The first rule of the internet is: content is everywhere. The second rule of the internet is: you’ve got to make it count! From a business perspective, content can make or break a good service or product. On the one hand, good content holds the ecosystem around your business, drawing attention to it, supporting its perceived value for the target audience, and encouraging consumers to take action. On the other hand, content that lacks direction or distinction means that your business will be received with a lack of enthusiasm or even suspicion.
With so much at stake, it’s hard to know what approach to take when creating and managing content that will resonate with your audience and help meet your marketing goals. This guide will take you through all the checkpoints towards developing a solid content strategy, how to create effective content, measuring its impact and being critical of your work.
Content is king and the internet is its kingdom
Traditionally, online information appears as written text - in blog posts, forums and websites - and search engines have developed accordingly, prioritising written content over all else. This has led to the now-cliché expression, “Content is king.” However, in the last decade and a half, this paradigm has shifted to include videos, reels, questionnaires, infographics, tutorials, user-generated and machine-generated content.
For businesses, effective content has to be interesting, new, informative, relatable or remarkable in any way to truly stand out, because it does something that other forms of content don’t: it makes users go back to it, re-read or re-watch, share with others and discuss. Good content takes us from passively consuming through the senses, to actively engaging with our emotions. Triggering this dialogic response is an art form that can drive sales, attract talent, and influence growth.
Thou Shalt Know Thy Audience
Producing effective content begins with a simple question: Who is your target audience? This question doesn’t only refer to the demographic or career profile of your audience, but also to your understanding of their decision-making process. For B2B businesses, understanding who is making decisions and financing them will help you produce content that caters to this audience’s exact concerns. Often, the professional experts, the procurement managers and the CEO’s personal assistant are all weighing in on the decisions, but only one of them has the final say.
Help them say “Yes”
Being aware of the many different sets of eyes that are looking at your content will also help to define your language. Content should never be condescending or rely on too much technical lingo, even when addressing a sophisticated audience. Effective content makes users feel like they’ve found a little helper who’s ready to answer their questions and willing to address their apprehensions. This trust will help them say “yes” to your proposition, product or service.
Don’t aim for perfection
What does your audience care about? Are they family-oriented or career-focused? Are they looking for a deal or for a debate? If you’re developing a content strategy, it’s always good to start with what you know best: create content around your area of expertise, address concerns and curiosities you’ve been getting questioned about, and work towards earning the trust of your audience by giving them real, relatable content. Don’t try to create “perfect” content the first time around, but instead test different methods and media channels to discover what’s generating the greatest response.
Map out your Hygiene, Hub and Hero content
The Hygiene-Hub-Hero content model divides your content into 3 types, allowing you to plan your steps in advance, allocate resources and combine your marketing goals with your yearly planning:
- Hygiene - Content meant to attract users organically by providing answers to things they are searching for online. Generally, Hygiene content is always up-to-date and relevant, frequently updated, and doesn’t require many resources to produce: FAQs, blog posts, tutorials, white papers, and so on. This content gives users a well-rounded idea of your business, your tone of voice, and your expertise.
- Hub - Content meant to generate engagements with users and build up their involvement over time. This can be a video series or news updates with seasonal offerings. Ideally, Hub content should be produced once or twice a month, and involve more resources than Hygiene content.
- Hero - Content meant to be viewed by as many people as possible, to generate new business. This can be a special campaign or advertisement that is planned out months in advance and involves different parties to produce and promote (photographers or videographers, graphic designers, event planners or journalists, and so on).
Mix to match
Challenge your ideas of what content creation means. Many people think of content as blog posts and newsletters, but content can mean anything: videos and reels, behind the scenes footage, infographics, testimonials, personalised quizzes, white papers, podcasts, and even templates that can be downloaded and re-shared. Mix up your approach from time to time to combat stagnation and match your audience’s tastes.
“Please write 500 words about effective content”
Artificial Intelligence tools are clay in the hands of the potter. They can be great or mediocre depending on the directing and editing skills of the marketeer. Because they rely on preexisting banks of information, they cannot offer commentary or make sophisticated connections which are the key to effective communication. However, they can be a bridge to missing resources that are needed in the production of effective content, meaning you spend less time on research and execution.
Additionally, AI tools can also be used to scan statistics and pull up information about your target audience’s behaviour and preferences, so you can include research-based decisions.
Consumer-centric metrics
Analytical tools can show the quantitative response to your content throughout different channels. You might think that your audience will respond to colourful images, only to discover they’re more intrigued by bold, daring texts. By measuring the engagements with your content you can also find cues to refine your offer. For example, deciding to add subtitles to videos and reels, as most people watch them with the sound turned off.
User behaviour tracking tools can also help you determine the best way to lay out the content on your website or landing page. By tracking mouse movements and clicks, you can see if people are scrolling down your page or clicking away from it, discover how they’re interacting with the different assets and what are the next steps they’re taking. This analysis helps you determine the most attractive placements of information for maximum impact.
Let the leads lead you
Creating good, effective content is a long-haul journey towards success. Small businesses might see engagement rates rising and new leads coming in within 6 months of producing and publishing regularly, while larger businesses in more competitive environments might take a year or more before witnessing results.
While short-term campaigns might bring in new followers, sharing effective content will turn those followers into fans. Monitoring your leads and the channels they came through will also help you decide which channels are worth your investment. It’s better to be active in one or two crucial media channels than half-present in all of them.
To conclude: Invest, reassess, and progress
Creating effective content is an ambitious task, lined with trial and error, requiring patience and endurance. The only way to get there is by moving fast and testing constantly. This also means getting comfortable with trimming wasteful work practices. If producing new content is taking too long - resulting in long periods of time without feedback from your audience - it’s time to reconsider your approach. You could consult with a content specialist or communications expert, who will review your current practices and make informed recommendations moving forward.
Strangelove is here to help with everything you need: analysing, planning and creating content that will make a big difference for your business.
