Content, content, content. Content Marketing seems to be what everyone is talking about these days. In a overstimulated world of information and messages how do you get through to people in an endless stream of information? How do you know what you are talking about is actually relating to your audience and providing them value?
Well, one way to do it is to start with keyword research through one of the many free online tools out there and find out what people are actually looking for. 4DP tend to use the keyword planner in Google Ads but there are many other free tools, here are a few to try out:
- AdWord & SEO Keyword Permutation Generator
- Google Correlate
- IMforSMB Bulk Keyword Generator
- Keyword In
- Soovle
- Ubersuggest
Doing keyword research not only gives you exact search terms of what people are looking for, it also helps give you direction on what to write about while also helping your SEO.
Or you could do your keyword research the other way around — if you have a list of topics you think might be interesting to your audience type them into the keyword planner and see if people are searching your topic or if they are searching a similar keyword related to that particular topic.
Ask your customers
Other ways to come up with topics to write about could include asking your audience. Go on Facebook or one of your social media channels and ask people what they would like to know more about or if they have any questions they need answering. Or, if you have FAQ’s and know your customers ask the same questions again and again write a blog post about it and share it as it’s more than likely others will also want to know.
Delegate
We understand time is a premium in 99% of businesses so once you have an idea of what people are searching keep a log or simple word document of topics you can write about when you have some spare time or assign the topics to one of your interns or staff members who enjoy writing. It’s good to get into a routine and try and create new content at least once a week, so set it in your diary when you’re feeling your most creative. You could also keep a back catalogue of articles to pull out and refresh as needed.
Share your golden nuggets
The old sales technique of keeping your secrets close to your chest isn’t necessarily the best way to go anymore as most people can google to find out the answer from the multitude of blogs and websites giving away information for free. In today’s world people can sniff out in-authenticity so try and speak to your audience as if you were talking to them in person. We also think a good way to write is to take the stance of sharing is caring, aim to help your clients and customers, share some of those secrets. If you build up trust and prove yourself to be the leader in your field they are more likely to come to you to help them solve whatever solution they are looking to resolve.
Proof, proof, proof
Before you share your article with the world — proofread! You might provide an amazing article with loads of knowledge but if you have typos’ or grammatical errors you disregard whatever you are sharing straight away. There are great tools such as https://www.grammarly.com/ which make proofing easy. If you can, send your article to a colleague or friend and have them read over it, too. And to ensure you haven’t inadvertently written something that was influenced by something you read, you can check plagiarism online free. Or use a free plagiarism checker for college students.
PR DIY
You also don’t need to share your content on just your own website alone. EVERYBODY wants content, so think of ‘partners’ who might like to share your content via their channels and get in touch to see if they would also be interested to share your article with a link back to your website – this is also great for your SEO backlinks and connects with a new audience! This could be industry organisations, magazine websites, bloggers, think of all the communities you belong to or people you work with – generally everyone has a website today.
Takeaway
Writing can be scary when you just start out but it doesn’t need to be. Remember, everyone on the web is hungry for content – there is an ever-growing demand for stories, news, and images out there and it is not slowing down. If you are in business and know your target audience then you will find easily a plethora of content topics you can write about. If writing is not your thing, then designing a content piece might be more along your alley.
Did you know that only 40% of the content circulating on the internet is actually original? Infographics, templates, blueprints and animations are in high demand. If you are able to create some of these content forms, make sure you share them far and wide.
Content marketing is a hungry beast and if you are still a small operation finding the time or headspace to produce marketing pieces can be hard. You are not alone here! Many business owners are either delegating content production to an in-house employee, an external freelancer or even hire an inbound marketing agency. Budget, available skills and resources as well as time are important factors for your decision making process.
If you would like to discuss the best way to get your content marketing strategy off the ground, then get in touch with us today as we love to provide interesting, valuable content whatever it may be.
