Last year, we rebuilt the Jacobs Media website from the ground up to enable us to execute the same type of Content Marketing strategy that we recommend to our radio station clients. This post is the second in a series explaining what we did and how your radio station can do the same thing. If you missed last week’s post, you may want to start by reading it first.
Last week, I explained how we determined the goals of the new Jacobs Media website. In case you missed it, those goals were to:
- Explain what Jacobs Media does to people who are unfamiliar with us
- Grow our email list
- Increase our web traffic
Once we figured out where we were going, the next task was to figure out how to get there. That starts with the website. It always does. To properly execute a Content Marketing strategy, you will need a website that makes it easy to create, publish, and edit content.
A Content Management System
A website that makes it easy to manage content is called, not surprisingly, a Content Management System (CMS). Your radio station will need a CMS website if it hopes to execute a successful Content Marketing Strategy.
Here are the key features of a Content Management System:
- It is easy to add, edit and delete content.
- It allows you to have multiple users, each with a unique login username and password.
- It allows you to assign roles with different capabilities to different users; for example, an Author may be able to create content but not publish it to the live site, while an Editor may be able to create and publish content.
- It enables you to establish an editorial process; for example, one person may write a blogpost, then another reviews, and a third publishes it.
- It is optimized for search engines; in other words, it makes it easy for sites like Google and Yahoo! To include your content in its search results.
- It makes sharing content on social media easy; for example, it allows you to add “social sharing” buttons to each blogpost.
Why WordPress
There are a number of different CMS platforms out there, but one of the most popular is WordPress. WordPress is a free CMS that is used by about a quarter of the world’s websites. It offers a number of advantages for radio broadcasters:
1. It’s free.
WordPress is free to use. Out of the box, it comes with limited functionality, but you can add a number of “plugins” to it to enable it to do additional things. Just about anything you want to do, somebody else has probably built a plugin for already. Some of these plugins are free and can be of questionable quality, while other plugins cost money but are well maintained and supported.
2. Developers are easy to find.
Radio stations tend to see a lot of turnover when it comes to web developers because developers often find that they can make higher salaries doing the same jobs in other industries. Because so many websites are built in WordPress, finding a new WordPress developer if yours leaves is not difficult — it’s a common skill.
3. It plays nice with all of your other digital tools.
WordPress can be easily integrated with a number of different online tools, from email service providers like Constant Contact and Mailchimp, to form builders like Formstack and Gravity Forms, to video hosting services like YouTube and Vimeo. You’ll want to combine multiple digital tools into a single coherent strategy, and WordPress will make that possible.
We chose to build our new site in WordPress for a few additional reasons:
- Fred has been blogging daily for over a decade in WordPress. By continuing to use WordPress, we would easily be able to export the blog from the old site and import it into the new site.
- By continuing to use WordPress, Fred would not have to learn a new system.
- I have a lot of experience building WordPress websites. While I am not a computer programmer by any stretch, I do know how to build a website with the goal of capturing email addresses in mind.
Keep in mind, while I highly recommend it, you don’t need to build your radio station’s website in WordPress to have a successful Content Marketing strategy. However, you will need to build in a CMS platform of some kind.
Question about your Content Marketing strategy? Contact me here.
More Digital Tips
- 10 Places to Use Your Radio Station’s Online Videos
- Pay Attention to Your Audio Habits Over the Holiday Weekend
- Your Radio Station’s Homepage Has Too Much Crap On It
- In Podcasting, Is It Easier to Achieve Scale Through Content or Technology?
- 5 Ways to Teach Yourself a New Skill
- A Simple Digital Treat to Thank Your Radio Listeners This Thanksgiving - November 13, 2023
- Interview Questions When Hiring Your Radio Station’s Next Digital Marketing Manager - November 6, 2023
- A Radio Conversation with ChatGPT: Part 2 – Promotions - October 30, 2023
Leave a Reply