Learn how to create content that supports your marketing goals and stands the test of time with these strategies.
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Blog posts, whitepapers, newsletters, case studies – the internet is filled with endless content. Copywriters and marketers are burning themselves out creating content to meet a quota, and yet most of it ends up being just a blip in a sea of white noise. Stop churning out new content just for the sake of it, and start investing in a content strategy plan to help you make the most of your content.
Let's discuss the five most effective content creation strategies to support your business goals and marketing plans.
Let's start with an easy one. Rather than pushing out brand-new content, take a step back and review what you already have. Chances are, you have some great content that's just been collecting dust.
A simple way to uncover it is with a content audit – you might be surprised by what you find. Use Google Analytics to identify content that has performed well in the past or dig up old content on a still-relevant topic that didn't get as much love as it deserved.
Once you have identified some key pieces, work with your creative team or agency partner to overhaul the content.
For example, if you have a blog post that performed well, you could pull out the main points and create an infographic with the information. You could even take it a step further and build an email campaign around that content. The blog post and infographic could be gated assets that require an email – boom you have the start of a funnel!
Also, if a piece of content is more than a few years old, you could update it with new information and promote it! Use the piece to craft an infographic, create a social post, develop case studies, or use it as inspiration for a marketing campaign. Think of all the possibilities that can stem from that single item!
Pro-tip: When creating fresh content, consider the formats it might take and proactively brainstorm creative content ideas with your team.
2. Create content with a purpose
Publishing a piece of content just for the sake of it is a waste of valuable resources. It's far better to produce fewer articles per month that successfully engages users than to publish a bunch of articles that receive minimal engagement.
Before publishing content, consider the four A's of content creation – attraction, authority, affinity, and action.
Attraction content is meant to be useful and engage users. The goal of your content might be to teach your reader something new or to share a unique opinion.
Authority content positions you as an expert on the topic. This is where Google's E-A-T principles – expertise, authority, and trustworthiness – can help guide your content creation. Read more in our blog post: How to create content for Google’s E-A-T.
Affinity content relies on a strong brand voice. When you are writing about a topic that your competition has already written about, use your brand voice to connect with your audience on a deeper level. This helps build trust and demonstrates to your target audience that you understand their needs.
Action content inspires audience engagement and participation. When you write action-oriented content, ask yourself what action you want your reader to take, and motivate them to continue on that journey. Actions can range from asking readers to download a free ebook, take a survey, or hire you for their next project.
3. Align content with strategic messaging
Every piece of content you write should support at least one key point in your messaging map. You certainly don't have to drive home the same key points every time, but it should support your strategic messaging in some way.
Consistency across all content and communications is non-negotiable. Every type of content should follow the same style and grammar rules in a consistent brand voice. The consistent use of even seemingly small details like hyphens or capitalization makes a big difference in proving authoritativeness.
We love a good process too. Before starting on a piece of content, set the stage with a content guide or brief. Use this framework to lay out SEO keywords, define the audience, and determine the key point in your messaging map that the piece will support.
If you don't already have these resources built out, this is your sign to create a messaging map and content guidelines.
"At Imarc we follow a repeatable, dependable, results-driven process for every piece that goes out into the world. This targeted approach allows us to know that we are providing the right content at the right time. When we work with clients on their content we follow the same procedure. Results matter and those are earned through strategy." – Carly Thurlow, Principal Digital Strategist
4. Revise anything written by AI
Don't shy away from using AI. It can be a great tool to help brainstorm ideas or explore topics at a surface level. However, you should never rely on AI as a dependable resource. As smart as we might assume the copy robots are, we can't know for sure where they are pulling information from. In fact, the content they provide can be very, very wrong.
Beyond fact-checking AI content, you should take the time to make it your own. While the jury is still out on plagiarism in AI, directly copy-pasting from ChatGPT feels a bit dishonest to us. Use the information to inform your writing, but at the bare minimum, edit the content to align with your brand voice.
At Imarc, our Creative team uses AI for brainstorming, creative inspiration, initial research, microcopy for wireframes, and more. We particularly love using Grammarly, which automatically checks for spelling errors, grammar mistakes, and correct tone.
For the most impact, your marketing, design, and content teams should be working closely together. Marketers and copywriters should work together to identify relevant topics and keywords and align them with the content marketing plan. Designers and copywriters can collaborate on visual ideas to enhance the written content. The whole team should work together to brainstorm ideas for promotion and other formats the piece can take (remember step 1?)
An editorial calendar is the best way to keep everyone on the same page with deadlines and expectations. Set clear dates for creating content, publishing content, and promoting content. If you don't have a content calendar yet, read our blog post: How to create the perfect content calendar.
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Using your content resources more strategically will help increase your ROI. Need some help? Work with Imarc's team of content experts to create a content strategy and optimize your existing content. Let's talk!
