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From Daydream to Reality

Content Creation, Part 2.

9/28/2016 | Aubrey Collins, Creative Challenges

Welcome to this second installment, designed to help your reach success in bringing your content creation to fruition. You’ve done some difficult work assessing what is holding you back and some essential, qualitative research to determine what your audience wants, needs, and expects of your content.

 Now before we get to the fun part, content creation and implementation, you have to do one more assessment to implement a content strategy.

 Strategy? Is it too late to bail on this content stuff? Shouldn’t content creation be a fun, free, creative, expressive journey — not a stiff, suit-wearing killjoy like strategy?

Nope. In fact strategy is one of the most essential elements when it comes to content, and in many instances it is the most essential element. Without a content strategy, you’re out there blindly hoping that your content connects with your audience in the locations they frequent. Without a documented strategy in place, you’re far more likely to fizzle out.

We could discuss content strategy for the next six months and still have more to uncover, but a very simple way to look at it and not bog down your content efforts entirely is that you need to outline your brand’s message and business objective and then develop a strategy around this business objective. Your content will be better aligned with your business, and following that strategy will be enough to keep you on the right path.

Create Relevant Content

By creating content that people are actually searching for, you’re more likely to show up at the right place at the right time. By creating content this way, you’re solving the pain points we mentioned in Part 1. And you’re providing the most value to your audience.

When it comes to content creation casting a wide net is usually the wrong approach. Usually getting very specific is going to get you more results. Consider these two topics: A Marketer’s Guide to Trade Shows vs. 3 Things Admissions Professionals Must Do Before School Career Fairs.

The first is too broad to stand out from the majority of articles available online; the latter promises something precise enough to attract urgent interest. If you drill down, the more precise you get with each article, the more likely you are to influence and inspire the unique group you’re targeting to act.

Plus, taking this approach makes it easy to repurpose content, which, as luck would have it, is the next tip on my list.

Repurpose Content

Every time you create something, push yourself and see how many other things you can create out of it. Think of all the different perspectives and outlooks you can take, the different audiences you can reach. Sometimes one topic, like the aforementioned trade shows and career fairs, can be multiplied into a dozen. College admissions professionals are different than brand marketers who are different from HR vice presidents at hospitals who are different from HR vice presidents at corporate brands.

By drilling down, you can create content that appeals to these varying segments and gives you a nearly endless variety of content to supply to a given audience.

When you personalize and customize your content, you’re providing the most value to your audience. “That which is most personal is most universal,” rings especially true when it comes to content creation.

Inject Personality

They want to work with and buy from real people. People want to know the real you. Humanize your brand by injecting a brand personality

Numbers leave out context. Focus on the people behind the numbers to get the full story of what’s going on.

By injecting your personality and telling better stories, you’re able to engage, entice and spark conversation with your audience. You want readers talking about your brand. You want them sharing your content.

Injecting personality into your writing and storytelling will put you ahead of your competition.

By taking a few minutes to ponder strategy and implementing these three elements into your content, you’ll deliver content that is far more rich and engaging than content simply for content’s sake.

What’s one change you can make today to turn your content daydreams into a reality?

Aubrey Collins is the director of marketing and communications at MediaTree, a supplier of branded digital entertainment cards. She fell in love with the promotional products industry in 2011 at her first PPAI Expo. She shares her perspective on everything from the industry, what parenting continues to teach her about business, to what marketing campaigns make her cry on her blog. Connect with her on Twitter or email her atacollins@mediatreegroup.com.

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