You may already have decided on your content creation strategy. You need a white paper, you need 2 mini-white paper excerpts, you need 3 blogs a month, and you need a slide presentation.
And you may be absolutely right — but you may be awfully wrong. Content is not about what you need. It’s all about what your customers need and what they are looking for when they search to solve what hurts.
To create that content, you need to understand:
- Who your customers are. If you don’t know who your target audience is, or even who might be interested in your content at all, you’ll get nothing out of it. Finding the right people is a large part of content marketing.
- What are their biggest pain points you can solve. You must understand your client’s goals and when they want to achieve them. If you can’t give at least one clearly defined reason (i.e., a compelling benefit) why your client wants your content, you’re not going to have much luck.
- What keywords they’re using to search for solutions. They won’t find you if you don’t rank for their search terms.
- What sale stages you need to align with. Different content appeals to different people. If you haven’t written something that your client(s) want, they won’t buy it.
What business and marketing trends are drawing your customers’ attention. There’s a time and a place for everything. People who might have needed your content yesterday may not need it today.
Strategy first, then the editorial calendar.