So, you’re creating content regularly, and it’s relevant, timely and helpful to your audience. But, is your content unique, or are other people in your industry creating similar content and you’re having trouble setting yourself and your company apart? It can be a challenge to stand out among the competition, but we’re here to let you in on a few tips to avoid creating the same content as everyone else so you can better tackle the content marketing beast.
Listen to your Audience
Your audience is your best source for finding what your potential customers care about, need more information about and want to read. So, poll your audience. Find out what they like reading from your team. Find out what sets your content apart or what similarities it might have to other companies within your industry. Analyze all of the feedback and adjust your strategy. Additionally, monitor the analytics you have available to you. Most marketers have the data needed to find out what their readers engage with and want to read more of readily available, so take advantage of that and glean the insight you need to make better content creation decisions moving forward. Spending the time to investigate why your content works for your existing audience will help set you apart within your industry and drive more leads.
Here are some resources for audience feedback:
8 Questions We Asked Our Audience to Find out What They Want
How To Use Social Media Listening To Create Better Content For Your Audience
Tips and Tools for Better Listening for Content Marketing
Know your Target
Do you truly know your target audience? It’s not enough to say, “Adults, ages 18-34.” Dig into your target audience. Find out: What industries do my targets work in? Does my audience skew male or female? What level of education have members completed? What’s the average household income? What are their buying behaviors? Understanding your audience’s behavior and demographic information will help you create content that will speak to their needs, help them accomplish their goals and, ultimately, help you to stand out among the competition. Finding out what your audience needs and delivering on that will give you the advantage you’re looking for over other companies with similar offerings.
Develop a target audience with these resources:
How to Create Customer Profiles to Reach Your Target Audience
How to Find Your Target Audience
5 Key Insights to Developing Successful Target Audiences
Find your Voice
Who do you have writing on behalf of your brand? Do you have a message you want to convey in a particular way? Does your content have a certain style or edge to it? Answering these questions is crucial to finding your brand’s voice and determining the meaningful messages you want to deliver through your content production. You want to stay consistent in your content production and the messages you’re delivering, so take a look at the kind of content you’ve produced up to this point and determine what trends there are in the writing styles and messages you’re giving to your audience. These nuances separate you from your competition, so own them! It is also helpful to create a set of brand guidelines, so that anyone who is writing content can stay on-brand. Execute your content production with the style and messaging that sets you apart, and you’ll see the results you want.
Tips for finding and writing in your brand’s voice:
7 Tips to Finding “Your” Writing Voice
A Simple Tool to Guide Tone of Voice
Headlines Rule, Complacency Drools: What I’ve Learned as a Content Producer
Test out Different Forms of Content
Have you tried video? Are you on social media? Do you think blogging would be a helpful part of your content plan? Are webinars going to help your company? Answering these questions goes back to understanding how your audience wants to be reached and how they prefer to interact with content. Do some research to find out the best methods for disseminating your content to your target audience. When you determine the best forms of content for reaching and engaging your audience, use the different methods! Switching up the forms of content will keep targets engaged and coming back for more.
Check out these resources for diverse content ideas:
Content Marketing Cookbook: 5 Easy Recipes For Quick Content
6 Tips to Diversify Your Content & Keep From Getting Lost in the Shuffle
57 Notable and Unique Content Marketing Ideas
Content production is a challenging but rewarding process that delivers return on the investments made when executed correctly. Spending the time to understand what your audience wants and needs from you is crucial to the success of your content production. Delivering on what your target is looking for will help you stand out from other companies and drive qualified sales leads and, ultimately, revenue.
Interested in outsourcing content production to our content marketing experts? Get in touch today to learn more about our unique custom content offering from our in-house content marketing team. We can be reached at studio@streetwise-media.com and through Twitter at @StWiseMedia.
