Writing Onsite Content with Branding in Mind

By Steve Lazuka

Writing effective content for a business website can make all the difference between a vibrant, successful site and one that languishes unread and at worst, may even damage your business’s reputation.

But, perhaps you are happy with your website’s content. If this is the case, it is still worth taking a step back and looking at your site with fresh eyes. Perhaps it’s time for a change, or perhaps it’s time to move things up another gear.

While effective content is central to a website, the ability to use it to further your own brand is where an online site can really come in to its own. There are a number of ways of doing this:

SEO Content

Maximizing the use of search engine optimization can really make a site, but even more significantly, it can help enhance your brand so that customers identify easier with what you have to offer. Think about your brand and the words that best describe your product or service. Perhaps you have a brand tag line. If so, make sure you incorporate it into the site so search engines can easily locate it when anyone uses it as search criteria.

Emotional Buy-In

A brand is a great way of getting customers to “buy-in” to what you offer. A website can really come into its own here as you can (and should) tailor its content to enhance the brand. So if you were in the business of selling organic, locally sourced food, it would make sense to extend this brand.

You could have a section of the site with links to farmers’ markets or recipes for healthy meals. You could write articles yourself, or even better, use a business blog writing service to create content that compliments your brand. This helps create a self-contained “world,” which should encourage customers to explore what you have to offer.

Inspire Loyalty

Always working with your branding in mind is a great way to increase customer loyalty. Filling your site with articles, blogs and links that help reinforce the message of your brand will create a sense of belonging for your customers.

Remember that many successful sites aren’t just online stores, but foster a sense of community by discussing ideas, issues and news relating to your product. If you sell CDs, then why not include reviews so customers think of your site not just as a place to spend money, but a resource from which they can learn.

Call to Action

Don’t forget the call to action. What do you want the reader to do after they read what you have to say? Do you want them to fill out a form, call you, request more information? Be sure you use proper calls to action that can help your bottom line, while also considering all the other factors we discussed.

Writing onsite content with branding in mind will help create an overall sense of identity and a place where customers will be happy to return time and time again.

About the Author

Steve Lazuka is owner and operator of Interact Media, a website content company based in Ohio that services social media, content development, a business blog writing service and more. He’s also an avid tweeter (@SteveLazuka), and a guest blogs regularly.

Site Launch: PRBeam.com for $99 Press Releases

Yesterday, I launched my newest Web site, the first HTML/CSS based site I’ve designed in several years. I decided not to use WordPress as my content management system for PRBeam.com, my $99 press release promotional Web site, due in part to some recent hackings that have taken place with WP.

Those problems are now behind me, but it left a bitter taste in my mouth. Besides, with HTML I can keep my six static pages in place and leave it at that. No temptation to add a blog post and dilute my freelance writing message found here. I’m still tweaking the site to make it render nearly the same to viewers across major browser platforms; it actually looks better in Chrome and IE than it does in Firefox. Go figure.

Of course, PRBeam.com is not an end to itself. I’m hoping that it translates into new business for me while allowing small business operators to find an experienced press release copywriter who can give them what they need for less. Under my current arrangement, customers will receive a newsworthy press release for up to 400 words and distribute it themselves.

And I’m advising these same customers to use a quality distributor and to disseminate their news carefully. SEO is certainly important as is targeting your news release to the right people. Print newspapers are fading fast, but many journalists have transferred what they do to the Internet. Those people may be interested in your news too, using your release as a jumping-off place for a fresh article.

So where is my own press release announcing my press release service? I’m actually going to wait until June to publish it so that I can tend to the needs of my customers first. Besides, if PRBeam.com is a raging success, I might want to tweak that $99 offer or add a distribution option. Stay tuned!