You open your Instagram handle, Facebook page, or any other application that you have on your mobile right now, it has content in it.
You get to see videos, read texts, play video games, listen to audios, and what not. Everything from advertisements, to memes, to even GIF’s is part of the content creation industry.
The entire social media, business websites are running their operation based on the content that is generated every milli second.
But what exactly is content creation, who does it and what all goes behind the curtain? You will get answers to these questions in this blog.
Define Content Creation
100It is a process of generating unique ideas that appeals the buyer persona.The ideas can be in any form like written, visual, images, videos, and so on. Whatever information is created, it must be accessible to the audience (in the form they desire to have such as blogs, pdf, whitepaper, etc.)
Why is it Important to Generate Content?
Content is important because it is the ultimate form of inbound marketing practice. Content generation is the need of the hour for businesses to attract potential customers, generate leads, and earn revenue.
When businesses create content, it means they provide free and useful information to the existing audience. The purpose is the same and that is to retain the present customers through quality engagement.
Not just this, you also help in generating major ROI for the business.
The stats given below are testament to the fact that today content is the King.
- Content marketing brings in three times as many leads as traditional marketing and it costs around 62% less.
- 61% of online purchases happen because of the customers reading a blog.
Content = Business growth
More the content, more will be the growth!
You can generate content in different forms such as:
Blogs
The kind of content you are consuming right now is the blog post.
Blogs are the detailed information written with an aim to educate, entertain, and inspire the audience. When you type any query on Google, the post that pops up on the top are the blog posts.
Podcasts
This is another widely used content format. I would say probably the easiest to consume content from, especially for the people who are non-readers, or those who do not have enough time because of hectic schedule.
The audience listens to informational, entertainment podcasts on radio, or even You Tube.
Videos
Among others, Videos are widely used. See the bloggers on Instagram, You Tube, Facebook live, Snapchat. What are they all doing? Generating content through videos on their daily life, or providing hacks, solutions, tricks and what not.
Video content is more popular now-a-days. Today, both short and long video formats have their place in creating content strategy. So, it is important to come up with engaging ideas for such content type.
Graphics
These attract the audience more than the lengthy written content. The colorful graphics with valuable data given in less words always attract the visitors. The graphics can be in any form like infographics, animations, etc.
To create such a content, all you would need is a graphic designer or the understanding of the tools, software used to make graphic.
Content Generation Needs Planning and Strategy
You just can’t write anything, upload and expect people to reply positively. Content creation is an art. Creating good quality content requires planning, thinking, and strategizing.
After all you would not start anything without a solid blueprint. Right? Even if you know what you want to produce, it is suggested to create a plan, pen down every thought, edit it if something is not write, and then work on it.
What to Plan About?
Plan and strategize about the brand, the tone that is to be used, the methods of content promotion, and eventually repurposing it.
Let us see step-by-step how to plan the content.
Set Goals
Working on anything without setting goals is like shooting in the dark.
Just like the traditional marketing campaign, your content strategy should be centered on the marketing goal. After all, you will be creating content to promote and market the business products and services online.
Your goals can range from anything like attracting visitors to your business website to generating more leads to anything in between. But the goals must be smart.
For instance, you can set a goal of increasing organic traffic to the blogs by 25% in the next quarter.
Once you have known that, every piece of content that you will create will aim only at aligning the goal and contributing to the desired result.
In sum, start with your goals, then create your content.
Create a Buyer Persona
Planning and strategizing is an inevitable part of content generation. Building content strategy is more important than choosing the type of content you want to create. You first need to know who you are going to address, how you want to speak to them and where to find the right audience.
The idea of inbound content creation is that every reader must feel that your content is individually made for them. The only way to do this is to get intimate with the visitors, customers, and the leads. Content must be created based on the pain points, challenges and the fears so that when the audience reads your content, they immediately get the solution they are seeking.
You will do all of the above by creating a buyer persona and for that you will have to go through the buyer’s journey.
Buyer’s journey is a path to a solution. It involves awareness, consideration, and decision stages. But every stage in this journey will need different content. So, it is important to use the content that appeals the audience at each stage.
By creating content for each stage, you are just ensuring that no visitors fall through the cracks and every individual who comes to your business website feels that they are getting relevant information.
Let us see the type of content you need for every stage:
Awareness Phase: Blog Posts, Whitepapers, Checklists, Infographics, E-books, Games, Quizes, Tip Sheets.
Consideration Phase: Webinar, Podcast, Comparison Matrix, Worksheet, Template.
Decision Phase: Free Trial, Demo, Product Guide, Coupon, Consultation
Do the Content Audit
Whether you have been generating content for a while without directions or goals or you have been following a strategy all along, every marketing department can benefit from a content audit.
What is Content Audit?
Content audit is just taking inventory of the work that you have done. Then you organize the content to fit in the new content plan.
This process might need some re-writing, or it could even reveal some gaps but the audit shows you are actual picture.
Steps to perform the content audit:
- Collect all of the content in a spreadsheet.
- Create columns for target keywords, buyer’s journey stage, buyer persona, format, and the main topic. Fill each column with relevant content piece.
- Also add columns for the key metrics such as page views, engagement, shares, etc.
- Lastly, categorize each post using highlights or other column with the content that is doing well, or needs improvement etc.
The process seems tedious but the manual labor will just be worth it because ultimately it will bring in increased traffic and pipeline of leads.
The Process of Content Creation
If the content is created step-by-step, there is fair chance for you to handle yourself whenever you stumble because you will have a blueprint to follow. You will only have to make adjustments, tweak the plan form here and there and generate results you want.
Here are the steps to generating content in a planned manner.
Conduct SEO Research
Once you create your buyer persona, you likely have the ideas about the topics you want to write about. The next step is to confirm if the ideas can work on a bigger scale for larger audience.
No matter the type of content you choose to upload, you will have to conduct SEO (search engine optimization) research i.e., the keyword search. By this you will understand the most ranking keyword, the one with the highest and the lowest search volume and so on.
How to Conduct Keyword Search?
The best way is to write down some questions that your persona might have. Then, perform some keyword research around those queries and see if enough people are searching for them or not.
A rule of thumb – It is to target keywords that are attainable.
The keywords that have a monthly search volume (MSV) and keyword difficulty that corresponds to your domain authority.
Try to target high volume keywords. Initially things will not come out as you expect but with time, things will be fine.
Ideation
Now you know the keywords you have to target. It is time to brainstorm some content ideas, the type of content you will create and so on. Creating ideas and seeing if those work well or not is the best way to prepare for the finals.
Writing
Here, I will talk about the writing process.
Regardless of the content type, the process will be the same:
- Write to your buyers’ persona. Use their voice, their humor and construct a piece that resonates with them.
- Use meta descriptions, titles, and other teasers to compel your audience to read the content. Show them how your content will benefit them.
- Create something unique, out-of-the-box. Do not just simply give the information. Infuse a unique style and put your point ahead.
- Stick to one idea and use your content to improve it.
- Don’t confuse your reader by doing multiple things.
- Be clear and concise.
You want your audience to connect with you, derive value from your content, and not have to sift through jargon or confusing metaphors.
Editing
The way you edit your content is a very subjective process.
You may edit it as you want but when it comes to content that is made for the audience, you should definitely keep the audience in mind. Also, after you are done editing, just consider having a colleague or a manager to review the work.
Uploading and Publishing
Now the content is almost ready. It is the time to put the content where your audience can access it.
Click a button and your content is published.
Promote the Content
The job is still not done. After the content has been published, your next job will be to promote it so that apart from the current customers, the potential customers can also know what your business, and your brand. Promote it through social media, email marketing, and even pay-per-click advertising.
The idea is to reach more customers.
Creating content requires a whole team like content writers, SEO specialists, graphic designers and even the project managers. Collectively, they come under digital marketing.
If you have a business and you want to bring it to the notice of thousands of people, then it is better to hire the services of the best digital marketing agency in Melbourne.
