Content Creation Basics

Creating content is not easy for several reasons. I think 3 of the biggest challenges I see for businesses are choosing audiences, establishing goals and coming up with content ideas consistently. I am going to review the basics with these 3 challenges and I think they will help you start the content creation process.

Choosing Audiences

Every business is different and every business has multiple audiences that can invest in their products or services. Before you can begin any content creation you have to determine who your audiences are. Below are two examples of possible audiences:

Males and females in the 18-25 demographic – You have to keep in mind that they are often influenced by humorous graphics or memes and their attention span is shorter because they do multiple things on the net at the same time. For this audience you would need to make sure you have headlines they can scan quickly, not too much content, perhaps a coupon code and remember humorous images are loved by this specific group. If you have a relevant & funny meme there is a good chance that this audience will share the link socially which is free advertising for you and your reach becomes more substantial. Explain why they need what you have to offer quickly.

Female Executives aged 35-45 – You have an audience that isn’t going to be influenced easily. This audience wants specifics and they want to know why they should invest in what you have to offer. They have the potential to spend a lot more money than younger demographics and they will need a completely different type of content than the 18-25 demographic. Content for this audience needs to be more substantial, but include informative headlines that they can scan quickly. Explain what the service/product is, why it is needed and the benefits of investing. Sell, sell, sell.

Establishing Goals

What is the point of your content marketing? Is it to increase brand awareness? Sell a specific product or service? You have to determine what your goals are before you create content because the goals are what give your content direction. Every piece of content you create should be based on at least one goal.

Goals should be measurable so you can evaluate whether your content marketing was successful or not. It is important to remember that unsuccessful content marketing is a good thing because it shows you what doesn’t work. As with anything you have to test and retest and try again.

Coming Up with Good Content Ideas Consistently

The hardest part of content creation is coming up with ideas. The first suggestion I have is to write down questions your clients ask because if they are asking someone else probably is looking for the same answer online. If you hear some questions over and over weekly you should answer them one by one in your content. Create Q&A blog posts and create a category for the Q&A, but spread these out. There should be more substantial content in between Q&A.  Some other ideas include:

• Speaking with employees – What sales techniques work for them? What questions do they hear? What do clients/customers want to know?
• Research your competitors – What are they doing and what have they done in the past? Learn from their failures and their successes. Make sure your spin is different than theirs.
• Educate your audience – You can educate your audience on each product and/or service you offer, one by one. When you educate you create trust and trust helps make sales. One content piece can explain what the service is, another can explain why it is needed and the next can explain what your need to know before you invest.

These 3 challenges are the very important basics needed to begin content creation. Choose your audiences, create goals for your business and each audience you have and then create content based on the needs of your audiences. The combination of these three will set you on the road to successful content creation.

Melissa Fach

Melissa Fach has been in the SEO industry since 2007. She created her own agency, was the Managing Editor at SEJ, worked as an editor for Moz with their community team, she worked at Pubcon as the Community Manager for 5 years, and is an editor for SEMrush US Blog.

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