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June 26, 2024 16 mins

Unlock the secrets to planning compelling website content in this episode of Website Success. Chrissy Rey guides you through the steps in her Ultimate Website Content Planner, which includes crafting your mission statement, identifying core values, and establishing your website's unique personality. You’ll learn how to create a content strategy that resonates with your target audience, drives engagement, and boosts your online presence. Discover practical tips for organizing your content, creating effective calls to action, and maintaining consistency across your digital platforms. Start your journey to planning your website’s content today!

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Episode Transcript

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(00:09):
Hey there, website rockstars.
Welcome back to website success.
I'm Chrissy Rey, and I know it's beena little while since the last episode,
but I took a much needed break to workon a few projects, and now I'm back.
And today I am ready to talk aboutplanning your website content.
We're going to explore my Ultimate WebsiteContent Planner, which is sort of like

(00:31):
a cheat code for planning and organizingall of your content, because there's a
lot that you've got to do, but don't worrybecause I'm going to break this down into
simple, manageable steps that anyone canfollow even if you're not tech savvy.
And really creating content andplanning your content, it doesn't
require you to be very tech savvy.
There are some things for thetech savvy, but not a whole lot.

(00:52):
Now we won't actually cover thewriting of the content in this
episode, but we will get to that.
I promise.
By the way, if you want to get the mostout of this episode, make sure you head
over to websitesuccessacademy.com andgo to the resources section to grab
my Ultimate Website Content Planner.
While you're there, you may alsowant to download the Website Success

(01:14):
Blueprint if you haven't already.
Or go back and listen to episode seventhrough 18 of the podcast, because you
are going to need some information fromthat in order to create your content.
Okay.
Let's get started.
Now, if you've already listened to thewebsite planning series that I talked
about again, that's episode seven through18, then you know I'm a big, big, big

(01:36):
fan of planning things out when I can.
And sure you could just wing it, butthen you might find yourself missing
the mark when it comes to engagingyour target audience, because it's
really all of your content, yourwebsite, everything is all about them.
Now having a well-planned contentstrategy can help make sure that
you're writing your content effectivelyand really communicating your

(01:59):
message, engaging your audience andultimately driving the actions that
you want that target audience, thosevisitors to your website to take.
And here's the best part.
Spending time on planning now isgoing to save you tons of time
and headaches down the road.
So trust me, your future selfwill thank you for planning now.

(02:20):
So, where do we start?
Well, before we can do that, we do need torewind just a tiny bit because before you
can actually start planning your content.
You do need to go back and figure outyour offer, your goals, your target
audience, and all of that stuff.
And that's not really what I wouldconsider part of planning your content.
That's really more part ofplanning your overall website.

(02:41):
And I do cover that in theWebsite Success Blueprint.
And I also covered that previously inepisode seven through 18 of the podcast.
So make sure you go backand listen to all of that.
And then after you've got all that figuredout, then come back, listen to this and
you can start planning your content.
Okay.
Now for the first real step in planningyour content, and that is going to be

(03:02):
coming up with your mission statement.
You want to use your mission statementas sort of like a north star for
your content and you can break itdown into three simple questions.
Number one.
What is your business's core purpose?
Number two, who is your target audience?
And number three.
How do you solve your target audiencesproblems or fulfill their needs?

(03:25):
Once you answer those questions,you can combine them into a two to
three sentence mission statementthat summarizes those answers.
For example, a mission statementfor a virtual assistant might be,
"I help overwhelmed entrepreneursreclaim their time by managing their
administrative tasks efficientlyand effectively, allowing them to
focus on growing their business."

(03:47):
And this might seem small, but trustme, it's very powerful because every
piece of content that you create shouldalign with that mission so you're
going to have focused and consistentmessaging across your entire brand.
So not just your content for yourwebsite, but keep that mission statement
in mind for your social media content.
If you've got a podcast,keep it in mind for that.

(04:09):
Any email newsletters thatyou send out, you want to keep
that mission statement in mind.
So again, it's sort of like thenorth star for guiding your content.
Next thing we're going to do is move onto identifying your values and the values
are the heart and soul of your business.
They're going to be what you standfor and what you believe in and
what your business stands for andwhat your business believes in.

(04:32):
When your content consistently reflectsyour values it's going to build
trust and loyalty with your audience.
Now in the content planner, I guide youthrough reflecting on your business's
guiding principles, considering yourpersonal values and how they align with
your business, and identifying valuesthat resonate with your target audience.
And the goal is going to be to narrowit down to three to five core values

(04:56):
that truly represent your business.
Those values should beauthentic, memorable, and
easy for you to communicate.
So for instance, a sustainableclothing brand might have values
like environmental responsibility,ethical production and transparency.
Once you've got correct valuesnailed down, it's time to move
on to your vision statement.

(05:17):
While your mission statement is allabout the here and now, your vision
statement is about the future.
It's going to be your bigaudacious goal for your business.
Where do you see your business going?
What impact do you want to make?
It should be a big audacious goal.
It should be inspiring and ambitious.
It's going to be what getsyou out of bed in the morning,

(05:38):
excited to work on your business.
And for your audience, it's going to givethem a sense of where you're headed and
why they should come along for the ride.
So for example, a vision statement foran online education platform might be to
create a world where quality educationis accessible to everyone regardless of
their location or financial situation.

(06:00):
All right.
Now, we're going to get to oneof my personal favorite parts.
Establishing your website's personality.
I want you to do something for me.
Close your eyes for a moment, andimagine your website as a person.
Who are they?
Are they a 40 something mom whojuggles a family and her own business,
but still has time for self care?

(06:21):
Or maybe they're the 40 something.
Mom who's really struggling to keep itall together but uses her wicked sense
of humor to get herself through the day?
Or maybe they're you andmaybe you're one of those two?
I actually work with a lot of womenbusiness owners who use their own
personalities for their websites.
They create a personathat's based on them.
And that's totally okay when thatpersonality is what resonates with

(06:43):
their target audience and whatreflects the business in general.
So the key here is to create a personathat does resonate with that target
audience while still staying trueto your mission, values, and vision.
And this persona, this personality isgoing to guide your way when you write
your content, the tone you use, andeventually you might even use it for the

(07:07):
design choices that you make when it comesto your logo, your colors, your fonts,
and the visual appearance of your website.
In the planner, I ask you to describeyour website's personality, the
specific words or phrases that thispersonality or person might use and
the communication style and emotionaltone that your website should have.

(07:29):
Documenting all of that can be incrediblyhelpful in maintaining a consistent
voice across all of your media.
So not just your website, but allof your content, including your
social media, printed materials,email newsletters, your blog, and
any other content that you create.
Now that we've got thefoundational elements in place.
It's time to establish our content goals.

(07:50):
This is where we get really specificby answering questions like: Why
will people visit your website?
What do you want toachieve with your content?
What content will customers need tosee before they will make a purchase?
What objections will youneed to proactively address?
What questions can you proactively answer?
And these questions really help you focuson creating content that serves a purpose.

(08:13):
Remember every piece of your contenton your website should be working
towards your larger business goals.
And those are the goals that youestablished for your website When you
did the Website Success Blueprint.
Now here's a bonus.
When you create that content with cleargoals in mind, you are also naturally
optimizing that content for search engine.
So you're doing a little bit of both.

(08:36):
Now once you've established yourgoals, it's time to list out all
of the necessary information thatyou need to share on your website.
And this is going to be where you braindump everything you think your ideal
customer avatar or your ICA, whichyou created in the Website Success
Blueprint, everything that they needto know before working with you.
They probably need to know who youare, what you offer, how you address

(08:58):
their wants, needs, challenges, andpain points, who you've helped in the
past and why you are the best choice.
Don't hold it back here, get it all out. Just write it all down into a Google
doc or word doc or something like that.
And then the next step is going tobe to take all of that information
and turn it into a site outline.
So you can think of it, likecreating the chapters for a book.

(09:21):
What are the main sections you need?
And then what information that you putin that brain dump is going to go where.
Now most businesses need atleast a homepage, an about page,
products or services pages,or both, and a contact page.
And your website might also needpages for testimonials, staff bios, a
frequently asked questions, and more.

(09:42):
You also need legal pages like aprivacy policy and terms of service.
Your outline might look differentdepending on your business and what your
target audience is, but that's okay.
The key is to have a clearstructure that makes sense for
your content and your audience.
Once you have an outline, you can takeit a step further and create a site map.

(10:03):
And this is a visual representationof your website structure.
It's optional, but I do findthat a lot of my clients find it
very helpful to really be able tovisualize what's going to go where.
The site map is going to start withyour homepage at the top, and then
it's going to branch out to your mainpages and any sub pages under those.
Now here's a pro tip when you'reorganizing your content into the

(10:24):
site outline and to the site map,try to limit your top level pages
to six or fewer any more thanthat can overwhelm your visitors.
So if you find yourself with more than sixmain sections, see if you can combine some
of them or nest them under other pages.
Alright, we're making great progress.
The next step is going to be toidentify your calls to action,

(10:46):
which are also called CTAs.
And these are going to be the signpoststhat guide your visitors toward taking
specific actions on your website.
Maybe you want them to book a call or signup for a newsletter or make a purchase.
Those CTA should be phrases that encouragevisitors to take the desired action.
So for example, book a callor start your free trial.

(11:07):
Now before you start creating yourcontent, let's talk about where to put it
because you probably don't already haveyour website ready to go at this point.
I usually create a shared content folderin a Google drive for my clients and this
folder is gonna have all of the documentsfor each page of your website, plus it can
have additional folders for things likeblog posts and images, and any other media

(11:31):
that you want to upload to your website.
Now trust me, having a clear organizationsystem is going to save you so much
time and headache down the road,especially if you're working with
team members and service providers.
I just worked on a project with a clientand we had this shared Google drive where
they could put all of the Google docs fortheir content and their photographer was

(11:52):
able to upload their images and they wereable to upload additional images and logos
and any other content that we needed.
So everything is in one placeand we could see what they had
and what they still needed.
After you get that folder set up, if youalready have some content, so maybe from
an existing website or other marketingmaterials, I do recommend going through

(12:14):
what you already have and deciding whatyou can keep, what needs updating and
what you need to create from scratch.
I usually create a contentinventory spreadsheet to
document all of that information.
And you can find an exampleof that inventory spreadsheet
in my content planner.
So if you're going to usethat, make sure you grab that
content inventory spreadsheet.

(12:35):
The next thing I like to do iscollect all of my social proof.
And this is going to includetestimonials reviews, media mentions.
And expert endorsements, all ofwhich are invaluable when it comes
to building trust with your audience.
You can create a document and put itin that shared drive or shared folder
and store all of that informationuntil it's time to add to your website.

(12:57):
Okay.
Now we are getting to the meat of it,which is actually creating your content.
You might already have some content atthis point from your previous website, any
marketing materials that you've got, and Iwill get into advice for actually writing
the content in another episode, but fornow, what I want you to do is create a
document for each of the pages that youput in your site outline, or your site

(13:19):
map and put those in your content folder.
In the planner, I do give you templatesfor common pages like about services,
contact, and individual blog posts.
And those templates can be superhelpful in making sure that
you cover all of the importantinformation on each of those pages.
Now you might've noticed that we haven'ttalked about the homepage yet and that's

(13:41):
because I usually save it for last.
Your homepage is going to usually includesnippets of content from other pages.
So to me, it makes sense totackle it after you've written
the rest of your content.
The content planner doesinclude a template for
planning the perfect homepage.
Last but not least.
I do want to talk about legal pages.
I mentioned them earlier, but I wantto talk about them a little bit more.

(14:02):
Every website needs certain legal pages,like a privacy policy and the terms of
service, and depending on your contentand where your customers are located,
you might also need a disclaimer,cookie policy and cookie notice.
Now, unless you're an attorney, Istrongly recommend using a service
like Termageddon, which is whatwe use with all of our clients.

(14:22):
And that service is going to generateall of those legal documents for you.
You're going to answer a bunchof questions and it spits
out the policies for you.
I'm not an attorney,so I can't advise you.
I can't tell you what documents yourwebsite is going to need, but it's
a good idea to use a service likeTermageddon or speak with an attorney
to figure it out because it's goingto be better to get it right than

(14:45):
to risk legal issues down the line.
All right.
I know we've covered a lot of groundtoday and I know it might seem a
little overwhelming, but remember,you don't have to do it all at once.
Take it step-by-step, and beforeyou know it, you will have a solid
plan for your website's content.
And the best part, this planisn't just for your website.
It can help to maintain consistencyacross all of your marketing materials.

(15:09):
So from your social media posts, emailnewsletters and everything in between.
Remember the Ultimate Website ContentPlanner is available in the resources
section at websitesuccessacademy.com.
It's going to walk you through eachof the steps in detail, and it's
also going to give you templates andworksheets to make the process easier.
And it doesn't get into any ofthe details about actually writing

(15:31):
your concept, but the templates dohave a lot of suggestions for that.
And I will talk aboutthat in a future episode.
Creating content for your website isa journey, but it is well worth it.
With a solid plan in place, you'll bewell on your way to creating a website
that truly represents your business andresonates with your target audience.
And here's something exciting to thinkabout this plan isn't just for now,

(15:55):
just like your Website Success Blueprintwasn't just for creating your website.
It's also about setting upyour future for success.
As your business grows and evolves,you can easily update and expand
your website because of all ofthis planning that you've done
before you started creating it.
That's all for today's episode.
I know it was a lot, but you've got this.

(16:16):
If you have any questions, feel freeto reach out and don't forget to
subscribe to the podcast for moretips on creating a successful website
until next time, happy planning.
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