How to create content for an e-shop and website that will attract visitors?

To begin with, let's summarize a few basic facts:

• People generally do not read much on the internet
• They mostly scan the screen and look for reference points
• They pay the most attention to images, videos, and infographics
• Most people skip long and unstructured texts altogether

Content on the web is not just letters, words, and sentences. It also includes images, gifs, videos, animations, links, or call-to-action buttons. All of this captures the attention of visitors. How to create all content on the web so that customers keep coming back?

1. Website Entry Analysis

A clear and high-quality brief is the core of every project – and this applies to the creation of new websites and e-shops or the improvement of their outdated versions. At the beginning, you should be able to answer two most important questions:

• Who are the visitors to your site? (for whom you want to write)
• What do they most often look for? (about what you will write)

At PUXdesign, we always start by getting to know the client and gathering materials for subsequent work. We conduct an entry workshop, where we get to know the company's management and all representatives who come into contact with customers (such as sales representatives or customer support). 

We want to find out what the new website solution should be able to do and how it should look. If we are working with an established website, we are also interested in how it currently functions and how visitors behave on it.

We have described our website entry analysis in detail before, so don't miss it.

Customers Show a Different Perspective

If possible, try to gather as much information as possible from your existing customers. We have found user research through in-depth interviews with the client's customers to be effective. This way, we get to know the company from the other side: we gain insight into the expectations, requirements, or concerns of customers and more easily identify the strengths and weaknesses of the company. 

Interviews with the client's customers often reveal insights that would be very difficult to uncover without their help. We also conducted them while creating the content for our PUXdesign website .

2. Defining Content Strategy

Right from the start, we advise:

• Evaluate/consider the content of the website and its structure
• Formulate the goals of your website
• Set appropriate keywords
• Draft rough texts for each page of the website

The foundation is to design a detailed structure for the new website or modify the existing one. Do all the established pages and categories make sense to you? Don't be afraid to cut.

Keep in mind that...

• The structure of the website should be clear and simple.
• Each page should serve a specific purpose on the website.
• There should be logic between the different levels of pages and subpages.
• Establish your tone of voice
• You know the logic of the website; now it's time for tone of voice, or a consistent way of communication. It will help you speak better to customers and visitors across communication channels. All the texts you create for your website will be adjusted to this tone.

To create your tone of voice, you can use:

• Create personas for a better understanding of customer needs.
• Consider what you want to achieve with your visitors.
• Work with company values.

Once you know your tone of voice, you can start refining the already drafted rough texts. The entire website should be written in the same spirit and appear cohesive.

Example: A skateboard and streetwear store will communicate very casually and use informal language with its target audience. In contrast, a store selling luxury fashion dresses and tuxedos would be expected to have a more conservative tone of communication, using formal language.

Choose Your Keywords

To ensure that people can easily find you online, it is essential to incorporate keywords into the text on your website. If you are unsure which keywords are right for your website, you can reach out to us. At PUXdesign, we also consider keywords, metadata work, and SEO optimization when creating web content. 

Keywords should:

• Match the terms that your customers are searching for
• Include commonly searched words and phrases related to the topic

Specify Communication Channels

There are websites, like Alza, that you simply cannot ignore. The green alien screams at you from the television, online, and outdoors on billboards. And that's what it's about – you should decide which channels you want to use to reach your customers and visitors. Will you go through the website, social media, PPC advertising, or completely differently through TV spots or outdoor billboards along the roads? 

3. Content Creation

Write Clearly and with Purpose

People visit websites usually for two reasons: either they have a problem and are looking for a solution, or they want to be entertained. What do your current texts on the website convey? Do they provide any value to the visitor?

Have Texts Like George Orwell

Engaging language, rich vocabulary, simple sentences, grammatical correctness. This is the foundation for creating understandable text. And believe me, writing truly good text can be quite an alchemy. That’s why we offer our clients the services of our copywriters, who make a living by crafting words. 

If you dare to write the text for your website yourself, we recommend at least following 

6 rules penned by the writing wizard George Orwell:

• Do not use metaphors or similes that you see in the press. 
• Do not use long words when you can say it in short.
• If you can omit a word, do so. 
• Where you can use the active voice, never use the passive voice. 
• Instead of using foreign words, technical terms, and slang, always work with simple words.
• Break these rules whenever it makes sense.

Unformatted Texts Do Not Catch the Eye

There are never enough witty articles with great language and thrilling conclusions on the internet. What good is it if people don’t read them because they lack any formatting? A long, monotonous text simply does not attract the eye to read. Break it into paragraphs, use headings and their formatting (H1 to H6), and emphasize important words by bolding them. We constantly emphasize these small yet effective adjustments to our clients. 

4. Graphics, so there's something to look at

At PUXdesign, we first prepare texts for clients and our website, then we add graphics (photos, visualizations, or infographics) to them. We follow the established content plan. 

Before the actual creation, we need to think and resolve the following questions:

• Will we use graphic and media content in the text?
• Who will we need for the realization? (a graphic designer or a photographer?)
• Will they have time? (inform them well in advance)

When creating any texts for clients, we proceed similarly. At the beginning, there is again a rough idea of the form of text processing. Based on this, we send clients specific requests for creating photos that will correspond with the topic. 

Mix it up – photos, images, infographics, videos

Up to 50% of information is perceived visually. Here’s just one piece of advice: maximize this potential! In addition to photos, also work with illustrations, pictograms, and concise infographics, which often convey more than a thousand words. 

Stock photos or original creation?

If you have the option, it’s always better to create your own photos than to use those from stock photo sites. However, if there’s no other way, at least choose images that appear more authentic and are not found on every second website. We have previously written on the blog about the available (paid and free) stock photo sites and what to watch out for.

Example: When we write an article for a client about modern packaging techniques, shots of packaging machines, views of packaging materials, and employees in action will stand out. We send the client detailed specifications to obtain the highest quality photos from them.

5. Regular Content Publishing

Do you want to create regular content? Writing your own baking blog, having a consultation focused on selecting sports equipment, or publishing regular updates from the economy requires many extra hours of work. Consider whether you can keep everything updated on time and communicate promptly with visitors. Be critical of yourself and be cautious of setting overly high ambitions. 

Competition as a Source of Inspiration

Be aware of what is happening in your field and how others are performing. Competition is not a dirty word or a forbidden place on the internet that you must not enter. On the contrary, view it as a space for inspiration or as an example of what not to do. 

Ask Yourself:

• How do they communicate with their audience?
• What communication channels do they use? 
• Do they have social media? Which ones?
• What type of content do they publish? Is it successful?

An Editorial Plan Will Help You with Planning

When and how often should you publish content? This is exactly what an editorial plan is for. Set a frequency that suits you and that you will stick to. 

• Create a table and write down in advance:
• A list of topics you want to write about
• Their detailed briefs
• Who will handle it
• Deadline for completing each article
• Publication date

At PUXdesign, we create such a content plan at least three months in advance. This way, we know exactly when to publish what, what we have already written about, and what is still waiting in line for processing. 

TIP: Ideally, use a shared document to create your editorial plan. All team members can make edits and simultaneously see the latest version of the plan.

Now you know how we create website content at PUXdesign. If you need help with your pages,   feel free to contact us.