All over the Internet you read that ‘content is king’ and creating new content on a regular basis is critical with inbound marketing. Creating content is something everyone should practice, whether you’re an SEO consultant, a link-building specialist, or all around inbound marketer.
Having a successful content creation strategy can help a business understand their target audience and learn what type of content to produce catered to their customers needs. And in the end, all of your communication – web content, print, social media, and internal – will be aligned to help achieve your main goal.
So, where do you start when creating content? How can you master the content creation strategy?
Determine how you want to represent your brand through your content. Create content that best reflects your business and can be shared with your audience. This may require you to do a little research.
- Find what’s happening in your industry – trending topics and most shared stories.
- Find a way to determine what your audience is interested in.
- Can new data be produced to create something unique? (Important to remember that the new information has to be 100% accurate.)
Do this new research can be beneficial for you as well, because you will be learning new topics and data and are able to share it with others, educating them. The content you create should have a purpose, and that purpose should be clear to the readers.
Create a list of topics and the angle at which you want to approach the topics. Determine how you want your ideas to be presented – blog posts, infographs, videos, etc. – and how you’re going to approach the topic – informative, analytical, professional, etc. Also keep in mind where this content is going to be placed. When deciding where to put the content, consider your target audience – who will see the content in that location. The placement also tells you what type of language and writing style you can use.
After defining these different parts, you can create your content. Remember that when creating content, inform, educate, or entertain your readers. If you want the content to be shared, make it in-depth unique information and not something people will just skim over. Make the content easy to read by separating it into sections and adding subtitles, especially if it is a longer post. Proofread your content multiple times, checking for grammar and punctuation errors. Have other people proofread it as well. This helps build credibility and the odds of your content being shared will be greater.
You can also incorporate your link-building strategy during this stage by providing quality links for your readers – link to tools, resources, or additional information. (Have the link open in a new tab or window so the reader doesn’t leave your blog, which encourages them to continue reading.)
Once you’re content is created, proofread, and finalized, you can finally publish it. Share and promote your content on your social networks so that others will read and share it. The more views it has, the more potential there is for natural link building and increased traffic to your website.
Creating useful content is key to any inbound marketing strategy. But by following these steps, you’ll be a master a content creation. The more useful content you create, the more traffic you will see, and the more leads you will bring in. So, what are you waiting for? Start your content marketing strategy!
What helps you when creating content? Are they any useful tools you use when researching? Share them with us!
