Want a Website That Truly Connects? It All Starts With Content Strategy

What separates a high-performing website – one that tells a compelling story and keeps visitors engaged – from a site that’s little more than a digital brochure or storefront?

A well-crafted content strategy.

A content strategy does more than just organize information. It guides visitors seamlessly to what they need, builds trust, and inspires action—whether it’s choosing to purchase a product or service, or simply staying connected to you and your brand. 

Developing an effective content strategy starts with understanding an organization’s goals, asking key questions, and uncovering their unique story. Here’s how we approach content strategy and why it’s essential to the success of our work and the websites we build.

The pitfalls of no content strategy

Without a clear content strategy, your website might feel ‘outside’ of your brand with inconsistent content that creates confusion or doesn’t connect to your values. Here are some common traits of a website without a solid content strategy:

• A feeling of disconnection between the content and your audience needs
• Inconsistent brand language and messaging
• Uninspired content with no defined purpose
• No calls to action — or weak, misplaced ones

Mangrove’s content strategy process

We begin every website project with a thoughtful and thorough discovery process, ensuring that content strategy is fully integrated into the websites we build from the start. Through collaboration with our clients, we explore key questions such as:

• Who is your audience?
• What are your website visitors trying to achieve, and what answers do they need?
• What are the goals of your website, and what actions do you want visitors to take?
• What story are you trying to tell?
• What is your brand’s ‘personality’, and what voice and tone matches that personality?

Combining your insights with our user experience expertise, we provide the following reports and outlines:

Key audience descriptions

Who are the types of people you most want to attract and engage? What are their characteristics? What information do they want to get from you?

Using a hospital foundation as an example, two of the primary audiences for the website would be prospective donors and existing donors. Prospective donors want to understand the foundation’s mission, its key funding priorities, and the impact they could make with their contribution. Existing donors, on the other hand, will often look for updates on how their support is making a difference, including success stories, and new campaigns.

Knowing this, we are then able to shape a content strategy that speaks directly to the needs of each audience, informing everything from site navigation and messaging to calls to action, making the user experience more intuitive and impactful as a whole.

Key content and important actions

What content does each audience need? What actions do we want them to take?

Continuing with our above example, as prospective donors explore content about funding priorities and the impact of their potential contributions, they may also be encouraged to connect with the foundation or RSVP for an event.

Existing donors who are engaging with impact stories on how their contributions are making a difference, may also want easy access to donation management tools and opportunities to support new campaigns.

With this type of information, we can create clear paths for engagement, guiding our decisions on messaging, structure, and calls to action, making the website more effective.

Content audit

What content do you have now, on your website and other platforms? Do you have content that supports visitors at all stages of the customer journey?

During a content audit, we may discover that the foundation in our above example lacks compelling content that highlights the hospital’s role in advancing medical innovation, patient care, and community health. Additionally, there may be gaps in showcasing the foundation’s financial stewardship and the tangible impact of donor contributions, making it harder to build trust and inspire larger gifts.

Once we identify these gaps, we develop a strategy to fill them – whether that means recommending new content, refining existing messaging, or restructuring the way information is presented. Our goal is to ensure that every piece of content serves a clear purpose, engages the right audience, and supports website goals effectively.

Information architecture and site map

Information architecture serves as the backbone of a website, organizing content into clear categories that help visitors find what they need easily. The site map shows the main pages needed to support users’ needs, illustrating how they’re connected for smooth navigation.

Content outline and calls to action

For each top-level page, a content outline showcases:

• Titles, subheads and copy
• Content block types and hierarchy
• Interactive elements, including links and buttons
• Imagery recommendations
• Calls to action

Is content strategy a required part of a website build or rebuild?

We strongly recommend integrating content strategy into your website project unless your team is already actively managing it. When clients have an internal team in place, we can adapt our approach to complement their work—offering high-level recommendations, guidance on content structure, and copywriting support as needed

Why are we such strong advocates for content strategy? Because content strategy is the foundation of a successful website. Often, the excitement of building a new website is focused primarily on how it looks. While creating a visually appealing and beautiful website is important, a clear content strategy ensures that your website tells a compelling story and effectively guides users toward action.

In our experience, starting with a strong content strategy can also lead to a more holistic and effective design process. It gives designers a clear roadmap, helping them create a site that not only looks great but also communicates your message with clarity and impact.

Want to make sure your new website has a strong content strategy in place? Connect with us today. We’d love to help you incorporate a content strategy that tells your story, guides your visitors and helps your website support your best work. 

Photo by Joanna Kosinska on Unsplash