Create Winning Content to Improve Website Engagement

Content Is King

Maybe website analytics show that the level of visitor engagement with your website is lagging. That’s not great because the more time people spend on your site, the more likely they are to buy something. And the more they buy, the more likely they are to return. So, it’s important to create reasons for them to stay.

Of course, having superior products or services is one way to keep customers coming back. Another is to offer exceptional content. Here at BairesDev, we are very aware of the value of sharing relevant and useful content for our audience, which is why we compiled some suggestions for you. Thus, let’s explore what website content is, and how to make yours the best it can be.

What Is Website Content?

Website content is anything you place on your website to attract visitors. That includes your actual website pages, which are important for telling your company’s story and describing its offerings. But perhaps more important are all the “extras” you display, such as:

Whitepapers to explain your processes and technologies in detail
Articles or Infographics to help visitors understand industry trends
Quizzes to help prospects know if your services are a good fit for them
Videos to present your mission statement, show how to use your products, or go behind the scenes at your business
Blog posts to keep people up to date about new offerings and ideas
Ebooks to provide how-to information and insights
Newsletters to offer all the latest information about products and sales

The more content you have, the more likely it is to show up on social media (especially if you put it there), and the more people are exposed to it who will be inspired to engage with your website. Once they’re there, they’ll stay longer if you guide them to additional content that could be useful to them. The longer they stay, the more probable it is that they’ll make a purchase.

Understand Your Market

The first thing to understand about creating quality content has nothing to do with your company or its products or services. It has to do with the people you want to do business with. Think about your ideal customers. What qualities do these people or companies have? If your target market is consumers, you can develop personas that reflect the characteristics of likely buyers.

Once you have a clear picture of who you’re targeting, think about what is valuable to them from a content perspective. Are they quick to make decisions or are more thoughtful? Are they visual learners or do they prefer text? How much time do they have to examine content?

Now, plan your content development based on that information. For example, quick decision-makers just want to know the basics, so think about publishing a one-page fact sheet that uses bullet points to show the top three to five features and associated benefits of your offering. For those who may need more time and information, create detailed white papers, videos, or articles about other aspects of your offering, such as the materials you use.

Make Content Easy to Find

All this great content you’re creating isn’t going to do you any good if it’s buried within layers of your site map, making it difficult for users to find. Make it more visible by:

Including a Resources tab and placing all your content there
Using calls to action (CTAs) to specific content pieces on each website page
Posting content on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn
Suggesting other content similar to each piece

Develop Quality Content

Okay, so you’ve got your personas, you know what kind of content they’re likely to respond to, and you have a plan for how you’re going to make it easy to find. The only step left is to create the content. Here are a few tips for making sure your content will be worth finding:

Don’t waste visitors’ time. Whether it’s a video, a blog post, or an article, get right to the point and lead readers or viewers through with a logical flow of ideas. Make sure each piece has one central point. At the same time, don’t skimp on the word count. Text pieces of 1,000 to 2,500 words are likeliest to keep readers’ attention (and better position themselves on search engines).
Include CTAs. While website content is meant to be helpful and informative to visitors, it should also serve to push them to the next stage in the sales cycle, which includes interest, attention, desire, and action. Use CTAs like, “Want to learn more? Sign up for a demo.”
Invite participation. Don’t just wait for visitors to share your content on social media or leave a comment in your blog. Ask them directly for their participation and make it easy to do with things like social media links.
Make sure content matches your brand. Your content should match your company’s personality in terms of text, audio, and images. Conduct a branding exercise to come up with 5 to 10 words that describe who you are and make sure each piece of content reflects those ideas.
Consider hiring professionals. If you have a terrific marketing team, great! Let them do their thing to keep you top of mind for potential customers. If not, consider hiring an agency or separate providers (writer, designer, software engineer, etc.) to make your content shine.

Repurpose Your Content

Don’t let all your hard work go to waste. Repurpose it to get two, three, or even more times the use out of it. For instance, say you created a thorough whitepaper describing how your product is made. You could create several short videos that show each stage of the process, using the whitepaper as the foundation for your video scripts.

Or, say you’ve developed an article series about various trends you’re expecting to impact your industry in the coming months. Think about stitching them together into an ebook that site visitors could download in exchange for their email address (which you can then use to send them newsletters).

Be Responsive

To ensure you’re getting all the engagement possible on your website, be certain it’s visible to anyone who wants to visit it, no matter what kind of device they’re on. Mobile use has grown so much that you’d be missing out on that market if you didn’t use responsive design in your website development. (If you’re not sure what responsive design is, ask your developer!)