5 Steps to Creating Better Content

Creating content can be a challenge, especially when your brand is new and you don’t have a lot of followers to give you quick feedback. Instead of becoming paralyzed with fear at the challenge that content creation poses, take it as an opportunity to become better at your craft. If you’ve ever found yourself in this position, trust us: You are not alone. Everyone struggles with creating great content from time to time. Even social media influencers have off days where they can’t think of anything interesting to post. There is no magic solution that will make creating content easy for you every single day, but there are some steps you can take to increase your output and decrease your stress about it.

Make Content Creating a Habit

When you find yourself in a rut, the first thing you should do is figure out how you got there. What was your routine like before your content creation became challenging? What could you do to get back on track? So, let’s start with what you did before you got into this mess. How did you create content before? And how often did you create it? For starters, you should create a habit of writing down ideas for blog posts. This will help you identify the topics that would make the best content for your audience. Let’s say you run a travel blog. If you want to create content about visiting the Great Wall of China, you could write about how to find a tour, what to pack for the trip, and how to avoid getting sick during your visit. This kind of content would be helpful for people who are planning to visit the Great Wall themselves. You could also write about things that are happening in your industry right now. For example, if the Olympics are happening in your city, you could write a blog post about how they came to be in your location. You can also write posts about things going on in your own city, like a festival or a special event.

Define Your Audience

Before you can create great content, you have to understand who your audience is. You may think you know who you are marketing to, but are you really sure? What do you know about them? What do they like? Why do they visit your site? You can’t create the best content for your readers if you don’t know who they are. Don’t worry, though - this isn’t a dark, mysterious magic that only a few people are capable of doing. You can learn more about your readers with a little research! Start with social media. Social media is a great place to start because you have access to the people who are actually following you. You can see what they are interested in, who they are, and what they want to see from you. Once you’ve done some research on your followers, you can create a persona based on their interests and values. This will help you stay focused on the people you want to reach. You can also use tools like Google Analytics to see how your readers are finding you, what pages they are visiting, and how long they stay on your site. This will help you understand what your readers are looking for so you can provide them with more relevant content.

Network to Find Content Ideas

This is a great idea for when you’ve exhausted all of your creative juices. Simply ask your followers what they want to see from you. What are their biggest challenges with your product/service? What are they curious about? What are they passionate about? This could be as simple as asking your followers to comment on a blog post with what they would like to see next. Or you could host a poll on your social media channels asking what topics your followers would like you to write about next. You can also look through your followers’ social media feeds to see what they are interested in and what they are talking about. You can also find content ideas by looking at other blogs in your industry. Find content that you think is really great, and then ask yourself why you liked it. What was it that made it so appealing? What would you change about it if you were creating it?

Build a Content Calendar

It’s not uncommon for brands to publish several blog posts per day. The key to publishing that frequently, though, is having a content calendar that outlines exactly what you will publish on what day. This will help you stay focused on the content you want to create and avoid publishing too much of the wrong type of content. You can use tools like Hootsuite, Feedly, and Google Calendar to keep track of your content calendar. Try to give yourself at least a week between posts for each one, so you have time to create a great piece of content and have time to promote it. It’s also a good idea to check what days are best to publish on. There are lots of resources online that can help you figure out the best days to publish on based on your industry or what you’re trying to accomplish.

Commit to Writing Every Day

This one may sound strange, but hear us out. We know that creating content can be challenging. At the same time, though, some people don’t commit to a regular writing schedule and somehow magically create great content. If you commit to writing every day, you will eventually create great content. It may take you a week or a month to get there, but you will get there. There are a few ways you can commit to writing every day. You can set a timer, write for a certain number of hours, or write until you’ve written a certain amount. Whichever method you choose, make sure it’s something that you can actually follow through on.

Wrapping up

As you can see, creating content doesn’t have to be intimidating. Follow these five steps, and you’ll be well on your way to creating better content for your brand. There is no magic solution that will make creating content easy for you every single day. However, there are some steps you can take to increase your output and decrease your stress about it.