With so much (or is that too much) content on the internet, the big question is how to create great content, that stands out, gets noticed and gets you readers? What you need is a solid content marketing strategy. Here are the fundamentals.
Build a solid base
First thing you need to be able to set clear objectives and target your audience. Doing this will help you later when you take the following steps:
Create your core message – This is basically your elevator pitch. You need to be able to sum up your aims clearly in less than a minute. Once you think you have one, try it on a friend and see what they think. If they are confused then your messaging is off.
Secondary Message – These are other points about your product and your brand that you want to raise with both a new and your established audience.
Benchmark – Set yourself clear quantifiable goals that you want to achieve. This will help you keep track of how effective your strategy is.
The best way to set and track your results is by noting them down somewhere (this ensures you keep yourself accountable to your goals). I would suggest creating an Excel file or using Google sheets to do this.
Once you’ve set your messaging goals it’s time to think what medium you’ll be using. Sure there are a lot of different ways that you can get your message across. You need to find the method that’s right for you, because, let’s be honest, you can’t be active on every platform.
Generate loads of great and relevant ideas for your content
Once you’ve set your goals, it’s time to collect up ideas. You can never have enough good ideas and your job is to collect them. For YMB Properties, we keep a Trello board full of possible ideas for articles.
Each new idea is linked to relevant helpful resources on the subject. This makes writing content later on a lot easier. Again, if you wanted to you could store all of this information on a spreadsheet to keep track of everything.
One way to come up with great ideas for content is by keeping up with the lates trends and news across the web within your own niche. You can also mix things up by identifying a recent event that has got a lot of coverage in the news and try to find a way that you could link this to your niche. This kind of tactic increases the chance that your article will find a really receptive and interested audience.
Other methods that you can use to come up with content ideas include typing your subject into the Google search box and seeing what topics or ideas are selected. I normally just go through the alphabet from a-z using this exact method. However, you can always use something like Ubersuggest (ubersuggest.org), which does the same thing.
Lastly when coming up with ideas, never afraid to be different. In fact, if possible, be different. Make yourself stand out from the marketplace by not being a clone. You can also do things like be argumentative or take a contentious stand in order to get the attention of your audience. It works, believe me. Just look at the number of comments on this article from Fluent in 3 Months about Americans. To be honest’ I’m not sure if he stands behind these statements, but he definitely knew how to position himself to get attention.
Plan your content for best productivity
Once you have defined your content marketing strategy and come up with a list of great ideas for content, it’s time to plan your content for best productivity. Whoa there, I should take a step back…
I would like to highlight that, especially for blogs, categories is an important thing to consider that many people overlook. Your category should represent your secondary messages (it should be linked to what your selling or represent a topic that you want your audience to recognise you for).
Never create a ‘random’ category. Don’t create too many categories.
Did you know that 20% of your readers will buy 80% of your products? The best content strategy will also revolve around these people. You know, the ones that are the most engaged.
You need to listen to your (ideally) long term customers, because what you think your customers are interested in is perhaps different from what your customer are actually interested in.
If you can, try to get an interview with your customer to ask them several key questions. This is really important and it’s part of the reason why we spend so much time talking to you (we want to create great products that you want to use after all).
Once you’ve talked to your customers, create an editorial plan. If you have a big team then make sure you pick an editor. You need one person who is going to have the birds eye view of the project. It will be the job of that person to make sure that the graphics are produced on time, that the content is ready for publication on the right date, etc.
Keep this in mind, there is no “right way” to produce content. Just make sure that the content that you are producing plays to the strengths of yourself or your team. If it makes sense to make a content once a week then do so. Don’t force yourself to publish content everyday.
What is the right way to create content
whether it is for a blog post, a video or anything else, everbody has their own creative process for creating content. I can understand that. For example, one of my co-workers likes to decide on the title first before creating the content. Myself, I like to create the content and then come up with the title right at the end.
Despite all of the differences between people when creating content, it’s still a good idea to have a well established strategy. This is the strategy that I personally use.
First I come up with a list of content ideas for the quarter. I then file my ideas along with relevant articles I’ve found that link to the content I want to create.
Once this is done I’m ready to create new content every week. Because I’m organised I know the process won’t take long. All I need to do is a final bit of research, before starting to write up the article.
You should remember it is important to figure out what you are trying to say, so define that and create an outline to keep you focused.
You should create an amazing and engaging first paragraph/part. This will give the reader a reason(s) to keep on reading all of your content. One great way to do this is to lead in with a story.
Keep the readers interest all of the way through the article. When it comes to finishing off your article make sure to include a CTA (call to action). Remember that the closing paragraph is as important as the opening and paragraph.
Templates for content creation
There are lots of different strategies you can implement to come up with great content. Here are several templates for your content creation ideas.
– How to
You can easily create a content with a How To template. If you choose this template, keep in mind that the more details you include the better your article will be. People love to get a very detailed step by step guide to most things.
– Reviews
Either it is a product / service or even a book review, remember this important thing: you must be honest in your review. If you end up not liking a product, tell your readers, but in a positive tone. You should put an introduction about the product, what you like about it, what you don’t like about it, your recommendation and conclusion.
– Interview
An interview template is a great format for content. If you’re going to interview people then pick an expert in the field/topic that you will be interviewing on. Or, pick someone who can offer an interesting or different perspective on a topic.
– List
Lists perform really well on the internet. Just think about all of those 10 best, 101 worst etc. They just seem to work and part of the reason is because they are very easy to digest. People enjoy being able to see the big picture first (point by point) so give them the chance to do this.
– Summary
If you have a lot of useful content, why not create an article on your website to summarize all of the content that you created. This is a really good tactic to use on well established websites, where your new readers haven’t seen all your content.
Optimize your content for search
The most important rule about SEO is never over do your SEO. Make sure that your article is natural and that it is not flooded with keywords. Be sure to only create high quality, relevant and useful content.
As mentioned before, you can check Google keywords planner to see the search volume of several key topic and get ideas for keywords (good to have several suggestions so you can get plenty of keyword variation). Besides that you can also use Google trends (google.com/trends) to analyze which keyword is best for your target audience. Review the report and use it for your content marketing strategy.
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I hope you found this guide to content strategy creation useful. With a solid base and the right strategies, will help increase engagement with your audience. Bigger audience means more chance to sell your products.
So what are you waiting for? See what tip you can apply to your business! Don’t forget to let us know your results.
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