4 Easy Tips To Help You Plan Your Content
The relentless, ongoing struggle to create fresh and engaging content is a burden for most small business owners. Hopefully, you have had an epiphany and have realized that your website is so much more than just a glorified classified ad. It is the dynamic nerve center for your online business. And more than that, it is your online business.
Being dynamic in nature means that your website will be needing a constant stream of new content. And the place where this happens the best is your blog. If you don’t have one, you need to start one. (Read here to find out why.)
For most small businesses it’s challenging to keep a blog or social media channel from becoming stale. So this article will help you with some proven tips for content planning.
Recent Posts
Tip #1: Use excellent sources to curate content.
All professional content marketing managers do this in some fashion or another. And it is a legitimate and useful element in a successful content creation strategy. Plus, it can be done in nearly any market niche.
Follow websites that provide news for your industry, as well as checking in on your competitors’ websites. This will help keep you informed of changes and new developments in your market. Another good source for discovering good content is through social media channels and blogs.
Be sure to add in your personal views and insights to add more value to the content you’ve curated. if you can, it’s good to stay on top of sharing news or useful articles before your followers happen to see them elsewhere. In doing so, you can become a valuable resource for your followers.
Tip #2: Learn how to do Keyword Research.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a vital practice to help your articles and your other content rank better, become more visible online, and to increase your audience.
In addition, keyword research provides another excellent starting point when you’re seeking ideas for your next article or video. Think of things that your customers may be searching for.
No look for longer keyword phrases that are related to those things. Answer the Public is an excellent free tool to help you with this process. You’ll also want to choose questions or search terms that are accompanied by high search volumes. (Try this free tool.)
Now do a quick Google search of the terms you’ve unearthed to see what *other* content surfaces. And don’t forget to look for more clues at the bottom of the Google results page!
After this, now you can create a content marketing strategy for how you can create better or more thorough articles than what is currently ranking well. If you can create some different aspects or elements to the article, then that will help you even more.
Tip #3. Scrutinize Your Competitors.
This is the only time it’s okay to be a creeper or stalker! Because our third tip can really help you come up with fresh content ideas. Thoroughly analyze your competitors’ websites, blogs, and social media. Become a follower of all their channels in order to discern which content seems to perform particularly well for them.
HINT: Now, look for topics that have not yet been covered by your competitors. Identifying these “content gaps” will help you know what subjects you can cover to become more helpful to your audience.
SUPER HINT: Comments and questions on their articles or social media posts can reveal potential opportunities for you. This can help you cover topics that you now know that your target audience is interested in!
Tip #4. Convert your written content into other formats.
So now, let’s talk about how to more fully maximize your outreach. It’s a good practice to begin to repurpose your articles by converting them into other types of content and formats to bolster your social media content creation.
For instance, you can easily transform your existing blog or social media posts into videos. Then you’ll want to upload them to YouTube or other video sharing websites to help increase your content’s exposure.
And, you can also make a slideshow presentation and upload it to http://www.slideshare.net. It’s also quite simple to convert it into a PDF and upload it to PDF sharing sites such as http://issuu.com.
Of course, there are more tips and tricks to find your muse when it comes to creating engaging content. But these 4 tips are a great place to start.
We understand just how difficult it can be to try to keep up with all you do in your business. In fact, we face those same struggles–that’s how we know! So it’s our business to offer you help where we can give it. Look here to learn more about our blogging and content services. And you can always use our contact form or call us to learn more. We offer extremely competitive rates and package deals. Call today and get some samples or a custom quote.
“Professional SEO, Social Media Management, and Web Design from the Lake of the Ozarks. We offer special local rates to Lake Ozark, Osage Beach, Camdenton, Laurie, Versailles and Eldon.”
Please share!