We don’t live in a set it and forget it world. Our alarm clocks don’t set themselves. Food doesn’t magically appear in your refrigerator except for The Jetsons. Why on earth would you think that your website with the same content from 5 years ago would be a magnet to new, unique visitors?
Thankfully, there are some simple ways you can spice up the content on your website to drive new unique visitors, while retaining and encouraging past ones to re-visit in the future.
There is so much talk on the Internet about how “content is king” and you need to have great content. I agree! How do you go about this? Generate relevant, useful, understandable, content that your target audience will understand. Let’s get started.
Common types of content used on the web
To get things straight, and what is the primary focus of this post is content that will be seen and distributed on the web. It doesn’t matter if it’s viewed in a web browser, mobile device, reading device etc.
What are the common types of content you generate and put on a website?
- Copy – the text that you are reading now, is copy. Written by a copywriter which is me, your host.
- Multimedia– video, audio, pictures, diagrams
- video – think YouTube, Viddler, Vimeo, self-hosted
- audio – podcasts, music
- pictures – photographs, artwork
- diagrams – a generated illustration to show something such as a chart or graph
This paragraph wasn’t to insult your intelligence, but to clarify some of the most common elements seen across the web every day.
1. Repurpose old content and material
Recycling is great, go green! Well in the content generation world, why not recycle old copy if all it takes is some repurposing or editing. In addition, sometimes old multimedia stands just as strong today as it did in the past. Take a stroll down memory lane and wander through your archives of information. The dusty folder in your pile, the neglected folder on your computer waiting to be re-clicked, and the advertising agency that created your award-winning campaign 10 years ago.
Take this information, see if it has any relevance today for your audience and if it does, wonderful, recycle it and see how you can fit it into your online marketing efforts.
Caveat: Don’t be too liberal with this repurposing and forget to generate fresh content.
2. Start with the homepage and work down the hierarchy of your website
Curb appeal is important. The view from the street as passing by will make the difference between keen interest or none. Design is important, but so is the content structure. As humans, whether we want to admit it or not, we are more constructive and productive in organized environments. A website that has no clear direction or outline is crap, and no one wants to navigate around to their demise. The back button is their best friend, it’s the escape hatch from unfriendly websites. Remember, if content is king, usability is the queen.
It helps to view your website in layers, or in a directory or hierarchy. See the diagram below for a great visual example of how you can view your website. The diagram is courtesy of Google from their recently refreshed and repurposed “Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide” (PDF).
Create a simple structure, something that humans can understand and navigate, and the search robots will be able to quickly bounce around. Use breadcrumbs to help navigation during the visit. Make and publish a sitemap for the search robots to gobble up.
3. Find out what content your audience likes best
Now comes the fun part. The part where you connect with your audience. How do you do this? Take the first step, reach out your hand and say “hello, my name is…”. Successful business owners and managers know that networking is critical to their success and the overall business. Purpose driven content is no different. There are ways you can directly receive feedback on the type of content your viewers like best. Try polls or surveys. Ask them candidly on Facebook or X (formerly Twitter), or in your next email newsletter. Do they like video presentations of your product so they can get a “real life” feel for it online before they buy or share it with their friends?
There are also passive ways to find out what your visitors prefer. Use analytics and measure the response rate to one type of content over the other. In addition, play a bit with the performance by tweaking in different ways your top performing content. Not happy with the way a specific product or page is performing? Spend some more time and give a little SEO TLC to that specific page. Example: Have a sweet video that you created but it isn’t getting the view numbers you thought it would, try tweaking the tags, and consider changing the title. This is a simple form of an A/B test. For a true A/B test look to a product like Performable to create a special landing page, or alternatively if you have the means, do it yourself.
4. Keep things interesting with features and contests
If content is king, usability is the queen, then regular features and contests are the prince. I’m not talking about the prince that sits over in a dark corner of the castle looming over his royalty, but the kind of prince that gets things moving.
Feature
A regular feature could be something as simple as a weekly recap of your business activity online, a summary of news in your industry, or anything that would be of interest to your audience. We have a regular feature of interesting links pertaining to the Internet marketing industry.
Many businesses also use it as an opportunity to highlight a customer, or even their employees. It is a great way to connect with your audience.
Contests
Running a contest helps drive traffic to your website and can be used in conjunction to help build brand awareness, while making the sale, and benefiting your customer. Check out this good example of a recent contest ran by appSumo to help encourage growth to their X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook accounts, while driving business to one of their partners and the customer ends up with a great deal.
Summary
Have some fun with it. Features and contests don’t need to be dry and boring. Put some spice into it.
5. Find a champion and get on a schedule
Think about who in your organization could be a champion at generating awesome content that would help drive visitors to your website. Do you have anyone with experience producing and editing videos? Ask around, you will be surprised. Does your bookkeeper love writing and can write some fresh new articles for your company blog? Once again, ask around. Poll your resources and get on the path to creating great content regularly.
One thing that helps get on a schedule or at least solidify your plans to more frequently produce the content your audience is looking for, is to create an editorial calendar.
Since I try to practice what I preach, here is an editorial calendar template for download. It’s an Excel spreadsheet. I have to credit Jamie Lee Wallace for the original template, that I’ve revised some for my needs. (Update 1/11/2025 – this original template is no longer available, however, there are some new editorial content calendar templates available.)
In addition to having it written down, you may find it better, or a supplement to, to put the plans on a real calendar, such as a shared team calendar or personal calendar.
Making the connection between creation time and overall value to your business
There is a clear distinct connection to the time that you will spend repurposing, creating, and regularly featuring content. It indeed does take time; however, the time you spend can have invaluable returns. In our inbound marketing definition post the time vs. value factor adds up quickly, do the math.
Question: What are you doing to strategically create content for your business?