Content creation can seem like a daunting task, especially when there are so many influencers pushing out more content per day than you could possibly read. Maybe you are still in the stage where you are writing for search engines. If not, then you are probably creating content for your readers, and hoping that they like it, share it with their friends, and eventually become your customers. But maybe you haven't stepped up to the stage right after that one - where you grow an audience who is ready to buy anything and everything you create. That might sound like a far-fetched goal, but if it's not where you're heading, then your business is missing out on a huge opportunity.
To help you out, we have created a list of some of our favorite tips for successful content development.
- Set measurable and realistic goals.
A content strategy is only effective if you have a specific goal in mind. For example, are you trying to increase sales of a product or service? Do you want to drive traffic to your website? Or do you want to educate consumers on an issue important to your company?
It's important to note that the goal should be realistic given your timeline and budget. You should also make sure that whatever goal you set for your content strategy is measurable. How will you know if your content marketing was successful unless there is a way for you to measure its impact?
If you're setting goals for the first time, we recommend setting short-term goals that can be achieved within a six-month period. It's important that these goals are achievable so that when they have been met, it provides an incentive for everyone involved with the process to continue creating content.
- You need to research your audience.
One of the most important parts of creating a content marketing strategy is understanding who your audience is. When content marketers fail, it's usually because they didn't understand the audience they were trying to target. If you don't know your audience, you can't create content that resonates with them or drives conversions. It can also be difficult to find potential customers and reach them on social media if you aren't sure who you're looking for.
Audience research is important for all content and will help you understand who your target audience is and how to create content that will appeal to them. Who are your readers? How old are they? Where do they live? What kind of products do they buy online? What keywords do they use to search for your product or service? How much time do they spend on your site?
The answers to these questions will help you decide which topics are important and what you should be writing. It's also important to understand the demographics of your audience and the way they interact with the rest of the internet so that you can adapt your style and tone to resonate with them.
- Good storytelling is a key to good content development.
Storytelling is a vital tool for content marketers. It grabs attention, inspires loyalty, and drives conversions. Stories are so powerful because they are rooted in our human need to connect with each other on an emotional level. People love stories, and many of the most successful brands have mastered the art of storytelling.
A good story will entertain and engage your audience and make them want more. A great story can build relationships with your customers and even create brand evangelists. The best part? There are endless types of stories you can tell in content marketing. Here are some examples:
- The classic hero’s journey where somebody faces a challenge and overcomes it by using your product or service
- A case study that shows how another company achieved success using your product or service
- A customer testimonial that shares the ways in which your product has improved someone’s life
- A list post that tells a story through examples
If you want to get the attention of someone who isn’t interested in your product or service, you need to tell a story they will relate to and want to hear more about. Storytelling is the best way to do this on nearly any platform.
- Planning your content can make it easier to produce.
When creating content, it’s critical to have a plan in place. Without a plan, it’s easy to lose track of what you’re doing or where you’re going with your content marketing efforts. Even worse, you may end up focusing on the wrong types of content and make missteps along the way.
Good content marketers are proactive. They make sure that their organization has a solid plan in place before getting started. By creating an editorial calendar for your content marketing efforts, you can organize your ideas and information in a way that is easy to follow and helps avoid mistakes.
An editorial calendar is a way to organize the content that you will be publishing on your blog (or any other platform). There are many ways to create an editorial calendar but they all serve the same purpose: they allow you to visualize and organize your ideas so that you can see what you are publishing and when you are publishing it.
- Ideas are fuel for content creation.
It's the spark that turns a great idea into something that people can see, touch, taste, and use. In other words, it's the beginning of the process of manifesting ideas. Without ideation, ideas often languish in a person's mind or in a company's archives. Your content marketing ideation process is the lifeblood of your content strategy. No matter how good you are with words or how great your idea is, you need to have a process for generating ideas and coming up with topics for your content.
Ideation is the step before brainstorming and it is where you start to generate ideas for your content. This is a crucial step in the content creation process because if you don't have ideas, then you're going to have trouble developing content.
The purpose of ideation is to generate as many ideas as possible. There are no bad ideas at this stage — just put down whatever comes to mind. Nothing is too ridiculous or outlandish at this point! You want all your thoughts on paper so that you can later go through them and identify your best concepts.
As you can see, there's no need to feel like you have to reinvent the wheel every time you start a new content development project. Instead of wasting precious time trying to come up with an entirely new approach each time, it's better to just follow these tips and let your creativity flow. Of course, if you're still feeling stuck as to how to use any of these tips on your current project, feel free to contact us! We'd be more than happy to help.