Principle #1: Know your purpose

Defining the purpose of the content helps you make decisions about:

• what information to include and what to leave out
• writing style and structure
• where the content will sit on the website.

What do you want to say?

Is the aim to:

• educate and inform
• motivate or raise awareness
• update or report
• request information
• help customers complete a task?

The content may have one or more of these aims.

Who do you want to say it to?

Keep in mind the target audience when identifying the content's purpose. Information on how to identify the target audience is covered in Principle #2: Know your audience.

What does the reader need to know?

These are just some of the questions you need to ask yourself:

• What do visitors to the website want to know?
• What does your department need them to know?
• What are your department's priorities?

Also consider how the content will complement other information and marketing activities.

You can find out what information your clients are interested in by talking to and consulting:

• experts and staff within your department
• groups and people with similar interests (e.g. community and professional organisations)
• client service staff (call centre and counter)
• staff out in the field
• website metrics
• customer surveys and polls.

Your marketing and communications area may already have market research you can utilise to learn more about your clients needs.

What is the best way to present the information?

Consider these questions:

• Is web-based information what your customers are looking for?
• How will the content fulfil their needs?
• Would a brochure or other print matter serve their needs better?
• Can your customers find this information on another website or are you providing something new?

You may find that the web is not the best way to present the information. For example, a report that includes a lot of graphs and tables may not suit the online format. Instead, an overview of the report with instructions on how to obtain the print version may be more appropriate. More advice is available about repurposing print documents for the web.