Emily Targett
Creating content is easy. Anyone with a few creative skills can whip together an article, blog post, or even a video. Creating content that stands out, and drives tangible results is much harder.
Over 90% of businesses believe content is a valuable asset, critical for lead generation, earning consumer trust, and increasing sales. But only 20% say they know how to run a successful content marketing campaign. To make matters worse, now that companies have access to AI bots to scale content generation, there’s even more digital noise to wade through.
The good news? We’ve learned a thing or two about creating content that resonates here at Today Digital. Our publications reach and convert millions of people worldwide. So, how do we do it?
Here’s our secret: Content that POPs.
What is Content that POPs?
There may be no one-size-fits-all guide to creating powerful content, but we’ve found that all of our top-performing pieces have three key things in common: Purpose, Optimization, and a focus on Performance. In other words, our content “POPs”.
We’ll cover our top tips focusing on each of these areas in a minute, but here’s a quick rundown:
- Purpose: Every piece of content should serve a purpose. You shouldn’t be creating pieces just because your competitors are. Your content should do something, whether it’s educating your audience, positioning you as a thought leader, or earning trust.
- Optimization: We’re not just talking about search engine optimization here. Your content needs to be optimized for your intended target audience. That means understanding their needs and preferences, and understanding which critical elements to use. Marketers and content creators also need to be ready and willing to re-optimize, changing their content based on real-time analytics to ensure long-term success.
- Performance: If you don’t know which pieces of content actually work to drive positive results for your business, how do you know where you should be investing your time and effort? Every content campaign is a valuable learning opportunity. The key to success is focusing on the right metrics. Ignore vanity metrics like page views and impressions, and concentrate on genuine value metrics, like engagement and metrics.
Creating Content that POPs: Purpose and Planning
Let’s start with the basics: defining the purpose of your content. 50% of marketers are currently increasing their investment in content marketing. Why? Because content drives results. It helps you strengthen connections with your audience and drive demand for products and services.
Creating a wide range of content, from educational guides, to journalistic pieces and entertaining videos is crucial to engaging your audience throughout their journey.
However, you’ll only get results from your content, if you design it with a clear goal in mind. Ask yourself, what is your content going to do for your audience, and your business?
Are you trying to improve your brand’s reputation with thought leadership content aimed at inspiring, guiding, and educating your customers? Are you trying to increase leads and revenue with content that specifically draws attention to the features, benefits, and capabilities of your products?
Once you’ve defined the purpose for your content, you can dive into:
- Content options: Which type of content will serve your purpose best? If you’re drawing attention to unique product features for instance, would a demonstration video be more engaging than an article?
- Topic planning: What kind of topics are you going to cover, based on what you know about your customers, their purchasing journey and their interests. What key messages are going to be strewn throughout your pieces?
- Keyword planning: Which terms are you going to optimize for? Identify 6 to 10 keywords that encapsulate the essence of the article. These keywords should guide the content and help weave together the narrative.
Optimization: From Audience Assessment to SEO
Creating content that POPs requires a multi-faceted approach to optimization. It’s not enough to simply use a certain number of keywords a specific number of times. Based on our experience, here are the key optimization strategies you should be using.
Creating Content Personalized to your Audience
Customers are sick of generic content that tries to speak to everyone, and no-one all at once. 9 out of 10 companies say that their customers expect some form of personalization in content. So quit trying to create content for everyone.
Dive deeper into your knowledge of your target audience. Are you addressing industry professionals with deep technical knowledge or end customers involved in purchasing decisions? Ask yourself:
- What kind of language do my customers use? Are they comfortable with industry jargon, or do they prefer simpler, more informal content?
- Where do my customers access content? Where do your audiences consume content? Is it just on your website or blog? Are they interacting with you on specific social media channels, or do they watch your videos on YouTube?
- What are my customers priorities? Through each stage of their buyer journey, what matters most to your customers? Is it information and educational content, statistics and report data, or something else?
Optimizing your Content Framework
Most companies know what a blog post or article should look like, but they frequently overlook the importance of getting the core components right. When you’re writing an article, there are a few key areas you need to think about:
- Headlines: Your headline is the first thing readers see, and it must capture their attention immediately. Use tools and AI to brainstorm catchy headlines that not only grab eyeballs but also succinctly convey the article’s value. Incorporate high-impact keywords to enhance visibility and appeal.
- Introductions: The introduction should be compelling and informative, setting the stage for the main content. Address the who, what, why, when, and how to provide context and relevance. Focus on grabbing attention fast with statistics, or unique ideas.
- Subtitles: Subtitles should introduce a key takeaway or a teaser that promises value to the reader. They should entice the reader to continue by providing a glimpse into the benefits of reading each section of your content.
- Body: The body of your article is where you deliver the main content. It should be rich, detailed, and structured to tell a story. The length should be dictated by the depth of information needed, not by a word count. For product pieces, focus on features, benefits, and value propositions. For thought leadership pieces, narrate a story that engages and informs.
- Conclusion: Don’t leave your content unfinished. Your conclusion should tie up your narrative, share key takeaways, and tell your customers what you want them to do next. Make your CTA clear, and value driven, such as “Learn more about content creation here.”
The Small Elements that Make a Big Difference
As you’re creating content for your target audience, you should constantly be looking for ways to offer additional value. Even if you’re creating a thought leadership piece based on your own unique opinions, there’s probably other content out there that offers similar insights.
So, how can you grab and maintain your reader’s attention?
- Expert quotes and comments: You’ve heard of EEAT right? Simply put, high-ranking, high-performing content shows authority. Give your content more authority by adding credible quotes and comments from industry experts. Utilizing a transcription service and AI can streamline this process, making it easier to find and include insightful quotes.
- Visuals: Blocks of text can be boring. Experiment with using visuals to your advantage. At a base level, ensure your featured image is compelling and relevant. It should capture attention on social media, emails, and the website.
- Keep it real: While you can definitely use AI for help creating content that resonates with your audience, don’t rely on it too much. Keep your content human, with real insights, anecdotes, and personality, or your engagement rates will drop.
Creating Content with SEO Power
At Today Digital, we don’t believe in creating content specifically for search engines – our pieces are designed to connect with people. However, that doesn’t mean we don’t use search engine optimization to our advantage.
You should already have an insight into the keywords you should be using throughout your content, based on the research you did when searching for topics. Make sure you use them effectively- don’t use the same phrase over and over in one paragraph.
Aside from using your keywords in your content, meta descriptions, titles, and alt tags, remember to:
- Leverage internal linking: Internal links are great for bridging the gaps between connected pieces of content on your website, showcasing authority, and increasing the time customers spend on your site.
- Use external links: External links show you’ve done your research, and boost your credibility. Links to credible sources can have a direct impact on your ranking potential.
- Optimize the user experience: Read through your content when its done. Is everything formatted correctly? Is it easy for customers to scan through subsections and find the information they want?
Creating Content that POPs: Performance
Now we come to the final stage of creating content that drives real results – monitoring performance. This is something you should be doing consistently; with every piece of content you produce.
Don’t just track where your pieces rank on the search engines, look at what they’re actually doing for your business. It’s easy to get caught up with vanity metrics when measuring content performance. Impressions and page views look great – but are they actually delivering value? Customers can easily look at your blogs and content, but it doesn’t mean much if it’s not convincing them to convert.
When tracking your results, focus on the outcomes that impact your business most. Engagement levels, conversions, and interactions with customers are crucial to your long-term growth.
Do your articles and videos encourage people to actually connect with your company, complete forms, or make purchases? Pay attention to your Google Analytics results, and ask for feedback from customers about how they found your business, and what caused them to make a purchase.
If your content isn’t living up to expectations – experiment! Consider A/B testing headlines, updating images, or tweaking the body content for better engagement.
Remember, content creation is not a one-time task.You need to constantly optimize your strategy, learning from your data, and your customers. You might even need to go back and update old content from time to time, to make sure it stays relevant.
Creating Content with an Impact: Final Thoughts
Creating high-performing content is about more than just writing. It requires thoughtful planning, strategic optimization, and a focus on delivering meaningful performance.
If you approach content creation with a focus on the principles of “POP” mentioned above, you’ll boost your chances of producing pieces that have a genuine impact on your brand’s growth.
Give yourself an edge in today’s cluttered content landscape, and create content that POPs.
