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Creating Effective Websites Part 2: Content

Most small business websites have very poor content. In fact, the majority of sites have downright atrocious content. By content, I am referring to the words that appear on a site and the information communicated.

When a typical small business owner decides that his or her company needs a website, they will put a lot of thought and effort into the design, sometimes spending hours on it personally, or in other cases hiring a designer so that the site looks really "professional". In almost every case, however, the content will be an afterthought, sometimes thrown together at the last minute, or recycled from the business' brochure, which itself was probably thrown together with very little thought.

The results are nearly always the same. The website says "Here is my business", "Here is how we work", "Here is where we are located", "Here are the products we offer", and "This is what we do". Who cares? Well, all the people who respond to the website care, right? Yup, and that's pretty much nobody.

Why don't they care? You run a good business, don't you? You offer valuable products and services, don't you? You deliver outstanding results, right? Surely people should be lining up at your door, shouldn't they?

Yes, they should. But they aren't. And the reason is that you haven't written your content with your target audience in mind. If you had, your website, and indeed all your marketing materials, would be very different.

Your website needs to answer the questions your prospects have, not the questions you think they have. The website needs to focus on them, not you; on their needs, not your wants. Obviously most prospects will want detailed information about your company and how you work before they buy, but this information is only important once you have their attention. If you lead with this information, or even if you give it to them before you have aroused their interest, you will lose them.

People do not care what you do. They do not care how you do it. All they want to know is how you can help them. Your typical prospect will approach your website and other marketing materials with one overriding question: "What's in it for me?" This is the question your site must answer immediately. If it doesn't then you will never get the results you could from it.

Write About Benefits

The key to answering the "What's in it for me?" question is to understand a simple fact: People don't buy products or services; they only ever buy results. It is the result that is "what's in it for them" not the product. Which is your marketing trying to sell? If your website isn't pulling its weight, then chances are you're trying to sell a product or a service, rather than selling the results that product or service offers.

When discussing marketing content with clients, I often encounter a lot of resistance to this point. Typically, I get told that their clients and prospects like to get detailed information on the product or service they are buying. And of course that's true.

People generally want as much information about a product that they're interested in as they can get their hands on. And the more expensive the product, the more information the person wants. So by no means am I saying that you shouldn't talk about your product in this kind of detail. What I am saying is don't lead with this information. Don't try to get people's attention with the features of your product or service because it just doesn't work. Get their attention with results and benefits.

Each and every day we are bombarded with massive amounts of advertising. Whenever we turn on the radio, open a newspaper or a magazine, watch television, or surf the Internet, we are hit by an avalanche of marketing messages, and we have trained ourselves to filter most of it out. If your message is to receive any attention at all, you must realize that people only want to know what they will get out of it. That means talking about results. And in terms of your business, that means identifying and communicating the benefits you can provide.

In order for your website to start generating business for you, you need to think about the products or services you offer, and identify as many benefits associated with them as possible. Identify what it is that people are really buying when they purchase something from you. Why should they choose you over the competition? How are you uniquely able to make their lives better?

For example, let's say you sell accounting software. Your software is compatible with QuickBooks and Peachtree, so that people can easily transfer data between the different software packages. It might also include a payroll management system that allows users to print paychecks, W-2s, and payroll reports. Perhaps it even includes a feature allowing users to log on remotely over the Internet and post expense information; a feature that might be perfect for companies with traveling staff.

Don't simply list these features. Instead, focus on how quickly users can get started, and how easily they can convert from another software package to yours, and back again should they be unhappy with it. Focus on, and quantify the value you provide by not charging extra for the payroll features the way your competitors do. Focus on, and quantify the time and money that will be saved when a user's sales staff can input expense information on the road.

This type of approach is always more effective than simply rattling off a list of features, or describing a methodology.

The essential point is this: in order to make your website effective, you must talk about the benefits you offer before you talk about the features. Get people's attention by telling them what's in it for them, and then offer all the specifics that they need.

Final Points

Obviously there are numerous other issues that you need to consider when creating the content for your website. Here's a short list of some of the more important ones:

  • Make your content valuable by making it informative and interesting. The more you can educate your prospects the more they will see you as a helpful resource, and as an expert in your field. You can start by writing some articles that you can include on your site.
  • Include meaningful titles and headlines on every page, and make sure that they capture attention by emphasizing benefits.
  • Keep it upbeat and interesting by writing in a conversational tone. Pretend you are sitting across the table from your best friend explaining why your services are so important.
  • Check your spelling and grammar, and then check them again.
  • Ensure that your website focuses on the customer. It needs to be 80% about them, their problems, their needs, and the benefits you provide them. If you're spending more than 20% of the time talking about what you do and how you do it, your website won't get the results it could.
  • Solicit customer feedback on your site and other marketing materials. It really doesn't matter what you think of your website. Your customers' opinions are the only ones that will make a difference to your bottom line. Ask them if the content is engaging and persuasive or just plain boring.

Overall

You are not your customer. The people who buy your products and services are not nearly as interested in your business, your marketing, and your website as you are. All they are interested in is what you can do for them. If you can explain that clearly to them by focusing on the benefits you provide, your website will be of much greater interest to your prospects, and will generate much more business for you.

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