What Really Matters is Content Reception

The subheading here says it all. Too many content developers focus on the development of it, rather than the ultimate reception, and that’s what really matters!

Consider when you were a kid trying to figure out how to complete a maze. You could do it from the start point and trying to find the end point, but then there are many paths that you end up going down, that just lead to dead ends.

Instead, you probably quickly discovered that you could start at the end point and work backwards. By doing so, you connect the start and end points much quicker, with far less dead end lines.

In this metaphor, the dead ends of the maze are content that isn’t received by your audience.

You want your readers and prospective customers to connect and engage with your content, or why else would we do it?

Inbound marketing has really changed the way the world works in terms of marketing. There is far less traditional advertising – throwing your image in front of people and trying to pull them in.

Instead, inbound marketing provides some sort of information or content, that pulls people in to naturally fulfill their curiosity, then gets them to commit!

Step 1: Customer-Problem/Opportunity-Centric Content

Start by thinking about your customer and what problems they are having or opportunity that they are looking for and how you fulfill that problem or opportunity. Then, make a list of all the problems that they can have.

Important: Think from your target viewers’ point-of-view here by thinking of not only what they’ll search for, but how they’ll do it (most times it’s different then you would)!

From there, think of how your target customer thinks and searches for it. It is best to make a list of different possibilities for these problem/opportunity search queries.

Some may seem similar and can be included in a single piece, but many may have slight differences that warrant individual content pieces.

Step 2: Prioritize and Organize Your Problem/Opportunity Topics and Queries

The first step here is to find out what problem or opportunity your target market has that will be the most significant opportunity for you!

Prioritization needs to come from a mix of service offerings and market conditions. Let me explain. Just because your product is 100% focused on a particular query, you may not want to target that because of market saturation.

Instead, focus on a peripheral use of your product or service and develop its niche through content writing.

The same goes for individual search queries. See which ones are the most valuable for you and how you can organize them to work together synergistically.

Focusing heavily on 3 or 4 search queries that are directly related to each other will allow you to reach efficiencies in content creation.

Warning: Try to stay as focused as possible here. Don’t try to focus on those “efficiencies” so much that you spread your focus too thin for anyone to understand the link.

Step 3: Make Sure You Solve the Problem or Provide Them With the Opportunity

If you are gaining people’s attention by offering them a solution or information on an opportunity they are looking for, make sure you follow through!

This is even more important than getting your visitors to commit! That’s right – put this back up in the priorities section!

Your number 1 priority is to be USEFUL!

This will work leaps and bounds for you in the future because it builds trust and credibility. This goes for anyone – whether you’re a service provider, retailer, affiliate junky or anything else – be useful first.

Think about it – Facebook and Google became so ungodly rich not for chasing dollars at first but for providing a solution.

Later they started monetizing it. And as the age-old saying goes, “The fastest way to success is by following those that have already achieved it.”

Once you provide useful material to them, then you can get them to commit. And that is for the next section!

Step 4: Guide and Funnel Your Users into Converting

This is not me being a hypocrite and saying the opposite as the previous section. This is actually me re-affirming the previous!

You need to guide your visitors into doing things you want them to do. Broadly stated, you want them to take some sort of beneficial action on your site. Walk them from point A to point Z. Hold their hands and guide them.

This requires providing enough information to keep your visitors interested but withholding enough to keep coming back.

If you give them everything right away, they’ll just leave when they’re done. Instead, give them a teaser or a value add so they keep reading more.

Do I still have your interest? If you’re ready to begin writing content, then you may also want to start thinking about another kind of content – video.