What You Need to Know about Content Development
The importance of high-quality content for your website is difficult to overestimate. The content is what speaks for your products, their value, and helps to build the trust of your audience. It can help to show why you stand out from your competition and how exactly you can solve your customer’s problem.
But there is an important aspect to it that many business owners and even marketers ignore. It is the structure. Basically, content with no structure is like a horse without a rider. It may get somewhere eventually, but nobody knows where exactly and how safe it is.
You can be an influencer, marketer, business owner, or SMM specialist, but without a developmental approach it’s hard to find and reach the target audience and see real results.
So, you need a strategy. Moreover, you need the strategy that will help you to reach your maximum audience, build their trust, create content that is adapted for various types of readers, , and build a base of customers who are ready to return to your business again (to spend their money).
Your aim is to have a regular flow of content that inspires your audience to take actions, engage with it and builds your authority as an expert in your niche.
Having a good plan is an effective way to be ahead of your competition.
Ready to dive in? Then let’s go!
The topic we are going to talk about is content development which includes strategizing, creating, and managing your content. It has practical and creative sides. For creating top content, one needs to show both organizational and creative (or analytical) skills.
Sometimes developing your content plan may take as long as creating the content itself!
So you may ask, “why would I want to spend my time on that?”.
If you are not using the help of SEO content services, it’s highly preferential that you do focus on creating the plan first. It basically eliminates the whole time and effort consuming process of evaluating and guessing in the midst of uncertainty. When you have a strategy, you know what’s up next, and you can focus entirely on making sure you and your team are creating high-quality content that speaks to your audience and produces sales. Having a plan helps you to clearly see your goals and ways to attain them.
It’s reasonable to start developing your content by considering a few things: your target audience, your schedule, the platforms and channels you are going to use, and goals you are aiming to attain.
Another thing to do in the early stages of development is to make a research of your target audience. You need to have a clear understanding of their spending habits. How do they interact on the web? What are your customers saying now? Use their feedback to make sure you put out there the best content possible.
Then it’s about time to think about your content schedule. It helps to add a system to your work and avoid missing any deadlines and duplicating content.
Now let’s talk about the content.
One of the things to consider here is creating templates for your content. Be it blog posts, Instagram content, YouTube videos, infographics, etc, it’s better to outline what you expect from your team that way your content won’t be all over the place. Guidelines can serve the same purpose. It’s another way to maintain the consistency of your brand’s voice.
Don’t forget that different platforms and different audiences require different tones. It can be really helpful to check out your competition to see how they manage to approach different channels and audiences. Also try to find what their content is missing and add that to yours. Analyze what you have already posted, check the performance and engagement. What kind of content does best?
Another thing to keep in mind while developing your content is problem-solving. Your content may be as entertaining as BuzzFeed’s but your potential customers expect you to help them to solve their problems. If you forget that, they might as well go to your rivals.
Don’t be afraid to talk to your audience directly. What do they like? What kind of content do they expect and would like to see?
Ok, we talked through some of the things you need to consider while producing your content. But a good text on your writer’s laptop is not yet content. You need to post it. And do it often, but don’t be too annoying, there is no need in storming your follower’s feed (it can be tricky sometimes to find a balance). Try to use as many relevant platforms and channels as possible, and make sure that your content is optimized for sharing.
Now, it’s time to talk about SEO. Let’s just discuss a few important aspects of effective website SEO optimisation, you can find more on this topic on our website.
- learn about search engine ranking and what helps to rank higher;
- do the keyword research and add relevant keywords to your content;
- get your content indexed;
- mind the formatting;
- avoid long URLs;
Types and formats of content you can offer include:
- downloadable infographic or research in PDF;
- e-books;
- educational articles;
- newsletters;
- videos;
- tutorials in any possible format;
If you are giving stuff away for free, make sure to let your audience know that and maybe even put a special emphasis that it is, in fact, FREE. Don’t we all love presents? Well, in our case, it can be a free e-book sent to a customer’s email. It can be a research; it can be a course useful for your audience. It largely depends on your niche. In some cases, it can be a free template or sample, or free first try, or whatever you can come up with. Offering freebies you elevate your audience’s trust and build positive associations with your brand.
Now let’s talk about what makes the perfect content.
First of all, don’t forget that the way people read has changed. They do not start by reading the full sentences, they scan through the text. How can you capture their attention within an initial couple of seconds?
Make sure that you don’t forget who your target audience is. It’s important to address your message directly at them. Solve their problems, give answers to the questions they might have. Add quotations, and use data from credible sources, it helps to elevate your level of authority in the eyes of your audience.
Although we have mentioned being systematic, it doesn’t mean that you have to be rigid while creating your content. See how the audience reacts to your content, what are their responses, and add changes accordingly.
Even when your team is writing a marketing copy, you shouldn’t ignore the principles of storytelling. Appeal to your audience’s emotions and experiences. Being relatable in the 21st century is more important than ever.
Well, you have shared with you some basic insights, and hopefully, you learned a thing or two about developing your content. Now you are practically ready to go and navigate the sea of marketing on your own. Or you can always ask professionals to step in and support you in your journey. We are a couple of clicks away!
