Today I am in a story-telling mode so let’s start with a short story.
Mr.NotOut owns a blog and pushes himself to churn out quality content daily. He works day and night to ensure his blog stays ahead of its counterparts. However, his efforts never show him the desired results. His blog rankings rarely improve and the blog posts hardly make it to the top of the Search Engine Result Pages.
Can you correlate to this short story?
Are you facing the same problem that Mr.NotOut is going through? Well, then don’t worry. I am here to guide with the hottest topic of the season, “content creation”.
Did you know that while you are sound asleep, gazillions of content pieces are created all over the world? Surprising, isn’t it?
Have you ever wondered why your content fails to enter the A-list of these millions of excellent content pieces? There is a 100% chance that your content is not reaching the right audience or delivering the right message. It is not necessary that your content would reach the masses even though your content is just mind-blowing.
We all live in a digital space. In this era, there is so much content available for everyone to read. If you want good results then I believe that you need to have a good content creation strategy.
So let’s dive in deep and learn more about it.
To begin with, let’s begin with the definition of content strategy:
“Content strategy focuses on the planning, creation, delivery, and governance of content. Content means not only the words on the page but also the images and multimedia that are being used.”
If the above definition of the content strategy was just a bouncer to you then let me make it simpler as to how it goes from content creation to content strategy.
Content creation is nothing but the process of generating topic ideas that appeal to your buyer persona, creating written or visual content around those ideas, and making that information accessible to your audience. In order for this process to begin, you need to start with brainstorming, then creating and sharing relevant and interesting topics that you think will appeal to the customers. So that’s how it goes from an idea to a strategy.
Now you might wonder why you need to have a content creation strategy or why is it important? Let’s answer these questions below.
Why is Content Creation Strategy important to your Digital Marketing Strategy?
1. Your Content will build trust with the website visitors:
Let’s face it, people won’t buy anything from your business unless they trust you. Doesn’t it then make sense to create outstanding content that showcases your expertise and professionalism? Well yes, it definitely does!
When people will read your content, they will surely see you as an industry authority and trust you more. This helps boost your customer relationships and people will visit you often. So yeah building trust is very important for any kind of content creation strategy to work.
2. Establishing A Marketing Funnel
One of the biggest advantages of creating content is that it can be the entry point of a marketing funnel. It certainly helps get the job done, and you will find the entire process to be as seamless and as professional as possible. That alone can make a huge difference. So I believe that establishing a marketing funnel is the road to success for your content creation strategy to work.
3. Standing Out
You might already have multiple competitors out there, so it is essential for you to find ways to stand out from the crowd. Content Creation is great because you can easily create the type of content that no one does. It’s an amazing opportunity and in a situation like this, you can be as creative as you want. Try to stand out from the crowd with your creative mind and win the game.
4. You Can’t Establish A Marketing Strategy Without Content
It is pretty obvious by now that if you want to bring in more leads and customers you have to offer them something. That simply means you must provide as much content as possible. Even Though it is not the easiest thing to do, creating content should be the backbone of your business all the time. Remember that without content you are heading nowhere.
5. Ranking Your Website Higher
Search engines are crazy about high-quality content and they will help you rank your business higher. However, you don’t have to pay for ads to be on the first page if your SEO approach works. The best part is that with SEO you can have evergreen content that ranks for a very long time.
Digital Marketing and Content Strategy go hand-in-hand
The overall rising demand for quality content is supplemented by the already risen digital market. High-quality content is one of the main ingredients that are there in digital marketing. Also, companies understand that they require a digital content strategy in order to flourish and achieve success. Customers and search engines both drive the current digital market, so it’s necessary for the organization to curate content which ranks well on the Google SERPs.
So basically to reach out high on the ranks, you would need good content. Let me again tell you that Content Marketing aims at creating, publishing, and distributing content pieces to the targeted audience. It’s quite obvious that you won’t get those A-list results if you don’t have a proper digital content strategy. If you don’t have a proper strategy then maybe you would be somewhere in the same place as Mr.NotOut.
Also, it is vital to dive in and fish out some knowledge before proceeding to the actual motive of this entire text. The aim is to build a constructive plan and strategy. Your content should have the capability to be tossed far and wide and then brought back.
Also, read 5 brick-breaking Digital Marketing strategies
Now the next question that would pop out in your mind would be how to create a content strategy? Let’s move ahead and see how you can create one.
How to create a Content Strategy that works?
1. Define your Goal
Remember that before you start penning down the content, you must have an answer to the question ‘WHY’.
You should be clear in your mind as to why you are creating a content piece and what would be the sole purpose of it. It is necessary for you to look out for the right choice of words to shout out your message to your target audience.
Think about what it is you’re trying to achieve with your content? What do you want customers to do when they see it, hear it, or read it? Know what you’re aiming for and have a solidified goal.
To set an intention is one of my favorite ways to give purpose to my process. It helps me push through the mornings when I actually don’t care about finishing that first draft. I always think about where exactly I want to take my audience, then revisit the goal again and again until the project is finished. Once you have your goal set then nobody on this planet can stop you to finish it off.
2. Target audience
Conduct research; create a buyer persona or customer avatar of who your ideal customer would be. Knowing this information will help you create better and relevant content for your intended target audience, which will help you convert on that goal you created at the beginning.
I believe that in order to know your audience, one must be the audience. For example, If you have to write about budgeting tips, put yourself in your reader’s shoes. Think back to a time when you had to watch where every penny went. How did you cope with it? Which resources did you use or which you didn’t use? How can your experiences help the business owner who needs to re-shuffle a budget and maybe cut ancillary services?
Dive deep into your target audience, define their psychographics, personality, values, opinions, interests, lifestyle, and explore their demographics, age, gender, race, location, employment.
And believe me, your audience would definitely want to read your blogs.
3. Create an idea
Once you are sorted with steps 1 and 2 and you exactly know your goal and your target audience then it’s time for you to start brainstorming about the various ideas for your content creation.
Basically, you should be clear whether you are going to do a blog post, infographic, or video. Nothing is impossible when you create your ideas. The box is wide open for you as long as you have your target audience in mind while you come up with amazing ideas.
So just go ahead and think about what they actually would like to see.
You can also read how you can master the art of writing a blog.
4. Distribution
So now, you have got your idea formulated, created content, where are you going to put it?
What will be the channels of distribution are you going to use? Social media, website, blog, etc this is where your research comes to light because your target audience would have given you an idea of where they spend their time online or traveling. This is where you need to take advantage to achieve your goal and reach your desired audience.
5. Publish & Analyse
So by now you have everything figured out and your content is out there and it’s been published to whatever distribution method you choose.
Now it’s the time where you need to start analyzing your content to see the effects and to check whether your goal is achieved or not. When you do things digitally you can track every moment, scary but of utmost importance to know your customers. And well, you are all set to go now… so ready, steady, and publish!
Content Creation Tools
Content creation tools can significantly enhance the method of making content if you choose the proper tools. Content creation tools facilitate you in creating better-performing content which ends in better engagement. So I have enlisted some of the content creation tools for you here that will help you in your content creation :
1. Google Trends
Google Trends is one of the most useful tools to understand the popularity of a search text amongst Google searchers. You just need to enter a query that you are looking for and Google Trends will give you all the suggestions that you can use for your content creation.
Other than Google Trends, you can also use AlsoAsked.com to seek out the questions you wish to optimize your website. “People Also Asked” is a free tool that provides the data, and you can use these insights to look into the long tail searches.
2. SEMrush SEO Content Template
Your content plays a major role in pushing your website on the search engine result page. You need to be aware of what content is helping the top results to rank and you need to adopt the same strategy while creating your content.
The SEMrush SEO Content Template helps you to analyze the content that is ranking top for your keywords. Not only this but it also enables you to understand what kind of content you should include in your pages to push the ranking of your website. It is one of the tools that will help you in your content creation profusely.
3. Grammarly
Grammarly is one of the most dependable tools for content creators in order to create error-free content. It helps you in finding out all the spelling and grammatical errors in your content and also helps you in detecting plagiarism. It also allows you to improve the tone of your content and also the readability score. You can add its browser extension to avoid making any errors while writing your content. Do check your content once on Grammarly before making it live.
Conclusion
Really good content makes us feel amazing. It’s a feeling that sticks with us for long, even after the words have escaped our minds. That is the kind of impression you can leave in your readers’ minds, but not without getting to know where they are coming from.
Simply stating numbers and stats and figures won’t cut it. We don’t operate in a vacuum. Our relationships with people, shared experiences, and connections are what drive us, and in times like this, that does not change. Let it be the glue that will help you bond with your audience.
I am a firm believer that creating the best content will help you bring in more customers in the long run. The most vital focus is on value and quality, but at the same time, you would want to create your own tone and be consistent. It certainly is going to help you get the job done, and you will appreciate the way everything comes together. Use that to your advantage and you will be more than happy with the results.
My final words for you today: Let your Content Change the World by creating a Content Strategy Today!!