In many ways, the internet’s integration into daily life has proven to be a jackpot for content marketers.
One study found that 90% of all marketers now actively use content marketing, which creates 3X more leads for less than 60% of the cost of traditional marketing.
What’s the bad news? That 90% of all marketers now actively use content marketing – which creates a huge amount of competition.
So, how do you make your content stand out? That’s where using best practices to create a solid content creation strategy can help.
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What Is Content Creation?
Content creation is the process of creating content that revolves around a specific set of ideas that you want to convey to your target audience.
This content can take a variety of different written or visual forms, ranging from blogs and infographics to videos and interactive digital media.
But as any good online marketer can tell you, the process of content creation is about a lot more than churning out a webpage and hoping for the best.
The 5 Best Practices of a Content Creation Strategy
To reap the benefits of the time, effort, and money you put into the process, it’s important to use best practices to develop a winning strategy.
So, without further ado, let’s check out some of these tactics and how they can help take your content creation to the next level.
1. Set Your Goals
As with anything else in life, it’s hard to measure success unless you know what you’re shooting for in the first place.
That’s why it’s important to understand exactly what it is you want your content to do.
Maybe you want to increase brand awareness or the number of leads your company gets each month? Or perhaps you want to boost conversions and overall revenue?
Once you have an idea of what you’d like to do, then it’s time to get a bit more specific about your content creation goals.
Do you want to increase your newsletter subscribers by 100%? If so, by when? Looking to attract more unique visitors to your website each month? Excellent, but get specific about how many.
2. Check Out the Competition
We get it. One of the hardest things about setting content creation goals can be drawing the line between overly optimistic and underly ambitious goals.
A great way to keep things realistic is to start by benchmarking your competitors. How much traffic are they pulling in and how does it compare to your own?
What strategies and SEO keywords are they using that could help explain their success?
Don’t worry if your next question was somewhere along the lines of “how am I supposed to know?” Tools like SemRush can give you access to this information with a click of a button.
3. Audit Your Content
Gaining access to your competitors’ stats is great, but it won’t mean much unless you can compare them to your own.
That’s why it’s so important to access the performance of your current content. Performance analysis with Google Analytics can get you up to speed on how many page views and returning visitors your content is currently generating.
It can also reveal the average amount of time your readers stick with you and the average number of pages they peruse per session.
You may use different metrics depending on the format of the content in question. But the bottom line is that figuring out what isn’t working is an important part of content creation.
It can tell you if it’s time to do a little spring cleaning and specify the best places to start.
4. Know Your Audience
Want to know one of the biggest secrets of content creation? It’s not about you or even the product or service you’re offering.
The key to producing the best content is understanding that it’s all about your customer, their problems, and how you can help solve them.
Understanding this foundational truth can mean the difference between coming across as a used car salesman or a helpful friend with awesome advice.
While it may be tempting to think that everyone with internet access is the ideal buyer, this is simply not the case.
It’s only by gaining a thorough understanding of your exact target audience and the problems they need help solving that you’ll be able to connect with them in the most relatable way possible.
5. Understanding SEO Optimization
Now that you’ve set your goals, studied the tactics of your competitors, and identified your target audience, it’s time to plan out your optimization approach.
Take a look at SEO keywords and phrases that have proven the most successful for your competitors and pick one or two to focus on.
Keep in mind that it’s important not to go crazy here. This common content creation trap has claimed far too many digital marketers as its own.
In an attempt to up their Google rankings, many misguided marketers will attempt to cram every single relevant SEO keyword into their copy as many times as possible.
Google itself has made it clear that this does not work and may hurt you. The goal is to utilize keywords, phrases, and ideas naturally while approaching your topic in the most thorough way possible.
Types of Content to Create
Knowing what types of content to create is vital for successful content marketing. Content can be organized into categories such as blog posts, videos, infographics, interviews, podcasts, webinars, and articles.
Depending on the purpose and goals of your content strategy you may choose to create multiple types of content or focus on one type at a time.
Below are some of the best types of information to include in your content creation strategy. These can be used to share your expertise and engage with potential customers.
Articles on Blogs
Blog articles are one of the most popular types of content. They are generally informative, easy to read, and shareable. When writing blog articles, be sure to include relevant keywords, catchy headlines, and engaging graphics.
Guest blogging on other websites is also a great way to get your message out there and build relationships with other thought leaders in your industry.
Some of the many benefits of including articles include:
- SEO optimization: Using keywords in your articles will increase traffic to your website.
- Engagement: Articles that are interesting and informative can help to engage readers.
- Authority: Sharing your knowledge and expertise can help to build your brand as an authority in your industry.
Videos
Videos are an excellent way to engage and educate your audience. They can be used to share company updates, product features, or interviews with experts in the field.
Videos are also a great way to showcase customer success stories and demonstrate how your products can solve their problems.
When creating videos, be sure to include captivating visuals, clear audio, and an engaging narrative. In addition, don’t forget to optimize meta descriptions, tags, and titles so the videos are easily searchable and help your website rank higher.
Infographics
Most industries agree that 52 seconds is a good time to spend on websites. Since people browse websites for less than a minute, capturing the attention of viewers quickly is critical. Infographics are great for this purpose, as they are visually appealing and easily digestible. They can be used to show statistics, illustrate trends, or explain complex ideas.
Infographics are especially beneficial for social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, as they can be quickly consumed and shared by viewers.
Social Media Posts
Social media is a powerful tool that is vital to your content creation strategy. An estimated 82% of consumers use social media to make their purchasing decisions. This makes it a great platform for sharing content and engaging with customers.
When creating social media posts, be sure to include visuals, hashtags, and captions that are succinct but informative. It is also important to use relevant keywords so that your posts can show up in organic search results.
In addition, social media posts should be targeted to specific audiences. For instance:
- Instagram: Use vibrant visuals and short captions to tell a story for younger audiences and millennials, which make up over a quarter of users.
- Facebook: Focus on engaging content that encourages shares, comments, and likes.
- LinkedIn: Stress the professional elements of your message with long-form posts or thought leadership articles.
- Twitter: Short Tweets with relevant hashtags can help to drive more traffic to your website.
Guides, e-books, and Whitepapers
Whitepapers, guides, and e-books are a must for those looking to promote thought leadership and build an audience. They are longer-form pieces of content that discuss complex topics in detail and demonstrate your expertise.
These types of documents require more work than other forms of content creation, but they can also be very effective at engaging readers and driving conversions. When creating guides, e-books, or whitepapers, be sure to use visuals to engage your audience, as well as conduct multiple reviews.
In addition, you can always optimize your e-books on platforms such as Amazon, which you can then link back to your site. These longer-form documents can also be used to generate leads as users are often required to provide their information in order to view your content.
Checklists
Everyone loves a good checklist. Checklists are great for providing readers with helpful tips and reminders that they can use to achieve their goals.
When creating a checklist, be sure to include key points such as:
- Actionable steps
- Process-oriented tasks
- Helpful advice that users can refer back to
Some checklists can even be filled out online so you can make the process much easier. Checklists can include anything from recipes to packing lists, to travel guides.
Regardless of the format you choose, checklists are a great way to help readers quickly understand and complete tasks. They are also helpful for SEO purposes as people often search for such resources online. Add keywords such as “Travel checklist,” or “Packing list” to optimize your content for search engines.
Influencer Marketing
Influencers are people who have a large platform and can effectively influence the purchasing decisions of their followers. They are often seen as trustworthy sources of information and can play an important role in content creation.
When creating influencer-based campaigns, be sure to research potential influencers carefully. Look at their engagement rates, follower numbers, and the number of likes and comments their posts receive.
Another important factor is to ensure that their style and content are a good fit for your brand’s message. Once you have identified potential influencers, create an agreement outlining the deliverables and any compensation that will be provided. Influencer marketing can be an effective way to reach new audiences and build brand awareness.
Podcasts and Webinars
Podcasts and webinars are a great way to reach audiences through more than just written content. For podcasts, you can create audio versions of your blog posts or interviews with industry experts. Webinars are also a great way to engage audiences through live events and Q&A sessions.
When creating podcasts and webinars, always keep in mind who your target audience is and tailor the content accordingly. Make sure to use visuals and engaging topics to keep listeners interested. You can also consider partnering with other brands or influencers who can help to promote your content.
Cases of Success
Lastly, success stories are a great way to showcase your product or service and inspire potential customers. Customers love hearing from real people who have had success with your offerings.
You can create case studies that tell the story of how you solved a customer’s problem, or ask customers to provide their own stories in the form of written articles or interviews. You can also create video testimonials that highlight the success of your customers.
By creating these types of content, you can help to build trust with potential customers and demonstrate your value.
These are just a few of the different types of content that you can create to engage audiences and help drive conversions. Consider experimenting with different formats to find the right one that works for your business. If you need help with content creation, Writeraccess is here to help!
Our team of writers, digital artists, and the team can help you create different types of content to help improve rankings and make your business thrive! Check out our two-week trial period today.
How To Manage Content in a Digital Agency
Now that you’ve mapped out a plan for the content you want to create, it’s time to get things up and running. Unless you are a professional content creator, this is often the point where you’ll want to do a little outsourcing.
If your toilet was overflowing, would your first instinct be to spend all day googling DIY plumbing techniques? For the sake of everyone in the toilet’s vicinity, we’d hope not.
More than likely, you’d call a professional plumber. Content creation is no different.
Plenty of great folks do this kind of thing for a living, so why not enlist their help? Think of this stage as running your digital agency, complete with freelance writers, designers, and anyone else you need to achieve your content goals.
Sound intimidating? Don’t worry because there’s no need to do it alone. WritersAccess is all about helping you streamline your content, with access to pre-screened, industry-leading freelancers.
You’ll also discover powerful tools you can use to analyze and optimize your content, as well as free training resources to help you stay at the top of your content creation game.
Ready to give it a test run? Sign up for a free 14-day trial with WriterAccess today to enjoy access to everything you need to boost your content creation strategy.
