Craft a Plan and Create Quality Content to Wake Up Your Audience
Do you watch talent shows on television? You’ve heard the panel of judges ask a contestant, “What are you doing this week to take it to the next level?” The camera pans to the singer or dancer whose face often reflects the stress of the challenge. The performance may include strobe lights, backup dancers, or pyrotechnics. It's big and bright, but can you remember the song the next day? Did it stand out from any of the dozen other 'big' performances? Unfortunately, the answer is probably 'no,' since the performances seem blurringly alike in your memory. If you're lucky, one of the performances was memorable, perhaps because it resonated with you in some way.
Our talent show example illustrates a growing challenge for digital marketers: content fatigue. We won't recount the amount of content posted each day. You know it's in the millions. Searches are in the billions. Web traffic speeds are supersonic, and skim reading has become the new normal. What can a digital marketer do to stand out and create a meaningful connection with content? (Hint: the answer isn’t more content).
Why a Content Strategy is Vital to Avoiding Content Fatigue
A content strategy is a North Star that guides what you write, the format you use, and where you publish. When you take the time to develop a content strategy, you’ll outline the areas that are essential to connecting with your audience, including:
- Your audience profiles and decision stages. Building personas into your strategy helps you create useful content. You'll know what your audiences like, their pain points, and how they make decisions. You'll also understand how they talk about your product or service, and importantly, how you can address their problems. Identifying critical decision points enables you to develop resources that will support your audience along their path to purchase.
- Your content objectives and your points of difference. Do you want to increase awareness of your business? Increase loyalty among existing customers? Illustrate how your product or service makes life better? Each of those objectives directs you to a different content message and format. Folding your brand positioning into your content to communicate how your solution is better than competitors will give uniquely meaningful information to your audience.
- Your topic areas, and how (and where) to talk about them. Your audience research will give you insights into the topics about your product or service that will be most relevant to your audience. Your research will identify the keywords to include in your content for SEO purposes. You’ll know the channels and platforms your audiences use to find information and can tailor your content to fit LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Remember, you can also demonstrate your expertise by extending your content to areas related to your business. If you're selling financial services, for example, you can update your audience about topics affecting their financial health, such as 'saving for retirement,' 'when to downsize,' or 'traveling on a budget.'
Quality Content: Less IS More
Throwing content at your audience every day to get a response is like throwing spaghetti on a wall to test its 'doneness'. You expend a lot of energy, waste some spaghetti, and have no real confidence that your audience will like the results.
Fortunately, your content strategy does more than guide your messaging. It will also establish the right frequency for interacting with your audiences. When you craft a 'meaty' article brimming with useful insights or develop a vibrant, fact-based infographic that increases understanding, your audience will respond favorably to your post. Importantly, when your outreach efforts consistently add value, you won’t be one of the 25+ unwanted daily content posts. Your audience will be more likely to click on your news and look forward to hearing from you again. Your online credibility (and your audience) will grow when you provide quality content either on your own or by partnering with a content agency.
Need support as you develop your content strategy? The team at MintCopy, a leading global content agency headquartered in Mississauga, Canada, can help. We’ll work with you to develop an approach that delivers the results you need to reach your business goals. If you’re looking for creative ideas, our professional copywriters will produce the high quality, SEO-friendly content you need to get noticed online.
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