How to Get Employees to Adopt a New Website

Submitted by Sara Parks on 08/08/2014 - 03:36:pm

If you have ever launched a new website, the scariest thing might just be trying to get your employees to adopt it as their own. After all, you are doing this to improve the company, so why shouldn't they love it?

I will let you in on some secrets to how we get our clients on their new sites and why they enjoy using them.

Start with a Content Strategy

Having a content strategy is not just planning to make content and knowing that it connects to making money. It means you know your user inside and out and focus on making content just for them. With a content strategy, everything on your site has purpose and flows together.

Without a solid strategy, your users likely won't accomplish the goals you have for them because the path isn't clear. Users need direction and guidance to find the right information. That's what you get with a content strategy.

Start with:

  • A desire to understand your users
  • A commitment to invest in good content
  • A realization that this is a process, not a single event
  • A sustainable process for creating and publishing content

Once you have this knowledge, you can move forward with your content strategy.

Set Aside the Time

Good content takes longer to create and needs extra time for planning. This can be hard to swallow as it feels like you can never create enough, but it is worth it. Once you get the process down through training, creating good content and learning what users want will pay off.

Move onto Training

Once you have a plan for your content, your team needs the skills to create and manage it. The skills to create content on the web are different than print because people read differently online. Creating user-centric content online breaks rules that written content wouldn't dare:

  • Using plain language - users on your site might not be familiar with industry-specific jargon.
  • Making content skimmable - people don't read word-for-word on a website. Content that they can skim makes them less likely to bounce.
  • Avoid wordy prose - speak to users in a conversational tone rather than with condescending, wordy sentences.

This can seem like a daunting process for employees because you are adding one more thing to their plate. Hint: Use hands-on training and documented resources so they can learn at their own pace.

Once you make the step to train your staff, don't forget to provide the tools they need. Give them tools to help with collaboration, editing and publishing. With these tools, content will stay updated because the staff can easily manage it.

Listen for feedback if they ask for more tools. Listen for all types of feedback like tools they need or suggestions to change a process or system. It is important to take their input into consideration because they are the ones doing the work.

Get People to Create Content

After you have started with training, you can work on creating new content. You will probably start with migrating content from the previous site, but also start creating new content.

  • Build a workflow to create content regularly
  • Make the workflow easy to use during collaboration, approval and updating
  • Regular content audits help to ensure everyone is following the strategy set for the website

Is That It?

This process may seem like a one-time deal, but it is a continous cycle. Be flexible, you might have to alter your strategy, which requires communication and training so your staff is on board. If you have to tweak your processes, make sure it doesn't stray from the content strategy.

Photo By Kheel Center