Whether you're an e-commerce entrepreneur, digital marketer, blogger, writer, or an online business owner of any kind, consistently producing top-quality content to engage your audience is essential.
Be it freebies, premium content, microblogs, in-depth articles or anything in between, this blueprint is designed to guide you through the steps required to create effective content.
Remember, the content you produce needs to be EXCELLENT – valuable, engaging, and exactly what your audience craves.
So how do you create this high-value, sought-after content? Here's a five-step strategy:
- Step 1: Determine a Subject
- Step 2: Design Your Structure
- Step 3: Develop Your Content
- Step 4: Direct Readers to Act
- Step 5: Deliver Benefits
Let's dive into these steps…
Step 1: Determine a Subject
Choosing a subject involves a few considerations:
Define your objective. What action do you want your readers to take after reading your content? Buy a product? Sign up for a newsletter? Register for a workshop? Share your content? Apply the information they've learnt? Strive towards a goal? Select one primary objective and proceed to the next task.
Identify a popular subject. Market research is crucial here to understand what your audience is interested in. What are they purchasing already? Their purchasing habits are likely indicative of their reading interests on your platform.
Pick the right format. What form of content will meet your objectives best? A how-to guide, an FAQ, a listicle, etc.?
Here's a practical example…
You're marketing a yoga program. Your research reveals a high interest in increasing flexibility. So, you decide to write a piece like “7 Yoga Poses to Enhance Your Flexibility.”
Next…
Step 2: Design Your Structure
Next, outline and arrange the key points for your content, which will depend on the format you've chosen. Here are three possible structures:
- Sequential structure, ideal for step-by-step content such as tutorials, case studies, and similar procedural pieces.
- Progressive structure, where you sequence content from simplest to most complex. This is great for tip lists, FAQs, and other list-based pieces.
- Categoric structure, where you group information by categories. For example, an article on digital marketing strategies might have sections on SEO, PPC, and Social Media Marketing.
The goal is to…
Craft a comprehensive structure, which will simplify your writing process.
Start by brainstorming the points you want to cover in your content, and then research the subject to supplement your points.
Once you've completed a detailed structure, proceed to the next step…
Step 3: Develop Your Content
This step involves creating your content in a way that captivates your audience and seamlessly leads to your call to action.
First, make your content engaging. Ditch the formal “academic style” and steer clear of complex jargon. Instead, write in a manner that a high school student could easily grasp, adopting a friendly tone as if chatting with a friend.
Second, try to include at least one unique piece of information if possible. Share an original insight or present the data in a novel way. For instance, in this lesson, I've employed alliteration – every step of this process begins with a “D.”
Finally, ensure your content seamlessly leads to your CTA (call to action). For instance, if your goal is to presell a product, create content that's practical (helping solve part of a problem), yet leaves room for more (allowing you to promote a related paid offer for additional solutions).
Here are a couple of examples to illustrate the last point…
- An article giving yoga tips is useful, but readers will need to buy the yoga program (the paid offer) to get comprehensive details on how to enhance flexibility.
- An article outlining the steps for creating a digital marketing strategy is helpful, but readers will need to purchase the digital marketing course for in-depth instruction on each step.
Step 4: Direct Readers to Act
In Step 1, you defined an objective for your content. Now you need to encourage your readers to take your desired action with a call to action. This is where you instruct them on the next step.
E.G., “If you found these yoga poses beneficial for flexibility, you'll love this free collection of yoga sequences and guides. They make improving flexibility both effortless and enjoyable! Click here to claim your gift now…”
Step 5: Deliver Benefits
Your last task is to highlight the benefits of your content by crafting an enticing title that promises solutions to problems, achievement of goals, or new hobbies.
For example:
- [Number] Strategies for [Achieving a Benefit]. E.G. “5 Strategies for Maximum Flexibility – Even If You’re a Beginner.”
- How to [Achieve a Benefit] In Just [Short Time or Few Steps]. E.G., “How to Boost Your SEO Ranking With a Simple 10-Minute Adjustment.”
- [Number] [Type of] Tips for [Achieving a Benefit]. E.G., “9 Productivity Hacks for Transforming Your Home into a Highly Efficient Workspace.”
Remember: always maintain integrity in your titles, offering “inspiration, not exaggeration.”
Tying it all together…
These five basic steps will aid you in creating diverse types of content that can attract visitors, build relationships, presell products, and make direct sales while genuinely addressing your audience’s needs and wants.
Do you like this framework? Can you see its potential in supercharging your content and lifting it to new heights?
Great…
Excellent…
You'll love this digital guide packed with 50 frameworks to help you get noticed by all the right people!
Sarah x
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