August 2002   

Creating quality content can be tricky, and it's easy to make mistakes that will guarantee your Web site can't pay for itself. If you already know that flashy graphics and zippy news bites are not enough to ensure customer "stickiness," you're a step ahead of many Web site operators. But even site owners who have put tremendous thought, planning, and expense into site planning are puzzled and frustrated to find traffic and sales levels static or worse -- falling. "We've got content," they say. "We've got information. What more do our customers want?"

News Customers Can Use

What do customers want? That's the $25 million question. And before you can answer that, you have to identify who your customers are. At a minimum, you need to know:

• Who is likely to buy your products and services
• Their age, demographics, and interests
• How much education they have received
• What information they need that somehow relates to the product or service that you are selling
• What activities they engage in that somehow relates to your products or services

Armed with that information, you can then decide how people might get to your site. Ask yourself will they:

• Find you through a search engine?
• See banner ads on other sites advertising your site?
• Hear about your site via offline advertising like radio, newspaper, or television ads?
• See the address on everything that you print about your business, including shopping bags, business cards, signs, etc.
• Find your site address in the yellow pages?

The last three items are a given. You must plaster your Web site URL everywhere. The first two are a matter of choice, but search engines are free exposure and up to 85 percent of Web users still look to search engines to find the information they need. By getting information that your customers want into the search engines, you can drive traffic to your site, build branding, and reduce your marketing costs. This means that your content becomes a true marketing tool instead of merely an expense.

Who Wants to Know?

The first step is to identify who it is you want visiting your site. Suppose you are a laser vision surgeon. Do you want to attract all kinds of potential laser vision patients, or do you specialize in cataracts? Should your site be available for potential customers only, or are you working to establish yourself as an expert in your field, writing papers and conducting speaking engagements? Are you a "single-shop" surgery, or are you thinking of franchising and need a way to promote your company's name and capabilities to other surgeons?

Once you've clearly identified your target market, it's important to understand what that market wants from your Web site. That's not always as straightforward as it may seem. In the case of a dance school, putting basic statistics on the site, such as class schedules and dance specialties, is important. But that only scratches the surface of what might interest your potential customers and keep them coming back.

Giving Customers What They Need

Whatever kind of product or service you provide, you want to concentrate on adding information that will satisfy the needs of your customers. Some of this is basic information that would be common to all sites includes:

• Your contact information
• Where you are located and how to get there
• How long you have been in business
• What type of services you offer and to whom you offer them
• Costs of services/products
• Methods of payment
• Your schedule/hours of operation
• Who your instructors/employees are and their qualifications
• Why and how your services will benefit your customers
• Testimonials from satisfied customers
• Photos of people enjoying your products/services
• News and press releases pointing out significant achievements/awards, etc.

Of course, you need to tailor this to your specific business. And you want to add other information that your customers need. For example, if you are the owner of a dance school, you would want to tell your customers:

• Whether you offer competitive dance training
• Your competition schedule
• Audition requirements
• Fitness levels required for each class

In addition, you may want to consider adding:

• Announcements
• Frequently asked questions about your school, instruction, competitions, and dance in general
• Articles about what students (and parents) can expect from their dance instructions
• Articles to help students learn about dance
• Articles to help students and parents prepare for competitions

It's easy to think that all your Web site has to do is provide the business name and contact information. But people have Yellow Pages for that. The Web is a tool to present your business in its most powerful way while reducing the amount of time your staff spends on the phone, answering the same questions over and over. With targeted content, you've raised the interest level, pre-qualified potential customers, and saved time and money with pre-prepared online customer service.

Your Web site also offers you the biggest bang for your promotional buck because you can provide site visitors with a wealth of information and detail at a fraction of what it would cost in traditional print and broadcast media.

Of course, this only works if your content leaves a positive impression once people read it. You have to have the basics as well as the information. Content must be logically presented in clean, well-written, easily readable prose, with links that work and simple navigation to move back and forth between pieces of related information.

And once you get content to your site, you want to keep it current.

Freshen Content Frequently

In addition to your basic stable of static information, you want your customers to make a habit of coming back to your site. If someone visits your site, finds it of interest, and then returns a month later to find the same content featured, it's likely they won't be back. Remember that the very nature of the Internet implies instant gratification, constant variety, and a dynamic, ever-changing environment. And, because it is such a cost-effective method of communication, you want to make sure that they take advantage of the information that you have provided whenever they have questions or problems. You also want to make sure that they have the maximum possible exposure to new products and services that you are advertising as well as specials and discounts that will get them to buy more than they would otherwise have purchased. Adding new content regularly is a great way to do that.

Depending on the focus of your site, you could update content as frequently as daily. Or you might decide that once a week is frequent enough for updates. You also want to retain older content that represents a substantial investment of time, effort, and money. Consider creating a content archive where frequent visitors can retrieve older articles and information. And remember that no matter how old the content, it will still be brand new to first-time users. A searchable database is ideal for such a function.

Think Creatively

After you've covered essential information and added it to your Web site, focus on the voluntary content that creates interest and causes return visits.

How you do that depends on the market you're targeting. For example, one of the newer trends in Web sites for daycare centers is the addition of security cameras that can be viewed on the center's Web site. Parents with children enrolled at that center are given a secure password that allows them access to the secured part of the Web site so they can quickly log on to see how their child's day is going.

Enterprising centers can take advantage of this kind of traffic to frequently update their home page with news and information, both about daycare in general and about their center in particular. These are just a few of the many ways a daycare center can use the a Web site to move ahead of the highly competitive childcare pack:

• Regular newsletters
• Information about daycare accreditation, center policies and issues
• Links to community and childcare information
• Interviews (both text and video or audio) with child care experts and pediatricians
• Instant messaging to center staff or directors
• Digital emails to parents with photos or video clips
• Videos of special events, such as parties or field trips

There's room for both the practical (newsletters and informational) as well as the playful (digital emails and videos). Valid information combined with the personal touch both demonstrate an understanding of the market: parents want to be informed, they want to be sure their children are well cared for, and they want their child's experience to be both safe and fun.

This is just one example of how Web site content can be created in a very specialized way to suit the needs of a very narrow and specific market focus.

Stretch Your Public Relations Wings

Having established your site as one that customers will want to visit on a regular basis, the next opportunity you have is to position yourself and your site as an expert in your field or market. If your site's content is well targeted, you'll have the opportunity not only to attract business just because you know your customers, but because you also know the market.

For example, a veterinarian might launch a Web site to advertise veterinary services. But that site could also offer educational articles about pet health and care, as well as discussion forums that invite participants to share pet stories or concerns. Contests may be held online, inviting customers to name new pets, send the cutest picture, or tell the funniest pet tale, or fundraisers may be done on behalf of the local Humane Society. "Ask the vet" columns online give browsers an opportunity to ask questions that don't seem urgent enough for a phone call, yet are interesting and relevant to a pet-owning population. The veterinarian might then be asked to contribute columns to a local newspaper, participate in radio interviews, and give speeches, all of which provide outlets for promoting the Web site and the core business. Letting your local newspaper and associations know about this site and the resources offered on it ensure that they can put a local spin on any future story that might need that kind of information. The veterinarian can now become an expert media resource, and that kind of exposure is invaluable.

So no matter what the focus of your site is, it's essential that the content you present be appropriate for your identified audience. Targeted content gives users who want and need the information you have available to easily see that your site is the place to visit frequently. And if someone surfs into your site who is not interested in the information, they'll also be able to quickly determine that they need to continue searching. In either case visitors to your site will come away with a positive experience, which is what it's all about.