Google's recent Penguin algorithm updates have forced many
business owners to take a hard look at their content strategy and link
portfolios. Sites with unsavory linking practices, sub-par content, and no
social media signals, are losing visibility in Google's search rankings.
Many sites have also
incurred manual penalties that have either caused them to
rank much lower in search engine results pages, or become de-indexed
completely. And once you've been knocked into search engine oblivion, it's
nearly impossible for people to find your site.
Whether the main goal of
your site is to make a little extra cash each month or your site the main hub
of your business, your content conveys your message, establishes your brand,
and converts potential customers into sales. There are a few key questions you
should ask yourself when examining your content strategy or when determining
that you need to get started with one altogether.
High-quality content serves
two purposes. It:
- Attracts your readers and keeps them engaged.
- Helps your site rank well in search engines.
A Good Content Strategy:
The Basics
To better understand how to
develop an effective content strategy, it's important to explore what content
is. Let's start with a basic definition.
Content can be either
visual, auditory, or written. It includes everything from blog posts, articles,
website copy, and letters to customers, and social media posts, to podcasts,
recorded interviews, infographics, photos, and video. Most content is created
and published with a particular target audience in mind.
If you look at any
successful business online, you're likely to notice one common element: they're
producing high-quality content that's both engaging and informative on a
regular basis.
So how do you know if
you're producing effective content in your own business niche? A simple test
can help shed some light on this question.
If you're creating content
regularly, grab a few of your recent pieces for evaluation, then get started by
asking yourself the following five questions.
1. Who Are You Writing For?
It's time to take a good
look at whether you're creating content with your target audience in mind. Many
business owners make the mistake of writing for their peers as opposed to their
customers.
Take stock of your web copy
and recent social media content. Are you using these channels as effectively as
you could be to engage with new clients?
Consider the following
scenario. You own a graphic design business and the last two articles you've
written are highly technical pieces related to user experience design and trends
in vector options. While the content may be well written, it is more likely to
appeal to other professional web designers rather than potential customers.
Clients are going to be looking for less technical posts like "how to make
your website stand out from competitors," "what you should budget for
professional web design," and "what criteria you should use when
choosing the right designer."
Often, we draw inspiration
for our content from popular industry blogs and publications. The things we
read daily influence our thought process. So it's important to take a step back
sometimes and evaluate whether you are writing for the right audience.
You can still write
technical pieces as well. But consider pitching them to popular magazines,
journals, and blogs written for those in your industry.
Publishing content on
external publishers with an existing, established audience that fits your
target criteria should be a primary goal of your content marketing campaign, as
it can yield tremendous ROI while also establishing your brand as an authority
in your field. For more information on building a content strategy specifically
for a B2B business, see "How to Create a Content Strategy for a B2B Business".
2. What is Your Customer
Avatar?
You've now made a
commitment to creating content with your potential customers in mind. But do
you know who your customers are, exactly?
Let's take another
professional service example: lawyers. The logical assumption is that a
lawyer's target audience would be clients who want to find legal
representation.
But most often, this isn't
the case. The "clients who need a lawyer" category is too general, so
businesses who target that broadly typically don't experience much success. If
you take a deeper dive into your previous client list, you may find that the
majority of your customers are individuals needing a specific kind of
representation. Maybe they're looking for a divorce attorney, or a bankruptcy
specialist.
Let's continue the example
with the divorce context in mind.
So your target audience is
individuals in the midst of a divorce or considering that path that want to
talk to an expert. Once you've identified your customer avatar, it becomes
easier to focus your content strategy.
You can use the information
you've gathered to plan and design your content specifically for your audience.
The right information goes from "how to choose a lawyer" to "the
top 10 things every woman should know during a divorce." Which one do you
think is more likely to get your specific target audience to read your content?
3. How Can You Make Your
Customers Lives Easier by Solving a Common Problem They Face?
Typically, the first thing
that comes to mind when we think about our business: the features we offer to
our customers, either products or services. A web designer, for example, would
probably consider features such as brand consultation, requirements analysis,
design mock-ups, reviews and changes, and the final product. From the client
side, we'd be focused on the product: a professionally designed site that
aligns with our brand and presents us well to our audience.
When you're creating your
content strategy, try to think ahead about what kinds of questions your clients
may have. Sometimes it's better to focus on the basics for a mainstream
audience.
A typical client who is
seeking a professionally designed site may have questions like:
- What will the total cost be?
- What's the turnaround time?
- What should I expect from the process?
- Who will write my content?
- Should I provide photos for the site?
- Which company will provide hosting?
- Will I be able to manage my own site if I need to make changes?
As you take a deeper dive
into your audiences' questions, you can start to shape your content strategy.
Effective content will address your customers' pain points and help them solve
their problems. It provides simple answers to their most pressing problems,
while solidifying the idea that you're the go-to expert in their minds.
4. How Do You Keep Your
Audience Engaged?
By this point, you know who
you're writing for and the topics they're interested in reading about. Now how
do you capture their attention and keep them interested? A quick search online
will reveal that certain types of content are popular.
For example, readers love
top 5 or top 10 lists. But chances are those lists already exist in your
industry. So how can you craft engaging content? The key is finding your story
and writing compelling pieces.
Let's pause for a moment
and take a look at these two examples:
"Bill M. and I first
met on a sunny morning in my San Francisco office. At first glance, you could
tell that Bill was overworked and wiped out; his skin was pale, large bags
under his eyes, shoulders tense. I could tell this was going to be an
interesting meeting. Suddenly, everything became clear when Bill laid it all
out for me: 'Marie, my brick and mortar business is on the verge of bankruptcy
and something's got to give. It's time to take my operation online to attract
more customers.'"
Or the following:
"Retail businesses can
be affected negatively by technology. Unfortunately for many stores, they are
in dire financial straits before they realize they need to make a change. One of
my clients was close to bankruptcy because he was losing business to big name
online retailers."
Does one of these
introductions make you want to read more? Think about how you can tell your
story or capture your readers' attention with your new content.
5. Are You Providing a Call
to Action for Readers? Will They Feel Compelled to Get in Touch?
Last but not least, you
want to make sure that everything you create has a strong call to action.
For example, maybe you're
writing about a popular service that your business provides. You'll want to end
your piece with something like, "if you want more information about
service packages, please get in touch with me(@)mybusinessname.com."
Ensuring that everything
you're writing provides a clear message to customers will help increase your
sales conversions. This single step alone will dramatically increase the ROI on
content that you create. I recommend this article, "The Definitive Guide to Crafting
Winning Calls to Action in Your Content."
Did Your Business Pass the
Test?
Were you writing for your
audience? Did you choose a topic they were interested in? Was your content
engaging? Did your content focus on solving a pain point and help your
customers?
In order for your content
strategy to be effective, everything you produce needs to meet these goals.
How to Develop Your Future
Content Strategy
Hopefully the evaluation of
your current content helped shed some light on how effective your previous
content has been, and you now have some in-depth knowledge of what it means to
create good content.
If you truly want to
develop an effective content strategy, it's important to have a plan. Otherwise
you might fall into a rut, and simply create content that feels forced and
doesn't help your business achieve its goals. Or you might lose your way, and
fail to produce content at the rate needed to achieve your goals.
So before you start
writing, take the time to reflect and plan. Developing your strategy will help
your business in the long run. It's going to make it easier to achieve goals
for your site and your sales, cut down on costs, and you may even surprise yourself
and surpass your expectations.
1. Have Clear Goals in Mind
You should always approach
your content strategy with goals in mind. Truly think about what you want to
achieve and write it down.
It's a good idea to set a
series of milestones for yourself, rather than one large overly-general goal.
Once you've identified your goals, reflect on how you can achieve them with
your content.
Let's consider the
following. A local industrial equipment dealer specializes in selling trucks
and repairing industrial vehicles. They are interested in grabbing the
attention of potential customers, but their products and services attract
different audiences: those who are interested in purchasing a truck and those
who want a trusted mechanic for a range of industrial machinery. So, instead of
creating one overarching goal, they identify a series of smaller ones. Those
goals may include increasing the visibility of their repair shop and getting
the word out to the community about their line of trucks. The auto dealer can
then use these goals to develop their content strategy.
2. Review Your Data to
Develop Great Content
Do you have a monthly
newsletter through an email marketing service? Or perhaps you have an analytics
program (like Google Analytics) installed on your website? Use that data to
help you develop your strategy moving forward.
Reviewing previous
campaigns and assessing your site can help you understand what types of content
are getting the most interest from your readers.
If you haven't been
tracking data from previous campaigns, there's no need to worry. You can take a
look into industry trends, do some keyword research, and see what's driving the
most traffic to your site, and what traffic is converting the most.
3. If You Need to Know,
Just Ask
Nobody knows what your
customers are looking for better than your customers themselves. Think about
doing some market research to help get a better understanding of customer
needs. A quick survey should do the trick.
Ask questions like:
- What do you enjoy reading about?
- What would you like to learn more about?
- Are you looking for something specific?
- Do you enjoy watching videos or prefer to read blog posts?
Get your customers talking
and you may be surprised at the insights you gather. You can also get creative
with customer follow-ups.
Set up a customer service
survey, or email customers to ask for their feedback on a recent purchase.
Customers will appreciate the opportunity to share their thoughts with you.
4. Look Inside for
Opportunities Before You Go Outside
You've set your goal. Take
a look at your existing audience and do a quick analysis. Can you meet the
needs more effectively to help meet that goal? If the answer is yes, then you
may want to consider developing a feature blog that provides valuable
information for your customers or targeting existing customers with your email
marketing. These things would make a lot of sense and create a positive impact
for your business.
If you need to look toward
an external audience to meet your goal, consider writing and placing some guest posts at targeted sites.
5. Create a Timeline
You've taken the time to
think things through, now it's time to create a timeline to achieve your goals.
Make a plan to step back and evaluate your strategy at the 3-, 6-, and 12-month
marks.
Typically, it takes time
for an effective content strategy to truly take hold. In that time, you'll
probably have at least one piece that drives considerable social activity and
website traffic.
But it's always good to
focus on your long-term success. Identify weekly or monthly benchmarks that
indicate who your target audience is, which topics you'll discuss, what format
you plan to use, and how you'll share your content – either on your own site,
through guest blogging, email, etc.
After you've developed your
timeline, evaluate it to ensure that your topics are focused and not
repetitive.
Creating a timeline will
help you develop specific goals with your content marketing efforts.
You've spent time reviewing
the data from past campaigns. You've used that data as well as input from
customers to plan your future strategy. And you've created a timeline of how to
make the most of your content marketing and meet your goals in the coming
months.
The next steps are
execution, tracking your successes, modifying your timeline, and keeping up
with your efforts.
