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July 27, 2020 Content Chat Recap—Community Conversation: Tips And Best Practices For Creating High-Performance Content

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If your content strategy is largely guided by gut feelings and each piece of content is considered one-and-done, you’re missing out on the full potential of your work.

In this #ContentChat community conversation, we discuss the best practices for creating high-performance content, including our tips for picking content topics and formats that your audience will love. Read below for the full conversation, featuring our recommendations on which tools to use for keyword and topic research, advice on how to choose the right format for your content, and ways you can optimize your content performance.

Q1: Before starting on any new piece of content, you’ve got to do your research. What are your tips and best practices for topic and keyword research? Where should you get started?

Before diving into research, revisit your goals and assess how your upcoming content can support those goals. This includes deciding the target audience and potential channel(s) for the content.

Review the performance of your past and recent content to get an idea of areas you may want to explore further.

Also, research with an open mind. Stay curious and challenge your assumptions so that you’re the best fit to find a topic that your audience will love.

There are plenty of tools to assist with topic and keyword research for marketing. AnswerThePublic is a popular first stop to see what people are searching on a topic.

Tools like Buzzsumo can then show the most shared content on your topic so that you can ensure you have something new to add instead of creating content that’s been done before.

And SEMrush or Moz are other highly praised tools for fine-tuning your strategy and to see how likely you are to rank for a topic.

Regardless of whether you use any tools (we recommend that you do), a simple Google search can also show what people are searching for, and most social media channels can provide a wealth of insight.

Beyond search engines and tools, look at what other subject matter experts and your competitors are talking about. Look at their blogs, podcasts, webinars, etc. to gauge whether you have something to add to that conversation or if you can present the information in a better way for your audience.

Q2: Now that you have a strong topic and working title, how can you determine what is the right format for your content?

Any single piece of content can—and should—be adapted for a multitude of forms and channels, and you should think through these possibilities before creating your content (check out this past #ContentChat recap on repurposing your content if you need inspiration).

Determine the goal for the piece and the points you want to convey so you can find a format that meets these needs. Think through the Ws or use the “Because why?” approach to build your idea (Derek and Erika explain these below).

With a solid understanding of your goals and direction, the best place to start is your customer journey map to see which channel(s) have a gap that this topic could fill. Ideally, there will be multiple possibilities, and you should explore all channels that your audience is active on.

Next, do an incognito search (to work from a clean slate) of the topic and your content type to see what others are saying.

Use the data you’ve gathered from your initial research (Q1) combined with your more focused research on the topic and channel to determine which content type will drive the most value. Remember to factor in your resource constraints.

Q3: Within your content itself, what are some things you can include to increase your content’s performance against your objectives?

A call to action is essential to drive engagement. Ask your audience to comment with their thoughts, invite them to participate in a poll, “register here,” etc.

Include visuals that further illustrate your points (and are perfect to share on social media) and include templates or other useful resources that people will naturally want to share or bookmark.

Point your audience to other complementary pieces of content or pages that would be useful for them.

Use Click to Tweet to enable users to conveniently share your content while viewing it.

Encourage your partners, subject matter experts, and peers to promote your content on their channels. It is especially important for an author of a piece of content to share the work on their channels. If they are unwilling to or uncomfortable doing so, you should explore using a different person for the byline.

With videos, include captions/subtitles so that anyone can consume the content.

Give people a way to contact you if they’re interested in learning more or further exploring your content.

And, above all else, remember that even the best visuals or CTAs cannot fix bad content. You must be creating content with your audience needs in mind, and research is a crucial step to ensure you’re not saying something that has already been said before (in better ways).

Q4: Publishing is only half the battle—what are your tips for effective content distribution? Feel free to be channel and content-type specific.

Content promotion is vital to the success of your content.

As mentioned in Q3, have the author of any piece share it with their network, whether it’s on social media, email, on a messaging platform, etc.

Use tools like Sigstr to highlight content in your email signature.

Encourage your employees, partners, customers, etc. to promote your content on social media, as content from people performs better than content from brands. This should include a mix of them organically sharing your content as well as them engaging with your brand account content.

If you’re confused about how to succeed on Medium, you’re not alone. From what we’ve seen, you’ll find more success on the channel if your audience is already active there, as it can be difficult to drive people to the site. Pages for individuals appear to perform better than brand pages, and there could be value in advertising on the site. If you’re a Medium pro, comment with your tips.

Whichever approaches you try, A/B test your content to constantly refine your strategy and ideally meet (or eventually adjust) your goals.

About Alek Irvin

Alek Irvin is a content marketing professional with a rich history in social media management, executive thought leadership development, and media relations. As a consultant at Erika Heald Marketing Consulting, he creates human-focused content and thought leadership platforms that help brand leaders connect and engage with their communities. Alek has worked with a range of startups and Fortune 500 companies across the B2B technology and consumer spaces, including IBM, Dell Technologies, Hitch Works, Emtrain, Integrate, and Frameable. Connect with him on Twitter @AlekIrvin.

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