Marketing is just as important today as it was during the start of the Industrial Revolution. Now the difference is the wide array of choices available to a business such as, SMS, Email, Blogging, and more.
It’s without doubt that content is king in today’s society. And for inbound marketers (content creators), there’s one piece of information that’s intergral to driving any dollars for the business, and that’s content and marketing.
91% of business-to-business (B2B) professionals use content marketing as part of their strategy. However, this doesn't mean all the content they create is top-notch, compelling, or valuable content.
It’s the burning question that’s on the tip of every executive’s tongue. But what does it take to become a good content creator? Just how do I become one that peers in my industry would look to for advice and opinions?
I believe that all good things are the result of the amount of effort you put into it. It should start with what you do before you put your fingers to a keyboard.
The core of a content creator is to produce entertaining or educational material that is catered to a selected group of people. These can be delievered through many ways including, blog posts, videos, ebooks, photos, and more. AND today, businesses have caught on to this wave, and aggressively employ content creators to engage new and existing customers on the brand's behalf.
As with most things there are some tried-and-true habits you can adopt that will put you on the path to being a truly successful content creator.
As mentioned before like all good things, it's not going to happen overnight. And it shouldn't, because you're trying to get good at it, not just simply do it. But the sooner you start working these five habits into your routine, the sooner you'll be well on your way to becoming a high-quality content creator.
1. Read news about your industry every day.
Creating great content means, content that resonates with your target audience. Simply put: You should know what’s going on in your industry. The best content creators dive deep into a topic and search widely on the internet for industry news and trends to discover what are shaping their audiences current mindset.
Staying organised here is key. There’s a lot of information that is freely available on the internet, and getting in the habit of readying by putting everything you read in one place is going to help greatly.
To expand on what to read be sure to ask a few colleagues what they're reading these days and follow suit.
2. Regularly write.
If you don't use it, just throw it. Successful content creators understand the importance of constantly flexing their writing muscles. Writing is just like any other muscle, it requires training to mould and to perfect.
Get in the habit of writing by doing it daily or every other day. You don’t need to write a polished essay, but rather set aside a few minutes a day to write down any thoughts and ideas you may have. Some questions to help yourself to start the flow are: What did you read yesterday that stuck with you? What didn't you understand?
3. Your audience is king.
Don’t make the mistake when most start as a Content Creator. Understand that your audience needs are most important. They pay the bills, and help to drive KPIs.
It’s imperative that you know your audience inside and out. Examine your own readers and viewers: What do they want that you're not yet giving them? What problems do they have that you can solve for them? Don’t just read into them using demographic data, but consider what are the real problems they face day to day.
4. Establish your own voice.
Earth to human: You’re not the only content creator out there. There’s a lot of other people who are too. That means you’re not the only one offering advice, observations or seeking thought leadership in your industry.
Diving deep or diversifying into other topics seem like a good idea, but don’t forget that there are many others who are doing the same too!
However what you can bring to your content, that nobody else can, is your own personal voice. Readers click on your content for the information, but they come back for the personality.
Writing about an unmissable competition? Don’t just write about the details about the competition, describe the scenario of them winning the competition and what it could do to their lives.
Learn how to blend other available content with your own creativity, and you'll become a much more valuable content creator in the long run.
5. Curate other content.
There isn’t a shortage of content curation. In fact, anyone on the internet can take someone else's content and retweet it, share it on Twitter, pin it -- the list goes on. However, successful content creators know it's not enough to take relevant industry news and deliver it back out to your content readers.
Sharing content just isn't enough. Engaging with the content you're sharing now makes it unique to you.
Only curate content when you have something valuable to add. Ensure you give your readers additional, useful information or even a thought or opinion when sharing content from others.
6. Understand your KPIs.
The Internet is a big place with a lot of competition, and I dare say that it is too big for your content to be discovered.
Just publishing your content online doesn’t mean you’ll enjoy the traffic it deserves. To get your content discovered, you first need to focus in on a key performance indicator (KPI), and optimize your content for it. A KPI is a specific metric you've chosen to measure how well your content is doing against your expectations. Modern KPIs include:
Social media traffic, the number of visitors that come to your content from a social media post.
Direct traffic, the number of visitors that come to your content by entering your website's URL directly
Organic traffic, the number of visitors that come to your content from a search engine result link.
Submissions, the number of people who visit your website and leave having submitted their contact information
7. Always Network.
Networking forces you to continue to learn and grow and sometimes having a bit of an idea drought is a sign that you should sit down and talk to others’ to spur new ideas and take them into consideration instead of just your own.
Social networks are good for socialing as the name suggests for it to be! Spend some time on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to check out who the thought leaders are in your industry and follow them.
Once you do that, you can ease into in-person networking. Make it easy on yourself and start small with people you already associate with on a day to day basis such as your colleagues. You already have something in common, so striking up a conversation in the kitchen or at your desks shouldn't be too scary.
8. Offer solutions, not just comments.
Want your audience to remember your content? Don't just recite the things you know -- explain why they're important and what your audience can take away from it and it's your job to put your market observations into terms they can understand and find lessons in.
9. Learn to ask why.
It is important to be curious. Insights learned from this curiousity is what continues to make great content.
It’s these solutions that drive great content pieces, and deliver outstanding value to your readers.
An alternative would be to play the devil’s advocate. Taking a contrary view on a piece of content is a unique spin that would get readers instantly reading an opinioted. Start questioning why the author things that way and you would be triggering a different viewpoint, and you will start to think critically about any given point.
In conclusion, there’s a lot of pressure on you to deliver. You need to develop great content to deliver a strong marketing strategy, but do not be disheartened take small steps and you will eventually reach your goals.
Discover how you can deliver smashing content through Email, here.
