Producing content is hard.
Writing great content is even harder. You must have heard that content is king and how important it is for your business but what no one might tell you is just how difficult it is.
As an SEO agency, we work with businesses of varying sizes. While the big brands have somehow manage to come to grips with content and can hire an entire team to manage their content process, small businesses find it extremely difficult to do same.
I recently acquired a client who wanted to rank for a really competitive term in their industry. Everything else made good sense to them except the issues of producing content.
Here is an extract from one of our discussion
Me: So we need to create so and so content and here are the topics we need to write about.
Client: (very excited) yes.
Interlude: Client sends over article after a few days.
Me: hmm. Great job but this article feel someone strange to me
Client: Yes, we copied it from two different source
Me: Okay, I see but we can’t copy content and just pass it over as ours. We need to create our own content
Client: Really? … but you see, it is not possible to write something unique.
So as you can see, writing content can be a really difficult task especially if you don’t have the budget to outsource it. But not to worry, I will be sharing with you the same exact way, I was able to help my client solved his problem
5 Tips to Help You Get Started With Your Content Marketing
Tip1: Understand exactly what content marketing is
The major challenge I see often times when interacting with small business owners is that they do not understand what the whole fuss about content
To them, content is one of those things that needed to be done.Unfortunately, content marketing is much more than that and the first step is to really know that content creation is the first stage of a 4 cycle process.
You need content on your website for three major reasons:
- Need to drive traffic that can turn into leads: People go online for one major reason- to find information that can help them solve a problem, educate them or entertain them.When they come across such content, if the content does a good job, they will become regular visitors and be prepared to know more. Thi is where the importance of content lies. Good content helps you drive targetted traffic to your website which in turn can be converted to leads.
- The second reason you need content on your website is simply to earn links: Links are majorly the reason website rank higher on Google and the best type of links are those that people reference because it satisfies a particular need of theirs.
- Fulfill the Google requirement for freshness factor: Google wants a living entity so you need to show them that your website is still by either writing new content or updating the pages on your website.
So content is important and the best type of content is those that:
- Drive traffic to your site
- Helps you earn links
Tip 2: It is someone’s job to create content
Now that you know content is important to building a good marketing campaign and you know the different types of content, you should be thriving to create, it’s time to assign someone to doing that.
I strongly believe that you should never leave your content to chance. For bigger brand, who can afford to hire a whole team, you as a small business owner can not do that.
So what’s the way out?
Understanding what to focus on.
The type of content that drives links usually are not the types of content that drive customers and leads.
While there is a thin line around, there is still a big difference to such an extent that your main focus should be on creating the content that can drive traffic or leads to your website.
These type of content are usually those that answers the customer question as they journey along the purchasing funnel.
The other type of content which is those that drive links majorly should be the sole responsibility of your digital marketing agency.
This is because they know the type of content that can get shares and links.
Does that mean you should separate both contents? Not really. This is because your agency partner will be involved in both type of contents and I will explain why in a few minute but when you separate the content creation process, it gives you two core content advantage
- Speed- you focus on creating the content that you know best
- Reduce content cost- different agency charges differently but if you take a part of the content away, you can negotiate a more affordable SEO package for your company
Tip 3: Get a schedule
You know what content to focus on and you know whose job it is to do that but what you may not know is that it is extremely difficult to write content.
In order to help you, achieve your aim, you need to get organized This means you need a schedule.
What type of Content schedule should you have?
It depends on how much content you think you are able to produce at a particular time. Your content schedule might be daily, weekly or monthly. Whatever schedule you pick, make sure it is something you can keep to and if you find yourself strugling to meet your deadline, then be ready to adapt.
Tip 4: Write one topic at a time
The hardest part of the job has been done above. Now it time to pick your first topic and write.Writing can be extremely difficult if you just starting so I love to divide the writing process into stages.
- What do I want to say about my topic
- Why do I want to say what I’m saying eg this topic I’m writing abt came because I realise that most of my client wants to get involved in the content process but leaving it to them usually results into havoc. So this article is to help them or anyone struggling with the sam changes
- What type of content is it- what format is your content going to be like? Will it be a list post, a story, a video or an image story?
- What are the components
Now that you have your content in mind, divide it into three . Your content should have the following parts.
An introduction: This is where you lay the foundation for the post or let’s call it the opener. There are lots of ways to open but the one that has worked best for me usually are
- Open with a statistics
- Tell a story
- Tell a joke
- Ask a question.
Body of the content: This is where you actually say what you want to talk about.
Conclusion: A place where you summarize your content and give one key away point.
Content Marketing Quick Wins:Now that we have the most difficult part sorted out, it’s time to share some quick wins:
Now that we have the most difficult part sorted out, it’s time to share some quick wins:
- Learn to write when it is most easiest for you- eg for me, I write in the early hours of the day so I spend my time in between either researching or thinking about my topic
- Write each part of your content either at once or in part
- Don’t bother about spelling,grammar at the first draft
- If during writing,you suddenly seem disconnected from the topic. Shut down.
- Once you are done writing, leave the article to sit for a day or two, then proof read it
- Ask someone else to proof read it.
Conclusion:
Follow the tips above and you will find out that it is much easier to create content.
What challenges are you currently face with writing content for your website?
Adegboye Adeniyi
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