This can drive a series of simple polls (4 possible answers each) from which you can create a few positive outcomes: Engage your audience on a relevant topic Enable your audience to interact based on the topic of interest Collect data – maybe not a scientifically valid sample, but it’s a start Invite commentary for topic refinement ideas Once you’ve conducted the series of polls, you can use them as the basis for a blog post. Another opportunity to connect with others for the purpose of content creation is to run a survey with your customers. Use Video Stills as Blog Post Images. This makes it easy to repurpose and gives the interviewees additional exposure after the initial interview published. Ask Many Influencers One Question for a Tip. Ongoing influencer collaboration on content will rely on shared values and topic relevancy for both brand and influencer as well as how effective the influencer is at creation and promotion. Active content performance creates efficienceis for your content marketing by identifying what’s working and what is not. As with influencer collaboration, content performance optimization is an ongoing process. The data you collect from monitoring and subsequent efforts to adjust tactics and close the gap can support a hypothesis for testing. Not only will marketers need to create better quality content, but more of it.
Last minute scrambling to crank out another blog post is hardly the origin story for most great content. Falling behind on content production happens for a variety of reasons from poor planning to lack of resources.
Solutions will vary, but one thing I’ve found that helps with the creation of quality content on a consistent basis is a combination of efficiency and creativity. Process and technology are a certainly a big part of efficiency but so is thinking beyond your own capabilities (creativity).
Knowing you should do a thing and being able to do it well are not the same thing, so while some of these types of ideas are familiar, it is in their implementation that you’ll find new content creation productivity.
I share these tips from a place of personal experience. During my blogging journey of writing over 1.4 million words on this blog over the last 14+ years, I’ve learned a few things about being efficient and effective with content creation.
Crowdsource Content:
Social Networks provide an incredible opportunity to attract and engage likeminded people. Once you have developed any kind of network this way, you can crowdsource content around your mutual interests. How, you ask?
1. Run Polls on Twitter. Imagine a series of questions your buyers may have about an aspect of your product or service where there are multiple preferences or options. This can drive a series of simple polls (4 possible answers each) from which you can create a few positive outcomes:
- Engage your audience on a relevant topic
- Enable your audience to interact based on the topic of interest
- Collect data – maybe not a scientifically valid sample, but it’s a start
- Invite commentary for topic refinement ideas
Once you’ve conducted the series of polls, you can use them as the basis for a blog post.
2. Survey Your Customers. Another opportunity to connect with others for the purpose of content creation is to run a survey with your customers. You can ask questions that line up with early, middle and late stage content From trends to tactics to testimonials, customer surveys can yield an array of insights and content for your marketing.
A great example of this is the Annual Content Planning Survey that we help DivvyHQ with. In 2017 a survey was conducted with customers and insights from that research inspired a series of 4 content marketing campaigns. The program went so well, we launched the 2018 survey (with excellent initial results) which will inspire a sequence of campaigns as well.
3. Invite Employees to Share FAQs. Staff in customer service and sales are on the front line of answering customer questions. This exchange of information process is a goldmine for understanding what matters to your customers and to sourcing content for marketing.
Ways to capture the frequently asked questions of customers can vary from informal surveys with a selection of support or sales staff to setting up a way for those staff to bcc marketing whenever they answer a particularly popular question. Challeng your customer support and sales staff to harvest these exchanges and be sure to let them know when you’ve used something that they contrbuted to reinforce the activity.
4. Run Contests Where Content is Required to Enter. Virtually everyone with an internet connection is empowered to create content. People with interests have all the tools they need to share what they’ve made with likeminded network connections and that spells opportunity for brands.
Where contests come in to play is where a brand’s community is invited to share their opinion or expertise in an area of mutual interest to the brand and its customers as a form of entry to a contenst. The reward could be “fabulous prizes” but recognition amongst peers willl be just as powerful.
Repurpose Content:
5. Shoot Videos and Transcribe to Text. Video is the hottest format for content marketers and customers alike right now. While video is popular, text hasn’t disappeared as a preferred format just yet. With so many companies creating video, the opportunity to repurpose that content as text can’t be missed.
6. Use Video Stills as Blog Post…
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