By Pascal Fintoni
It is hard to believe sometimes that I recently celebrated 30 years in digital, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed being part of the evolution of websites from basic HTML pages to today’s AI-powered platforms.
Looking back, and ahead, one fundamental website challenge remains constant: businesses still struggle with under-communication, leaving prospective customers with unanswered questions and doubts about next steps.
What’s needed is a system for regular, simple adjustments to your website content and overall visitor experience.
One approach is dividing website management into three main areas:
Visual Content
Promotional Content
Social Content
Visual Content encompasses photos, graphics and colour themes selected for your ‘go live’ date but often not updated or aligned with current trends.
Be honest, how recent are your website photos and your graphics?
Start with a thorough review of your visual content’s recency and appeal, plus create a simple update planner. The positive impact cannot be underestimated.
Promotional Content is what most business owners consider first. To avoid under-communication, focus on four key elements:
Products & Services: explain not just what you do, but who you help, how and why.
Biographies: customers like knowing their future contacts. When did you last update your About Us section?
Track record: visitors want stories of satisfied customers facing similar challenges. Are your case studies easy to relate to?
Call to action: most enquiry forms have the appeal of tax returns. How could you transform this crucial element?
Social Content fuels social media, SEO and email marketing, with lots of opportunities to impress from research papers to podcasting.
Again, I would focus on four key elements:
Industry news round up: curate updates to demonstrate expertise and build trust.
Expert Q&As: capture questions you regularly answer through written, video or audio content.
Free downloads: demonstrate customer service ethos with checklists, calculators, guides.
Company updates: tedious to you but valued by visitors keen to know you’re active in your sector.
And what about AI? Can it help?
The key is viewing AI as your creative partner, handling time-consuming tasks while you focus on strategy and the uniquely human elements that make your website stand out.
Here are some options for you:
Visual content: use AI to generate fresh graphics, analyse design trends, and create personalised visual experiences based on visitor insights.
Promotional content: use AI to craft compelling descriptions for different customer segments, generate multiple call-to-action versions for testing, and analyse feedback to refine content.
Social content: use AI to curate industry news automatically, transform your expert knowledge into multiple formats, and optimise content distribution across platforms.
There you have it, a logical system based on your customers’ preferences, with AI supporting your efforts and delivering superior online experiences for website visitors.
Getting started: Identify your biggest content challenge first. Choose AI tools addressing this specific need, then gradually expand your toolkit.
Pascal Fintoni is the co-author of ‘WebProud: 5-Steps Roadmap to Feeling Proud of your Website Again!’ pascalfintoni.com/webproud-book
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