We don’t have to tell you about the importance of creating quality website content. Without it, your SEO will suffer, your prospects won’t be able to understand the benefits of your product or service, and it will be difficult to nurture your leads.
Need we say more?
The problem is that with the amount of noise out there, creating website content that stands out is becoming more and more difficult. After all, what can you do that hasn’t already been done? How can you grab the attention of your prospects when every writing trick under the sun has been tried and tried again?
The truth is that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel and come up with a completely new strategy for quality website content creators. However, you should follow a few key elements that can help you achieve success.
Infuse Some Personality into Your Website Content
We’ll be the first to admit it: this advice sounds like an overused cliché. But, before you dismiss it just think about all the times you’ve looked for something online only to find the same information on every page without an ounce of personality to it. The same phrasing, the same boring facts presented in the same manner in every single article.
One of the biggest mistakes you could make when creating website content is focusing on presenting the facts and features and completely ignoring your audience and your unique value proposition. You’re trying to sound like the successful businesses in your niche, thinking that’s what it takes to draw people to your company. But, here’s the thing: the reason those businesses prevailed is that they’ve understood what makes them unique and used that to their advantage.
Provide Value
You can be a wordsmith that knows how to create captivating content. But, if your copy is not targeting your audiences’ needs then your efforts are in vain. Your prospects don’t visit your website looking for entertainment; they want a solution to their problems. They may find your catchy punchline and witty copy amusing, but in the end, if your content doesn’t provide any value, they will leave without taking any action.
Before you start creating your website content, make sure that you have a clear understanding of your target audience. What do your prospects need? What will resonate with them?
For example, if you are a business consultant that targets Millennials, more likely you don’t have to teach them about getting started with social media. They grew up with the internet and understand it extremely well. However, you could help them adjust their tone of voice and teach them how to appear more business-savvy.
Get Them Hooked
Your headline is the hook. It is the single most important element of your page. If you don’t get people sucked in from the beginning, no one will stick around for the rest.
Here’s a relevant example
When Elon Musk came up with the idea of PayPal, he wasn’t able to sell it. The concept behind it was too complicated, and people got bored instantly. That was until Musk realized that the easiest way to hook people was to tell them about the smallest feature within PayPal – that you can send money to an email address.
Back in the ‘90s, this type of service was intriguing and resonated with most people. Until this day, PayPal is known as the service that can send money to an email address.
The main takeaway: to bait prospects, you must base your headline on their needs and wants, and promise them an intriguing result.
Emphasize the Benefits, Not the Solution
One of the most important online marketing lessons you could learn is that customers don’t care about your products or their features. What they want to know is if your product can solve their problem, and how fast.
Traditionally, marketers go on and on about the solution they are trying to sell. But, according to a Harvard study, this approach rarely works, and for one very simple reason: customers already have access to numerous solutions. They have access to information and can learn virtually anything about everything. They are just trying to decide which one to pick.
If you’re pitching only the solution, you are not giving anything new to your prospects. You need to emphasize the benefits. For example, if you sell an SEO analytics tool, highlight the benefits – your software makes it easy to collect data, saves them time, they’ll stay ahead of their competitors, etc.
Creating good website content takes a lot of hard work, perseverance, and preparation. In a world where people seem to find the same information everywhere, try to go the extra mile and provide them with something valuable and unique.
