When it comes to promoting your business, the content that you share with your consumers is naturally very important. Whether you want to reach out to new markets or are trying to retain your old, what you say matters. But content should not simply be thrown out to the universe without both forethought and guidance; you need to ensure that your content is relevant and and of interest to your ideal prospects, stakeholders or readers.
To get you started, the following are five of my top tips for developing relevant content for your business.
1. Understand Your Target
A key part of writing content that is right for your audience is having knowledge of to whom you are writing. Every business is different, if even only in the slightest way. Do research on your current population of consumers, clients, and the others to whom you want to reach out. This will help you to provide the type of content that your they will more than just read, but will actually get value in reading. Know your market.
2. Stay Up to Date
Business dynamics and research is constantly changing. You need to know and understand this when providing content to your consuming audience. Staying up-to-date and relevant can be a great way to ensure that your readers stay engaged and that they find value in what you are saying. This will require research on your part which can be time consuming, but it can reap dividends on the impression left with current and potential audiences.
I find that keeping a space on my (big!) whiteboard to note down relevant news items or trends as they reveal themselves is a great way to remind me of topics for my clients’ blog posts.
3. Give Quality
Some website owners and writers feel that they need to provide lots of words to their consumers and readers. They believe that more is better. But in many cases, smaller informational snippets can provide just as much value as longer and wordier content. It all depends on how the content is written and what quality it brings to the table. Most readers want to get their information in as easily-digestible way possible – the most value for the smallest time investment. For that reason, be sure to know when too much is pointless or worse, self-indulgent.
Often if you come across a great post on another site, all you need to do is a quick summary, say why you believe it to be useful to your readers, and share the link.
4. Never Plagiarize
Sometimes being short on time, or late in meeting your content publishing schedule, can make borrowing ideas from others seem like a lucrative option, which it can be. But you must do it in the right way. Looking at what others are doing for inspiration is completely fine and can bring a great deal of topical relevance to your project.
Stealing their words, however, is not only in poor taste and uncool, it is also illegal. Be sure, then, that you have a qualified team that is going to know and understand the difference between inspiration and plagiarism. It can mean the distinction between a successful marketing plan and a completely failed one.
Before delivering content to my clients, each item is run through Copyscape to pick up any inadvertent duplication of word strings. While not foolproof, it is the best way we have of ensuring all of the content for my clients is original.
5. Create A Calendar
One way to stay relevant and on top of your content schematic is to schedule it. From Facebook posts, to blog articles, to Twitter campaigns, providing relevant content should be something that has forethought. A bit of planning can remove ambiguity and keep you on track towards achieving your marketing goals. To leave it to chance or happenstance can mean that it will never get done. Therefore, use your calendar to ensure your content stays relevant.
Many of my clients have recurring monthly orders with me and this gives us both time to search out ideas and get a workable schedule together. As many of them are marketing consultants, they have already budgeted for ongoing blog posts as part of their arrangements with their end-clients – a smart way to keep the content flowing.
If you need help writing your website content and blog posts, and would like help putting together a content calendar that we can both work too, I’d be happy to hear from you. You can contact me in any of several ways – details at contact Kerry Finch.
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