Week 2: Website & Content Strategy
Week 2 Overview: Website & Content Strategy
This week, we dive into two of the most critical assets in digital marketing: your website and your content. A great website is your digital storefront, and great content is what fills it with value.
Website Essentials
Your website is often the central hub of all your marketing efforts. It needs to be fast, easy to use, and optimized for both users and search engines.
Landing Pages
A landing page is a standalone web page, created specifically for a marketing or advertising campaign. It’s where a visitor “lands” after they click on a link in an email, or an ad from Google, Facebook, or elsewhere. Unlike a homepage, which has many goals, a landing page has only one: conversion.
Example: If you're running an ad for a new ebook, you would send users to a landing page where the only action they can take is to download that ebook, not browse your entire site.
User Experience (UX)
UX refers to the overall experience a person has when interacting with your website. Good UX means your site is easy to navigate, pleasant to look at, and allows users to accomplish their goals without frustration.
- Is it easy to find information? (Clear Navigation)
- Does it load quickly? (Site Speed)
- Does it work well on a phone? (Mobile Friendliness)
Mobile Optimization
Mobile optimization is the process of ensuring that visitors who access your site from mobile devices have an experience optimized for that device. With over half of all web traffic coming from mobile, this is non-negotiable. Google also uses "mobile-first indexing," meaning it primarily looks at the mobile version of your site for ranking purposes.
Content Marketing Deep Dive
Content marketing's purpose is to attract and retain customers by consistently creating relevant and valuable content that doesn't feel like a direct sales pitch.
Common Content Formats
- Blogs: Regularly updated articles that provide value, answer customer questions, and help you rank for relevant keywords in search engines.
- Videos: A highly engaging format for storytelling, tutorials, product demonstrations, and behind-the-scenes looks at your brand.
- Infographics: Visual representations of information, data, or knowledge. They are great for presenting complex information quickly and are highly shareable on social media.
- Case Studies: Detailed stories of how a customer successfully used your product or service. They provide social proof and build trust.
Introduction to CMS
A Content Management System (CMS) is software that helps users create, manage, and modify content on a website without needing to write code from scratch.
Popular CMS Platforms
- WordPress
- The most popular CMS in the world, powering over 40% of all websites. It's incredibly flexible and customizable with a vast library of themes (for design) and plugins (for functionality).
- Shopify
- A leading e-commerce platform that provides a user-friendly CMS specifically for building and managing online stores.
Basic Copywriting and Storytelling
Good marketing is not just about what you say, but how you say it.
Copywriting
Copywriting is the art and science of writing text (copy) for advertising or other forms of marketing. The goal is to persuade someone to take a specific action, whether it's to make a purchase, click a link, or sign up for a newsletter.
Key Tip: Focus on benefits, not just features. A feature of a drill is that it has a "lithium-ion battery." A benefit is that you can "complete your entire project on a single charge."
Storytelling
Humans are wired for stories. Use narratives to connect with your audience on an emotional level. A good story makes your brand more memorable, relatable, and trustworthy.
Example: Instead of saying "Our coffee is high-quality," tell the story of the farmer who grows the beans, their family, and the journey the coffee takes to get to the customer's cup.