5 Easy Ways to Create Better Content

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Writing great content takes time. You should research a subject, determine what you’re targeting, think about your audience, write your content, and then distribute and amplify your work. Wouldn’t it be great to know how to drive more performance for each piece you create? You can.

Five ways you can make your content work harder

Before you write

1. Research your audience and their needs BEFORE you start writing.

So often, companies know what message they want to relay, but they haven’t considered their audience. Does the audience care about the same message? Is what you’re trying to say something new or actionable or is it just a regurgitation of something someone has already said? If you want your content to perform better, you must put more thought and research into what you create. Be new, be unique, be helpful.

2. Align your content with your sales funnel.

This strategy is a piece that I think is often missed in the content development process. Most businesses have a sales funnel, and the consumer’s needs are different at each stage.

To drive the most ROI for your business, ensure that you’re addressing multiple stages of the sales funnel. If you concentrate all your efforts on the consumer who is ready to convert, because they’re who you value most, but you get the most traffic from people who are just in the awareness stage, you’re missing a great opportunity. Break your sales funnel down and see what content you have that aligns with each step.

The standard sales funnel stages are:

  • Awareness- this consumer knows they need to purchase a pair of shoes
  • Consideration – this consumer is looking for women’s running shoes
  • Intent – this consumer knows they want a specific brand of women’s running shoes
  • Decision – this consumer knows what brand, what style, and what size women’s running shoes they’re looking to buy

When It's Time to Write

3. Partner with someone. Interview someone in your field or invite an industry peer or influencer to share a quote for your content.  When you partner with someone, they will often share your content too which helps extend your reach and branch into a new audience. You don’t have to go it alone. Use research studies, ask your friends or colleagues, reach out to someone you admire and ask if they’d participate. Be thoughtful and strategic when you ask and if you’re trying to partner with an influencer, build a relationship before you ask for their participation. Be sure you answer the question, “What’s in it for me?” because that’s what they’re thinking. Take an approach that focuses on how this can be beneficial to them too.

4. Write great content. Don’t worry about the word count. Worry about your audience and answer their questions. When you write great, unique content, the word count doesn’t matter. By providing useful information that’s easy to digest, you’ll see more engagement. If you’re not sure what questions your audience has or what information they need, ask them.

Extend the Life of Your Content

5. Repurpose your content. You must provide excellent quality content consistently. It does not have to be brand new every day. If you’re taking a strategic approach to content development, you’re likely putting a significant amount of time into your work. Reuse your content. Re-share your blog posts. Update your images. There is nothing wrong with re-using content; it’s done regularly. Audit your top performing blog posts and see what needs to be updated. Are there posts that are from a year or two ago that still work great but need a refresh? Add a few of those refresh tasks to your current content marketing plan. Update the information and re-share. Make that content work harder.

By researching and understanding what the client needs, writing great content, partnering with influencers when it makes sense, making sure you have all stages of the sales funnel covered, and re-purposing the content you develop, you can make your content work harder for you. You can boost performance & save time with these tips. You can create less content but see better results when you take this approach. Give it a try, let me know what you think. If you need help moving to the next level, you know where to find us.

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