5 things to keep in mind when creating content

How do you create your content?

Is it something that happens when you find the time?

Does it follow a route of “idea” -> “execute” -> “done”?

That’s not a bad thing, but if you want your content to resonate with the right people, here are a few tweaks you can apply to your strategy now…

Don’t just ‘have’ a plan… write it, revisit it, tweak it, adapt it.

It’s all very well having a plan in your head about what you want to do and when. But the best plans are ones that are clearly written down, communicated and reviewed to ensure they remain relevant to the audience and any external influences.

For example, a hotel still putting out content encouraging people to “come and stay” during the recent lockdowns would have not only been irrelevant, it would probably have been annoying to those who received it and potentially risked customers unfollowing, unsubscribing or disregarding and future messages.

Know your audience

It’s an old one, I’ll give you that, but it’s repeated time and time again because knowing who you’re talking to, why you’re talking to them, what their pain points or issues are is imperative. Like the plan mentioned above, the best marketers don’t just identify and analyse their ideal clients/personas once. They update and review their buyer personas.

Again – using Covid as an example within the B2B arena, C-suite execs, team managers and pretty much every employee out there found that all of sudden they had a whole new host of challenges to deal with almost overnight. The most successful businesses and marketers were those who pivoted quickly, adapted and re-directed rather than carrying on as if nothing happened. Yes, it’s an extreme example but it demonstrates my point exactly.

Use your data

The opportunities out there now to record, measure and examine your data are almost endless. This means you can see exactly what works and what doesn’t. Which types of content or topics provoke the most engagement and which fall flat. Why wouldn’t you utilise this? By examining and learning from your past content you can optimise and improve your future content to better achieve your goal. It’s worth considering how you could boost your content marketing with a data-driven strategy. Speaking of which…

Be clear on your goals

Again, something that gets repeated, because it’s IMPORTANT. You need to ensure your content marketing goals are clear and that they’re aligned to your overall business objectives. Search Engine Journal posted that there are typically four main reasons for content: that there are typically four main reasons for content: to earn links, to rank on the SERPs, to educate an audience or to drive social engagement. They went on to say, “It’s all about understanding what any specific piece of content can do for your brand. How can it work hard toward wider marketing goals? Is it good enough to actually achieve any of these? Does it need to take a certain format to do so?

Make your content easily shareable

So whether you’re producing content to develop links, to rank or educate / engage your audience, you could be missing a trick if it’s not easily shareable. Of course, this is almost a universally standard capability across pretty much every platform – but just double check… and don’t be afraid to ask your audience to share and pass on your content. If you need inspiration or guidance then take a look at this checklist.