Is it time for a content overhaul on your corporate website, mobile app, e-commerce site, customer portal — or other digital platform?
If you're like most businesses, you’ve probably refreshed parts of your content — on occasion.
But I’m not talking about just one or two pages. I’m talking about the whole dang thing.
Think about it: when’s the last time you looked — that is, really looked — at your digital content in its entirety?
Here are eight tell-tale ways to know now's the time for an overhaul.
1. People aren’t staying on your platform.
The good news: your SEO/web analytics are telling you that some people are coming to your website.
The bad news: many of them leave almost immediately after getting there (and it's not because they're going to your Contact page).
There could be any number of reasons for a high bounce rate. But when you boil it all down, the crux is this: your content doesn’t appeal or speak to your target audience(s).
As a result, within the first few seconds (or even milliseconds) of entry, the people you’re trying to sell to are thinking “This isn’t for me” — and then they click away.
2. When you look at your digital content, all you see is “blah, blah, blah.”
Take a quick read-through and be honest with yourself:
Is your digital content boring to read?
Do you feel proud to work for the company that’s promoting itself on this platform?
Does the content even properly reflect what your business does?
And what is your content actually saying? Is it communicating anything of value?
Is your content meaningful or of significance to your target audience (i.e., the folks with the money)? Or is each page simply a smattering of words?
If you get a “blah” or “meh” feeling from your digital content, it’s definitely time for a refresh.
3. Your content reads like it was written by multiple people.
Because it probably was!
If you're like a lot of businesses, your platform content may have been written by one person years ago ... but over time, it’s been added to by a smattering of other folks, bit by bit.
The challenge is that while you used to have a “fresh” platform written in one voice, it now sounds like it’s written by many.
And that can appear sloppy and unprofessional — because, as you know, some writers' content reads better and more strategically than others (and some is, sadly, downright terrible).
The key to clarity and brand awareness is consistency. And that not only means removing conflicting information, but ensuring one consistent voice.
4. Your content is inconsistent across pages and platforms.
Conflicting information is often the result of updating pages occasionally, without considering the full platform(s).
For example, one page may mention that "XYZ" is your flagship product. But you published that page a decade ago, when you were a brand-new company. Now, "ABC" — which is the latest "next-gen" iteration of XYZ — is your flagship product.
But when you launched ABC, you focused only on creating a new page about ABC ... and forgot to remove the old XYZ pages.
This confuses would-be buyers. And given that many folks don’t have the time or patience to follow up to clarify things, they may simply go to a competitor's channel. Opportunity lost!
5. Your content is missing important or key information.
What’s happened to your business since your digital content was last updated?
Has your company:
Won any industry awards?
Gone through leadership or strategic changes?
Taken on any Fortune 500 clients?
Achieved any other significant milestones?
And what about your team—particularly your C-suite, executives or other folks in charge?
Has anyone earned their MBA (or other) degree since you last updated their bio?
Undergone important training?
Joined a Board of Directors?
Or done anything else that would improve your target audience's impression of your company?
All of these things can help to differentiate and even elevate your business above the others, making it stand out against the competition.
But nobody will know unless you make an effort to tell them about it.
6. Your content refers to things you no longer offer (or do).
Your content may include a particular product or service you no longer offer—or no longer want to offer. Regardless, you don’t want to talk about it anymore. But it’s still on all your platforms!
And so, every time someone asks you about that product or service, you have to:
Go through the uncomfortable conversation of “Yeaaaah…I'm sorry because I realize it's mentioned on our platform, but we don’t do that anymore”;
Make it appear your business isn't on top of important things (like keeping its customers updated on key offerings); and
Disappoint a potential customer.
7. You've stopped encouraging people to visit your platform.
You may not know exactly what needs to be fixed, but you instinctively know something needs to be done to improve it. And so, you’ve stopped referring people to your website, portal, app or otherwise.
Or, when you direct people to it, you make excuses—like “oh, we’re in the middle of redoing it.”
It may be the content. It may be the graphics and images. In many cases, it’s probably both.
So what now?
The intent of this post is NOT to stress you out about revamping your corporate platforms.
I get it: you're probably crazy-busy with so. Many. Other. Competing. Business priorities. And even if you have a marketing team, it's likely they have enough on their plates as well (I've worked on many marketing teams, so I totally empathize).
The last thing you want to do is add more to your insane workload.
So what do you do, when you know it's time for a digital content overhaul ... but you simply don't have the bandwidth to do it?
You turn to someone like me. (Or, more specifically, me.) :)
Hire a professional digital content writer
Let's talk about how to remove your stress while still achieving strategic, high-quality, keyword-rich, premium, audience-targeted content that attracts AND converts.
(Need a full overhaul of content AND design? I can help you with that too. Contact me to discuss your options. Or, book a FREE 30-minute consultation with me.)