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Learning how to build a brand online can be overwhelming. Whether you’re starting a website from scratch or redesigning an existing site, getting your content right is one of the biggest challenges. Let’s break this down into a few steps that will make it more manageable.
WordPress custom website design
Before jumping into content creation, make sure you have the tools to stick with it. Updating websites with fresh content is easier than just a few years ago. If your site is inefficient, are you going to stick with it, or burn out?
Plenty of options are available when creating a website that’s easy to update. Websites can be built on proprietary platforms such as Squarespace, or you can go with the even more accessible and open-source WordPress. We usually recommend WordPress for most of our local clients in the East Cobb and Roswell, GA areas. Free themes or paid premium themes can be added to change the WordPress design. But the even more powerful page builder plugins allow for WordPress custom website design with very little or no coding needed. Plugins can handle e-commerce, bookings, scheduling calendars, reservation systems, and more. This topic could be several posts all to itself, so if you want to learn more, just let us know.
If you’re redesigning an existing site, you want to avoid any downtime on your current website. Make sure the platform you choose has a staging environment where you can build and test your new website before going live. Another option is to develop and test it on your local computer. Be aware this approach requires a bit more technical know-how.
Determining your website’s purpose
We’re going to focus on three types of small business websites that should cover most needs.
Validation sites
The validation site aims to show you’re a real person or business. Consisting of a few pages, they share some history, maybe a bio of the owner, some samples of work, and perhaps a unique perspective. Someone in a creative field, such as a graphic designer, may have a website with a portfolio and their design philosophy. The site connects to their LinkedIn profiles and other social networks, making it easy for potential employers or clients to see their work. Other than that, the site doesn’t do much. The sales and networking are handled in person, and people are driven to the site by word-of-mouth or offline materials.
Sites that are optimized for lead generation
If you expect more from your site, consider a site that is optimized for lead generation. Maybe you offer high-value, low-volume products or services. You won’t be selling through your website and don’t need e-commerce, but you do want to focus on the early stages of the sales funnel and collect contact information. Ideally, you’ll be creating content focused on potential clients in the awareness and consideration stages. This is an excellent opportunity to establish your authority and earn trust. Earning the confidence of potential clients in the early stages of the sales funnel tends to be more effective than cold calls and hard sells in the later stages. Offering well thought out, free content in the hopes that people remember you when it’s time to purchase is one approach. Another approach is to request an email address to download your highest value content. Each email address provided is a new lead that you can add to a series of automated emails. This approach allows you to nurture a new lead over an extended period and be front of mind when it’s time to buy. Any emails need to provide quality content that your audience wants and avoid over emailing.
When set up and maintained correctly, a feedback loop is developed that allows for continuous improvement of your website, content, advertising, and sales funnel.
E-commerce sites
If your goal is to move product or schedule bookings, an e-commerce site will fill your needs. Similar to a lead generation site, building trust early can help ensure people are filling their carts on your site when it comes time to buy. For example, many years ago, I was in the market for an espresso machine. Wanting the biggest bang for my buck, I started doing research. In this research phase, I came across a site that had an ever-expanding library of great content for free. They had terrific videos that showed them using each product they sold as well as going over the pros and cons of each. The videos also included unboxings, servicing needs, and more. Then those videos were repurposed and turned into easily searchable blog posts. By the time I was ready to purchase, I felt like I’d already developed a relationship with them, so it was only natural that I buy from them. They were early masters of content creation for the web. To this day, I still go to their site whenever I have espresso related questions or want to upgrade my equipment.
Using your existing content
When researching how to build a brand online, you’ll quickly discover that content is king. Whether you are starting from scratch or redesigning an existing website, begin by examining the content you have. Existing web pages, bio pages on professional organization sites, blog posts, social media profiles, articles written about you, testimonials, and sales materials are all rich sources of content.
Examine how this content relates to your goals and compare this with the needs and pain points of your audience. It’s in these contexts that you will discover what content is worth keeping, what needs to go, and any holes that need to be filled. If you haven’t established goals and are unsure about the needs of your customers, download our branding worksheet to get started.
After you’ve defined your goals and audiences, start with your cornerstone content that will serve as your main pages. Do you have one audience, or will you need different pages for unique audiences? How will your tone and content differ between audiences?
Set aside anything that’s not part of your primary message. This secondary material will serve to create additional content later in the form of blog posts, videos, downloadable white papers, case studies, etc.
Forming a content strategy
A website can’t be a stand-alone entity when attempting to build a brand online. Instead, think of your small business website as the hub of your digital ecosystem. Creating a healthy environment around your website is more likely to lead to your goals and objectives.
How do you plan to drive traffic to your site? Most people immediately think search engine optimization (SEO) is the way to go. Keeping SEO best practices in mind while creating your website and content is a necessity, but don’t lose sleep over it. Instead, put more focus on creating quality content that people want to read, share it to social media, and promote it.
Going back to your existing content, collect the keywords used most frequently. Then, using a tool such as Keywords Everywhere, research and find keywords that are less competitive and still relate to your business. Adjusting your content to use these keywords can give your traffic a boost. This research can provide other insights, as well. For example, you might think your audience is searching for Social Media Marketing, but you discover they’re searching for Small Business Digital Marketing at a much higher rate. Now you can adjust your content accordingly.
How do you plan to drive traffic to your site?
After posting new content to a site, advertising it on social media not only drives additional traffic but can provide insights that will help create better and more relatable content moving forward. For example, Facebook can run different versions of the same ad, so you can see what messages, images, or audiences perform best. You can use this information to improve your next set of ads and tweak the content in your posts.
Google Analytics is an additional free tool that can track what’s performing best and how users are interacting with your website. Combining Google Analytics with the data collected from social campaigns can paint a picture of what your audience sees as being the most valuable content. Without tools to track how offers or content performs, you may be wasting time and resources without realizing it. Now, even when an ad or content underperforms, it’s still money well spent as you’ve gained additional insights into what your audience wants.
Improving a website using a feedback loop
Routinely using the practices above lays the foundation for a seven-step feedback loop. Each time you move through the steps is an opportunity to refine your website, content, advertising, sales funnel, audience, and even offline interactions.
- Establish goals
- Compare existing content to goals
- Research keywords
- Refine content
- Publish and promote content
- Analyze behaviors
- Repeat