Using Compelling Content to Give Your Web Site a Professional Edge

Creating a new Web site is not only a monetary investment, but it is a time investment, and the output from this process is your company’s advertisement to the world. It’s very important to make sure that the content on your Web site properly addresses your target audience in a clear and professional manner.

Identify the needs of your audience.

Put yourself in the user’s shoes: Early in the planning stage, the best thing to do is to identify the needs of your target audience(s). There may be more than one target audience with distinct needs, so first identify the main targets of your Web site and then brainstorm with colleagues about what questions that a member of each target audience might come to your Web site to have answered. For some industries, this step will be simple, but others may require research, surveys, and/or focus groups. It’s recommended that a professional research firm be employed for this phase for large and complex projects.

Write compelling, effective text.

After you’ve identified the needs of your target audiences, your Web site should be created to address these needs and these needs alone. Unless it is determined that personal track record is of interest to your audience, this does not mean posting photographs of your founders on the home page, including long stories about your personal history, or posting the entirety of the minutes of your last board meeting. On the Web, too much text will lead to too few repeat visitors – so the key is to communicate effectively using as few words as possible.

Depending on your budget and the abilities of your staff, you may or may not want to hire an outside content consultant. There are benefits each way. Professional content consultants are excellent writers who can take your ideas and mold them into effective Web copy. In most cases, if it’s affordable, this is the way to go, as you’ll get professional quality and won’t have to burden busy staff members with another task. However, if your industry is highly specialized, your on-staff experts might be the proper authors for at least some of the content.

Use at least some stock or custom professional photography.

Photos taken with a point-and-shoot camera might look good in your scrapbook at home, but can sometimes make your Web site look unprofessional if used improperly. It’s recommended that you use a blend of three types of photography to fill your needs:

Custom, Professional Photography: This is when you hire a photographer to come in and take pictures. This is for pictures of what makes your business unique. Professional photographers are experts at taking the right picture at the proper angle and with the proper lighting. Though the cost for custom professional photography may be high, you can’t ignore the quality and uniqueness of well-shot custom photos.

Stock Photography: Stock photography can be purchased from a number of good vendors. Stock photography is best used when you want to add a compelling picture but don’t need it to be specific to your company. General photographs of people and common objects or places can be just as effective as custom photographs in many instances and come at a much lower cost. Be aware that you usually aren’t purchasing exclusive rights to a stock photograph and that others can use it for other purposes.

Custom, Amateur Photography: In most instances, custom amateur photography isn’t recommended for main areas of the site, but can be used effectively in other areas. This is when you or a member of your staff use a point-and-shoot camera to take pictures for your Web site. This should only be used when cost is a big issue, quality isn’t as important, and a custom photograph is absolutely necessary. Main sections of the Web site should not feature amateur photography.

Add custom applications.

Some content may need to be housed in a custom application. When you think about your audiences, consider what type of functionality members of those audiences have grown accustomed to. For instance, many individuals have become accustomed to online banking. If you are used to the convenience of online banking and a bank that you were considering switching to did not have online banking, would you switch? The answer is probably no, and not keeping up with (or ahead of) the Jones’ can often ruin the effectiveness of an otherwise quality Web site.