How does a Marketer approach her own website update?

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We’ve all heard the stories of the plumbers with leaky pipes at home or the chef who orders UberEats each night. 

Well the same thing happens to people in marketing and copywriting. We’re often too busy working on clients work that we neglect our own.  I decided it was time to up my game and spend some time on my own site. 

I became my own client.  I approached my website the same way I would with my clients.   I went through the process of understanding what I wanted for my clients,  what info they may need, and how I could give it to them.  Here are the questions I ran through and my answers.

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1. What did I want for my website? AKA Website Goals

2. What products and services do I provide?

Then I turned to business strategy.  

Working through the type of marketing that lights me up and I can get excited about.

That helped me to define the services I’d showcase on the site.

Then I thought about my ideal customers. What they needed. What problems they faced. And what was motivating them. 

3. What's going on with my customers?

  • Firstly, who are they?
  • What’s happening with them? Why would they want to hire someone to help them? 
  • What are their pains and frustrations?
  • What are they motivated by? What do they desire?
  • How do I help them? 

4. What could I share that would help potential clients choose me?

Conversational Copy

To bring out my personality and demonstrate what you'd get if you work with me.

mg-icon-relationships

Social Proof

Sharing testimonials from past clients to provide proof that I'm good at what I do.

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Business Proof

Sharing some of the projects I've worked on.

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Qualifications

Demonstrating my skill through Australian Marketing Institute Certified Marketer Status.

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What's Involved

Helping clients understand the process and what it would be like to work with me.

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A well-connected freelancer

Show that it's just me. But I can call in the big guns when I need to.

5. How was I going to Build the site? (aka-the brief)

There are plenty of DIY options out there, but I already knew I was a WordPress Fan.
So once I had a clear picture of what was needed on my site, I chose a web designer I had worked with before – Toria Designs. 

I wrote a brief capturing:

Marketing Strategy

Website goals

Marketing Strategy

Branding & Visual Assets

Design Direction

Branding & Visual Assets

Inspiration

Websites I liked

Inspiration

Layout & Navigation

Draft Site Map

Layout & Navigation

User Experience

Functionality 

User Experience

Content

Draft copy to Guide design

Content

6. Design & Testing my site

This is the exciting part.  I got to see the first glimpse at what my site would become.

Now it’s rare that this is right first go. But happily, the first design was pretty close. 

It is a matter of tweaking to preferences and taste to get it looking and feeling like the website I’d imagined. 

Once pages are designed it was up to me to make sure copy and links are all working as they should.

Even though I’d written my own copy, I have tweaked and changed copy to suit the site design along the way.
And let’s be real. I’m a copywriter. I’m going to be tinkering at this baby forever (LOL). 

When thinking about the site, the old – what comes first – content or design? argument comes up. 
Personally,  I think it’s a bit of both.  I had a clear content strategy which influenced the design and layout.
Then I revisied how it all came together. Some things worked. Some didn’t. 

How long did it take? 
I’d love to say building a website is a quick process. But it’s not. 

There’s more involved than just slapping up a logo, images and some text. 

– hosting and integrations
– setting up a staging site
– setting it up for Google
– shopping cart
– mail provider (I used ActiveCampaign)
– writing email auto responders
– fresh new blogs (like this one)

The whole project has probably been about 3 months in the making – maybe slightly longer. 

So there you go. 

That’s what it takes to approach your own website design and build.  And you know what.  It’s worth it. 
Because now, my website reflects what I do, how I help, and will help me help more people. 

If you need help planning your website content, hit me up. 

Thanks so much to Tori and Amanda from Toria Designs for bringing this to life. MWAH! 

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