“What is content?”
It sounds like a really easy question, right? All of the stuff you see published on the web (including this blog post!) is content.
At the end of 2018, 50% of organizations surveyed said they planned on increasing their content marketing budget over the next year. If you want to increase your brand awareness, thought leadership, and ROI, you have to dig deeper into the definition of “content.”
So, what makes for great content?
1. Your audience
The type of content you publish depends on the people you’re creating it for. Who are they? What do they like and dislike? What makes them happy and unhappy? What scares them? What motivates them? What does their average day look like?
2. Your variety
Content is a whole lot more than words. There are so many ways to communicate with your audience. Maybe yours prefers short infographics over long eBooks. Or, maybe your audience responds better to videos than blog posts. Maybe you could really wow your audience with some animation. Or, maybe the best way to communicate with your audience is through email newsletters.
Which type is right for you? Consider the questions above, and you’ll have your answer!
Here at Marvel Marketers, we’ve used several different types of content to interact with our audience over the past year. For example, our CEO published a video to promote our community partnership in the Oakland A’s Blood Drive:
We also hosted webinars:
And shared updates via email:
3. Your unique value
In order to define your unique value, you have to be able to answer a very important question about your audience: What can you do to make their lives easier?
After all, every audience is looking for two things—answers and solutions. If your content doesn’t provide them, it will never lead to the results you want. Your target audience will simply move on to a competitor that offers the answers and solutions that they need.
4. Your goals
Every piece of content should have a specific goal. Whether you want to increase the size of your email list, improve your SEO rankings, or generate more sales, think about your goal before a single word is written, recorded, illustrated, or animated.
5. Your strategy
Unlike those classic infomercial products, you can’t use the “set it and forget it” approach with your content.
Whether you’re a B2B or B2C organization, every piece of content needs a solid strategy behind it. This goes beyond more than goals, though. The best content strategies include A/B testing, audience segmentation, data analysis, editorial calendars, and promotional resources.
After all, the world wide web is huge, and inboxes are cluttered. Without a strategy to stand ahead of the pack, all of your content marketing efforts will fall flat.
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