It occurred to me while sitting in the barber’s chair when Scotty, my barber, asked me what I’m doing these days and I said content marketing, coaching and consulting. When he asked what content was, I realize not everyone knows what the basics of websites are – they just know they need one for business.

So I started to explain content, and it wasn’t as easy as you think. I know content. I sleep it. I pour it on my cereal in the morning, yet, it wasn’t cut and dry answering the point-blank question. The dictionary has some pretty vague definitions of content, and I could take the easy way out and say content is anything that delivers information such as copy, images, blogs, videos, etc.

But what is content really?

Content is your story. It’s your fingerprints to your business that says this is all mine. Whether through words or images, your content connects you with individually unique and different people throughout the world. Content is the very fabric of your website and the information that delivers your message. It’s the most important thing you can focus on besides your business itself.

Look forward to our next blog when we look into and explain SEO

Content marketing is a pretty crowded field which is why Sawfish Online spent last week and this weekend developing and tweaking a new approach to better serve customers in the form of content coaching and consulting.

Yes, we still do all of the content creation and marketing we’ve done, and we still do it well, but we have listened to clients explain their needs and realized in-office or online coaching of business owners and marketing teams is a productive way to empower businesses in the online world. Sawfish Online follows up our coaching programs with consulting sessions to make sure you stay on track using the information learned from our coaching.

Of course, if the work turns out to still be too much for you, we can come in and help out like always with your content and marketing pieces.

Whether it’s consulting, coaching or creation, call Larry at (630) 414-7545 or email him at [email protected] to learn more about how Sawfish Online can help your business and improve your website content.

Many of us remember that Forbes magazine headline “Content is King” a few years back. Everyone scrambled to make sure they had tons and tons of content on their websites, and it gave a lot of us content professionals some pretty good job opportunities. Things have changed somewhat, though.

Content isn’t really king anymore. It’s more like the queen – still crucial for your website and to your company’s success, but a step down in the hierarchy of ultimate importance.  

What’s taken content’s place?

Context.

Context is how you can target your specific audience while simultaneously gaining a larger audience. If your website is selling automotive services, don’t just sell your services, but have content that sells tires, suspension components and whatever other items you sell with your services. By doing this, you’re not only reaching your targeted audience of those who need auto service, but you are also reaching out and serving individuals who are looking for new tires, new struts or new wipers. By adding a more tailored “how,” “what” and “why” context to your content, you’re providing a more specific explanation of all the services you offer.

If you're wondering if your content has context reaching your targeted audience, give Sawfish Online a call and we can help sort it out in a manner that is easy to understand and easy to action. 

The biggest mistake when creating a web site or updating a current site is putting the design ahead of content. All too often, all of the initial effort goes into making the site look spectacular, which of course is important, but a spectacular looking site with poor or no content is much like creating a shiny package without knowing what will go in it.

Many times Directors yell “Go!” and the designers take off in one direction while the copywriters go in another. What happens then usually costs time, money and even customers as the website looks as if it was created by two different teams that had no idea what each other was doing.

If your content, your ultimate message, is created first, customers will understand immediately what you, your site and your company is all about. They will be engaged. Customers will read your site and watch videos. Heck, they might even buy something – at least they know what you are selling them. If design is top priority, customers might look at your site and think you have great designers on board, but what does your company do? Instead of learning and becoming informed, your potential customer is wondering why they are even on that page. And guess what? When a customer hits a page, and it’s a bad experience, they will leave and probably never come back. That’s money out of your pocket.

Of course, creating content first isn’t always the easiest thing to do. Some tips to help are:

1.     Keep your eyes on the prize. Staying on target with your company’s marketing mission will help in creating content that engages, inspires and ultimately triggers conversions.

2.     You can always trim or add according to the final design. Nothing in life is permanent including design, words, image size, et al. What is created can be changed, moved, resized or axed while still delivering your marketing message.

3.     A Content Strategist can help. Copywriters, designers and creative directors don’t always have the same vision – or even speak the same language. A Content Strategist can be the one to keep all parties involved on the same page, communicating needs and wants in a language that everyone understands. Put simply, a Content Strategist keeps all teams in tune with each other.

Sawfish Online provides content strategy along with content creation. We have copywriters, marketing strategists and designers who have learned the hard way on the right way to create and brand company’s websites.

Visit us at www.sawfishonline.com to learn more about how Sawfish Online can help your content, strategy and SEO.