Taking to the guest blog today is Jodie from UK Web Host
Review, sharing her top tips for creating creative content!
Creating new, relevant and engaging content is fast becoming
one of the most important marketing strategies for entrepreneurs. Brands who
strike the right balance gain more trust from their customers, position
themselves as experts in their field and are better at bringing in new
business, on top of keeping that which they already have.
These web content aficionados out-rank their competitors in
search engine results, dominate social media and lead industry debates. But how
does the typical entrepreneur keep up with regular content production demands?
It doesn’t have to be as challenging as you might think. If
you get creative, you can give your content efforts are serious boost without
breaking the bank or working into the small hours. Here are 5 of the most
effective ways.
1. Make the most of mixed media
Mixed media and especially video are one of the main content
marketing trends to watch out for in 2019. 72% of people would rather watch
a video about a product than read text and 80% say they’re more likely to read
an article that contains coloured graphics. This doesn’t mean text is
redundant, but that expanding your content repertoire allows you to tap into a
growing market demand.
If learning how to string an engaging video together sounds like
too much of a chore, try creating infographics using simple graphic design web
applications like Canva, discussing relevant topics in a podcast, or throwing
together a photo essay.
Different media work best in different industries. The
wisest approach would be to consider the right
media for your message and audience or have a look at your biggest
competitors to see which they are using to engage with your congregation.
2. Revamp and repost existing content
You don’t have to learn new skills to light a fire
under your content efforts. The most prolific producers get creative by reusing
and revamping what they already have. It’s more economical in both time and
money to recycle. Savvy content managers schedule the reuse of every piece they
post.
Creative reuse can involve writing follow-up pieces and
special series from old posts, or adapting existing material into new mixed
media features. Creating follow-up pieces to time-specific content such as ‘The
Best Of 2018’ allows you to reference old links, redirecting traffic to them
and reuse much of the content from the old post as your basis for discussion in
the new one.
Creating a series out of multiple old and new post involves
taking a selection of say 10 articles you already have related to building a
business as a new parent, and bringing them all together as part of a ‘best of
business parenting’ series. Always include at least 1 new article for every 3
older ones and launch your new series through your regular blog digest, newsletter
or social media channels.
3. Embrace user-generated content
For those who find themselves hard pushed to stick to a
regular writing schedule at all, the user-driven content trend might just be
the answer you’ve been looking for. In user-generated content, you provide a
platform for your customers to interact with your business through submitting
photos, reviews, videos, opinion pieces or sharing views across forums.
Your role is to provide space on your website for it,
encourage people to post to your social media or ask your customers to leave
reviews across other platforms. Some businesses prefer to create a regular blog
segment solely for user-generated content, while others send out submission
calls and set competitions.
User-generated content is one of the best ways to diversify
your company’s media, with photos and videos being the most popular forms of
submission. Your customers are also more likely to trust the views of other
members of the public than they are anyone working on your company’s PR and
marketing.
Between 53-64% of consumers want more opportunity to share
their opinions about brands, so why not give it to them and save yourself some
precious time?
4. Really
encourage sharing
The objective of boosting your content efforts is to spread
the word about your business. One way to do this without creating a lot of new
content is to market your existing content more effectively.
Unsurprisingly, one of the best ways to get people to share
your content is to ask them, yet a staging amount of posts contain no
call-to-action. A call-to-action is a sentence at the end of your post that
tells the reader/viewer/listener what you want to them to do next.
If you’ve written a long-form blog as a prelude to an eBook
you’ve been working on, you should include a call-to-action for the reader to
‘check out’ your eBook. Similarly, if you’ve created an instructional video to
help your customers choose between your services, you’ll want to ask those
watching to share it with others who might be interested, or link to a ‘request
a quote’ page where they can discuss with you their newly identified needs.
If you’re going to the trouble of making requests, you
should make it as easy for people to follow through with them as possible. This
means making it as simple as you can for people to share your content.
The most effective way to encourage sharing is to have
prominent social media buttons within or at the end of your post. These
features are included in all good website builders like these ones. But
if your website is getting on a little, or if you’ve had one custom built, you
can try adding a widget like Share This or getting to grips with the Click to
Tweet application.
5. Go Personalised
If you’re feeling particularly innovative, or you’ve money
to burn, now would be a good time to jump on the personalised content
bandwagon. Not only is personalised content one of the fastest growing content
markets, it’s also incredibly effective.
Personalised calls-to-action are 202%
more effective than regular CTAs. It shouldn’t be surprising that this
approach works. Most of the major media we interact with on a daily basis address
us by name, or adapt to our peculiarities as we use them (think Google,
Netflix, Facebook ads and so on).
Although the average Artificial Intelligence driven
personalisation campaign is likely to be beyond the reach of most
entrepreneurs, smaller business can get involved in small ways. If you send out
a newsletter or regular content digest email, invest software that can address
the receiver by name. Send your keenest readers a targeted email to additional
or even gated (restricted access) resources as a way to say thank you. Or spend
time responding to people’s comments on your posts across social media.
Creating enough relevant and
enjoyable content for your customers is increasingly challenging. Without
expansive, professional content departments small businesses often struggle to
meet demands. But by being a little strategic and setting a few creative habits,
you too can boost your content efforts in 2019.
About the author: Jodie is a professional writer and editor, MSc Cantab. She aims to shed new light on mainstream topics through translating her expertise in the Social Sciences to everyday issues. She explores design, branding and market psychology, health and wellbeing and parenting topics.
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