So, full disclosure. I found this article through Content Marketing World and just wanted to give my thoughts on their already great piece. Feel free to check out their post here.
That being said, I love these four questions to guide your content creation. Sometimes it can be challenging to get started crafting your content. If this is your struggle, try asking yourself these questions.
- Is this what your audience wants?
- Has it been done before?
- Does your idea make sense with your marketing goals?
- Will your content idea inspire engagement from your audience?
Let’s break it down. Starting with question one, how can you possibly know what your audience wants? There are a couple ways to find out:
- You can observe similar brands to yours and see what their audience is responding to.
- If you have enough data built up, you can look into the data on your previous posts and note the content your audience liked, commented on, and engaged with the most.
- You can ask them.
Sometimes posing the question will give great insight into what it is your audience really wants to see from your brand.
Moving on to question two, consider if your idea has been done before. Sometimes this is great because that means it works, and sometimes that means it has been overdone, and you should steer clear. For example, the placing of Bernie Sanders in your shop or content on January 21st was gold for content. However, if you were to try and do that today, 6 days later, it would not work. The moment has passed. Now, don’t get me wrong, posting something that has already been done is not all bad. It really lies in how you do it. Make it similar rather than the same. Come up with your spin to specifically appeal to your audience and address their wants that we discovered with question one.
Question three is super important to always keep in mind. Does your content align with your marketing goals for the quarter or year? Keep your goals top of mind as you consider your content. Let’s say your goal is to grow your Facebook page by 20%. If that is your goal, do not post on your page about following you on Instagram. Not only are your audiences different per platform, but that post also does not align with your goal of growing your Facebook page.
Last but certainly not least, does your content inspire action from your audience? At the end of the day, we want our followers to engage with our content. Always keep in mind the emotion you’re trying to evoke within your viewer. Do you want them to like your post or make a purchase? I won’t drag this out as I have touched on this before, but keep in mind your audience’s pain points and how to pull on those emotions to solve those problems.
Remember, just because one post did not accomplish all the things you hoped that does not mean you have failed. It just means you have more data to gain insight from to improve upon going forward. Feel free to check back next Tuesday for another tip like this!
