Your web content is more than just words on a page. It's a reflection of your brand identity, values, and personality. It's how you communicate with your audience, build trust, and persuade them to take action. But how do you align your web content with your brand? Here are some tips to help you create consistent, engaging, and authentic web content that matches your brand voice and goals.
Before you write any web content, you need to have a clear understanding of your brand. What is your mission, vision, and values? What are your unique selling points and benefits? What are your tone, style, and voice? How do you want your audience to feel when they interact with your brand? These are some of the questions you need to answer to define your brand identity and personality. You can use tools like a brand style guide, a brand voice chart, or a brand persona to document and communicate your brand attributes.
Top-tier web content is rooted in genuine solutions for clients or customers. Build genuine connections offline, and your online content will flourish. ???? Also, a brand with real personalities behind it creates a stronger bond. Such brands are perceived as more approachable, allowing the audience to relate and feel a deeper attachment. Regarding personal brands: build a strong understanding of the challenges and needs of your customers. Embrace your genuine self, don't be afraid to try new channels and formats, but always keep your voice as close as possible to you because authenticity is magnetic. When you are genuine, individuals are drawn to you, not because you mirror someone else, but because they appreciate your true essence.
Your web content should also align with your audience's needs, preferences, and expectations. You need to know who your target audience is, what their pain points and goals are, how they search for information, and what kind of content they consume. You can use tools like buyer personas, customer journeys, or keyword research to create and segment your audience profiles. By knowing your audience, you can tailor your web content to their interests, motivations, and challenges, and create a stronger connection with them.
When it comes to websites, there are a handful of best practices that are easy to get caught up in. Rank for keywords, optimize, crawl to the top of Google... These can be great strategies if your audience doesn't know to look for you and you want them to find you when they search. But what if your audience isn't Google searching for the solution you provide? If you are working with high end clients offering high end services, they aren't likely chancing it. In this case you don't want bogged down buzzword copy, you want engaging and invitational relationship building copy. Before you get caught up in best practices and trends, think about who your audience is and how they are using your website.
Over time, I've discovered that we have two very different audiences who are visiting our website. Each of these audiences is looking for different content and information. However, the current website was only addressing one of these audiences. To fix this, I've been building out content that is more technical in nature for our second audience. I speak with subject matter experts and get their input on the type of content that they would like to see and adapt it to still fit our overall brand and character.
Your web content should also align with your purpose. What are you trying to achieve with your web content? What are your objectives and key performance indicators? How do you measure your success? You need to have a clear and specific purpose for each piece of web content you create, whether it's to inform, educate, entertain, or persuade your audience. You also need to have a clear and compelling call to action that guides your audience to the next step in their journey. By knowing your purpose, you can create web content that supports your brand goals and delivers value to your audience.
Your web content should also align with your format. How do you present your web content to your audience? What are the best practices and standards for each format? How do you optimize your web content for different devices and platforms? You need to know how to choose and use the right format for your web content, whether it's a blog post, a video, a podcast, or a landing page. You also need to know how to use elements like headlines, subheadings, images, links, or bullet points to enhance your web content and make it easier to read and scan.
Your web content should also align with your tone. How do you express your brand voice and personality in your web content? How do you adapt your tone to different situations and contexts? How do you balance between being professional and being friendly? You need to know how to use the right tone for your web content, depending on your audience, purpose, format, and message. You also need to know how to use words, phrases, punctuation, or emojis to convey your tone and emotion.
Your web content should also align with your feedback. How do you test and improve your web content? How do you collect and analyze data and insights from your web content? How do you learn from your mistakes and successes? You need to know how to use feedback to refine and optimize your web content, whether it's from your audience, your peers, or your analytics. You also need to know how to use tools like A/B testing, surveys, or heatmaps to measure and enhance your web content performance.
Know your client. Talk to them! Ask questions… If you’re an agency writer or freelance writer who’s been hired by an individual or organization, don’t make assumptions about what it is that they want from you. Talk it out. After all, as a writer you know that communication is key ??. Does your client have ideas about structure? Tone & branding? Performance? Are they hiring you because they want you to figure out all these things for them? — Or do they expect regular updates & want a high degree of visibility into your process? Is what they want outside the scope of what you can offer? Be open, empathetic, & curious. And remember — content writing isn’t just a transaction. It’s about interaction & relationship-building, too!