When building a new website, content plans are extremely helpful for planning out each web page before you move on to the design and development phases. But when it comes to actually crafting the content plans for each web page, it can sometimes feel overwhelming to come up with ideas all on your own.
As a reminder from our previous article about content plans, a content plan is a rough draft of what your web page will include and look like in document form. It’s typically written on a standard document, such as a Google doc or Word doc, and it mainly relies on short phrases to describe the web page’s written content and design elements.
Say you’re building a website for your company Outdoorsy Outlet, an e-commerce business that sells goods related to camping, hiking, and other outdoor activities. You have created the general page hierarchy for the site, and now you want to begin writing the content of the interior pages.
With that in mind, you decide to start with the About Us page but feel a little lost on how to proceed. If you don’t know where to start, a great first step is to try brainstorming ideas for the type of content you would like to include on the web page.
While thinking over what to include on the About Us page, here are some questions to ask yourself. What do you want to share with visitors? What needs to be included? What do you think visitors will be looking for? A good way to come up with ideas is to perform a brainstorming exercise that we like to call “5 in 5.”
“5 in 5” consists of coming up with as many ideas as possible for the web page’s content plan in 5 minutes. Set a timer for 5 minutes and use a standard blank document to write down all of the ideas that come to mind within that time limit. First, try focusing on answering the example questions listed above, and then as you get warmed up, feel free to add any other ideas that pop into your mind as well.
Along with doing brainstorming exercises on your own, another good idea is to look at your competitors’ websites and websites similar to yours to see how they’re answering these types of questions for their About Us pages.
After reviewing their About Us pages, you may find that you like how one competitor features its company’s history in an interactive timeline, and you would like to include something similar on your About Us page. Another competitor features its Mission and Core Values on the About Us page, and you think this should definitely be included on your page as well.
A third competitor features a feed from their Instagram page that showcases customers using its products. You think this element would be a great addition because it’s a way to further engage with your customers and encourage them to build a connection with your brand.
To help stay organized, gather all of these content plan ideas into your standard document dedicated to the About Us page. This will help keep your ideas in one place so you can go back and reference them when it comes time to begin writing out the content and planning the design elements.
It’s also just as important to pinpoint features that you would not want to include on your web page. This step will help you better focus your vision to build a solid content plan. For example, one competitor has no photos on its About Us page, and you don’t like how the page looks with only large paragraphs of text. Because of this, you decide to include photographs on your About Us page.
Regarding imagery, there are a couple of questions to answer. What kind of photographs and/or graphics might be good to show on your page? Are there photographs and/or graphics on the reference material sites that make a big impact and that you would like to emulate?
For example, after reviewing the competitors’ websites, you may notice that you gravitate towards the About Us pages that feature real photographs of the businesses instead of generic stock images. Real photographs lend a personal touch, and you’d like to emulate this feeling on your About Us page by including old photos of when your company first began as well as newer photos of what the company currently looks like.
If you don’t already have these types of “real” photos in your possession, though, a terrific alternative would be to select appropriate high-quality photographs from a stock image library, such as iStockPhoto.com, Shutterstock.com, or Stocksy.com.
Along with photography, another idea to keep in mind is illustrations and/or web icons. Illustrations and icons are additional ways to add uniqueness to your web page and help you stand out from your competition. You can find high-quality illustrations and icons on stock image websites, or you might want to commission a web designer or illustrator to create one-of-a-kind illustrations for your site.
Another important question to ask: Does your page need a call-to-action? If so, what will compel visitors to take action? And what should that action be? Whether you have an e-commerce site or a service-based business, most web pages include some type of call-to-action because it’s a way to encourage customers to remain on your site and explore further.
For instance, on the About page for Outdoorsy Outlet, the fictitious e-commerce site from earlier, you could feature a call-to-action that encourages customers to select their favorite outdoor activity. Each activity could then link to products from that specific category that are available on the Outdoorsy Outlet website. This call to action nudges customers to stay on the site and shop for products that they may want to purchase based on their interests.
A call-to-action for a service-based business can look like a variety of things, too. For example, the Contact page of a fitness center’s website could have a call-to-action that says, “Have a question about our fitness classes?” and features a contact form. For the homepage of a mobile car detailing business, the call-to-action might prompt the customer to select the different detailing service offerings available.
These tips will help get your ideas flowing and help get you over that initial hurdle if you’re staring at a blank document, not knowing where to start. Try performing the “5 in 5” brainstorming exercise and looking at competitors’ websites to come up with elements that you’d like to include in your own content plan. Don’t forget to gather all of these ideas into a Google doc or Word doc to keep your thoughts and ideas organized, too.
Now that you have some ideas on what you would like to include in your content plan, the next step is to begin writing the actual content. Here is an article we wrote containing helpful tips to get you started. As always, if you have any questions or would like assistance with crafting a content plan for your site, feel free to reach out to us. Happy planning!
