If you don’t have a website up and running in 2022, or at the very least a digital profile of sorts, your company may as well not even exist. According to a survey, 81% of people do research online before they buy a product or service. It’s important that they get the information they need to make their buying decision straight from the main source – your website. It’s normally the first impression people have when it comes to your brand as well, so you want their first experience a memorable one if you’re going to convert a website visitor into a customer. But, creating a website, figuring out what to say on each page, and not knowing where to start leads to overwhelm, and we know it!
That is why we have put together this guide to help eliminate as much stress as possible as we go through the steps one at a time while building your website together. As your professional web development team, we’ll be your guide at every turning point so you know exactly what to say and where to help lead your new customers down the path towards their purchase whether that be on or offline.
PRO TIP: And, this isn’t just a wishy-washy article about how to write your content. It’s hands-on so grab that notebook, journal, napkin, or scrap piece of paper so you can make notes as you go along.
Step 1: Let’s start by talking about the objectives for your website.
The very first step in the process is knowing what you want to use your website for.
Examples of website objectives can include…
- To grow your email marketing list
- To sell products online, or in-store
- To teach new or recurring customers about your brand/products/services
- To generate more leads for your sales team to convert
Let’s start with a quick brainstorm to get you started. Open that notebook and let’s do what we like to call a brain dump. Without judging what you write down, start writing everything that comes to mind that you want your website to do, say, and outline in point form. And, DON’T overthink this. We’re going to come back to it later.
Step 2: Now think about who your target audience is.
At the end of the day, you want to generate more leads and sell more products, right? Think about what your target audience would be interested in learning about on your website. For example, if you’re selling balloon party decorations, then the website layout, tone of voice, and elements would be completely different than a lawyer’s website. One of the biggest marketing fails is failing to know who your key audience is for your brand.
SPOILER ALERT: “Everyone” is the wrong answer here. Although your product or service might be an option to many people the key to increasing your conversion rate is speaking specifically to one person who is highly likely to convert.
To help you decide who that person is. Grab a spare piece of paper and answer these questions…
- Where do they live?
- What do they do?
- Why do they need your product or service?
- What problems does your product or service solve?
- How old are they?
- Are they the person who will use the product or service directly or do they buy it for someone else?
- Do they need your product or service immediately or do they need to do a lot of research before they buy?
Step 3: Now that we know who we are talking to, let’s decide what we want to tell them
Your website needs a purpose. That purpose might be to make your products easier to buy, to educate your customers as to which product to buy and to make connecting with you to book an appointment easier.
Whatever that purpose is to write it down. Knowing the why is going to help you frame all your content around it. Because really, what we are trying to do with your website is walk the website visitor through your virtual office or store to view everything they might need, while making the point of YOU NEED THIS. BUY IT NOW. And now, might not be at the click of a button on your website. It might be that they do have to after educating themselves on their options, walk into your business to finalize their purchase but, the buying process is uniquely similar no matter what you are selling.
First, you need to tell them you have a product, then you have to tell them what’s included with the product, tell them why they need it, what the benefit of having it is, how to use it, how much it costs, what colours it comes in, and lastly how to purchase it.
If no one knows a product exists, they won’t buy it.
If no one knows what a product does, they won’t buy it.
If no one sees the value of a product…you got it. They won’t buy it.
So, let’s grab that sheet of paper again and write down 5 things we want to tell your customers about your product or services under the heading “5 Things to Tell the Customer”. If you sell multiple products or a handful of services write down 5 things for each product or service because we’re going to need to repeat this process for each one before your website content is complete. But, don’t sweat the details too much because you can always go back and edit, tweak, or add to it as we go.
Step 4: Now that we know what we want to tell them, let’s decide what we want them to do
There is more to a website than just informing your audience about yourself and your amazing product. You have to actually TELL THEM WHAT TO DO. It sounds bossy but, you’re in business for a reason, right? To make money. A ton on money in sales is left on the table because no one ever asks for it. Your website is no different. You have to lead your customer down the garden path to the gate in front of your store where they will open the gate and walk through it as the proud owner of your product or service.
So, what do you want your customer to do? Be very specific. And, write down what you want your website visitor to do once they visit your website.
A few examples for you:
- buy a product
- sign up for a webinar
- agree to receive your monthly newsletter
- buy a subscription to your magazine
- book a free consultation
Grab that notebook again and write down your answers under the heading “I want my website visitor to…”
Step 5: Ask yourself what’s missing.
We’ve made a lot of notes but, I bet there are a few things we skipped over. The best way to figure that out is to think about the last time we purchased a product or service and what that looked like for us. For example, if you were going to book a spa day in downtown Toronto for a little self-care what research would you do? What do you need to know to book your service? What do you need to know before you pick the day and time for that spa day? This is a quick list that comes to mind for us:
- What city do I want to go to the spa?
- What service do I want? A pedicure, massage, haircut etc.
- What are the reviews like other people have left?
- What is their availability in terms of when I can book an appointment?
- How much time does each service take?
- Are there any discount packages that make my buying decision easier?
- What does the spa look like inside and outside?
Some of these questions are judgement based. Whether we like it or not customers are going to research us, our company, and our offerings. Then they are going to compare notes with others who have experienced those products or services before. And, they are going to have an idea in their mind of what they will receive as a customer all before even so much as opening our front door or booking an appointment. This is why it’s so important to make sure we have everything they need in front of them on our website in order to make an informed decision. If we don’t we risk losing them as a customer. Or, maybe we give them everything they need but, we don’t have a good user experience so we lose them. We’ll get to that though. We have a few tricks up our sleeves to help you prevent the common pitfalls we see. In the meantime, put yourself in your customer’s shoes. If you were thinking about buying your product or service, what would you need to know? Make a list and write down the questions you would have as a customer buying your product.
Step 6: Let’s plan out the pages
Now that you who you are talking to, what you want to say, what their questions might be, and what you want to sell. Let’s decide what pages you might need to include on your website. No matter what kind of business you own, you should always have a home page, contact page, and about page. These are crucial to your brand. Other pages are unique to your business, product or services to give your website visitors the information they need to make an informed decision as to which product or service to buy.
PRO TIP: Google also wants to know about your products or services in a deep way. Make sure each of your products or core services has its own dedicated page so that Google knows where to catalogue that. If all the information is on one page, Google doesn’t know which drawer to file it in. Imagine pulling the dictionary off the shelf in a library and trying to decide which word in the dictionary makes the most sense to file the book under as a subject (if there wasn’t a section in the library for dictionaries that is).
If you look at our website for example this is the basic structure:
- Home
- About
- What we do
- website design and build
- lead generation
- advertising
- content development
- graphic design
- social media marketing
- marketing automation
- search engine optimization
- conversion optimization
- Our Work
- branding projects
- website design
- business cards
- promotional materials
- video advertising
- FAQs
- Resources
- Contact
- Book a Consult
Note the difference between the pages listed in the first column versus the second that is indented. The indented pages are individual pages under sections where additional information can be found on those topics. This helps figure out what pages are more important to the user to find first in order to direct them to what it is they are looking for more specifically. Think of each layer as a direction sign pointing them in the right direction when there are too many options to choose from. The more options we have in front of us the tougher it is to make a decision but, if we cut some of the clutter we can make that decision-making process easier for the customer. The information is important to their buying decision though so we want to organize it into different layers instead of leaving it out.
PRO TIP: Don’t hide the details. When building your new website you might think “If I put it all on the website and they never talk to me how will I help them buy my product?” In 2022, we are all very independent and do not being sold to. But, if you put the information out there and let me work my way through it, I’m able to educate myself enough to make a decision. I might have a question or two for you before I buy but, if I’m the right person, you know the one that becomes a customer, you won’t have to sell me. Your transparency of informative information not only sells your products or services for you but, also makes me trust your brand or business more.
Step 7: Let’s put pen to paper
You know who you are talking to. You know what you want to tell them. You know what questions they would ask before buying. Now what you have to do is create a headline, 3 paragraphs on the topic, and a call to action for each page you outlined in step 6. If you can’t write 3 paragraphs about the topic of that page it either doesn’t need to be its own page OR you haven’t thought deeply enough about what the customer would want to know about that topic.
Before writing this all out long hand with pen and paper though you might want to jump over to a computer, open a Word or Google doc and start typing away. That way you don’t have to type it all out again after you took the time to write the first time and your spelling or grammar will get corrected along the way.
PRO TIP: Before finalizing your content in a word document jump back over to the notes you made from Step 1 and see if there is anything else you listed out there that you missed and might still want to add in. If you think you went a bit overboard there and don’t necessarily need to add it that’s ok. Less is more in many cases but, make sure you still have enough meat and potatoes on the plate if you know what we mean.
The Final Step: This is where we jump in and work our magic
If you get stuck brainstorming or need help brewing your creative juices, remember that we are only a phone call away. Plus, don’t be afraid to add things in noting anything else you think of along the way. Just because it’s not on this list doesn’t necessarily mean don’t include it. Send us your Word document (we don’t really want your scribbled napkin or notepad but we will take a photo of it if it’s all you’ve got) to get the ball rolling on your new website.
