Imagine you want to go on a tropical vacation next winter. Do you just book a resort and buy a plane ticket right off the bat? Odds are you do a substantial amount of research comparing different possible vacation destinations. You aggressively price compare, read reviews and shop around. And the more information you find the better.
Today’s 21st century consumer is on the hunt for valuable, informative content that will help guide them through the buying cycle. In fact, recent research titled “The WP Engine Content Creation Study” revealed that 62 percent of customers want access to original content directly from their favorite brands. Marketers take note: Your customers are a captive audience. The question is: Are you talking to them?
The study, which examined consumer behavior and sentiment toward brands producing original content, also revealed that customers want to see tips on how to use a product (44 percent), stories from customers like themselves (34 percent) and evergreen content that isn’t company-centric (18.6 percent).
These powerful statistics illuminate the fact that your content creation strategy is more important than ever. And your customers want you to produce content that is original, compelling and truly adds value. With this in mind, let’s take a look at five tips you should consider when devising your content creation strategy:
- Be completely selfless. Nobody wants to hear someone else talk about themselves time and time again. Your business might very well be ranked number twenty on the Forbes Fortune 500 list, but no one wants to hear you gloat. Rather than telling your target market that you’re the best, show them. You can do that by providing a steady stream of content that is engaging and educational. For example, an end-of-the-year industry piece highlighting the year’s biggest happenings and what to expect in the year to come.
- Make your content relevant. Relevance is the nine-letter word every marketer must keep in mind when crafting content. For example, if you’re a tech company that’s focusing on network functions virtualization a piece on the latest social media platform might not be what your audience is looking for. Rather, create topic-specific blogs and launch pertinent social media campaigns that deliver content that adds value to your readers.
- Don’t be afraid to talk about your industry. Your content marketing goal should be to become your customers’ one-stop shop for all things of interest. So don’t be afraid to talk about your industry—not just yourself. That’s the ticket to establishing yourself as a thought leader.
- Develop a comprehensive editorial calendar. Once you’ve decided to move forward with a content creation strategy, devise a fully-baked editorial calendar so that you’re able to plan in advance. If you want content crafted around an upcoming tradeshow, for example, it might be best to start working on it a month in advance to make sure it’s ready by the time the show rolls around. The farther you’re able to plan ahead, the better position you’ll be in.
- Take your time. You do need to produce and disseminate a steady stream of content. But don’t rush anything. Take your time. It’ll be extremely evident to your customers when content is produced hastily and will reflect poorly upon your brand.
As you devise your content creation strategy, it’s important that you really put a lot of thought into all of its facets. Don’t have the resources to do that? Click here to learn about how Content Boost can help.
