"You have to make good content."
"Create content that delivers value."
"You need good content in order to scale."
Raise your hand if you've heard statements like these before. Everyone says that in order to stand out and scale, you have to make good content.
But what makes content "good?" And, how do you know what content to make?
For some, content creation is daunting. It's not just coming up with the content itself, but it's how to create content that works on various platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, or any other social media sites.
In this blog, we'll talk about ways to create good content.
It's easier than you think!
Creating good content starts with your audience. After all, you're creating content for them, not for yourself.
You need to understand who your audience is- what they like, what they don't like, their age group, where they live, their interests, and more.
The best way to do this is by creating buyer personas.
A buyer persona is a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer based on market research and real data about your existing customers. When you create a buyer persona, you define the characteristics that someone would have in order to be your ideal customer.
This helps you understand who you're making content for and keeps you from straying too far off topic.
Now that we know who we're making content for, it's time to come up with content ideas.
Rory Vaden at the Brand Builders Group came up with the easiest way to generate content ideas. All you have to do is come up a list of 52 questions your audience is asking. That's it. Seriously, it's that easy.
Just think of all the questions you get asked on a daily basis and create content that highlights the question and shares the answer.
By focusing on what questions your audience is asking and then delivering the answer, you're literally giving the people what they want. And that's what good content does.
It solves a problem or answers a question for your audience.
But let's take it a step further...
As you look at your list of 52+ questions, look for themes and organize them accordingly. I typically recommend that you have less than 8 categories. Anything more than 8 and it starts to become a little chaotic.
You don't want to be one of those brands that talks about everything. So, as you look at your 52, make sure it fits within your categories. If it doesn't, tweak the question or just throw it out altogether and come up with a new one.
By organizing your content, you make it easier for your audience to find what they're looking for.
It also allows you to become known as an expert in that particular area.
Remember, people buy from those they know, like, and trust. And one of the quickest ways to build trust is by becoming an expert in a certain niche.
Another way to come up with content is to utilize analytics like Google Analytics or built-in platforms on Facebook, Instagram, and others.
Identify what your audience likes and engages with and create more of that. Your analytics will tell you what's working and what's not.
As you identify the top posts people are engaging with, look for trends, and ask yourself the following questions:
One way to come up with great content ideas is to identify what people are consuming on other platforms.
For example, Twitter is a content goldmine. Search for people in your niche and read the threads as well as the comments. Here are some ideas for content creation from other people's content:
There are incredible tools out there like Ubersuggest, Moz, and Ahrefs that allow you to conduct keyword research in order to identify what people are searching.
You can use these tools to not only come up with content ideas, but also to help you optimize your posts for SEO.*
And that's important because you want your content to be easily found by those searching for it.
These tools not only allow you to search specific keywords, but they'll show you content being created as it relates to those keywords. This will allow you to see what people are searching for, what's being created that worked or didn't, and they'll even give you topic ideas for content creation based on keywords.
*By the way, if you’re not quite fluent in marketing lingo yet, no worries–download our free marketing glossary here.
Earlier I mentioned the 52 questions exercise. That's the best place to start, but that's you remembering the questions you've been asked. Another thing you could do is just poll your audience about what they'd like to see from you.
Many of our top clients who have extremely large followings utilize this tactic frequently.
They'll create polls, ask questions on stories, or even just message people directly and ask what they want to see.
You could also host a Q&A session where you allow your audience to ask you anything they want. This is an awesome way to get content ideas as well as show your audience that you're accessible and care about their thoughts and needs.
Another thing you could do is conduct focus groups. This is a more formal way of polling your audience and getting their thoughts on things.
You could even hire a company to do this for you if you want to be really hands-off. Focus groups are great because they give you in-depth insights that polls or surveys couldn't provide.
Here are some recent blogs we've done that might help you:
Creating content that stands out doesn't have to be difficult. Just focus on your audience, give them what they want, organize it in an easy-to-digest way, and utilize analytics to continue providing them with incredibly engaging material.
