Choosing What Content to Create
Content marketing is the big thing right now. Everyone's fighting for attention, but not everyone is commanding it. It's an art and a science. So, how do you choose what to create? First thing's first. No matter what content you decide to produce, it needs to do the following things:
Original. If you mine all your ideas from your competitors, you'll end up with the same blog. If they had the idea first, they'll be the organization that people view as an authority. If you've mined from a competitor, you should find a new angle.
Useful and actionable. If you're an office supply company, don't explain how push-pins work. Obvious answers can lead to good content pieces, but there's a difference between obvious and uninspired. Your content should enable your audience to do something. There should be a call-to-action that is genuinely useful to your readership.
Provides answers. I read a piece of content the other day that told me that I had a problem without telling me what to do about it. What did I do? I googled that problem and found an answer from another company. That company is now, in my mind, an authority. Provide answers and educate your audience, or someone else will.
If you're not giving your audience unique answers to the questions they're asking, why would they stick around? They wouldn't. Your ultimate goal is to get your audience to come to you for advice and answers. Their burning questions need to be your priority.
When deciding what content to create, you need to keep your target audience in mind. Spouting off a thousand blog posts in a month isn't good enough unless it offers your customers true value. It should make them look at you as a reliable source of information. If it doesn't, then you need to reevaluate.
You need to decide what to create with your audience in mind. To decide what content to create, consider the following:
Who is your audience? Don't try to create content without at least one buyer persona. To learn how to craft them, I recommend checking out HubSpot's academy. One of the top priorities in marking is understanding how consumers behave. Get on it.
How does your audience consume information? Does your audience like to read blogs? Do they consume bite size pieces of information via Twitter? The best way to find out is to ask. Get in touch with your current customers and ask them how they would like to get content. Don't deliver something that isn't seen.
What are their most pressing questions? There are many ways to find your audience's questions. You can use general forums like Quora or industry specific forums. You can also (again) ask your current customers. They are, at least in part, the basis of your buyer persona. For more ideas, check out this Kissmetrics post.
How can you present information and answers to them? Using points 2 and 3, it's time to brainstorm. How can you provide answers to pressing questions in a digestible way? There are tons of options. You can create blogs, whitepapers, ebooks, infographics, videos, emails, slideshows and more. Be creative.
How can you recycle those answers over time? The greatest part of content marketing is the ability to recycle content. An ebook can turn into a series of blogs or a slideshow. An infographic can summarize a whitepaper. Videos can narrate slideshows. Take the opportunity to get in front of your audience as often as possible.
Ideas to add? Questions? Please comment and let me know!