Custom content is more important than ever in the marketing world. In fact, 90% of businesses and brands market with content, while 78% of CMOs think that custom content is the future of marketing (Demand Metric). Creating great content that delivers is an art form, much like cooking a perfectly pleasant meal. The process requires planning, finesse, the right ingredients, and feedback to help you improve your skills, all of which make your content strategy a success.
Imagining your audience members as dinner guests every time you create a new piece of content will help you appreciate the importance of each ingredient. If everything is balanced and seasoned just right, they’ll leave feeling contented and eager to share their dining experience with fellow friends and family.
Let’s dig into the details of the ingredients, directions, and common questions that go into cooking up delectable content.
Ingredients
○ An original and interesting idea
○ A solid headline that grabs attention
○ Strong writing skills to convey your idea
○ A distinct brand voice that stands out
○ Accurate research, facts, and data
○ Diverse media like video and images
○ A plan for distribution that you can test
Directions
1. Concoct an original content idea by thinking outside the box. What content does your audience need that they don’t already have? Think about the information you can deliver to your readers to increase brand loyalty and generate sales. Study industry developments as well as digital content trends to ensure that you’re up to date on what your audience wants and needs.
2. Review your recipe details to plan the content from ideation to delivery. Once you have your content idea, map out the steps of creation and delivery. Who do you have on hand to help with creating the content? Do you need to outsource the job? Which distribution channels will best fit this content? Ask these questions and create a plan that will help you get the most out of the project.
3. Season the content with thorough research that makes it trustworthy. The purpose of your content should be to educate your readers, whether you want to inform them about a specific product, answer an industry-related question, or promote your brand in general. It’s important that you have the right research and a great outline so that your writer can create a piece that’s educational, engaging, and worthy of your novel idea.
4. Begin the cooking process with a strong writer who fits the bill. Find a writer or an outsourced company that can get the job done. Outsourcing is even more important when you have a lot of content to create, and you need it completed in a timely manner. With the proper team in place, you have more time to oversee content production and ensure everything is on track.
5. Taste-test by editing the content until it’s just right. Have your team review the content to make sure everything looks good. Experienced editors are just as important as writers, as they’ll catch all of the small errors that can take away from the reader experience. Depending on the importance of the piece, make sure it goes through enough rounds of editing and reviewing before you publish.
6. Entice the senses by sprinkling media throughout. Add videos and images to make the content more interesting, but be careful of over-seasoning with too much media. That can change the entire taste of the dish and make it difficult to digest. Brand-centric media with your logo adds an extra layer of seasoning that will help boost brand recognition when your content is shared.
7. Schedule tempting bites of the content on all of the right social pages and publishing channels. It’s time to start empowering your audience to taste-test the content by scheduling shares and posts. Hit your most popular and valuable social media and publishing channels, and consider fresh tactics that you can try for delivery to reach new readers.
8. Send it to Chef de Cuisine industry leaders to increase shares. Once your main audience members have the content delivered right to their feeds, begin reaching out to Head Chefs (influencers) in your industry. Share it with powerful influencers and other experts to see if you can tap into an even bigger audience. If they like what they see, you just might get a traffic boost.
9. Taste-test again by checking the progress of your content and adjust the seasoning if needed. Sending your content out into the wild is just the beginning. Once you’ve covered all the best distribution and publishing channels, you should monitor the progress of your content so that you can adjust it to increase performance. If trends are already changing after a few months, then you can revisit the details of the content and alter it to keep everything up to date.
Common Cooking Questions
Is your content perishable or evergreen? Perishable content is best served in a quick and ultra-enticing manner because it isn’t meant to hang around the table. Decide whether your content will be relevant for a long period of time (also known as evergreen), or if you can expect it to be gobbled up quickly before you move on to the next topic.
Does your content need more condiments? If you feel like the resulting content simply won’t stand out in the crowd, then dive back into the cooking process to give it some extra flavor. Consider adding statistics or including some industry-expert quotes to give the content more authority.
How filling is the content? Discovering that magic word or character count isn’t always easy, but you can avoid starving or over-stuffing your readers by aiming for a good average. According to Marketing Insider Group, the ideal length for a blog post is around 1,600 words, and 94% of posts that people read from start to finish take 6 minutes or less to complete.
Is the table properly set? It’s important to think about your landing page and how you can convert visits into leads once your content gets you those coveted clicks. If your landing page and website are properly set up to increase click rates on internal links, improve engagement, and boost sales, then you’ll get the most ROI from your expertly created content.