It was a big year for Rock Content at Content Marketing World. We attended for the first time as the Rock Content Content Cloud, which now includes a fourth product, TrendHub, that we announced during CMW. Together, the Content Cloud provides brands with the solutions and insights they need to create content that performs.
With so much to celebrate, we thought it would be the perfect time to share the concepts and ideas that brought together our brand-new CMW booth, and to dive into the question—what is content that performs?
Content that Performs: The State of the Industry
In April, the Harvard Business Review reported that about 5% of content produced gets 90% of engagement.
How then, in a world of content overload, can you make your content be that 5%?
You need to create content that stands out from the crowd, meets your customer where they are, introduces a problem, provides a solution, educates, and differentiates you from the competition.
Simple, right?
When you break down content creation piece by piece, the word “engagement” is omnipresent. We know how crucial engagement is for your audience, and it’s worth repeating how just crucial those connections are to driving awareness and ultimately converting.
The most recent DemandGen report states that buyers are becoming even more discerning when it comes to choosing the content they consume, with survey participants reporting that they are willing to spend no more than five minutes reviewing a majority of content formats.
Five minutes, five percent. Though it may feel like the odds are stacked against you when it comes to content creation, there are several effective approaches you can take to ensure the content you’re creating attracts, converts, and retains your audience.
Find below our top 3 tips for creating content that performs.
Content Performance Tip #1: Do Your Homework
An important first step? Do your homework. What are your campaign goals? Is it awareness you’re focused on, or generating leads? Once you’ve narrowed down the audience you’re targeting, creating content to fit those needs becomes much easier.
When you’re targeting buyers at the top of the funnel, the content can be educational and light. Targeting a buyer a little further in the journey? A more robust resource like an eBook or whitepaper that will answer prospective buyers’ questions is a good place to start.
Content Performance Tip #2: Interact with and Involve Your Audience
ion interactive, one of our Content Cloud solutions, allows you to build engaging and stunning interactive pieces. Over a six-part webinar series that wrapped up last month, we dove into the measurable benefits of using interactivity to drive your content marketing revenue and success.
It’s no secret that interactive content is effective—in fact, it’s considered up to 300% more effective than static content alone. In a world where being that engaging “5%” matters, interactive pieces stand out for their versatility and capability to make the user feel involved. Interactive content isn’t limited to your standard infographics or assessments, either—a webinar or live event coverage can also be a great tool to connect with your audience and drive leads.
Content Performance Tip #3: Use Insights to Your Advantage
We believe that every piece of content builds a relationship. And as with any relationship, we must use insights and feedback to push forward and develop a strong connection.
This means that we need to utilize insights at every stage of the journey. Our latest solution, TrendHub, helps you inform your content strategy and demand gen planning through AI-powered predictive insights. With trends at your fingertips, your team can effectively gauge what content that will resonate with you audience.
Content that Performs
What is content performance? Simply put, it’s content that drives results.
No matter what type of content you’re creating—whether a simple infographic or pages-long report—you want that content to achieve its goals of building awareness, fostering engagement, or driving leads.
The success of your content marketing program depends on the performance of your content, and your content performance depends on the success of the pieces you create.
Ready to start driving results with your content? Set up a demo of the Rock Content Content Cloud today.
