| In real estate, the
maxim is "location, location, location." For Web-site owners and managers,
virtual real estate is a breeze: type in your URL and you're instantly everywhere. In that
regard, the Web is the ultimate location. But that's a double-edged sword. To achieve
success on the Web, you have to carve out a niche for yourself that will put you on the
virtual map. To achieve your goals, you need to start thinking in terms of content,
content, content. Content Attracts
Repeat Business
A
recent Forrester Research report found that content, not product, causes 75 percent of
consumers to make a repeat visit to a Web site. "Without content, there simply is no
point at all to the Web," says Amy Gahran, content consultant for online media and
producer of the online newsletter Contentious.
"Almost nobody visits Web sites because of design or programming issues," Gahran
says. "They want either content or services."
Getting and sustaining serious traffic
for your Web site requires more than just putting your products and services on Web pages.
And no amount of Flash technology or pretty pictures will draw customers back to your site
for a repeat visit. After all, they will already have seen those once. Whether your
customer is a harried mother shopping for children's clothing or an investor looking for
corporate information, if they can't find information on your site that answers all their
questions, they're going to look elsewhere -- where the chances are good that they will
find it. Then the next time they have a question, they will go back to the site that
provided the answer the first time.
Of course, generating traffic isn't quite that
simple. Content good enough to draw customers is more than just straightforward text. You
need the right blend of voluntary and essential content to meet the
specific needs of your customers, says Martina Boone, Managing Director of The Write Edge, a full-service Web and content
developer. "It helps to think of your content as a system," Boone says.
"The voluntary content fills your customers needs and draws them back to your site,
but the essential content cuts down on your overhead and ultimately makes your site a
profitable venture."
There are many types of voluntary content,
including:
- Articles and features
- Answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs)
- Discussion lists and forums
- Chat rooms
- Games
- Animations
- Images
- Surveys
- Interactive quizzes
- Newsletters
Choosing the right mixture of voluntary content
will depend on your customers' interests and goals, as well as the amount of leisure time
that they have available. "The key is knowing what makes your customer tick,"
Boone says, "and then giving them what they want as fast and as reliably as
possible."
When it
comes to determining how to produce the right content for your site, there's one major
factor that should take precedence over all others. "The potential customer. Full
stop," says Jim Sterne, founder of the Internet consulting firm Target Marketing and author of World Wide Web
Marketing and Customer Service on the Internet. "The site shouldn't be about the
company, but about the site visitor. It should be designed from their perspective. What
are they looking for? What do they want to accomplish? Why would they want to come back?
It's not because your company just moved into a new world headquarters."
After the Introductions ... Content as a
Relationship Tool
This is
not to say that a visually vibrant site is not going to attract visitors. But it takes
more than an initial flash of flair to keep them coming back. "Put in terms of
dating, the clothes and the hair caused the attraction," says Sterne. "The light
banter which gave way to open communication made it easy to get acquainted. But now it's
time to really get to know one another. If there's no content, there's no point."
Just like dating, content must offer something
of interest or value to the person on the other side of the equation. "I think the
most important thing is for the Web site owner to identify the most important, or primary,
target audience as specifically as possible," says Gahran. "It's impossible to
appeal to or please everyone. The Internet is not really a mass medium. It's much more
like 'nichecasting' than broadcasting."
Making Content Pay
"The goals of a Web site all fall into one
of four categories. You want to increase revenue, lower costs, increase customer
satisfaction, or increase employee loyalty. The content has to serve one of those
goals," says Gahran. "Content is even more critical than services, because
online services are useless without effective content to explain and support them. For
instance, what good is an e-commerce site that offers great products and perfect
fulfillment if its product descriptions are vague or hyped, or if the instructions for
placing an order are confusing, or if it offers no information about the company or its
policies for privacy, warranties, or returns?"
This brings up the need for essential content,
which includes:
- Product descriptions and information
- Site-marketing copy
- Help copy
- Policy information
- Instructions
- Confirmation messages
- Error messages
"Investing in good quality essential
content can not only cut down on customer errors that lead to returned merchandise and
higher customer-service costs, but will also result in less customer frustration and
better customer-expectation management," Boone says. She also points out that
customer-service problems and the failure to manage expectations underlie the demise of
many of the Web's largest sites -- sites that spent a fortune on advertising, branding,
promotion, and even voluntary content.
Amy
Gahran underscores the point that not all content is created equal. Microcontent is
important, too, and it can make the critical difference to the usability of a site and the
content that appears on it. Microcontent includes the following:
- Headings
- Subheads
- Page titles
- Navigation bar text
- ALT text
- Link text
Highlighted
keywords and the like contribute not only to the readability and excitement and
enjoyability of the material, they also affect how search engines index your site. And
since 85 percent of Web traffic is still driven by search engines, that is a critical
aspect of content planning. "Unless you have an unlimited advertising budget,"
Boone says, "not considering search engines when you are planning your content is a
huge mistake. Every dollar that you spend on professional content planning and development
can save you hundreds of dollars in customer service, marketing, promotion, and sales
costs." Beyond providing the answers that the customer needs, every bit of content on
your site must be credible, well researched, well-written, strongly focused, and
strikingly delivered. Whether your site is strictly informational, sales oriented, or
service-driven, you must think of your content as a tool.
Next month: Producing Content for Your
Targeted Market |
