Content Marketing #3: The Four Stages of Content Creation
The third instalment in our Content Marketing series looks at how to create content.
Content creation is one term saturating the marketing world. It’s a topic that’s been over-discussed, over-analysed and reworked far too many times. There’s hundreds of e-Books, websites and even businesses dedicated to simply creating content. We even have robotic algorithms doing the job for us!
In an age when audiences are inundated with more information than they could possibly handle, it seems silly to still be pushing for more content. But this is about seeking out quality over quantity. Function over form.
More and more brands are targeting younger audiences. They realise Millennials are one of the largest groups of consumers, and still set to grow. Rather than being satisfied with mediocre content, which saturated the Internet preceding 2010; they’re only looking for top-notch quality.
This push for quality may seem like it should be at the forefront of every business owners mind. But then think — how easy is it really to create outstanding and regular original content?
Hashtags, Twitter Lists and Instant Articles all fuel the notion of trends. With trends comes popularity. And with popularity comes audiences. Or at least that’s how it should work. Brands have jumped on this bandwagon of trends and rather than growing their audiences, all they’re really growing is the number of articles on any one given topic.
As I’m writing this, we have FREELINE IsLAND Sun-lounge trending. A sun-lounger with a discount has topped Twitter trends… a sun-lounger.
So now we’re going to delve into how to create unbeatable content, which actually has something to say and drives your audiences to your desired action. But first thanks to Hubspot, here’s a nifty little chart of 44 content formats you can pick from.
Whatever type of content you decide to include in your blog depends on what type of business you’re running. All of these formats can be altered to fit in with your content strategy, but remember it’s about pushing for quality. Not for you to squeeze in 44 posts per month. If you’re just starting off, that means focusing on a few key types and doing those really well.
You’ve already begun to plan your content; you know who you’re talking to and their needs. You know what types will draw people in more. But actually creating your content can be a much harder task. You should have already mapped out the majority of your months content. You have a clear direction to move in,
So what we’ve decided to do is break this down into 4 easy steps. And first, comes research.
Research
Ideally you’re already a genius in whichever topic you’ve chosen to write about. Wouldn’t that be ideal? But of course, you’re not going to know each and every topic like the back of your hand.
Quality content means quality research
So first, you have your topic. You have an idea of the angle. You should know how your brand approaches this subject.
Now you need to determine what questions you need to ask. In a famous quote from Albert Einstein, he notes, “if I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on it, I would use the first 55 minutes to determine the proper questions to ask”.
It’s obvious when a blog post has been roughly drafted up. Holes in your content are easily identifiable and like we said before, there’s no longer room for inferior content. You need to determine exactly what you’re researching and the questions you’ll be asking. Once you have your questions in place, finding the information requires almost next to no effort.
First, write down anything that comes to mind. What’s the information you’re trying to find out? If you don’t know the subject, that’s almost better because you don’t have any strong assumptions or biased opinions. Develop questions that challenge any assumptions and then honestly look for your answer. Try finding information that argues both sides, and then form a rationale set of questions. Even if your brand only wants to discuss one side, you still need to know the other side of your subject to know what you’re challenging.
Try using websites like Quora and Reddit to see how other people discuss your chosen subject. Here you can find out what type of questions people are asking, and also the terms and phrases associated with that topic.
Note: Don’t be afraid of asking the most basic of questions. These will always backup your research and lead you towards the right question.
Now you have the right kind of questions, determine which keywords you need to research.
Go onto Google and type in your topic. When the search bar provides you suggestions, you can see what the most popular queries are. There’s also more suggestions at the bottom of the initial results page. There’s also umpteen sites dedicated to keyword research: KeywordSpy, Google AdWords, Wordtracker. The list is endless!
Create a list of the most relevant and searched for keywords. Look for the common phrases and then you’ll find out exactly what information people are looking for.
Site:Search is also an amazing way to limit your search down to one site. For example, type in “site: hubspot.com content marketing”. This will give you all the pages on Hubspot’s site which contain information on content marketing. Perfect for sites with hundreds of pages.
Next come writing. Oh yes, condensing all of that information and writing it in a logical order.
Writing
Writing is one of the most daunting tasks any person can face. Even if you’re a modern-day William Wordsworth, it’s still a heavy feat to be able to produce sharable, likeable, engaging content — especially for the web.
First, understand exactly where your content is going to be placed. Whether it’s contained in a printed newsletter or on an online blog — this will affect your style of writing. Writing for the Internet is something everyone needs to keep in mind. You see how this article is laid out — lots of white space, images and subsections. We’re not doing this because we fancy it. We write like this because it makes for easier reading. If this was a book, however, the overall style would be a lot more condensed and we would have the chance to expand on each point.
Now I’m about to give you the single-handed most important bit of advice you’ll ever receive when it comes to writing…
Just write!
Honestly. Literally jot down anything that comes to mind and build your content from there. Forget about any formatting or spelling mistakes until after you’ve finished the main bulk of your work. One trick is to read your work out loud. This way you’ll be able to notice more clearly if it needs more editing.
Note: Don’t forget that whichever style of writing works for you — use it! Writing is completely personal, so make sure you do whichever way works best for you!
Your research should have given you a solid structure and now you need to look at how you’re going to expand and link these points. Try and include subsections wherever you can, so you can see your content journey laid out in front of you. This way you’ll be able to see the skeleton of your work and know whether you need to fill in any gaps.
Format style and length is all dependant on the type of post you’ll be creating. Try and vary your sentence lengths to create rhythm and flow. Typically the more words you have, the more sharable your content is. But don’t let this guide each of your posts. You still need to make sure it’s interesting for your readers!
Any length is acceptable. Seth Godin and ZAGG write as few as 100 words per post, while KISSmetrics and Crazy Egg blog posts range from anything between 800 to 2,500+ words.
The brain processes written information visually and spatially, not just textually. Font, kerning, line spacing, paragraphs, heading, numbers, bullets — all of these are part of being interesting. They help a user to absorb the information and stay connected.
Also, make sure you don’t use heavy amounts of industry jargon. That is unless your audience is completely familiar with these terms. Try and write as simply as possible so you appeal to a wide range of audiences.You have to remember, audiences on the web are looking for something. They don’t want clever phrasing which requires them to think. They need information and they need it fast. You could even use rhetoric devices to make your writing more positive.
But writing is completely personal to you. Recruiting Blogs have released a handy list of writing tools so scroll through their suggestions and find the best which works for you.
Note: People on the Internet tend to scan. Make your most important content stand out and do a ‘scanner test’
So now you’ve done your research, you’ve written the main bulk of your work. But it’s certainly not ready to be published yet.
Editing
Now you need to edit. Good writing never happens in the first draft.
This is usually the place where you’ve figured out the overall content and how all your ideas link together. But have you done this so it’s a logical piece of content which readers can easily flow through?
Editing can take anywhere from one redraft through to dozens. It doesn’t matter how long this takes. Just as long as your final draft is an outstanding piece of content. Involve your whole team and get them to make suggestions. Having a fresh pair of eyes can highlight any areas you may have overlooked.
Two unbelievable tools are Hemingway Editor and Grammarly. I use these each time I create a piece of content. The first is an editor tool specifically designed to help writers make their content bold and clear. The tool works so that it highlights weak writing, whether it’s too complex or uses the wrong type of adverbs, and splits them into different categories so you know how to fix them. The tool also has a readability score on the right-hand side, so you can judge how easy your content is to view, and then edit accordingly.
The next is Grammarly. The main thing this tool does is check for (shock horror) grammar mistakes. Now this doesn’t excuse you for poor grammar, but it does help for those extra commas you’ve dotted about your content.
Copyblogger have a handy list of 30 editing tips, just to keep in mind whilst you scan through your work.
CoSchedule also has a Headline Analyzer. There’s literally endless amounts of tools you can use to get your content up-to-scratch. It’s about selecting which works for you and then using these tools to train yourself to become an excellent content creator.
And for some extra content creation help: Quicksprout and Hubspot
If you’re looking for help with auditing or planning your content, visit the rest of the series.
Written by Georgina Dunn
Originally published at www.nucreative.co.uk on November 4, 2015.
