Often times, one of the more difficult tasks in the website design and development process is copywriting & messaging – figuring out what to say and how to say it right through conversion rate optimization. Though there’s an industry made up of professionals who do just that (write for a living), many of our clients aren’t in that position. So when they’re looking to improve their website content, they face three common challenges:
- Deciding what content / products / services to include? (Can we include everything?)
- Organizing that content into logical classes or categories
- Figuring out how to write persuasive content that addresses the right audience.
As web designers, our job is to serve your customer. Over the years, if we’ve learned one thing, its this: design that does not serve people does not serve business. In fact, design that is hostile to users is also hostile to business (especially in the long term). You don’t want to be the company known for tricking users.
Learn all about the differences between content writing and copywriting.
Your customers are looking for content. That content could be answers to their questions, a telephone number for a local electrician, or nutritional information for their favourite breakfast cereal. Regardless, design without content is just decoration. Design helps get you where you need to go. Good content needs to be able to stand on its own – independent of design – and still be effective.
At FirstPage Marketing, our process serves your customers. We always seek to solidify a content strategy before we even get started on the design phase of any project. By identifying what’s important to them, organizing it in a logical way, and writing clear, concise and comprehensive copy with emotional persuasion, we seek to adopt a Content First approach in all our work.
Concept gleaned from Jeffery Zeldman at An Event Apart, Seattle, WA.
