Content Creation is Communication for Business
Here’s a recent question from a client: “I’m stuck. How do you consistently come up with compelling content for weekly posts? Any tips, tricks or solutions?”
Well, of course! With the release of Hummingbird, Google’s newest algorithm change, writing content isn’t about reaching for single keywords to get higher search rankings; it’s about answering questions by writing to an entire concept. Now you can enjoy creating content by writing what you know rather than writing around trending keywords all the time. You can still use keywords, but make them long tail keywords, the type that you would use if you were searching for information. Start thinking like your target audience; ask yourself what you would want to know if you were your customer.
Now that you have the mindset in place, here are 5 ways to source ideas to help you write compelling content every week – or at least help your freelance writer have more fun creating compelling content for you:
1. What’s your specialty? What are you an expert in? Turn your knowledge and skills into questions and write the answers. People love to learn, so give them the tips, tricks, and solutions that solve their problems.
2. What questions are your customers asking? Answer those and you’ll be creating content that addresses their pain points and creates connections in a timely manner. (Take this post as an example of how to answer a real client’s question.)
3. What is a new trend/product/service in your industry? Write about that. Your customers love discovery and useful information. These are posts that will keep them engaged and potentially drive more business your way.
4. Tell your story. People want to connect to your business through your story. So don’t limit it to a static post on your website’s About Page. As your business continues to grow and evolve you can create an ongoing series of posts that talk about your experiences. Customers will appreciate being involved in your process, especially those who are also small business owners. What you go through, the decisions you make, and how you achieve your goals acts as a roadmap of advice and inspiration for your audience.
5. Curate shareable content. Sometimes you discover content on the web that you think your customers and followers will find useful. The goal with curated content is to encourage interaction, so when you share something forward, comment on it, ask for people’s opinions/thoughts and encourage them to like it and share it with their followers.
Content creation is important because it helps establish you as an expert, so keep your topics focused on your business, your industry and most importantly, your customers. This approach will help keep you from feeling as if you’re trying to pluck ideas out of thin air, or worse, write what everyone else is writing because you’ve been told it’s this week’s trending topic.
The best content comes from leaders, not followers. And the best advice every writer gets when they’re first starting out remains true, whether it’s writing blog posts, articles or novels: Write what you know.
