Learn how to create website content that your audience will love. When you do this, the search engines will love you back.
Content creation can be a tricky beast, that’s for sure. And in today’s environment – in which we’re constantly bombarded with advertising messages (both subtle and in-your-face) – how do you create content that will grab someone’s attention for more than a split second? I’ll give you a hint… it starts by putting yourself in the shoes of your audience.
I’ll admit that small business owners have enough on their plate – staff compliance, competitors, market changes – and now they’re expected to be digital experts on top of all that. So, there’s little surprise that most websites lack the valuable information that an audience craves.
What this means is that businesses (yes, that means you) are missing out on exposure, leads and ultimately, customers.
Determine who your Audience is
Ask yourself: ‘What does my audience look like?’ You may be marketing to a broad customer base, but it’s better to align your content with a specific ‘type’ of customer in mind.
If you own a finance advisory firm that provides a consulting service, you want to produce content that is data-driven and ideally focusses on your client’s bottom line (either through an opportunity to create more wealth or to avoid losing money).
However, if you own a clothing boutique that specialises in women’s fitness wear, your content should be produced in a fun, light tone. In this case, it would beneficial to include visual content that appeals to person’s senses. In this example, a business owner could definitely utilize social media to work to their advantage.
How can you Help your Audience?
This is another way of phrasing ‘Why should they buy from you?’ To many business owners focus on product-driven content that highlight (in exhaustive detail) every last feature and specification.
Now, I can imagine telling your telling yourself something like this: “Who does this guy think he is, telling me I shouldn’t be promoting my product”. But that’s not what I’m doing. There is a definite need for you to promote your products. As a matter of fact, you should be telling your audience about all the shiny features on your cappuccino machine. But you need to expand on this…
How does your product or service help your customer? That’s what you need to focus on. If it’s a cappuccino machine, perhaps it will make your customer a delicious, cafe-style coffee that will give them an indulgent, energizing way to start their day.
Address and Eliminate Common Objections
Now it’s time to honestly ask yourself: ‘Why may people object to buying from me?’ It’s can be a confronting question. However, it’s vital that you take some time to honestly assess the reasons why folks may be hesitant to buy your product or service.
It could be a pricing issue (and in most cases it can be related back in some way to price). Perhaps what you offer is simply too expensive for the typical vistor to your website.
But then again, there’s no point devaluing your product by drastically lowering the price or applying silly discounts – i.e. “buy now and receive 10% off and a free gift”. This sort of marketing can be an effective one-time offer, but you don’t want to get in the habit of normalizing the concept of a discount and applying it to every customer purchase.
Rather, if you know that price has been an issue in the past, then you should address it (in the right way) on your sales page. Do so in a manner that is empathetic to your customer, whilst highlighting value of your product or service – and therefore justifying its price.
This can be a great opportunity to link common objections back to a FAQ page. You can address everything that may be stopping prospective buyers from making a purchase (price, quality, suitability etc).
Answer Prospective Buyer’s Questions
To do this, think about the last time you made a purchase online. What lead you to this buying decision? What online research did you do beforehand? Was there a defining factor that lead you to make this purchase?
This again comes back to putting yourself in the shoes of your customer. Your customer doesn’t want to hear you proclaiming how amazing your product or service is. Instead, customers simply want to know how your product or service will benefit them. In other words, how is it going to make their life better?
If you’re stuck on this, consider that most people will have questions like:
- “Can I…?”
- “Do I…?”
- “How…?”
- “When…?”
You don’t have to be pedantic about covering every potential question that could ever be asked. You simply want to highlight the most frequent questions.
Remember, you can always update your website as your business becomes more established.
Case Studies and Customer Testimonials
As persuasive as you think you may be, you’ll never be as convincing as customers that can vouch for you.
If you can highlight a couple of genuine case studies and customer testimonials, prospective buyers are likely to view your business as more trustworthy. As a result, people are then more inclined to make a purchase.
When you’re developing this part of your website, be mindful that case studies and testimonials should identify how your product or service improved your customer’s circumstances.
If your customer had hesitations prior to making a purchase, but was then pleasantly surprised afterwards, this is an excellent example to include.
Remember that you only have a fraction of time in which to make a positive impression on your audience. If your content is bland or generic, people will like move on to another webiste.
Make your content relevant to the needs of your audience and try to answer their questions or concerns. By doing this, you are providing a more attractive product or service.
And finally, try to have some fun with your content creation. The goal here is to not sound like everybody else. If it’s appropriate, infuse your content with humor and personality. If people aren’t willing to make a purchase, at least give them a positive impression to remeber you by.
Put these strategies in place and you’ll soon be on the path to success.
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