Shoot to Thrill: 3 Key Categories of Website Content [Plus a Bonus]
Learn to master these three elements of content, and you’ll be kicking butt and taking orders in the online marketplace!
About a month ago, I wrote about crafting an attractive website for your business. While quality content briefly came up in the discussion, I felt there was more to be said than a simple “Get good!” The challenge of compiling attractive messaging, photography and video is one that daunts many a startup. To beat it, your team’s gonna need a game plan.
On that note, let’s dive in to a fast and furious breakdown of the three core categories of content (plus a bonus) that drive website success! If your team can nail down these facets, online business will boom and you’ll have a firm foothold in the online marketplace. Here we go…
Category #1: Branded Content
If you’re a lemonade stand on the side of the road, you don’t need to brand your business. It’s lemonade; no extra fuss required. If however, you’re a fashion boutique developing a brand new line of shoes for single, middle class women in the 20–30s age demographic, there’ll be some explaining to do.
Brand perception is one of the most powerful factors behind (almost) every purchase decision.
That’s why men walk right past the cheaper off-brand grooming products to purchase the latest flavor of Old Spice, and why women look to Sephora and Maybelline for cosmetic guidance. Branding confers values like reliability and sensuality on even the silliest of products. So what qualities does your branded content bestow upon your products/services?
Every part of your website contributes to your overall brand, but the most impactful brand content comes from your Home, About Us (Our Mission), and Contact Us pages.
These areas are where you get to flaunt your business the most. There are a few essential challenges you’ll be taking on at this point, including:
- Communicating Your Brand Identity
- Establishing Credibility
- Claiming Your Ideal Customer Base
Brand Identity
Identity is just as much about who you are as what you are. That includes your history, both as a company and as an entrepreneur. Depending on how much personality you want to infuse into the website, your tastes, favorite causes, and passions can all be wrapped up into this process.
Credibility
If you’re the President and CEO of your own fashion startup, you already know who and what your brand stands for. You know about your extensive experience with European fashion shows. You know about your award winning gown design.
Your customers don’t. Show and tell them exactly why you deserve their business (without using the word “deserve” please).
Point out what makes your products or service stand out from other contemporary brands. Stay away from generic or vague self-flattery. And above all, let your most enthusiastic fans advocate for you! The easiest way to establish credibility is to let others praise your company.
Claiming Your Customer
Don’t be afraid to limit your customer base. There’s something special about brands that appeal directly to a specific demographic (working women, entrepreneurs, etc.). First, it eliminates many of the low quality leads that sabotage your website rankings. Second, it creates a warm feeling of belonging that appeals to your particular community.
The desire to belong is a value that appeals to everyone, regardless of age, gender, race, occupation, and whatever demographic you can think of.
Finally, it allows your best customers to self-qualify themselves for your products. Here’s an example that works for me: “I am an active sand volleyball player. I am qualified to purchase this custom knee brace.” There are multiple ways to qualify people. You can outright say what demographic you serve (in an appropriate manner). You can also include pictures of people that fit in your target market using your product or service. A more subtle way of narrowing your audience is through specific keywords that tweak your search results. Moz has some great tools for planning and researching potential keywords.
Whatever combination of tricks you use, stick with your target demographic and avoid generalizing your messaging. After all, “If you try to please all…” If you still have no idea how to start your messaging, try starting with Google’s content guidelines!
Category #2: Product/Service Content
Nothing kills an online business faster than muddled product pages. Frankly, with all the quality website development tools like WordPress, Square Space, and Wix, there’s just no legitimate excuse for getting this wrong. All it takes is three, sometimes four elements to nail your product or services page content.
What You’ll Need to Get it Right
- Quality Photos
- Product Descriptions and Relevant Data
- An Ordering Mechanic
- Customer Reviews (Optional)
That’s it! That’s all it takes. You don’t need a complicated story about the product’s origin (unless you’re in a seriously high-dollar market). Stick with these elements and you’ll be successful.
Photos
As someone who processes information better with visual stimuli, I can’t tell you how frustrating it is to see a product page without an image of the product! Don’t shoot yourself in the foot; take some time to capture some quality photos (maybe even video) of each of your products. Hire a professional if you have to, please.
Descriptions
Product descriptions are another sore point for many businesses. Have you ever been shopping online and stumbled onto a page that doesn’t say what the product or service actually does? The description might as well read “Don’t buy me.”
If you want a kick-butt example of a product page, check out this Old Spice men’s deodorant. [Below is an excerpt taken directly from a Target Product Page.]
Highlights
- Aqua Reef is a lime and cypress scent reminiscent of drifting around in an inner tube
- Old Spice Men’s Deodorant overpowers stink with good-smellingness
- Red Zone Collection transforms unfresh men into legends of confidence
- So easy to use you might accidentally put it on and only later realize your man-nificence
You can see the product team had fun writing this description! Note that while the information is masked in playful branding jargon, it’s easy to break down into practical details. Lime and cypress scent; men’s deodorant, smells good; part of the Red Zone Collection; and easy to use.
You probably won’t need to be quite as gung-ho with your product information, FYI. But that doesn’t mean you can’t spice up your pages with some alluring descriptions. Be sure to add any additional product data beneath your description that you feel is absolutely necessary.
Ordering Mechanic and Reviews
When a customer falls in love with your product (or service) they should be able to instantly add it to a shopping cart. The transition from browsing to buying needs to be as short and seamless as possible. For the last little bit of convincing, you can add reviews just beneath the product data. Again, these tools are available in most website construction portals (WP, Wix, etc).
Category #3: On-Site Content Marketing
The Content Marketing Institute has an apt description for content marketing (imagine that!):
Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.
In truth, “content marketing” is a bit of a misnomer. There’s very little marketing actually taking place in this sort of content, because only 10% of it is focused on creating interesting in your products and services. The idea is to create informative, entertaining, and engaging material naturally draws people towards your brand.
So what does content marketing look like on a company website?
One of the simplest tools that corporations use is blogging. It utilizes a (relatively) neutral environment that’s cheap to cultivate and easy to sustain. This is why commercial blogging has exploded over the last 10 years. Blogging is a very effective branding tool, because it’s easy to deliver stories that make your business more personable and culture-relevant.
Next comes social media, another cheap source of publicity for your brand. With careful planning, industry related stories and facts can produce more credibility among your target audience. All your best content can be embedded onto your website. Keep in mind that visual media generally perform the best in terms of engagement.
Based off data from the Pew Research Center, 73% of Americans use YouTube.
If you’re planning on developing a sophisticated social media presence, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram are the easiest places to start. Again, when it comes to content marketing, 90% of the content will be directed away from your business. If you just bombard your on-site blog and social pages with sales, you might as well drop them and only do a promotions page. Speaking of promotions…
Bonus Category: Promotional Content
Have you ever been browsing your Facebook page, only to see an ad for a delicious chocolate mouse that happens to be just the right price? The power of Facebook advertising grows more impressive (and alarming) every year. That being said, there are numerous portals for running your promotions:
- Food Apps
- Email Marketing
You can take your pick! One of the best ways to turn interest into sales however, is constructing a landing page to receive all your incoming promotion traffic. The design can be very simple, but there’s one law you have to obey:
Do NOT stop the impulse!
As you probably know already, promotions are often driven by impulse purchasing. That means your promotional content on the landing page needs to be kept to a minimum. So stick with the following…
- BIG photos — especially when it comes to food and clothing
- Short, evocative descriptions
- Time & quantity-exclusive terminology (include a countdown if possible)
- A simple “Buy Now” option
If you’re considering an upsell, be very careful. Anything resembling even remotely resembling a bait-n-switch tactic will be noticed a mile away, and it’s a huge turnoff. Try directing the impulse buyer to your other products after they finish with their initial purchase.
Parting Thoughts
As you develop your content throughout the website, make sure you’re being honest with yourself and your target market. Don’t be afraid to get excited and to add flavor, but don’t oversell your products or services. The best thing you can do for long-term success is carefully set your customer expectations, then exceed them!
And please, use photos!
