Back to blog
Robert Rose, Chief Strategist at The Content Marketing Institute stated; "marketing is telling the world that you're a rock star. Content marketing is showing them that you are one".
Knowing how to create and execute content effectively is a huge part of businesses' marketing strategies. (And if it isn't, it should be). Creating quality content consistently, isn't easy but there are a few things you can do to help you reach that "Rock Star' status.
Have a thorough content marketing strategy
Before you can start creating content, you need to think about the reasons behind why you are actually creating it. Over 27,000,000 pieces of content are shared daily, so you better make sure yours is worth reading! If you don't know why you're writing or who you're writing for, it's unlikely many people are going to want to see what you've got to say. Start by outlining a few issues you want to address in your strategy and expand on those:
- What image do you want to communicate through this content?
- Who are your target audience? What are their pain points?
- What type of content will resonate with them and aid in helping solve their potential problems?
- What is the ideal way to deliver this content to them?
There are many more questions you can set to answer within your strategy to further gain an understanding of what it is you want to achieve, but the above are crucial in assisting the process.
Fail to plan, plan to fail
Many marketers say that the most challenging aspect of content marketing is actually coming up with the ideas, not the implementation of them. This is why it is essential that you plan ahead. Combine this with a content strategy and suddenly you're creating detailed, interesting content without really trying.
Knowing your target audience's preferences, pain points and behavior can enable you to generate a pool of ideas of what content would be beneficial to them. Come up with a list of potential content ideas " at least a month's worth, based on posting 3 times a week. Hubspot noted that blogging 15+ times per month generates 5 times more traffic. So generate around 15-20 ideas; it will give you structure to your strategy and avoid any mind-blanks at 9am on a Monday morning!
Of course, this structure is flexible and is only used as an outline for your content plan. If hot topics arise within your monthly plan and you have a great content idea, then move things around " it's about knowing what to write and when to write it.
Be original
While content curation can help build relationships and fill out your editorial calendar, original content is what is going to drive your brand and create social awareness. It doesn't need to be a timely or hectic process either.
It doesn't all have to be helpful. Readers often just want to get to know the people behind the brand of a company or read an article that reflects what type of people they are. This can be great for content creation as you can add a personal touch to your writing, without having to spend hours thinking of problem-solving content.
As if being your followers and fans wasn't enough" your user-base can even generate content for you! Getting them to upload pictures or stories for competition entries not only allows you to interact with your audience, but can also result in heaps of content you can use within your strategy. (Be wary of certain laws and regulations surrounding these competitions)
Conduct interviews and get subject experts to answer a series of questions on a topic. Paste these into a blog post and you've got yourself a piece of quality content that shows you have done further research on a topic of interest.
Re-purposing
As Bert Lance once said; "If it ain't broke, don't fix it".
Did you know that some of your oldest content often ranks the highest? So contrary to publishing new and original content, don't forget about all the quality content that already exists and has been generating leads for you. There are many ways you can re-purpose this content too by simply changing the format. Why not create an ebook from some of your most popular blog articles? Or turn an article into a cool infographic that can be easily displayed across many channels?