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How To Write Content That Stands Out And Speaks To Your Audience

The best content calendars, tools, and resources for your marketing team are the ones that help you discover what your audience likes. Once you find that out, you’re certain to create unique, high-quality, sharable content just for them.

When your audience is eager to engage with articles, videos, and other content on your website, they’re more likely to tell their family and friends about it and share it on social media. That’s what you want, right? Here are six easy ways to help you get it.

6 Ways To Write The Kind of Content Your Audience Looks For

  1. Ask Them

Asking your audience what they want is a direct way to learn specifically what they’re looking for. Lots of them will probably appreciate the attention! Run an email campaign with a survey that explores the type of topics they crave most and asks which ones they’d be interested in hearing about from you. Create a poll on social media and give them a few suggestions to ponder. Reply to social media comments about your content with your own comments. Connect on a personal level with followers to learn more.

  1. Better Understand Motives

Creating audience personas gives insight into the different characteristics, preferences, and motives of your typical ideal customer who represents the needs of your larger audience. Create relevant content that feeds those needs.

Another strategy developed by a Harvard Business School professor is known as Jobs To Be Done. This method helps you figure out the kind of content that motivates audience engagement based on the challenges they face on the job. In this case, “job” is defined as what a person hopes to accomplish in any given circumstance, be it a career, a sport, or in life.

Both of these tools help you create and share content that not only speaks to the specific needs of your ideal audience, but can motivate them to act.

  1. Consult Performance Metrics

Tracking important metrics for website success can give clues as to what content is working for you and what’s not. Things like bounce rate, average time on page, and average session time can tell you how your audience is responding to content that’s already published. Keeping tabs on your top-performing social media posts, for instance, can help you write more posts and content that recreate past success, with a timely twist.

When reviewing analytics, ask yourself questions like, what topics always get results? Pay attention to which type of content consistently performs well. Is it mostly words and pictures, videos, graphs, charts, maps, and illustrations? Once you know, do more of that.

  1. Do Research

Keyword research is a proven marketing tool to help you gain insight into the keywords and search terms your audience is using when looking for answers online. Not only will you learn the questions most people in your audience want answers to, but you’ll also get a glimpse of the things they care about. And that’s fodder for content that stands out from the rest.

Chances are, you’ll find that certain search terms are used again and again. It’s your job to write content that shines a light on popular keywords in a new way. Content research tools like Buzzsumo can help you “generate ideas, create high-performing content, monitor your performance, and identify influencers.” Other tools like Buzzsumo include:

  • Meltwater
  • Sprout Social
  • Semrush
  • Hootsuite
  • Ment.io
  • ContentStudio
  • Cision Communications Cloud
  • Sprinklr Social Engagement and Sales
  • Agorapulse
  • Zoho Social
  1. Look For Trends

Following trends in content marketing will keep you publishing fresh content that goes the extra mile for your audience. Keep an idea list in your toolbox for those times when you think you’ve run out of great content topics. Know the buzzwords and philosophies that currently pique interest with a general audience and incorporate customized versions of them into your content pieces. Follow marketing leaders who research ways to source content ideas and share tips on how to grow your business.

It's smart to follow leaders in your own industry who seem to be on the cutting edge of innovation. These idea-generators give you a glimpse at things to come and could give you a whole new perspective on common customer solutions that will benefit your content creation.

  1. Monitor The Competition

Checking out other top brands in your business can reveal content ideas for you to adapt to your own brand. See what’s working for your competitors but also for similar companies that you follow and like to learn from. Identify general trends or topics and figure out a way to make them work in your content.

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Topics: Marketing, Content Marketing