Case Study: Writing Website Content with Minimal Information

Our client is a technology solutions provider supporting thousands of locations. They focus on strategic technical staffing, professional services, and managed digital systems.

Last year, new leadership stepped in and quickly acquired additional companies. With a new portfolio of solutions being developed, the marketing staff was tasked with developing a new website as a key initiative.

Writing the website content for this project was a challenge for the Blue Star team in several ways:

• The existing site had very little content regarding their new portfolio of solutions.
• Only a handful of blogs and case studies existed.
• Much of the existing blog and website content had been written during the height of COVID-19 and still referenced the pandemic.
• The company was in the process of hiring new subject matter experts (SMEs), therefore we couldn’t hold content interviews.

Learn more about our process:
A recipe for how to write a blog with minimal client input

Our Strategy

Planning

The best way to move any project forward when you have little information is to create a starting point for a client to review. Providing them with an initial draft—no matter how rough—makes it easier for them to give specific feedback.

The planning process looked like this:

• We created a navigational map with every possible product solution offered in their marketplace. This visual allowed the client to quickly cross out anything that didn’t align with their upcoming portfolio, so we all didn’t have to start from a blank slate.
• Next, we did keyword research and presented that for feedback. This process opened up a conversation about internal buzzwords and gave us deeper insight into the details of the solutions they provided.
• We reviewed competitor sites and business journals for current pain points and standard solutions and wrote the content to the best of our ability. There is an industry journal or conference for absolutely everything. These are excellent sources for understanding industry trends and best practices.

Execution and implementation

Sometimes, when you don’t know where to start, start with the rules.

Starting with rules provides a clear foundation and structure for writing. When creating content with limited input, defining the “rules” first helped guide the process and ensure consistency:

1. SEO and content optimization rules
We chose a keyword for each page and knew we must follow Google’s best practices to help drive conversions: use the keyword in the title, first paragraph, subhead, and four other places within the body.

2. Defined the structural and narrative rules
Each service page would follow an order: a clear problem statement, a solution section, benefits, a differentiator, cross-links to the blogs, and a call to action.

3. Followed psychological and persuasion rules
Build trust by including at least one employee or customer testimonial on each page. Adding credibility with placeholders for testimonials, case studies, or stats helped fill the gaps.

4. Wireframed each page for clarity
Working on something as conceptual as a website without a model can be tricky. That’s why we always created a wireframe “webpage” that mimics the final content with the text in place and approximations of the visuals. Writing website content like this allowed the client and SMEs to provide feedback and make light edits. By making the changes they requested, we quickly learned the specifics of their solutions and developed their brand voice (which had not been established).

5. Kept it flexible for future edits
We left room for updates once the client provided more details to ensure the content was easily adaptable. We made educated guesses where needed but highlighted these sections for client approval. Additionally, we avoided overly specific claims unless the client SMEs verified them.

In this case, we were fortunate enough to have years of tech content experience and to know the industry relatively well despite some of this particular brand’s nuances.

Results

We wrote all the content and supplied graphics for the new corporate website within three months. If you know anything about web design, that is a ludicrously tight window. However, we delivered on time, and today, the site is more professional and has a credible brand presence.

We created consistent, high-quality content that builds trust with potential customers and conforms to the newly developed brand voice guidelines (which we also created). A strong brand voice makes the company stand out from competitors, and the business appears more established and authoritative in its industry. To be clear, the client is already well-established and an authority in their field, but the new website now communicates that authority more clearly.

While writing the website content, we also established a new blog strategy. The sales team can use the new website content as a tool to support conversations and close deals. The marketing team now repurposes web copy into social media posts, email campaigns, and ads (we also assist the client in each of these categories). The new website creates a consistent message for the business across all platforms, leading to more effective sales and marketing alignment.

We now track traffic for the client to help them make strategic decisions for improvements and additional marketing campaigns.