Which comes first: Copy or Design? The answer may surprise you…
The short answer to this question is NEITHER!
If you’re building a website, you don’t want to start with copy or design.
You want to start with strategy.
Taking a“strategy-first” approach to any kind of marketing is the fastest(and most efficient) way to get results.
Why?
Because strategy involves….
✓ User testing
✓ Usability testing
✓ Customer research
✓ Competitive analysis
✓ User Experience
✓ Wireframing
✓ CRO
✓ SEO
✓ And so much more!
Without those strategic elements worked out ahead of time, you may have a“beautiful” website and clever words woven throughout it, but I guarantee you it won’t perform the way you want.
After all, you don’t want a website that just looks good or reads well — you want it to support your business goals and you can’t do that without strategy.
So how do you start with strategy? What’s the first step?
Discover
I start by sending my clients a Discovery Questionnaire, which helps them(and me) get a better sense of their business, brand, product, customers, competitors, and more.
Research
From there, it’s time to gather data through interviews, surveys, reading through customer reviews, conducting user tests, usability tests, heatmap analysis, keyword analysis, and so much more.
To do this, I use tools like Typeform, Hotjar, usertesting.com, Google Analytics, good ol’ fashioned phone calls, and more.
Translate
Once all of the research has been conducted and analyzed, it has to be translated into a meaningful path forward. After all, what good is data if you don’t know what to do with it?
For my clients, I create a Strategy Document that outlines everything we know about the target audience and how we must communicate in order to get them to take action.
At this point, you don’t have to worry about finding the perfect words or visuals for your website. It’s about having a comprehensive understanding of your customer, so when the time comes, you already know exactly which words and visuals you need to hook, inspire, and engage.
Wireframe
Once you understand the target audience, it’s time to combine all of the various data points with conversion best practices, psychological principles, and persuasion techniques to develop a blueprint for an effective website.
This includes mapping out your pages, the content on those pages, the navigation, footer, pop-ups, meta-description or anything else you may need to achieve your business goals.
So how do you start with strategy? What’s the first step?