Calling all bloggers, small business owners and digital marketers. Have you found yourself creating content that doesn’t bring in the traffic you are looking for? Or maybe you haven’t been creating content at all. Let me just tell you, START CREATING CONTENT! Not just any content, compelling content. How do you do that? I’ll let you in on four pro tips. To get started, here is a freebie pro tip: don’t willy nilly create content, develop a process. Okay, let’s get started…
Know Who Your Target Audience Is
Before beginning any sort of digital marketing tactics, it is best to define your target audience and gain an understanding of what type of content that audience is attracted to. What type of language do they speak? No, I don’t mean English or Spanish or German or what have you. I mean what type of social media language are they speaking? Yes, there is a difference. Moving on. What are their wishes, wants and aspirations when they open the Internet? To effectively accomplish this, you need to create a buyer persona.
What is a buyer persona?
A buyer persona is the description of who represents your target audience. This persona is “semi-fictional” and can help you figure out who your ideal customer is. A crucial part to developing compelling content and many other marketing tactics is having a solid understanding of who your buyer persona is. We won’t leave you hanging… here is some more helpful information on why building your buyer persona is so important to your business plus a FREE download.
Create A List Of Proven Topic Ideas
Pro tip #2 is a good one and requires some research. Jot down a list of proven topic ideas. When writing compelling content, you want to have a “method behind your madness.” Writing a blog on why dogs get the zoomies is NOT relevant to a business in the event industry (unless you have a VERY creative way of tying it together). After gaining an understanding of who your target audience is, dig deeper and find out what their pain points are. As two wise men (Andrew and Pete, authors of Content Mavericks) once said “problems are universal.” Figure out the problems of the audience you are targeting. From there you can begin to create your killer list of topic ideas.
P.S. another freebie pro tip… begin with primary rich content topics and then move on to your secondary conversion content topics. What am I talking about? Primary rich content is your compelling content that makes your audience feel happier or smarter. See: Your A – Z Guide On Digital Marketing. Secondary conversion content is where you can talk about and sell yourself. See: Local View’s Top 3 Products & Services.
Tell A Story
For content to be compelling you must capture the readers’ attention and keep it until the very last sentence is read. Everyone loves a good story. Use your knowledge of your target audience and write your chosen topic’s story. Here is a great method to get your storytelling started: The CURVE Method.
C = Curiosity
U = Urgency
R = Relevancy
V = Value
E = Emotion
Provide Useful Information
Looking back on the Curve Method, the most important elements are R, V & E. Relevancy, value & emotion. If your content isn’t relevant then it won’t perform well. If your content isn’t providing value to the audience, what makes you think they are going to read until the end? And finally, whether your content has value or not, no one wants to read a dry and boring piece. Use emotion in your storytelling and play off of the audience’s emotions. Providing useful information in your content is very much essential because you want readers to remember your content and think to themselves “oh yeah, Local View Digital Marketing had a blog article on ‘3 Do’s & Don’ts of Google Ads’ that was super helpful.” Make a mark on your audience and stand out.
Remember This
If you take anything from this article, remember this: Have fun and be creative. It all starts with knowing your audience. When you can understand your target audience, then you can understand what they want to read. Compelling content will make your audience happier or smarter.