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7 Secrets Successful Content Marketers Don’t Want You to Know
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SEPTEMBER 2017
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You’ve got a platform, a website or blog, and now you’re ready to start filling it with content. For many people, this is the most daunting part of the whole process. Coming up with ideas isn’t enough – the ideas have to be interesting to your target audience and provide useful information while being created in a way that makes people want to keep reading. It certainly can be overwhelming to stare at a blank page. Here are some of the most important secrets that content marketers don’t want you to know so you can create the best possible content.
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Secret 1: Brainstorming Ideas Is the First Step
The first step towards writing good content is finding ideas that work for your products or services. There are plenty of places to find ideas for your blog, if you know where to look. Before you think about keywords and optimization, get back to basics and consider the features and value of your products or services. Think about what makes your company different from others that supply the same types of items.
Think outside of the box by gathering ideas from a number of sources. For instance, look to some of the current social media platforms to see what is trending there. Look at Pinterest to see what types of products are being sold there that relate to your type of product. Allow yourself to be led to other sources and pages online to see what you can find, making notes along the way. Write down every single snippet of an idea you have and you’ll have plenty to draw on later.
Secret 2: Your Audience Will Be Your Judge
Now you can begin to narrow down all the ideas you garnered from your brainstorming exercises. Take all of this information and pare it away by removing some of the things that won’t apply to your audience. Your audience is your target market – the people who you want to eventually purchase your products or services. The audience is also a group outside of these people, such as those who will pass the information along to others or share it online.
If you haven’t identified all of your target market, now is the time to do so. Make sure that you put effort into exactly who will be purchasing your products. While you probably have a good idea of who wants to purchase your products, you should now hone your vision and drill down to see if there are some additional areas that you haven’t yet identified. This will help you better tailor your articles and blogs.
Secret 3: “Stealing” from the Competition Is Not Always Bad
Look at some of your main successful competitors online to see what types of content they are providing. They may have some important information that you haven’t considered when planning your online content. It’s important that you don’t copy any of their ideas, but you can learn some important take-aways that you’ll be able to utilize on your own website.
If you haven’t yet identified your competitors, it’s best to take a close look now. According to the Small Business Administration, SBA, a necessary step in business operation is competitive analysis. It’s also essential that you review your competition on a regular basis to ensure that you are aware of the latest information. You can take advantage of online data such as what you can find using Moz Open Site Explorer.
Secret 4: Dated Content Can Literally Kill Your Efforts
Your content and blog posts have a lot of competition. There are more than 2 million blogs posted online every day, according to Worldometers. In order to be noticed, your content needs to be fresh. However, if you aren’t adding more content regularly (which you should be doing), content that utilizes current news events could become more like an albatross on your site. It will immediately show readers that your site is not kept up to date. If you want to use fresh ideas, keep them grounded by avoiding details that could make them appear old.
The solution? Make it evergreen.
While content needs to be fresh to be interesting, it also has to find the perfect balance between fresh and evergreen content so it won’t get stale too quickly. In order to do this you can take a current topic in the news and relate to it without providing specific details. When looking for content ideas, dismiss those that don’t have a twist that can be made to keep them evergreen. This is particularly important for sites where you don’t plan on adding new content on a continual basis.
Secret 5: Informative Is the ONLY Way to Go
It’s true, some of the information that you want to present has been written about before, maybe hundreds of thousands of times. Your goal is to make sure that you find a better or more unique way to provide meaningful and useful information to your readers. Remember that although the ideas may have been used before, many of your readers will be encountering them for the first time. Stay away from fluff and non-information. Ultimately, you want to become a source of information to your audience – an authority on your subject that will keep readers returning again and again.
Secret 6: Presentation Really Counts
Once you have an arsenal of ideas, it’s crucial that you present the topics in ways that your audience will best be able to utilize them. A study from the Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab found that 46% of those surveyed said that the way a website is designed is the foremost criterion used to determine credibility. This means you need to arrange your site and your content in a way that gives a professional and polished appearance.
Use various subheadings that allow your readers to more easily skim the content of the blog. Break ideas down into more palatable bites so people can easily digest them. Keep in mind that most people take only a few minutes or less to read a particular blog before moving on. If they like what they see, they’ll keep reading, but if not, they may never return. Be sure that you include important information in bold letters or with bullet points so it can be more readily accessed.
Secret 7: You Don’t Have to Struggle. Get Help from a Professional
All of these details can be a bit overwhelming, especially to those who still need to focus their attention on the main concerns of their company. Remember, it’s your job to keep the ship on course and you can’t man all the positions at once. Fortunately, good, affordable content assistance is at your fingertips. At Iris Content we offer a variety of high-quality professional content services to fit your requirements. We provide engaging, impactful and shareable content that is perfectly suited to your specific needs. Contact Iris Content today to learn more about our professional writing services.
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Want to learn more how to leverage your online content for better results? Our newest eBook has the answers. Learn how to become a content superhero with just a few smart tricks from this imaginative collection of content marketing tips. Order one content piece today and get the eBook for free.
[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_divider color=”#cc4315″ show_divider=”on” divider_style=”groove” divider_position=”top” hide_on_mobile=”on” /][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ admin_label=”Blog post main Section” fullwidth=”off” specialty=”off” transparent_background=”off” background_color=”FDF3E7″ allow_player_pause=”off” inner_shadow=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”off” padding_mobile=”off” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” make_equal=”off” use_custom_gutter=”off”][et_pb_row make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” use_custom_gutter=”off” padding_mobile=”off” allow_player_pause=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”off” make_equal=”off” parallax_1=”off” parallax_method_1=”off” parallax_2=”off” parallax_method_2=”off” column_padding_mobile=”on” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” background_size=”initial”][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][et_pb_image src=”https://iriscontent.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/aNNIE-dm.jpg” show_in_lightbox=”off” url_new_window=”off” use_overlay=”off” sticky=”off” align=”right” force_fullwidth=”off” always_center_on_mobile=”on” border_style=”solid” _builder_version=”3.0.67″ /][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”2_3″][et_pb_team_member name=”Annie Ianko” position=”Chief Content Officer” animation=”off” background_layout=”light” facebook_url=”https://www.facebook.com/IrisWebContent/” twitter_url=”https://twitter.com/Iris_Content” border_style=”solid” custom_css_main_element=”box-shadow: 0 0 20px rgba(0,0,0,.1);||” _builder_version=”3.0.67″]
Annie has 20 years of experience as an editor and content creator and manager. With work in television and written media, she has dedicated her past 10 years to learning the ropes of online content creation, from writing to editing, from SEO to content management.
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