Content That Connects: Grow Your Brand & Business Effectively

What do you like about the brands or people you follow? Often, it’s the tiny details you can relate to, right?

Maybe they’re earth-conscious like you or live the nomad lifestyle you aspire to achieve. Perhaps they’re flat-out funny, and you need more of that kind of humor in your life. It could be for a varied number of reasons.

I’m willing to bet that a lot of what you know about them is because of their online content. You’re subscribed to their YouTube channel or have their podcasts bookmarked. You love their emails with all the delicious recipes and easy how-tos. If it wasn’t their content that attracted you, it’s likely their content that keeps you coming back.

So, if you’re trying to grow your business or want to promote yourself more, understanding digital marketing and content creation is a no-brainer. Let’s dive in!

What is digital marketing?

Digital marketing allows you to reach a global audience by showing up online and leveraging digital channels. And with 56% of global consumers preferring their mobile devices for shopping and making purchasing decisions, overlooking your online presence is a big mistake.

Digital marketing is how you promote your brand, product, and/or services online. This can be done through the following channels:

• Websites
• Social media
• Emails or newsletters
• Podcasts
• Videos
• SMS text messaging
• Paid advertising

The specific digital marketing channels you utilize will likely change depending on who you want to reach. Understanding more about your audience and their online preferences can help you pinpoint those places.

What is content creation?

Content is everywhere. Content marketing is a specific digital marketing strategy that can be used to attract, educate, and retain your audience. Content follows you throughout your entire day, from when you wake up and grab your phone to browse the latest headlines, to when you scroll your newsfeed and catch up with friends on social media during your lunch break, all the way until you go to bed at night, listening to that Calm app. It’s nearly impossible to go the entire day without consuming content. (This blog post you’re reading now is content!)

When done correctly, content can be a successful inbound marketing strategy that attracts your ICP (ideal customer profile). It can also help retain your loyal followers and motivate hand-raising advocates to rave about you on their behalf.

Often, the content is free to the consumer, but it’s not free to you as the creator in terms of the time and/or money involved in the digital content creation process.

Mastering the content creation process

With any great content, there’s a process to follow in order to yield the audience-loving, goal-achieving content you want to create. It just doesn’t happen – it takes work.

But by being intentional about the process, you become more efficient with the content you create. Consider the following content creation tips:

1: Clarify your goals

Very simply – what do you want to accomplish by creating content?

There are several goals you may have:

• Build brand awareness
• Boost organic website traffic
• Increase the number of purchases for your products/services
• Generate more qualified leads
• Grow and nurture an existing audience base

You can have multiple goals, but in order to be most effective it’s best to select one primary and one secondary goal. By narrowing your focus, you can create better-targeted content and track what’s successful (and what needs improvement).

2: Conduct research

Research is non-negotiable.If you expect to cut through the noise of millions of pieces of content going live every day, you have to research who you’re trying to reach with your content and what’s happening in the competitive landscape.

Audience research

Do you have a visual of the person you’re trying to talk to with your content?

Here’s where personas – typically a one-page document with a picture of your target, demographic info, psychographic info, and more – can reveal very quickly who you need to picture mentally every time you create a piece of content.

Here are some valuable questions to ask:

• Who are you talking to? (Busy, aspirational career singles? Career moms/dads?)
• What do they want/need? (more money, more time, convenience, etc.)
• What are their motivations?
• What challenges are they facing?

Documenting the answers to these questions will help you create content that will attract the right attention.

Competitor research

Another key component in your research phase is looking at your competitors with a similar audience.

Visit their websites and review the following:

• Content strategy
• Quality of content
• SEO tactics
• Content gaps

This is where you can get visibility into their channels and the type of content they’re creating. Using tools like Semrush or Ahref, you can compare competitors to see which keywords they’re ranking for and what other authoritative sites are linking to them.You can develop content ideas and capitalize on topics they are either not covering at all or covering very poorly.

Keyword research

Keyword research is an important component of search engine optimization (SEO).  This involves identifying the most common words or phrases users are typing into search engine platforms like Google, Bing, and Yahoo to find information on relevant topics. The goal is to ensure your content is showing up in the search engine results pages for related queries, so it’s important to understand the search habits of your target audience. By earning your way into the top rankings, you can attract new users to your website with no cost.

Once you’ve identified the top keywords, you can optimize your content using SEO best practices to help increase your organic visibility. This process involves many different steps and considerations. You can take free courses on Semrush, Ahref, and Hubpost to improve your knowledge of the subject.

3: Craft ideas into content

Here’s where your content strategy starts to kick in and the ideas should start flowing.From understanding your goals and what you’ve uncovered in your research, you should have various ideas to consider.

Reputable sources can also help reveal industry trends you should consider in your content. For example, in the content creation world, you can look to industry influencers like Jay Clouse with Creator Science or seek out trusted publications like SearchEngineLand for SEO.

You should brainstorm ideas and adopt techniques like free writing or mind mapping. These can help you get those ideas flowing.

It’s also important to consider creating content for all stages of the funnel from awareness (TOFU – Top of Funnel) to conversion (BOFU – Bottom of Funnel).

The reality is consumers will engage with you several times and at different points in their consumer journey before making any decisions to enroll or purchase from you. So your content creation process should address both sides.

4: Promote content

Before creating any piece of content, you should  make a distribution plan. This determines where you want your content to appear – and you don’t have to show up everywhere.

You just have to prioritize the places where your audience spends the most time.

Deciding the right social media platforms is a great first step.It’s also wise to consider properties you have more control over, such as your website and an email list, where you can collect the data and not depend on an outside party to handle those relationships with your audience.

Once you have figured out the proper channels, you can explore other ways of promoting your content. This might include guest posting on other sites, looking into referral programs, or partnering with other individuals or businesses to cross-promote your content.

Why is content creation important?

Content is the vehicle to “pull” your attention, as opposed to traditional advertising where information is constantly being pushed in front of us to view.And sure, some content is still being forced in front of us with paid advertising.But there’s much more emphasis now on creating a positive user experience. That happens when you begin proactively serving up content that helps your audience and relieves their pain points.

The right content can build awareness, reinforce brand value, increase trust, and encourage loyalty in a business. All this can, in turn, lead to conversions and, ultimately, sales.

As for an individual wanting to build their personal brand with content, sharing what they know can create connections, reinforce your value, and increase opportunities through content that resonates.

Storytelling and SEO in Content

Telling stories is essential to drawing your audience in. And helping others “find” you is where SEO can come into play.

Both, when paired together correctly, can produce great results.

With your content, you have to be sure to evoke some emotion. Consider sharing a relatable story. This is where you can connect with the reader and keep them engaged longer.

It’s also how you continue to build trust in the long term. If you’re willing to share what’s gone well and what hasn’t, your content will resonate much more.

SEO (search engine optimization) is what you sprinkle in after you’ve been able to create content that speaks to your target audience and their pain points. This is where the keyword research that you’ve done comes into play.

You can also enhance your digital content with eye-catching visuals, proper spacing, and bullet points to keep it easily digestible and scannable.

Keeping your readers in mind and making it easy for them to find what they’re looking for will always be much better received.

Content Goals as a Content Creator

With the content you create, there are some classic and underrepresented goals to remember.

Classic Content Goals

These are the goals you’ve heard before, aligning with what Google wants to see from your content to rank higher on search engines.

Expertise

In short, you need to demonstrate that you know what you’re talking about. Your content must establish your industry credibility and knowledge of a particular topic.

Authority

Citing examples and sharing what you’ve learned demonstrates your experience and gives your content higher authority.

Relevancy

If what you create doesn’t relate to the audience you’re trying to reach, then it’s not relevant, which is not good. Content isn’t successful if those reading can’t find it applicable and helpful.

Trusted

And who will continue reading your content if you aren’t trusted? No one.

To establish trust, a mixture of factors come into play, including sharing factual information and being authentic with your approach. Typically, this involves being open and sharing the good and bad angles about the topic you like to discuss.

Underrepresented Content Goals

Here are a couple of overlooked qualities that mean a great deal to your audience.

Is your content helpful?

Which absolutely could go back to relevancy. However, helpful content takes on a “people-first” mentality.

Key questions to ask yourself are…

• Can you provide some original and unique information related to the topic?
• Are you going above what’s obvious and can be “googled”?
• Is it easily sharable? Would someone reading want to send it to someone they know?

Is your content approachable?

Are you someone or a brand that feels conversational?

For content to feel approachable, it often can’t be pretentious or difficult to follow.

Biggest Digital Marketing and Content Creation Takeaways

Digital marketing is essential in the world we live in. It’s not a nice-to-have – it’s a need-to-have. To create awareness and connect with your audience, you must prioritize your online presence.

The primary goal of creating content shouldn’t be to sell your products or services. Instead, the real goal is to make it so relevant and helpful that your audience will ask how to purchase from you. Ultimately, you want to provide value with what you create. By applying these content creation tips, you’ll be well on your way to doing just that.

My last piece of advice is to, harness a growth mindset as a content creator is essential. Commit to continuous improvement of your content creation process. When your social media posts aren’t getting engagement, there’s an opportunity to rethink your strategy. (No, it’s not a sign you should give up!) Opportunities can come from what doesn’t work. You just have to have the mindset to view it that way.

Author: Allison Ditmer – Denison Edge MarComm Instructor

Content Strategist & Writer

Contact: allison@allisonditmer.com | LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allisonditmer/