Content and how to deliver it – that is the question. The answer sounds easy, but of course it isn’t.
Content and How to Deliver It
How to create content and how to deliver it. This is what Melissa Donnelly of Affinity Communications will tell you in this episode. Here is what we learned but please listen in as Melissa explains all this much better than we ever could.
To listen while you drive, walk or work, just access the episode through a free podcast app on your mobile phone.
Content is King
Anyone who tells you to ignore content is white-anting your firm. You have more platforms than ever on which to tell your story. Your potential clients are there. Your staff are there. They are consuming the content they want, when and how they want.
Watch people on a bus or train or before the plane takes off? What do they do while waiting in a queue or doctor’s surgery? They consume content on their mobile phone. We are reading less, but listening and watching more.
12 Tips To Help
All this is a double edged sword for your firm. Ignore content and you simply won’t exist for staff, prospects, clients and referrers.
BUT getting your content seen or heard is hard. There is so much content out there. Cutting through the noise is extremely challenging.
So there is no silver bullet. Creating and delivering content is hard. There is no two sides about it. But here are 12 tips to help you.
1 – Create Quality
If it’s bad, forget it. Poor quality content is a waste of the everybody’s time. If you don’t care enough to make it good, why should they care enough to engage?
2 – Be Relevant
There are three important criteria when it comes to content: Relevance, relevance and relevance. If it is not relevant, it is a waste of time.
3 – Add Something
Don’t just retweet or repost. Add a comment. Add some value. Share your expertise. If you don’t have something to say about an article or post, then don’t repost it.
4 – Measure Performance
Measure, evaluate and reconfigure. Most digital platforms come with free analytics. Look at the open and click through rates, engagement and direct responses. Review and debrief every campaign to learn and improve.
5 – Pan Ahead
Plan, schedule and stick to it. Build a schedule around your chosen platforms. On social media you need to post at least 3 times per week – ideally daily – to grow an audience. A newsletter should go out at least every 6 weeks, ideally 1 per month.
6 – Repurpose Content
Repurpose, reuse and recyle. Cut your content into smaller pieces for your regular posts. You don’t need original content for every single post, article etc.
7 – Evangelise Experts
Content is often the last job on everybody’s to-do-lists. Find subject matter experts in your firm and evangelise your experts. Grab 24 content ideas from them at the start of the year. That’s about 2 per month. If you have 3 subject matter experts, that’s 8 pieces of content per year. Doable.
8 – Count Words
Your word count needs to be at least 250-300 words to hit the minimum for algorithms. Longer is not necessarily better. Start with a lot more and then shorten where necessary.
9 – Call to Action
Include a call to action for better engagement. Examples are a question, a link to a an ebook, article or website page, a direct offer or an offer to contact you with any questions.
10 – Make Headlines
A great headline will rock your open rate. Keep them short – 4-5 words. Pick a style – controversial, factual, instructional, cheeky, fun, sensational. Work out what resonates best with your audience – they’ll soon tell you. How to headers work well. A subheader puts your headline into context
11 – Use Images
The best cognitive recall comes from a combination of written words with imagery. That’s why infographics work. Don’t just think about one type of content. Mix it up.
12 – Add Videos
Whatever you do, include video in the mix. It’s killing all other forms of content. People will spend 100 mins a day watching video by 2021 – up from 84 mins last year. (Source: Zenith). 48% of consumers want videos to reflect what interests them.
We are more likely to remember information for a longer period of time if the text (or audio version of it) is presented with suitable images. In fact, if information is presented to us as text combined with relevant images, we are likely to remember 65 percent of the information 3 days later!
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This is what we learned about creating great content and how to deliver it. But please listen in as Melissa explains all this in a lot more detail.
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