How to become an effective content creator

It’s been said over and over again, but one of the core realties of online marketing is that content really is king. Your new business website design is fed by great new content, not to mention your search engine rankings, social media channels, link building and overall online visibility. That said, it’s also true that becoming an effective content creator is a lot harder than it looks.So, how can you get into the right mindset and set yourself up to be a successful content creator to make your new website design really shine?

1. Get into the habit of keeping up to date with your industry news Reading other people’s content is a great way to fuel your own content creation efforts. Your content should allow your knowledge and capability to shine through when posted on your website but it should also be topical and relevant in order to earn links and create a buzz. Make reading news about your industry a daily habit – this not only ensures you have your finger on the pulse so can create really timely pieces, it also means you’ll know about trends and research as it happens, which will fuel ideas for new content pieces, helping to avoid a creative block. 2. Take time to know your audience Although fresh new content is vital when you’re working to improve search engine rankings, you also need to ensure that when those hard-earned visitors arrive on site, you’re presenting them with content that really resonates. To that end, you’ll need to put some serious effort into knowing and understanding your audience. To do this, your website’s analytics data is invaluable but, you should also source other data points if you can. Ideally, you’ll already know the basics such as age, gender and location but, you should also pinpoint exactly what they want from your content and what problems or questions they’re experiencing which you can help with. Google Trends is useful for this, as is a trawl through previous content performance – which pieces gained the most views or links? 3. Create often As with most things, creating effective content becomes a lot easier the more you practise it. Making content creation a regular habit is important not just to ensure that steady stream of fresh new articles that Google and your social media channels love, it also helps you to hone your craft. 4. Set goals and objectives You can only know that your content creation methods are effective when you have some sort of measurement, goal or KPIs to check against. Setting goals and objectives can also help to clarify and structure the content creation process, which makes the process of physically producing new pieces easier. These goals and KPIs can also inform other decisions that effective content creators make – such as selecting impactful topics and selecting appropriate distribution networks.