3 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Creating Your Next Piece of Content

We all want to create content that people really connect with. A personal connection to content drives engagement, growing your following, brand awareness, lead generation, and ultimately, your revenue. But — how do you create the types of content that your audience actually cares about and wants to see? There are 3 questions to ask yourself that can put you on the right track.

Who are your people?

Likely, you know your audience, personas, and demographics on some level, but, do you know where they spend their time when it comes to social and digital media? 

If your main persona is aged 18-24, and you’re not utilizing Instagram, you’re really missing out on potential engagement because this is where this age group spends much of their social and digital media time.  

On the opposite side, if you’ve been pouring all of your resources into Instagram, but have a demographic of 50-60-year-olds, you’re probably finding yourself get immensely frustrated by the lack of engagement that you’re getting.

Know ‘your people’ inside and outside and really get to know where they’re spending their time online so you can create content that already meets them where they are at.

How can you help them?

With the understanding of WHO your people are, the next step is determining HOW you can help them.

Content marketing and creation are why always begins with providing value and making a free resource available before we ever arrive at an “ask.” So, based on what’s going on in your industry right now, what your potential customers might be struggling with, or questions that you might be able to answer for them, ask yourself “How can I help?”

Would a tip sheet walking them through best practices be beneficial? What about going live on Facebook or Instagram and answering questions? Maybe an eGuide that walks them through a process?

Whatever it may be, focus in on WHO you’re talking to, and then HOW you can help them. 

When you create content, what styles are you finding success with over time?

Once you’ve determined WHO you’re talking to and HOW you can help them, you’re ready to start creating content. But, what style of content should you create at this point? Should it be an eGuide? Blog post? Graphic? Infographic?

While you need a diversity of types of content across your platforms and outlets, it’s also important to look at the types of content you’ve seen success with over time. If you don’t get nearly as much engagement on a still photo as a video, then it might be a good idea to put much of your effort there. If you see a lot of engagement when certain things are posted on stories on Facebook and Instagram, but the same type of content gets less engagement on feed posts, this will also tell you where you should be spending your time and resources. 

These are simple examples, but doing tons of small experiments like this over time, seeing what people engage with the most, and then repeating those styles of content is really what is going to lead to long-term growth and engagement.

If you’d like more resources on creating consistent, valuable content for your audience that drives traffic and engagement, just click here.