Friday, February 25, 2011

The High Value of Simple Content

By JO MARSICANO

This week I saw an outstanding website and felt inspired to feature it here. In the interest of full disclosure, the site owner is a professional associate.

Alison Brown Cerier’s site is fantastic because she takes her compelling brand promise and turns it into simple web content.

The site has enough but not too much information to communicate Cerier’s brand. Her home page is a quick, creative read on what she delivers, with an eye-catching site ID. Her other tabs quickly flesh out her credentials, specific deliverables, and contact info.

Cerier makes it simple for me to understand the compelling service she offers.

Why simple works best
In his book Killer Content, Gerry McGovern puts all content into one of two categories: filler or killer. Cerier’s website is all killer, no filler.

Why is simple content the best? Because that’s what web customers need. They’re impatient. They need to know who you are, what you do, and why they should care…and they need to know fast.

I recently wrote the web content for a small exterminator business whose new business came almost totally by telephone. So the website’s job was to compel people to call. Not click on a bunch of extra links. Not read a bunch of extra text. But call.

So I wrote web copy that clearly communicated the exterminator’s work and credentials, a little info about price, and how fast he came to your home. Then I placed the phone number prominently at the top of each page. Simple.

Simple content is not simplistic. It gives just enough information to communicate the point, and gives the customer an easy way to take action.

That’s what Cerier has done with her site. She uses visuals and navigation to support the content – not the other way around.

Simple content.

A refreshing—and effective—way to do a website.

How simple is your content?

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