An introduction to web content development
Web content development is the process of generating material that supports and promotes your online presence.
Throughout the course of developing your web content, you will brainstorm, plan, research, organize, and create content for online publication. And then you’ll publish it.
For a small business owner, this content should be designed with one purpose in mind: to advance the goals of your business.
It usually starts with your website, but web content can include any online content that represents you or your business. It consists of text, images, audio, and video that are accessible on the Internet. Read more
Introducing: Web Content
There’s a lot of talk on the Internet about web content. You should have it. It needs to be good. You can share it, market it, and sell it. Manage and maintain it. Have a plan – develop it. Use it to build your business. Use it to succeed.
Plenty of people sell web content and related services. You can hire a web content writer, developer, or manager. You might bump into web content consultants, specialists, or experts. You may even happen across someone who creates and then either publishes or sells web content as their entire business model.
But what is web content, anyway?
Defining Web Content
Generally speaking, web content is anything that you find on the web. It can include text, images, audio, and video.
In the early days of the Internet, which weren’t so long ago, web content was extremely limited. You could share files, but it took a long time for them to transmit. Text and light images comprised most of the content online. Read more
We’ve already talked about how to lay the groundwork for your web content development by brainstorming. You jotted down all your ideas, did some research, and expanded on those ideas. You looked at the competition and learned more about what your industry is doing in the online marketplace. You took notes and made lists. You asked questions and came up with answers. You went in empty handed and came out with a better understanding of what your online presence should look like.
Once you’ve done your brainstorming, you should have plenty of possibilities for your web content development plan. Maybe you’ve got it scrawled all over a bunch of pieces of scratch paper. Perhaps you used an orderly mind mapping technique or created a PowerPoint presentation.
Take a look at your notes. Those are the seeds that you’ve gathered. Now you need to plant those seeds and make them grow. You have to water and fertilize them, and make sure those seedlings get plenty of sunshine. To do this, you’re going to need a plan. A web content development plan.
The Benefits of Having a Plan
I’m a big fan of planning. If you spend a little time on a plan right now, you can save loads of time later. A good plan will also help you avoid mistakes and bumps in the road because as you build your plan, you’ll naturally contemplate various possibilities and scenarios. You’ll be able to work contingencies into the plan, as well as emergency exits and the notorious plan B.
Running a business is not easy. It takes up a lot of time and energy, especially when you’re just starting out or going through a renovation or expansion. If you don’t write a plan, then you might get caught up in your day-to-day business activities and forget all about the evolution of your online presence. This is especially true if you have a long-term business plan (please tell me you do).
A plan also provides you with a blueprint. There are infinite possibilities on the web and it’s easy to get lost among all the opportunities. If you have a plan, you’ll be able to navigate through your many choices with ease and confidence.
Tips for Web Content Development Planning
Purpose and Priority
I believe that all good plans start with a sense of purpose and priority. Let’s say your first web project will be to redesign your website. You decide to scrap all three or four pages of written content because they are outdated, and you want to get rid of the layout, which is just dated. But you’d like to keep your logo. You decide you need about twenty pages of content, including one page for each separate product that you sell. You also want to get set up on popular social media sites. You’d like to use video as well. You’ve got a big list of big ideas and you can’t wait to see them come alive.
But first you need to step back and decide what matters most. This is how you organize and put things in order: Your website is more important that your social media. Your email marketing campaign is more important than your hopes for creating a viral video. Later, we’ll talk about contingencies, timelines, and budgets. But for now, keep in mind that no matter how hard we work or how carefully we plan, things change. You might get a golden opportunity in a few months and have to postpone some of your content development plans for lack of time (being busy is good, right!). You might have a difficult quarter and have to tighten the budget. You just never know what the future holds. So dream big, but then put your dreams in order.
When you’re dealing with a website, for example, you should definitely give your core pages greater priority. These include your home page, about page, products or services page, and contact page. Four simple pages that every business website should have. Viral videos are all the rage but millions of people post videos every day and there’s no guarantee that yours is going to be a phenomenon. A more reliable marketing strategy should come first. Put things in their proper order. Prioritize, and everything else will follow.
Flexibility
Nothing stresses me out more than a plan that has no flexibility built in. Let’s say you’re a middle manager. You have to get a project to your boss by Friday. Please don’t tell your subordinates that it’s due Friday. You tell them it’s due Thursday. Or better, Wednesday. That gives you some leeway in case anything goes wrong. And things do go wrong. Next year, your budget might be twice what it is this year (or it could be half). Even the very best plans, the ones that are perfectly executed, are subject to reality. And in reality, stuff happens. Unpredictable stuff. So create your plan, but don’t create it out of iron or chisel it into stone. And remember, technology is changing all the time. Be prepared because this year’s blog is next year’s Twitter, and who knows what we’ll be dealing with the year after that?
Timeline
A website doesn’t happen overnight. If you’re starting a brand new business, you’ll want the completion of your website to coincide with the launch of the business itself. If you’re doing a redesign and want to time it for a product or service launch, you’ll need to coordinate your timelines.
The biggest mistake I see small business owners making in the online world is not having any plan at all. The second biggest mistake is no timeline. They’re going to start publishing a newsletter, but when? They’ll update their online profiles, eventually. They’d like to add fresh content to the site. Someday.
Lots of people don’t like committing to a timeline. Well, that’s what flexibility is for. At least with a timeline, you can make some sound guesses about the future of your web content. At the very least, you can create a series of events and ascertain how long each will take and how much time you need between each one. For example, you can allot six weeks to creating a website. You might need two weeks to create an email marketing campaign. You don’t have to glue these projects to the calendar, but you can use a timeline to better understand how long everything will take. This will enable you to align various facets of your entire business.
Budgeting
Smart businesspeople know how to budget. But we just talked about flexibility and the unforeseeable future. The fact that you cannot know for sure what the future holds also means you can’t know for sure what your budget will be in later months or years. The economy is unpredictable, the market is unpredictable, and consumers are getting more fickle by the minute. Hopefully, you’ll have a bigger budget than you hoped for or at least be on track. But we all know how many businesses fail every year (if you don’t know, the answer is this: the vast majority!). And when disappointment comes knocking, the first thing that shrinks is your budget. Some businesses can avoid failure by having a flexible budget, or rather, by having a plan that’s flexible enough to adapt to changing budgets.
You should, however, budget for online marketing on a long-term basis. A lot of small businesses throw a few hundred dollars at a website and then forget about it. Three years later, they remember they have a website and they pay a few hundred more dollars to update it. This is not a healthy cycle. It could be costing the business customers, who are apt to think that if the website is half-baked, the company probably is too. Make sure you have a regular, ongoing budget for online marketing and website maintenance.
Contingencies
A contingency is something that might happen, but there’s no guarantee. It’s a what-if. As a writer, I’m thrilled by what-ifs. Questioning possibility is what drives fiction. It’s also what keeps me up at night. What if the video really does go viral? What if nobody responds to my Facebook page? What if the site becomes an overnight internet sensation; do I have the resources to handle the new business that the site could attract?
When you’re writing a plan, you have to include contingencies. You probably don’t need a lot of them, but contingencies work alongside flexibility. In your plan, you believe that if you build a site and launch a proper marketing campaign, you should be able to increase your current sales by 20%. So you build the site, but it’s drawing more customers than you anticipated. Will you be ready to handle the new business that’s coming in?
Plan B
If your plan doesn’t pan out the way you intended, what are you going to do? Nobody likes thinking about worst-case scenarios, but this is business and the reality is that success is not guaranteed. However, you can minimize your losses by having a solid backup plan in place. And you never know, a good backup plan might lead to another (and more successful opportunity). Let’s say you’re just out of college and want to be a freelance graphic designer. You set up a website and start hustling online. You do okay, but not great. Your designs are awesome, but sales isn’t your thing. A year in, you’ve invested a lot of time and money building your little business. But now, you’re not sure you’re in it for the long haul.
Secondary plans abound in situations like this. You can rework your website, turn it into an online resume and portfolio, and then use it find a regular job (you can always continue freelancing on the side). You can find a partner who specializes in sales and work together to grow the business. You can sell your site (aged websites have value, and aged sites with decent content have even more value — high traffic sites are worth a lot) and get out of the business altogether.
Yes, it sucks when things don’t work out the way we’d hoped. But it’s not the end of the world. If you have a plan B, you’ll be prepared and you’ll get through any major disappointments just fine.
Get Ready to Execute
Planning takes time and effort, but it can prevent unnecessary hassles later. Take some time to brainstorm your vision for your online presence. Then, turn that raw material into an organized plan, one that’s prioritized and that has a clear budget, a tentative timeline, and a lot of flexibility. Include contingencies and a backup plan. Once you get through that planning phase, you’ll be ready to execute. It’s time to start building!
Have you ever heard of the five Ps?
Proper planning prevents poor performance.
This saying is simple and easy to remember, and it conveys an important message: The best results come from a well-laid plan. That’s what smart web content development is all about — proper planning.
If done right, a good content development plan will ensure a stellar performance, one in which your website plays the starring role. This all starts with a blueprint, a map that you can follow to take your website from concept to completion.
Every good plan kicks off with a brainstorming session.
The very first step in developing web content is to establish the concept for your website. In this step, you brainstorm all of your options and ideas. Later, you’ll develop a streamlined list of content that you will build and launch over time. This becomes your plan.
In the picture above, you can see a man working at a board laden with sticky notes. This is a great way to brainstorm. However, a few large sheets of paper will serve just as well. In any case, you need to set up a workspace where you can jot down all your ideas and notes.
Make sure you have your computer handy too. As you build your list of possibilities for web content development, you’ll need to conduct research at almost every step. Keep this in mind as you go through the rest of this list — for example, if you’re not sure what all your social media options are, you’ll want to conduct a search.
Web Content Development Brainstorming Tips
- List your core web content — this includes your website and its most essential pages (home, about, products or services, and a contact page). This content should contain information that is absolutely necessary to communicate your offer and message to the online community. Don’t forget that images, video, and links are content too!
- Create a list of additional pages that could benefit your website. These could be articles, sales pages, or individual products and services pages. Remember that you’re in the conceptual phase, so write down anything and everything that comes to mind.
- Remember that web content is any content you own on the web. This goes beyond your website and expands into countless opportunities for online exposure, such as social media. While your content may exist in various places on the web, its core purpose is to drive traffic to your site. Brainstorm beyond your website.
- List social media sites. What kind of content will you need to set up a presence on those sites? For example, if you set up a Twitter account, you’ll probably want a custom background and maybe even a collection of starter tweets to kick-start your Twitter campaign.
- In a sense, your website advertises your products and services. To drive traffic and potential customers to your site, you’ll have to advertise the site itself. That means listing your website in directories, posting ads, or buying advertising space on other websites. You might want to try a Google AdWords campaign as a way to drive traffic and customers to your site. Compile a list of online advertising channels that you’d like to explore.
- Check out the competition. Visit sites that offer goods and services similar to your own and check out their web content. This is an excellent way to get ideas. You can also conduct reverse searches to find out how your competitors are getting inbound links.
- Conduct searches. Use Google to see what’s buzzing in your industry. Try a wide range of search terms, including terms related to your industry, products, and services. You could spend hours doing this, possibly all of eternity. Keep track of the search terms you enter in search engines and make notes about anything interesting that comes up. Read the articles, check out the images, and visit sites that are related to your own. They don’t have to be competitors; be sure to look for sites that offer products and services that complement rather than compete with your offerings.
- Take your search to social media. Here’s where you’ll really see what’s buzzing. Want to get your finger on the pulse of the universal water cooler? Just take a look at Twitter’s trending topics. Enter your most condensed search terms in social media sites like Facebook and Twitter to see how folks are treating your subject matter and what they’re saying about it. Tip: Don’t forget to search YouTube (you’ll find some really interesting stuff there).
More Brainstorming Tips
Here are a few bonus tips that deal with any type of brainstorming session:
- Start with your primary objective. Whether you’re selling widgets or trying to build a readership for your newsletter, know what your main goals are. Let every aspect of your content development plan contribute toward achieving those goals. I recommend writing this objective in big, bold letters and keep it visible during your brainstorming sessions. If you have more than one goal, then identify your core goal and note lesser goals as well.
- You can always add to your list. Keep your brainstorming materials accessible (or transfer them into a computer file) so you can add to them whenever that light bulb in your head goes on (and trust me, this will happen). You also may want to revisit your ideas later, which is another good reason to keep your brainstorming notes on file.
- Remember that brainstorming and research can take time. You might need to spend several hours or days on this phase. If you put a lot of sweat into brainstorming, conceptualizing, and planning, then all the other phases of your web content development will go smoothly.
Next Steps
Once you’ve got a massive list of ideas for web content, your next step is to prioritize, eliminate, and explore further. If you’ve done your legwork, then you should have a good idea which content should be developed first. You will also have some ideas that don’t look like a good fit for your specific business offerings. Finally, there will be some ideas that are unclear or require further research.
Keep working at your list, refining it until a concrete plan starts to emerge. You can always get started building your web content before your plan is completely finalized. For example, you may be trying to figure out just how much you can squeeze into your budget in a single year and aren’t sure if you can do social media sites and an ad campaign. But you know you need to get those core pages on your website underway. Multi-task, and if you’re too busy, then try delegating or hiring out some of the work.
Web Content Development
Web content development can be a lot of fun for creative types who like to plan and brainstorm. If you’re not very familiar with the many marketing outlets available on the web, you might need to spend a lot of time researching — to get a list of possible sites where you’ll feature your content and then to hone that list down targeting only those that are a good match for your business offerings.
If web content development doesn’t sound like fun to you, then you can always hire a professional. Scribizzy offers web content development services and can help you put together a comprehensive plan for the future of your website. We can also help you execute that plan!
