Different and Creating Creative Content Ideas
1. Voice Search
Now that we no longer key in search terms only on computers, the way more and more people search content is changing.
For example, if I want to know what’s playing at my local theater, I could key in “Movie Theater,” because I know Google will locate the closest theater to me.
However, if I’m using a voice search assistant at home, I could simply ask “Alexa, what movies are playing near me?”
With this in mind its important to know how we create content moving forward. Our world is changing and the internet is showing us just how much and how fast.
Understanding that SEO has always led the way in driving traffic to websites.
Yet, like other online places, content creation is evolving to meet the needs of a newer generation of online consumers.
This change is partially being pushed by trending technology like Alexa and Google Home.
So, how is the modern online user changing the landscape of typical SEO strategy?
Here are a few trends in content creation happening right now.
Trends in Content Creation
1. Voice Search
Now that people no longer limited to searching from a computer, the way they use search is changing.
First trend to stay mindful of is voice search, and it’s one of the leading trends in content marketing.
To optimize SEO writing in the past, we used to take out all the “filler” words from a search query.
So,
“Where can I find the best coffee beans in Texas”
Became:
“best coffee beans Texas”
Targeted, yes.
Easy to fit into a smooth-flowing piece of SEO content? Not really.
Fortunately, the new, natural-language search terms are making SEO copywriting easier and more compelling — a winning combination.
But, it’s more than search itself that is changing. People are also changing the way they consume content.
In 2018, audiences are changing the way they consume info and discovering new ways of accessing answers to the questions that drive them.
And their evolving questions are the ones you — or your company — want to provide an answer to.
So, how do you let people know you’ve got the answers they seek?
Answer: Through recognizing the importance of SEO in content creation and negotiating the ever-changing landscape of the content economy.
2. Video Content
According to Wyzowl, video marketing has surged, with 81% of companies using it to market their audience.
And really there are many reasons to include video in your online content creation strategy, including:
Allowing customers to form an emotional bond with you and your product through voice cues, facial expressions, or dynamic content.
Providing content versatility through a range of possible video content — quick demos, longer courses, hands-on tutorials, and more.
Encouraging engagement with touch-of-a-button sharing and embedding engagement options.
Keeping up with current technology — such as tablets and mobile devices — and the changing ways people are utilizing content.
This isn’t the first time that marketers pivoted when video brought consumers a more engaging form of content.
So, if you’re a creating SEO content for your site — get ready to pivot.
Video content is growing as mobile usage takes the lead over desktop for the first time since in 2017.
3 Keyword Research Strategies That Deliver
Remember building great content is only possible after proper keyword research.
Content is not something you should take lightly. You need a strong plan of action in place before you spend time and money on SEO content creation.
That plan of action is keyword research. The good news is, there's lots of brand-new strategies out there to help make your SEO content strategy even more on-target. All you have to do is engage them.
Focus on Niche Topics
If you want to know how to write SEO content that points directly to your audience’s pain points, their natural curiosity, their need for spot-on information, you’ve got to put in the research.
Your first step should be to determine your niche topic — your product or service’s unique standing in your industry and the things related to your product that your customers are interested in.
Understanding how to turn your customers’ interests into content will help narrow keywords with focused efficiency.
This, in turn, will help contribute to the creation of compelling SEO content that tugs at your customers’ heartstrings — and wallets.
Let’s say I’m running a business that sells coffee, How about:
Coffee mugs
Coffee roasting guide
How to grind coffee at home
Best coffee beans for roasting
Espresso machine basics
There are probably over a million choices of niches, so concentrate on those that are important to your audience.
If you're like most marketers today, then you know consistent, high-quality content creation is essential to your success. But did you know that creating amazing content doesn't just benefit your isolated content marketing program — it can make a difference across your entire organization?
In fact, the average company that blogs generates 55 percent more site visitors; B2B marketers who blog generate 67 percent more leads per month than those who don't; and organizations that align content marketing and sales enjoy 38 percent higher sales win rates and 36 percent higher customer retention rates.
Maybe that's why, according to research from Content Marketing Institute, 56 percent of B2B marketers increased their spending on content creation in the last year — because consistently creating great content can help companies achieve their goals.
But that content doesn't just appear out of thin air; it's the result of lots and lots of planning, collaboration, writing, editing, and more.
This brief article will help you better understand what you need to know about content creation and how to develop a process that works for you.
Documenting a Content Strategy
Content can help your company achieve a number of different marketing goals. The thing is, not all content works the same way for all goals. It needs to be created with your end goal in mind. That way, you can ensure that every blog post, every guest-contributed article, every video, and every whitepaper your team produces will work together to work for you.
Download your content marketing assessment to map out what kind of content you need to achieve your team's biggest marketing goal.
So before you start writing anything, narrow down your primary goal. Most companies' goals fit into one of three general buckets: lead generation, thought leadership, and SEO. If you're like most marketers, using content marketing for lead generation is going to be priority No. 1 — but every company is different.
With a clear idea of the main goal your company is using content to achieve, it’s time to start putting together the details of the plan that will make content creation simpler.
A strategy that you actually take the time to document is essential to your content marketing. Sixty-five percent of the most successful marketers have a documented content marketing strategy, compared to only 14 percent of the least successful marketers.
Download your interactive content marketing strategy checklist to create a strategy that works for you.
Your strategy is going to be valuable for everyone in your company, from your C-suite to your sales team to the individual people on your marketing team. It's a centralized document that should answer just about every question someone might have about why you're using content and how your operation works.
But when it comes specifically to your content creation efforts, three elements are key to directing each piece of content you produce:
• Buyer Personas
Before you create content, you need to know who you're creating it for. That's where your buyer personas come in.
A buyer persona is a representation of your company's ideal customer. It includes demographic information, motivations, buyer behavior, values, pain points, hobbies, budget, and more.
The goal of creating these personas is to help you better understand individual members of your audience so that you're better equipped to reach, engage, and support them with the right content throughout their journey with your company.
• Topic Research
Knowing what you know about your audience members, spend some time researching what broad topics resonate with them, what they're searching for, and what they're telling your sales reps.
Leave the specific, individual article topics for later in your content creation process. For now, focus on general topics of interest to your audience. Look to your website analytics for insights into what your audience engages with already, and do a little keyword research to discover what other related topics you can expand your content to address.
And, as always, stay in communication with your sales team. Your sale reps speak directly with your audience every single day — who better to ask about your prospective customers' biggest questions, challenges, and priorities?
Learn more about working with your sales team to understand your audience and create more targeted content by downloading your copy of "The Content Marketer's Guide to Sales Enablement."
Again, you don't need to list out specific ideas, but getting a feel for what kinds of content your audience is looking for and what your team is prepared to deliver is important to a well-rounded content strategy.
• Editorial Workflow
With your audience and general topic ideas down, it's time to determine how you're going to create the right content for that audience.
Your editorial workflow is the process your team agrees to use for nurturing a content project from its conception to its final form and getting it in front of your audience. It creates consistency in the production process, eliminates inefficiencies, and allows all the people on your team to focus their time and talent on the parts of the process they're best at.
Start by outlining the journey your content will go through from beginning to end. What steps does your team need to take to produce content? Who's responsible for what? What's your standard of quality, and when is each step considered "done"? Your answers to these questions will help you create a process for consistently and efficiently creating great content.
Creating an Editorial Calendar
An editorial calendar is a popular method of organizing the production of your team's content. This tool helps content marketers schedule upcoming content and hold each other responsible for consistent content creation.
Download your custom editorial calendar template to build a custom publishing schedule and keep your team on track to meet your goals.
It's important to set a calendar before you (figuratively) put pen to paper because knowing how much of what content you need and by when will help all your team members prioritize projects and budget their time more effectively over the course of the calendar.
Most calendars are monthly, but depending on your publishing cadence and the size of your team, you could create detailed weekly calendars or even three-month spreads to see the big picture of your content production over the quarter.
Your editorial calendar can be as simple or robust as you'd like, and it can include any number of fields, such as content type, title, publish date, author, call to action, and more. The point is, your calendar should be a central tool that anyone on your team can access to quickly see what content is in production, its status, and its publication date.
The Content Creation Process
Finally, the moment we've all been waiting for: the actual content creation process. With so much heavy lifting completed, your actual creation process is already set up for success. Below are five steps to make your content creation process even more effective and efficient:
1. Brainstorming / Forming Topics Create
Every piece of content you create begins with an idea. To consistently generate ideas that translate into powerful content, you need to know where to look. A few go-to sources of inspiration include:
Your sales teams
Website analytics
Keyword research
Competitor analysis
Blog audits
Trending content tools
Social media conversations
Industry events and conferences
While each article is important to the overall strategy, content marketing isn't about creating just one fantastic piece of content. Try organizing topics so you don't end up creating a string of one-off posts that don't fit very naturally into the bigger picture strategy that you're working towards.
Consider mind-mapping topics so you create an entire cluster of ideas that will work together to explain the subject better than anyone.
2. Knowledge Sharing
Companies don't have ideas — real life people do. Your employees are the actual experts in the company, they're going to byline content you create, not your company as a whole. Your job as a content marketer, then, becomes aligning that expert's voice and ideas with the goal of your topic. And knowledge sharing is the best way to do that
Knowledge sharing is the process used to draw out the personal experiences, stories, and ideas that make the thought leader, well, a thought leader. It begins with a strategic Q&A system and ends with enough expertise and information to fill a knowledge bank and streamline content creation.
The insights from the knowledge-sharing process can be stored in a knowledge management template. Download your customizable template to collect and organize your team's expert insights.
Whether you’re working with a verbal storyteller or someone who likes to write ideas in a stream-of-consciousness manner, the process can work for everyone. Regardless of format, the idea is the same: Use a series of strategic questions to elicit specific information, ideas, stories, and examples from your team's thought leaders to use for content.
3. Content Creation
With a topic and insights ready, it's time to actually start creating. As you begin, remember to refer to your audience personas. What's going to speak to them? What will compel them to take the next action you want them to take?
Is a blog post the best way to reach your audience with your idea? An infographic? Research from CMI shows that B2B marketers rate blog posts, whitepapers, and case studies as the most effective content types for the early, middle, and late stages of the buying process, respectively. So consider the stage of the buyer journey, and customize your message to meet your audience members where they're at.
4. Content Editing
There are things you can do to become a better writer, and there are ways you can sharpen your editing skills. Still, no matter how good you are at either, it's usually not a good idea to be the only person editing your work. Collaboration is critical for making sure an idea makes sense, your message is clear, and your copy is free of errors.
Content at Influence & Co. goes through at least two rounds of edits before it moves on to the next step — one round for strategy and voice, and another for style and grammar. Your system for editing may look different. As long as you're taking the time to carefully examine your content between its creation and publication, you're off to a good start.
5. Publication
The "final" step in the creation process is to release your content into the world. (Your team will still need to distribute it, analyze its performance, and potentially make edits to update or optimize it over time — but for now, the last step of creating content is setting it free.)
If you're creating content for your own website or blog, this step is as simple as uploading, previewing, and publishing. Something to consider, though, is the consistency with which you publish. Do your best to stick to your calendar and publish regularly to give your audience something to look forward to.
And if you've created content to be published off-site, like a guest post, then it's time to pitch that publication. (For all the information you need about sending that content, check out this article on how to pitch your content to publication editors.)
Putting a Team in Place to Fuel Your Content Creation Process
Every content strategy requires a content marketing team to execute it, and while companies with larger budgets might add a few players to their lineups, most content marketing teams generally rely on three critical roles: a content strategist, an editor, and a distribution specialist.
This video, featuring Kelsey Raymond, Influence & Co.’s president and co-founder, quickly explains those roles:
These three roles — the strategist, the editor, and the distribution specialist — are the bare bones of a content team. Without any one of them, your efforts will suffer. But introduce more of the right members to the content creation team (and pair them all with the right tools and technology), and scaling becomes easier.
Our SEO Experts we’ve built a strong network of SEO developers, content writers and site designers who all help to create unique campaigns second to none.
Our team will work on technical audits, keyword research, SEO tactics and implementation.
Creating engaging, high-quality content for your audience isn't an easy task. The content creation process works best in the hands of a team whose specialized skill sets who can focus on exactly what they do rather than spreading their resources too thin.
However you decide to build your content is up to you. What's most important is that the team you assemble be made up of the right people with the right skills to create content that drives your strategy forward.
Finding the Right Content Creation Tools
This post has broken down pretty many aspects of content creation task, which (hopefully) makes the process a little more manageable. Still, it never hurts to make sure you've got the right tools in place to make it even easier on yourself. Here are a few free tools any in-house content marketing team can use:
Make My Persona: This interactive tool from HubSpot is super helpful for putting together and actually using buyer personas.
Blog Ideas Generator: Another fun and free tool from HubSpot, the topic generator is great for helping you think creatively about new ways to approach topics.
Headline Analyzer: No one is going to read your content if they don't click on it first, and this tool from CoSchedule can help you write the best, most compelling headlines for each article you write.
Knowledge Bank: A knowledge bank is a customizable template you can use to collect and store all kinds of valuable insights for future content.
Grammarly: This tool is like working with a grammar expert on everything you write, both online and in Microsoft Word, too.
Canva: High-quality visuals are key to engaging content, and Canva makes it easy for anyone (even non-designers) to create custom designs.
Remember content creation is the process that turns your overall content marketing strategy into actual, tangible assets with results. That's why developing a system that works for you is so important. With these steps, your content marketing campaigns should be ready to deliver great results for your entire organization.
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