The phrase “content is king” was made famous by Bill Gates over 20 years ago. <\/p>\n
While the world of content has changed dramatically, this simple saying still rings just as true today as it did when he first brought it to popularity. <\/p>\n
Content creation and content marketing<\/a> are essential parts of a well-rounded and effective digital marketing strategy. <\/p>\n However, just because we know that content is important doesn’t mean that we always understand how to do it. <\/p>\n This article will walk you through the basics of why content marketing as a whole is valuable<\/strong> to your organization, as well as provide 11 key content creation tips that will change the way you approach content on a daily basis.<\/p>\n First of all, why does content marketing matter?<\/strong><\/p>\n As digital marketing continues to gain an impressive foothold in the overall marketing strategies of businesses across the globe, there have been ebbs and flows of what was considered the best way to spend marketing dollars. <\/p>\n While certain trends have either gained traction or fallen out of favor, content has remained strong across the years. <\/p>\n Content marketing is the strategy around creating and sharing online materials<\/strong> like videos, blogs, social media, and infographics that promote a brand and build interest in its products and services. <\/p>\n Because it’s such a broad term, content marketing has the benefit of applying to many different situations. <\/p>\n Everything from trendy social media videos to long-form articles and everything in between falls under the umbrella of content marketing. <\/p>\n A large part of that is content creation<\/strong>, otherwise known as the creation of specific marketing materials meant to be published and distributed.<\/p>\n Now that we got this covered, are you ready to start our list of tips?<\/p>\n A buyer persona<\/a> is a semi-fictional representation of your brand’s target audience. <\/p>\n Buyer personas have been used for years to help brands understand exactly<\/strong> who they are marketing towards and what formats are best received by those audiences. <\/p>\n Many companies will have a few different buyer personas to capture the ranges of their audiences for different products and services.<\/p>\n A buyer persona can include:<\/p>\n Once you have your buyer personas built, you will have a stronger understanding of the behaviors and interests that the majority of your target audience will have. <\/p>\n This allows you to create content that will resonate with your real-life customers.<\/strong><\/p>\n In addition to buyer personas, another key tool to develop early on in your content creation strategy is a buyer’s journey<\/a>. <\/p>\n This is a map of the steps your buyers will take<\/strong> from the minute they realize a problem to making a purchase decision. <\/p>\n During each step in the buyer’s journey, your buyer personas will have different goals that can be addressed with different pieces of content. <\/p>\n For example, a person who first realizes they have a problem doesn’t want to be directed to your hard sales pitch video. <\/p>\n Conversely, a customer who is close to making a final decision on your business shouldn’t be given a blog post that addresses a general issue in your industry. <\/p>\n Understanding where your buyers are on their journey<\/strong> will ensure that the content you provide fits into their current needs and addresses the concerns that they have right as they have them.<\/p>\n While it might sound complicated, figuring out the buyer\u2019s journey is sometimes as simple as actually talking to your customers. Ask them about the moment something made them realize they had a problem, what they\u2019d Google, which articles they clicked\u2014or which ones they skipped without a glance. If you can, sift through support tickets or social media comments; you\u2019ll find patterns about what confuses or excites people. Real conversations tend to reveal a lot more genuine information than just guessing based on standard templates.<\/p>\n Testing different content pieces at each stage can also be a game-changer. Let\u2019s say you launch a quick interactive quiz for early-stage visitors, and a downloadable guide for those closer to the decision\u2014watch the engagement rates, see what resonates. Sometimes the results can be surprising, like that seemingly \u201cbasic\u201d checklist post quietly becoming your top converter for months. It pays to just try things out and adapt, rather than sticking to the textbook journey 100% of the time.<\/p>\n As mentioned earlier, content can take on a wide variety of formats. <\/p>\n Everything from product videos to eBooks to emails to web pages can fall under the broad category of “content”. <\/p>\n Therefore, picking the right type of format<\/strong> for your content pieces<\/strong> is going to be important. <\/p>\n Consider the end goal you have for each piece of content you create. <\/p>\n Then match that goal to a format that will help emphasize that intention. <\/p>\n If, for example, you want to highlight the design of a product, consider a visual format<\/a> rather than a written one as you can more clearly communicate that information through video or photos.<\/p>\n In order for your content to be found organically, it’s important to optimize the content you create for Search Engine Optimization<\/a> (SEO). <\/p>\n This can include adding relevant keywords you want to rank for, formatting your content to be easy to read with bullet points and numbered lists, and back-end optimizations like:<\/p>\n It’s easy to let content get away from you. <\/p>\n With all the formats to cover and the buyer personas you want to target, it can be hard to manage the process of content creation. <\/p>\n A content calendar<\/a> is a publishing schedule for content so you know what content to create, where you want to publish, and when it needs to go out. <\/p>\n A content calendar can take away some of the stress of content creation<\/strong> and allow you to approach your content with a strategic plan in place, rather than struggling to think of what you should do next.<\/p>\n While it’s nice to think that a book is never judged by its cover, the truth is that if a piece of content doesn’t have a catchy headline it might never get taken off the shelf, so to speak. <\/p>\n Headlines are the first thing audiences will read in regards to your content<\/strong>, so taking the time to create interesting and engaging titles will help your content succeed in the long run.<\/p>\n If constantly creating new content seems like a difficult task, there’s good news. <\/p>\n Repurposing and recycling content is a great way to get the most out of each piece of content you create. <\/p>\n If a blog post is doing particularly well, adapt it into a corresponding podcast episode or social video. <\/p>\n This way, you can always use your existing pool of content in new formats<\/strong> to further improve your high-ranking and well-received results.<\/p>\n Interactive content<\/a> is some of the highest-performing content you can create. <\/p>\n1. Creating a Buyer Persona<\/h2>\n
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2. Relying on the Buyer’s Journey<\/h2>\n
3. Choosing the Right Format<\/h2>\n
4. Optimizing Content for SEO<\/h2>\n
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\n10. Create a Content Calendar<\/h2>\n
11. Write Attention-Grabbing Headlines<\/h2>\n
11. Repurpose and Recycle<\/h2>\n
12. Making Content More Interactive<\/h2>\n