You’re planning to create (or hire an agency to build) a new website. Great! This can be a huge step forward towards a successful online marketing strategy for your brand. 

But before going ahead and hammering out your design, or commissioning the build process from your agency, you need a plan. Websites require investment of both time and money, so it’s imperative you know how you’re going to get a return on that investment.

Once a reader lands on your site, you frequently have mere seconds to capture their interest. After all, they could be a potential client!

Smart, clean design is the first step in creating a website that can draw them in. Unfortunately, design isn’t enough. You need to think through your strategy before going forward. Once a client lands on your business website, how do you get them to stick around and engage with it? How do you get them to reach out to learn more?

In this article, you’ll learn key points you’ll want to address when planning your website, along with the “why” they are important.

• What is your overall goal of your website? To capture leads, to educate, to build authority, or even retain current customers?
• Who is your exact target? Not knowing your buyer persona will cost you valuable leads.
• Why does your company does what it does, and how can you help your audience? If you know the “why” factor, the rest will follow. What makes you stand apart and differentiates you?
• What type of content will offer a well-rounded experience and resonate with your readers?
• What type of language will you use? Formal, informal, business vs. consumer? These are all things to keep in mind when building your content and marketing strategy.
• How will you plan and lay out your content? What was once recommended has changed based on search engine marketing changes, ex: silo structure vs. spoke and wheel structure.
• How will you collect information before the client leaves your site? Will you offer a lead magnet in exchange for an email? Do you have an exit strategy?

Now that you have some ideas about what you might want to consider when planning your website, we’ll break each section down into more detailed information, to help you understand just why each aspect is important. Too many businesses think a website is simply a visual journey, but if all you do is make a pretty landing page, it won’t effectively grow your business. It might look great, but if it doesn’t convert, you’ve wasted your time.

Planning your Strategy:

Before you jump into building your presence, the most important thing you want to consider is the fundamental purpose of your website. This is a key factor in how you’ll drive decisions, and every company has a different answer as to what their purpose is.

If you’re a small business or freelancer, and you simply want a splash page that lists your contact information, there’s nothing wrong with that. Go right on with it! If you want a website that engages future customers and builds you leads so you can grow your business, on the other hand, then that requires a little more thought (what CTAs will you use? How will you capture user data? What service pages do you need to build?).

You’re probably getting the gist of what we’re saying : there are many different aspects to having a business website, and your requirement will always be unique.

Get this part right, and you’ve got a great opportunity to build trust and relationships with future clients, by offering them educational and engaging content. Letting them know you’re an authority in your sector is a great way to build trust and show you know what you’re talking about. Don’t you hate when you read something, and it talks in circles? You have no idea what the purpose was for, and it feels like your time was wasted. An authoritative, smart site knows what their customers are looking for and fulfills that need. Knowing your customer comes first – the content will naturally flow from that.

Maybe you’re looking to capture leads. Sometimes it takes more than one visit to your site for a potential client to warm up. What you do by offering a good website experience is give them a reason to come back while they’re in the consideration stage. When they’re ready to make a commitment to your product or service, you will have instilled confidence in them.

Know your Customer

This is crucial. It’s often overlooked by people who jump into an idea too quickly. They are sold on the greatness of their product or service, but they’ve never stopped to give considered thought about who they are targeting. Who is their ideal client? That’s where a buyer persona comes in.

This is the piece of the marketing puzzle that should stop you in your tracks – until, that is, you know exactly who your audience is. Otherwise your message will fall on deaf ears. Marketing to millennials is a different experience than marketing to boomers.

Your buyer persona is a key factor in not only the content you provide, but the type of content you provide. Will they respond better to text, video, or even a podcast? Will they prefer to see case studies or a white paper? A casual consumer is a different reader than somebody looking for a business to business situation. Voice will be a component to consider when creating your strategy.

Don’t try to please “all of the people, all of the time”. You can’t. When you know who your most frequent – or most lucrative – buyer is, you can tailor your content to those people, and yield far better results than if you try to do a bit of something for everyone. Your brand needs to have a conscious identity, and to mean something to your audience. Building a buyer persona is the way you work out what it should mean – and that then translates to a powerful and effective website.

Know your “Why”

Simon Sinek’s great book on leadership, “Start with Why,” – and his popular and highly recommended TED talk describes it this way:

“People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it. And what you do simply proves what you believe”

Once you know what your “why” is, you can then understand how to do it – and what to do. He labels this concept The Golden Circle and is a framework for focus.

Your potential customers want to know what makes you stand out. How are you different from all the other companies offering the exact same product or service? Knowing your “why” can help you get that point across when designing your website. It all ties back into the buyer persona, who you can help, and why you’re the right choice for them.

Staying Current with SEO

One of the aspects of the search engine marketing puzzle is your website’s framework. What used to be popular was a simple silo stack layout. The game has now changed, and you’ll be ahead of the game if you find a web designer who understands and implements these tactics.

A solid website built with good SEO in mind means better rankings. Google and other search engines want to know what your site is about and how you offer the best information for the searcher. What was once a matter of “pick a topic and write about it, then move on” the topic has changed. Now, the search engines prefer something that’s been dubbed “wheel and spoke”, or “topic clusters” (depending on the marketing circles you frequent).

What this means is you define your main topic as a pillar, cornerstone article (there’s a special type of markup in the code which sends this message to search engines). Then, you think of all the different ways to discuss that topic or answer questions a customer might have. You then link these smaller sections back into the large pillar posts. The internal linking is good for SEO purposes, and those pillar posts are strong, authoritative content that shows what your site is about to the search engines. We’ve written in depth on the topic of achieving great on-page SEO before.

How to Capture Potential Client Leads

One of the most important reasons you invest in your website is to gain new customers or retain current clients; that’s what gives you a return on the time and money you spend on getting it right. How do you get there, though?

To retain current clients, you may want to educate them with great content and material that answers questions they might have, or offer advanced educational materials such as guides and how-to videos. What this subcommunicates is your authority and expertise in your sector. People are grateful to receive free information, and your readers will be more open to using your brand’s products or services as a result.

When it comes to collecting leads, there are different ways to attract approaches. One of the most popular means is by exchanging a lead magnet for their email or information. Not sure what a lead magnet is? It’s usually a helpful piece of information, which can be in several different formats, on a topic of interest that speaks to your audience about an issue they may have.

Some examples of lead magnets: case studies, a guide book, free templates, infographics, or maybe a short email course that teaches them something useful. Maybe it’s a checklist, or a page of business-friendly tools in their industry. Another idea could be to take a series of posts and creating a PDF for future reading, something that is in-depth that they can sink their teeth into. 

Whatever it is you offer, it needs to be something your audience would want, which is why we covered knowing their wants and needs earlier. A music-oriented site might offer playlist ideas,  for example, whilst a business trying to land landscaping clients could offer tips to deal with lawn pests or proper fertilising or mulching techniques for new home owners. Being highly specific is the key, here. You’re trying to help your users with a specific requirement.

By trading information for an email, it takes a potential customer from a cold lead to a warmer lead. They’re now aware of your business and discovered something of value that you offered them – for free. This trade you’ve made, of information for an email address, is a great way to build your growth, used by the most successful online businesses.

Takeaways:

Knowing who your client is makes targeting their specific wants and needs that much easier. When you know your buyer persona, you can create a well-designed website that speaks to them and offers them engaging content that can help convert them into a potential customer.

Remember that varying the multi-media you use, as well as using the right voice, will all make for a better user experience. Using a proper framework will help you with search engine rankings. And taking the time to plan your strategy can save you time and money. Have a purpose for your website by knowing what you want out of it, who you are looking to draw to it, and why you do what you do. Add in a clean design that looks good, is easy to read, and understand, and you’re on your way.

One last note. Don’t forget a solid about page with your contact information. Your About page isn’t just about who you are; it’s also about what you can do for your client. Focus on the user, and you’ll have a winning design.

Need help building a systematic plan for your business website that covers all of the above, or need an agency to build out the grand design you have for your brand’s future web presence? Don’t hesitate to speak with us.