Kulture Konnect Blog

Content is king. After all, a well-developed content strategy can do wonders in helping all types of businesses achieve their website performance goals and generate more leads, and more conversions. 

But, what is content strategy

Content strategy is a relatively new niche discipline in the digital space. It has a lot to do with user experience (UX), interface design, web development, SEO, content marketing (blogging and social media), public relations and traditional “offline” marketing.

To start off, content strategy means using text, images, and other forms of content, to achieve a specific goal for your company. All the different forms of media on your website should work together to engage and attract website visitors and guide them towards the next step of the marketing funnel.

Why is it so essential to complete a content strategy before a website redesign?

A content strategy is essential because it can set clear goals for what your website content should be achieving and creates a cohesive strategy that links together all of the different elements of your website’s pages. There are three main reasons I recommend a content strategy before a website redesign: 

1. Ranking - Google is very responsive when a company continuously creates original content that is clearly valuable, unique and engaging. 
2. Makes you the expert - You can create enough authority to build a genuine relationship with your target audience, which provides them with enough reasons to keep coming back to your site.
3. Your competition - Most likely, your competition is already at it, and if you cannot keep up, then you are much more likely to suffer consequences. 

Developing a content strategy after all your content has already been developed can result in forcing together different pieces like the wrong parts of a puzzle. Because a well-designed content strategy requires a lot of different moving parts to collaborate, it’s best to make a plan before starting your website redesign.

How can I start a content strategy before a website redesign? 

This is a very common question. Unfortunately, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach, but here are some of the most common steps to help you get started:

1. Initial requirements
2. User research & stakeholder input
3. Content inventory
4. Analytics & SEO review
5. Buyer's journey mapping
6. Goals

This initial road will take you to define things such as the overall framework for your message, style guidelines (tone of voice, SEO, etc.), content hierarchy, editorial calendars, roles, training and processes. 

What kind of goals can you achieve with a content marketing strategy?

In regards to the kinds of goals that content marketing and content strategy development can help you achieve, there are a lot. Not only can it help you create a more unified brand strategy, content marketing can also help you achieve goals of improving your ROI, building long-term lead generation, sustaining customer loyalty, boosting brand authority, and improving customer retention, among other goals. 

More specifically, by developing a content strategy before a website redesign and planning content marketing, it’s far easier to generate leads and create conversions on your website. While content strategy refers to making a plan for your content, content marketing is the process of actually creating the content, whether it be blog posts, emails, or videos. In fact, content marketing can generate up to 3x as many leads as compared to traditional forms of marketing. To really ensure that your content strategy is primed to generate leads, start by creating a specific buyer persona. Then, work on providing lead magnets and upgrading content, before determining keywords designed to appeal to your target audience. Creating content that appeals to your buyers and helps answer questions or provides them with valuable information can go a long way in improving lead and conversion rates. 

When it comes to enhancing user experience, content strategy can make a big difference if done correctly. By making a careful plan for all contents’ location, design, timing, and format, all of your media can easily match your website’s overall design. This seamless structure enhances usability, supports website goals, and boosts functionality, making a positive difference on your website’s UX.

What is all this fuzz about "content-first" approach?

We started this article with the phrase "content is king." But a more powerful statement would be "content is design." What I mean by this is that by starting a website design with a content-first mindset the user interface and user experience evolves to support the site as a whole. So, before sketching a wireframe or writing a line of code, imagine any element that can go on a web page (text, photos, charts, tables, lists, prices, etc.) so you can focus on what really matters: setting up the tone and personality of your site so you deliver content to the user in a clear, concise and hopefully delightful way. In a nutshell, a content-first strategy will help you think and develop five core instances:

1. The user experience - If you think of your website as a marketing tool that will support your overall growth efforts, then it needs to bring value to the user, which only adds to the UX.
2. A consistent content strategy -  As a business, you should always strive to have a consistent and unified content strategy throughout all channels (website, social media, email, etc.), not only because it is a best-practice for your brand, but because is what your audience would be looking for to be able to find your brand relatable and trustable. 
3. Content vs. design - With a content-first approach you can have complete control on how to deliver it through design. You will spend less time designing because you will start your process by focusing on problem-solving for your audience.
4. Opportunities/problems/challenges -  Starting your website redesign process with a content-first approach gives you an early prototype where you can spot opportunities, problems and challenges early on in the process
5. CMS/content creation tools vs. content - A content-first approach is a multi-disciplinary process that involves different teams: copywriters, designers, web developers, strategists and more. Discussions among teams about how content will impact technology such as a CMS (content management system) or the tools used to distribute content across different channels are very important. For example, when it comes to a CMS, it may need to be modified to accommodate the content or the content would need to be created with the limitations of your CMS in mind.

Conclusion: 

All businesses with an online platform, regardless of their specific niche, should invest in content marketing technology that is both reputable and effective. A small upfront cost more than pays itself off in the long run. One of the most popular content marketing technologies currently available on the market is Hubspot; however, there are other technologies available as well, such as Uberflip and Adobe Marketing Cloud. Regardless of which technology you select for your company in the end, be sure to choose one that helps streamline your workflow and saves you valuable time.

So, before digging too deep into your website redesign, be sure to make time to develop a content strategy that has clear goals and can effectively unify all the different aspects and elements of your branding and online presence. Improve your website’s UX, boost leads and conversations, and get one step closer to achieving genuine success for your business with a clear content strategy.

Developing a solid content strategy isn’t the only way to increase lead generation with your website redesign. Learn about 10 other excellent ways in the next article!