and can help to identify areas where improvements can be made.
By tracking the performance of the content, it is possible to continually optimise the content to ensure that it is as effective as possible.
Not all content is written
Your content strategy should include more than just written words. Bespoke photography, illustrations and video are an amazing way to promote your brand, to tell your story and convey your services through engaging content with a proven track record.
[UPDATE] https://www.bigdog.ie/video-marketing-and-its-importance/
Conclusion
Planning and ensuring ample time for content writing is by far the biggest take away for us. Keeping in close contact with your design agency – if there are going to be delays – the sooner they know the sooner a plan can be implemented.
Ensure you develop a content strategy that will help outline the work to follow and don’t be afraid to outsource and use mixed content types.
If you want to discuss your content requirements with us, feel free to reach out at any time.