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How to Create a Content-Rich Web Site

by Newt Barrett

Traditional marketing avenues have become both more expensive and less effective as buyer behavior has changed dramatically. Today, the vast majority of buyers use the Internet to find out everything they need to know about a product or service before they contact a prospective vendor. This applies to business-to-business markets, consumer markets and even specialized areas such as mental health services. This new reality requires organizations of every size and type, including nonprofits, to make a dramatic shift in how they approach all their marketing efforts.

Content marketing differs from more traditional marketing by offering more than product information; it extends into the realm of best practices, case studies, success stories, thought leadership and more. By providing relevant and compelling content, organizations can make a powerful connection before potential clients even pick up the phone or walk through the door. And once you have delivered relevant content, you become viewed as a trusted resource.

A shift to content marketing enables resource-constrained organizations to connect with their clients effectively, efficiently and inexpensively. And an organization’s web site is the easiest and most effective way to provide informative content to current and prospective clients. Content marketing allows organizations to bypass traditional media, just as their clients are bypassing traditional media in search of solutions to tough problems. An organization with limited means can create a content-rich, customer-centric web site that connects directly to its current and future clients. That site can and should provide more in-depth information than an organization ever could have done in traditional print or broadcast media—and at a fraction of the cost.

Content marketing enables companies to build a level of trust with their customers that makes it easier for those customers to buy from them. This is easier said than done, because it almost certainly means changing the way you think about marketing.

How do you make that fundamental shift from traditional media-powered marketing to the delivery of great online content that will attract and retain loyal customers? Simply start thinking like a publisher. Publishing is the same in print or online. Here are some steps to follow when creating effective content for your web site:

1. Define a critical group of customers.
2. Determine what information your customers really need and how they want to receive it.
3. Deliver that critical information to that core group of customers in the way they want to receive it.
4. Make sure that your content is both relevant and compelling.
5. Continually measure how well you’re doing and adjust as you go.
   For a publisher, success means selling lots of ads. For a marketer who begins to think like a publisher, success means attracting and retaining lots of clients.

Case study
The David Lawrence Center web site demonstrates just how well online content marketing can work for any organization.

The David Lawrence Center in Naples, Florida, is a nonprofit mental health and substance abuse facility that provides affordable services for anyone in need. Each year, 16,000 individuals take advantage of more than 50 prevention, intervention and treatment services offered by the center. The power of the Center’s new web site, which was launched in early 2008, comes from great thinking and design rather than a big budget. What’s even more impressive is that the site’s development was driven by a small team: Communications Director Trista Meister, in partnership with local web development firm Exploritech.

The old web site wasn’t bad—it just didn’t demonstrate the power that a great web site can bring to an organization. The old web site failed to provide comprehensive information about the wide range of services offered by the center. Although it contained some fairly strong visual images, they represented the sorrow of mental illness rather than the joy of recovery.

Here are five lessons gleaned from the center’s web site re-design that your organization should consider when creating a content-rich web site.

1. You must have a thorough understanding of your customers and what is most important to them. If you do not understand the problems and challenges they face, you cannot hope to create content that is truly relevant to them. Without understanding the issues your audience faces, you cannot provide solutions. Meister and her colleagues had a clear understanding of their clients’ needs, which informed every aspect of the site. For example, they knew that many prospective clients were reluctant to talk about tough emotional issues over the phone. By providing a wealth of content that addressed varied client concerns—and the solutions offered—they established a level of trust that made it easy for future clients to be comfortable contacting the center.
2. Only content that is intrinsically valuable to your customers will work as a core component of your content marketing strategy. Building on their understanding of their clients’ needs, Meister and her team were able to create content that demonstrated their understanding and showed just how they could help their clients achieve positive outcomes for a broad range of mental, emotional and substance abuse issues. For example the walk-in/urgent care page of the web site describes what type of treatment a patient can expect to receive and provides a story from a patient who successfully completed the treatment.
3. A comprehensive content marketing strategy may provide a complete or partial replacement of traditional advertising and marketing. The one-time cost of creating the new web site is approximately 50 percent of what the center spends each year on Yellow Pages advertising. But the ongoing monthly cost is very modest. Because their Yellow Pages advertising is so fragmented—the center’s ads run in various sections—it’s very difficult to determine any kind of return on their investment. Because the web site is very measurable, they are able to track exactly how it is delivering tangible results.
4. Great design adds significant value to content marketing by making it more accessible, more appealing and more actionable for your customers. The old center web site design was very gloomy and depressing. It did not paint a positive picture of the wonderful outcomes clients might expect. The new site highlights the successful outcomes of treatment at the David Lawrence Center. The site includes uplifting images of happy people with their families and real-life success stories can be found throughout the site. This is so important because individuals seeking help may well have hit rock bottom. When they arrive at the site, it’s uplifting to view positive results.
5. Relevant and valuable content is just the first step in turning a prospect or visitor into a customer. You must then make it easy for them to buy. Just like a commercial web site, the David Lawrence Center’s online home makes it very easy to take the next step by calling the right phone number or sending an e-mail asking for help.

Through online content marketing, you have the opportunity to reach customers while they are actively seeking solutions. A content-rich web site that provides relevant information in a compelling way will quickly earn the trust of your target audience from the moment they arrive as first time visitors. That trust will then transform them from visitors to clients. Even if you continue traditional marketing, your web site should become your most effective marketing tool.

Newt Barrett is president of Content Marketing Strategies and the co-author of Get Content. Get Customers. You can learn more at his web site ContentMarketingToday.com.