Now, I know what you might be thinking: yet another disposable artifact from the design process! But I’m here to assure you, your model is anything but disposable.

In fact, doing the work to model your content will pay off big when you start building your CMS Collections. That’s because the details you add in your macro model translate directly into fields and/or Collections in Webflow CMS.

For example: Let’s say you’re building out the site modeled in the above diagrams. You create a Collection called Books, and start assigning it Fields. “Hero image” obviously maps to an image field. Title will be captured by the name field. Genre, author, and publisher all show up as macro-level content items, so they’ll each require a Collection of their own, which the Book Collection can reference via reference and/or multi-reference fields.

We’ve emphasized how important it is to have some idea of the content before moving any pixels around in the design. But who will create this content?

In the best-case scenario your client has a team of writers. These word nerds knows what needs to be communicated and how to connect with the audience in a language they understand. They’re topic experts and masters in the craft of writing. But this dream of having a team of writers is often just that — a dream.

Not all clients have the resources for an in-house content team. A small business owner may take this responsibility on themselves, or delegate it to a family member who’s taken a creative writing class or two. Unfortunately, this can mean content falls short in the quality department, causing an entire project to suffer. Start your projects with an audit of existing content (if any) and assess its quality.

However content is created, don’t push a single pixel without at least a rough framework of the content. Without a clear idea of the substance and goals of the website, everyone will be unhappy with the process and its outcome.

Expectations for the quality of content need to be clear. If your client isn’t a writer and doesn’t have one available, you have a couple of options. Either leave room in the budget to create the content yourself (if this is a skill you have), or hire a professional writer that you trust.

But what about that client who doesn’t recognize good writing? What if they fancy themselves a writer and they won’t budge?

My trick has been to show them content that works. Find a well-written competitor site and point out the concision of the copy and the strength of its calls to action. Show your client the keywords and phrases woven throughout the site making its SEO game strong.

Someone can be a savvy business owner and not know what quality writing looks like. Help your clients understand — with kindness and respect — the value of good copy and its potential impact on their revenue and brand awareness.