Day 5: Tips for Developing Unique and Compelling Website Content

In developing content for your website, it is not only important that you consider what information to communicate, but how to communicate that information. Writing unique website content that compels a visitor to take action can take some effort (unless that’s your gift). To ensure that your content resonates with your target audience, you must first have a good understanding of the message you are trying to convey and your target audience and their values.

Writing compelling content involves more than ensuring that your sentences are well structured, grammatically correct and void of spelling and punctuation errors. You must communicate your information in a way that speaks to your target audience and supports the brand that you’re trying to create or maintain.

The Message

Define what you’d like your visitors to understand about you and your business. What are your business values? What is the “big picture” message that you’d like to convey?

The Content

Ensure that all of your website content supports this message.  Here are a few simple tips for ensuring that your content supports your unique business brand while serving the needs of your visitors:

1. Use of stories – Use real customer stories, case studies or testimonials to support your sales copy. Real stories are unique selling points if you express them effectively. When telling customer stories, be sure to include only compelling information that is valuable to your target audience; eliminate the rest.
2. Catchy taglines or slogans – Create a tagline or slogan that is a memorable, yet brief statement of why the visitor should buy the product or service
3. Be real – Write as if you are speaking to a customer.
4. Use a consistent tone – Depending on your target audience, your content may portray a casual or formal tone. Be sure you maintain a consistent ‘voice’ throughout the website.
5. Eliminate jargon – Omit language that your customers don’t use naturally. You certainly want well-written content, but it should be not be difficult to understand or require that visitors have a dictionary nearby.
6. Use media – The use of video and audio are very effective if produced properly. People often “scan” websites. They are more likely to watch a video or listen to audio, if it’s interesting and of value to them.
7. Declutter – Eliminate any content that does not align with your “brand”

Thanks for following The Content Review Workshop!  This concludes the introductory Content Review series, however there are plans to produce a follow-up series in the future. Also, look out for more workshops during the month of September.  Thanks to all that took the time to provide encouraging feedback on the series!  I welcome additional feedback on this topic, as well as your suggestions for future topics! You may send your responses using the Contact form on the Websmith Group site or feel free to comment on the topic on our Facebook Page. Make it a Great Day! – Kishau

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