Last week we tackled the reasons why your most important marketing strategy is creating high quality content rich in value. It is simply no longer enough just to tell your customers and potential clients what you can do for them, you need to build a long term relationship with them. You need to also create a community around them and establish yourself as an authority that they can trust. The bottom line is, that if your content is not yielding any returns on your audience’s investment, then they are definitely going to take their business elsewhere, and that is not good for your business is it?
Now that we have that established, the big question remains…how do you figure out what kind of content to share. What makes the cut for this so called ‘valuable content’? Essentially, if you cannot figure this out, you are still no closer to your visibility and engagement goals.
The most important direction your research needs to take, is finding out what your audience truly cares about. What needs do they need to be met by going online and engaging in social media, what keeps them constantly scrolling and interacting with multiple content?
Need a hint?
The secret to turning casual viewers into subscribers is through Education, Engagement, Entertainment.
To help you get out of your content creator’s block, we have compiled a list of plausible content creation ideas structured around these 3 little known key areas.
- Educate
This is by far the most consumed content online nowadays. Now that people have the convenience of learning whatever they are interested in at the convenience of their home, or office and at any time of day, they are motivated to learn more and more each day. This therefore makes it the most consumed type of content as it adds the most amount of value into your audience’s personal or professional life.
So here is a list of ideas you can use to educate your audience
- How to guides: the first thing people do when they don’t know how to do things is google, ‘how to’. Cater to their curiosity by providing helpful answers to some of their possible questions. Troubleshoot and address their various pain points.
- Frequently asked questions (FAQs): these work the same way as the ‘how to’ guides. Answer some of the most common questions your audience may need to know about your product. This especially serves the kind of audiences who prefer not to first engage with you directly before making a purchasing choice. Google’s algorithm also uses these as part of their knowledge graph on a search page. Ever noticed that little section with a list of suggested questions that could arise from your most recent search?
- Industry expert interviews: engage with or share content from people who have succeeded in your niche and have established an authoritative voice in your field. People often trust a voice they know has vast experience in what they are interested in.
- Tutorials/ complete beginner guides: teach your audience how to interact with your product in real life, and in smart creative ways. This will give them a more visual and realistic picture of how they can fit it into their day to day or lifestyle, while establishing you as an authority in your niche.
- Myth debunking: chances are there are several things you have thought or done contrary to how it’s actually supposed to be, based on myths, misconceptions or assumptions. Learning about it is an interesting factor that puts you more at ease because you can now avoid unnecessary embarrassments. Give your audience well researched and backed up information and watch how grateful they will be afterwards.
- Resource lists: you may not be able to create all kinds of content all the time. Make it easier for them to get related content faster by sharing links to other useful sites. This doubles up as an opportunity to earn from affiliate links, or can even help you cross promote with your peers in the industry.
- Tips, tricks and hacks: people love convenience. Show them how they can use your products or services to save on either time or money.
- Engage
Remember that what makes the internet so attractive is the ability to interact with countless people to share ideas and reviews. So religiously create opportunities for your audience to engage with your brand on a more personal level which builds brand affinity.
- Share personal stories. As opposed to personal life stories, share challenges that your business has encountered and how you overcame them, this can help empower them too to tackle their own challenges. Stories elicit emotion and keeps them hooked. You can even encourage them to share their own stories.
- Feedback and testimonials. This always helps to build your credibility score. Whenever a satisfied client leaves a good review, ask them if you can share it on your pages, even as a sign of appreciation for using your business.
- Contests/ special rewards. Think about hosting giveaways to loyal customers, exclusive access to new products or even mystery gift packs. This strategy tends to create a huge buzz around your business.
- Q & A sessions. Your client knows what they want more than you do. So ask them about it. Invite them to sessions where you can learn from them as well. You may even get better ideas on what content they want to see more of and how you can use your product or service to cater to their needs better.
- Comments and DMs: replying to these gives you the opportunity to give personalized individual attention to address your audience’s concerns, which shows that you care about them.
- Entertain
Don’t be boring! Spice up your feed with some healthy passive content, sometimes your audience just wants to relax and enjoy their browsing time.
- Share relatable memes and gifs. Jump on trending memes and craft them to suit your own brand.
- Behind the scenes videos. Share your work process, or a day in the business or document a memorable event. People need to be able to relate to you and this backstage access helps them to see that you’re human too!
- Create a feature/ series: have a weekly or monthly feature that people can even schedule into their own time. This could be the most influential product or industry news brief, it could be a topic you are reviewing over a long period of time or even a customer of the week appreciation post.
As you can see the ideas are inexhaustible. Make sure to mix it up, but don’t overdo it. The point is to make them want to keep coming back for more by cultivating your brand and growing your reach organically. Sales will happen as a natural byproduct of this relationship you build with your customers and prospects. Do you now have the confidence to finally upscale your content creation game, the smart way? We would love to hear from you. Share your comments or questions via support@ajobintime.com.
