Let’s get straight to the point: You clicked on this article because you’re curious about how this thing you’ve been hearing about — content design — contributes to great website design and creation and how Edgar Allan approaches content design as a webflow agency.

It’s a great question. And we’ll get to that. But first, let’s talk basics.

What is content design?

At its core, content design means making sites more useful by creating them in such a way that the right people can use them for the right things. Having a content-always mindset means carefully compiling user research to back up our decisions, while utilizing the vast and varied talents of the team that builds your site in a collaborative, cross-discipline way that honors audience need and brand intent above all else. (Dig into our full deep-dive exploration of content design here for more info.)

Our blog in total is actually pretty ripe with information about content design: What businesses and brands need to know about content design, why we call our copywriters content designers… but the secret ingredient as to what makes content design truly important for a fully functional, useful, and even delightful web experience lies in the approach of how it’s utilized.

How do Webflow agencies use content design?

Not all Webflow agencies are apples to apples in comparison when it comes to content, and especially when it comes to content design. You might have experienced these differences firsthand.

Let’s say you’re in the market for a new Webflow website, and your decision falls between two agencies to do the website rebuild. But how would they approach the content? Let’s find out by imagining two different agencies:

Agency one is a traditional Webflow shop.

It’s likely that a typical Webflow agency will talk mostly about development time and technology, but they may gloss over content edit and creation, and may even expect clients to draft and load their own content into the new site.

But that’s just the functional stuff: Many also won’t dive into much explanation about said content, or how they plan to use content to solve audience problems, or strategically craft a specifically audience-tuned experience. Most straight-up Webflow shops are concerned with design and development, period.

But content is incredibly important to a web experience, and where we find projects tend to go off the rails. Design and development are perceived as “the hard part,” but think about this: Nobody goes to the gallery to see the frames.

Agency two is a brand-to-build Webflow agency (like Edgar Allan).

Edgar Allan is first and foremost a Webflow agency, but we’re fortunate to have the resources and know-how to be able to handle content in addition to great design and solid builds. It’s unique, and we’d (a little selfishly, perhaps) recommend that — unless you have a full staff of internal design and content folks with the bandwidth to pitch in on design and copywriting — you seek out an agency with a full complement of brand to build capabilities.

Our experience (and general view of digital experiences and human nature) means we take a story-first approach to every project. We also begin our client partnership by explaining how every project is a content project (yes, even if that project is a Webflow website!). From our first conversations, we also explain why we believe in the power of story. We’ll talk you through the reality of how content is design, and how all of our disciplines work together to create not just a cohesive experience, but an experience that’s entirely audience-led.

Being a brand-to-build Webflow agency means that brand strategy, Webflow development and digital design, all wrapped up in the context of content design, combine to create a solution that aligns most effectively with achieving the goals of your unique audience — and also your business.

As a key part of the content design process, our content designers also perform a site audit, in which we take a complete content inventory of your current site. We’ve pretty much seen it all and know how to avoid these site audit pitfalls, because we believe it’s just as important to know what content currently exists (or what content is missing that needs to be created and accounted for on the new site) as it is to actually build the site.

…And that’s how we combine the power of Webflow with the power of content design to create the sweetest — and most functional — user experiences.

Especially if your site is content-heavy, you’ll want to look for an agency that has the capacity, philosophy, and process to think story-first. We hope you’ll consider Edgar Allan for that next project: content design and beyond!

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