10 Secrets to Creating Great Content for Winning Business
Content is the new deal breaker in the digital world. It is one of the most effective ways of promoting a business or a brand. Creating consistent content that engages the users requires channelized efforts. A good content strategy is important to establish your credibility, generate effective leads and ultimately grow your business. Blogging is one of the most influential ways to generate qualified leads for a business. Here is a list of secrets from the top brands on generating great content to win customers.
1. Use tools like BuzzSumo and Quora to research on topics. These tools also provide you do content analysis, help you see the popularity of different topics and collect alternate view points. Figure out the buzzwords in your industry and create compelling blog posts around them to attract visitors.
2. Research and study your competitors. Learn from the most influential competitors, it will also help you to analyse your industry better and uncover important areas. The key topic areas, trends and knowledge around new developments are extremely helpful for writing winning content.
3. Create content with the USER in mind. Create content that is Unique. Promote it on Social Media. Engage the audience. Write for your targeted Readers.
4. Plan your content with the customers in mind. The content should be developed with the end goal of addressing the concerns of your potential customers. The content plan should revolve around your customers. Establish trust with well document white papers, customer testimonials, and case studies for your business.
5. Understand which social media channels are best for your business. While LinkedIn is the best platform for professionals, Facebook gives you the access to the masses, Twitter is where you can find influencers, and Youtube can be used for promoting videos and stories related to your brand. Analyse the different times, themes and influencers which can amplify the reach of your content.
6. How will your customers find you? What keywords are they likely to search before they can home in on your website? What are your prospective customers looking for? What are their questions to your sales team? What questions are they likely to ask on forums? Answering these questions will most likely generate target keywords that you should write about. Generate content around these topics which are most likely to be searched by your prospects.
7. Grab the attention with catchy headlines. Studies suggest that great headlines results in more views, shares and higher engagement. Use tools like Coschedule to analyse your headlines. A powerful and magnetic headline is sure to grab attention and viewership.
8. Create a checklist to review the content like the one below. Buzzsumo analyzed over 100 million articles to study which articles get shared the most. Here is a quick summary of their findings:
a. Well researched & long articles get shared more often than shorter articles. Well researched articles over 1000 words get more shares on social media compared to shorter articles
b. Adding an image in your post leads to more Facebook shares.
c. Adding an image in your post leads to more Twitter shares.
d. Appeal to people’s emotions. Awe, laughter and amusement leads people to share the articles.
e. Create lists and Infographics. People are likely to share lists and Infographics more than other forms of content like videos, how to articles and other types of content.
f. 10 is the magic number for lists.
g. People tend to share things that look trustworthy to them. When content comes from a credible source or brand, it is more likely to be shared, especially on Twitter, LinkedIn & G+.
h. When an influencer shares your article or post, it creates a multiplying effect on the overall shares.
i. Promote old articles on a regular basis.
j. The best day to publish content for social shares is Tuesday.
9. Use visually appealing content to woo your prospects. Attractive Infographics, use of images and captivating videos etc are great ways to pull visitors to your blog. Create a compelling story of your brand using these visuals to connect to your audience.
10. Monitor and analyse the impact of the articles and other content posted on the social media with tools like Hootsuite, Social Mention, and Topsy. These tools help you to figure out realtime impact of the content on various social media and also keep track of online conversations about your brand.
Great brands around the world are now trying to seize the digital media opportunities to advertise themselves. Companies such as General Electric, Coca Cola & Sears are just some of the names that are dominating the digital landscape with content marketing. These companies are able to leverage online channels by producing quality content that is interesting, valuable & worth sharing.
Content marketing is now one of the mainstream ways to engage, empower and attract the consumers. Brands which are establishing themselves as strong digital publishers are able to generate leads and win business.