How BuzzSumo Alerts Compare to Google Alerts for Media Monitoring

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How to build a Black Friday campaign that works for your B2B business

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How to use BuzzSumo: 15 Things You Can Do In 30 Days

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6 Ways to Create New Halloween Content Every Year

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Top 10 UK and US YouTube Influencers

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8 Insider SEO Tips for Content Marketers

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Assessing The Trident of Conversion Success: SEO, UX and CRO

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How to Increase Blog Traffic with Simple Keyword Research

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How to Improve Your Email Outreach Effectiveness

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More Isn’t Always Better: 5 Ways to Increase Blog Traffic Quality

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Content Marketing and SEO: 2 Disciplines, 1 Strategy

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Everything You Need to Know About Keyword Research for Content Marketing

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Updating Content: Here’s Why Your Old Content Needs a Refresh

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How Successful Businesses such as HubSpot are using YouTube

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4 Tips for Finding New Content Ideas By Auditing Your Past Work

Content creators usually know a good idea when it hits. It’s often something relatable, authoritative, educational, evergreen, and emotionally provoking. It’s this kind of excitement that sustains an idea through its development and drives people to respond positively to your work. 

 

But what happens when your team’s idea stream is running dry? How can you continue to develop brilliant content in a creative lull?

 

Good news! If you’ve been creating content for any reasonable amount of time, the hard work is already behind you. 

 

I’m going to outline 4 ways you can refer back to your own work to inspire new content ideas:

 

1. Remembering that what’s worked in the past will likely work again
2. Pivoting ideas for trending news
3. Diving into engagement metrics 
4. Referring to your audience’s opinions

Rely on “Social Proof of Concept”

Before allocating resources, money, and working hours to an idea, it would be comforting to confidently predict its success. 

 

Of course, there are no guarantees. But at Fractl, we’ve coined the idea of “social proof of concept” to help gauge the promotional viability of a project. 

 

This is the idea that if something (a topic, methodology, design style, etc.) has worked in the past, it will likely work again. By reusing the basic idea and execution behind a project, you can essentially recycle your own work to hopefully repeat its success. 

 

In an example from BuzzFeed, Matthew Barby was able to land his article on the front page of the publication twice by repurposing content that was already successful. He used popular recipes online to create a listicle featuring high protein vegetarian recipes, and the content scored over 140,000 views.

Incorporate trending news

In the same vein as “social proof of concept,” you can use trending news, social media hits, and Reddit to inspire new pivots for old ideas. 

 

It’s hard to come up with a completely new idea for every single piece of content, and that’s okay. Sometimes, you can educate and engage your audience by updating old information based on what’s trending in pop culture. 

 

Remember in the mid-2010s when everyone was obsessed with talking about millennials and their crazy habits? Well, guess what? We have a new generation entering the workforce, disrupting social trends, voting, and messing with all the norms once again. Gen Z content is beginning to trend online, just as millennial content was a few years back.

 

Source: BuzzSumo 

 

If you created a project uncovering millennial workers in 2016, it may be interesting to compare those preferences to that of the Gen Z workforce. Do Gen Z-ers love ping pong tables and bean bag chairs as much as their predecessors? Are they saving up to buy their first home right out of college? What’s the median salary for new grads? What positions are they looking to fill when searching for a job? The questions are endless, and what’s more, people want to know the answers. 

 

Recently, my team was interested in learning the search habits of each generation in order to optimize content for SEO and keywords. After conducting the research, we found that Gen Z searches are typically longer than those of other generations and they’re most interested in finding information on what’s “best.” Interestingly, after releasing the findings to the public, journalists picked up the story. What headline did they run with? “Younger and Wordier: How Gen Z’s Search Behavior Is Different.” 

 

A tip from me to you: it’s a good idea to capitalize on trending topics, even if it means pivoting the same research you’ve done in the past.

Metrics matter

If you’re a numbers person, the easiest way to inspire new ideas is by referring back to the hard data around past projects. Stats don’t lie. 

 

When you’re looking for content that can be “rebooted,” look through your performance metrics to see what you can do to refresh your highest-performing content. It may be a good idea to keep a running list of the projects that were “home runs” within each vertical. 

 

If you’re looking to increase social engagement, focus on your projects that took off on Twitter or Reddit. You can use BuzzSumo’s social media data to track and compare against competitors and schedule new posts similar to the ones that have performed well. 

 

Conversely, if you’re chasing brand authority and trying to build an industry-targeted backlink portfolio, perform an audit of the projects that were shared on the highest number of desired publications. 

 

When building your authority within a specific niche, your backlink targets are essential. In the case of one of our clients within the home renovation or contracting business, you may target realty-specific publications with your content. While this topic may not attract the likes of CNBC or Business Insider, it will land your content in the lap of the audience you’re looking to build.

 

Fractl’s Senior Creative Strategist, Corie Colliton, advises teams to “try exploring a new angle that you didn’t cover in the original. Do you have high-performing content that you could simply refresh with new data that’s been released since you initially published? Or, could you do a spin-off of one of your most popular pieces?”

 

Regardless of your goals, it’s essential that you keep the hard data in mind. If you have the numbers to support an idea, it can inspire endless pieces of content. 

Refer to your audience

Your audience can be one of your greatest assets. The way they respond to your content and ideas can be an indicator to continue on the path you’re on or change directions dramatically. 

 

A great place to start is on social media or in the comments of your posts. If you’ve gained coverage on a publication that facilitates comments, read through them and take note of the praise or criticism. Monitor the shares you’re receiving on social as well. Your audience may be looking for something you’re not giving them. If they desire additional information, listen! 

 

Of course, trolls love to spread negativity throughout the web, and some criticism should be taken with a grain of salt. But if anyone in your audience doubts your methodology or results, this is something you can build on. 

 

If you’re making bold claims with your content, make sure your sources and methods are airtight. People will begin to have doubts about your brand and authority if your methodology isn’t sound. Furthermore, if a journalist or publication notices controversial conversation about your research, they may be less inclined to work with your brand in the future. 

 

Referring to comments and incorporating public feedback in your ideation process can improve your work by leaps and bounds. 

Final thoughts 

Take comfort in knowing that if you’ve produced a winning project in the past, it can be done again. 

If inspiration is the problem, not to worry. You can rely on past creative projects to develop new, potentially successful ideas. It isn’t uncommon to hit a roadblock, and not all endeavors will be fruitful. But taking these tips into consideration the next time you have a lapse in imagination could lead to your next big content feat.  

 

Bio: Delaney Kline is a Growth Specialist at Fractl, a creative digital marketing agency specializing in the creation and promotion of branded content. When she’s not 12 pages deep in industry news, you can find her on a trail in Colorado with her dog or watching true crime documentaries (again, with her dog).

Headshot: http://www.clipular.com/posts

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/delaney-kline-804a57102/

Gravatar: delaney@frac.tl

Twitter: @delaneykline

 

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How To Use Content Marketing To Increase Customer Success

Content marketing is not just meant to help you gain new customers. After all, there are only so many new customers you can acquire. 

 

Instead, content marketing’s true purpose is to boost loyalty and retention.

 

And customer retention should be your number one priority no matter what type of business you have. Educating and delighting your customers is the key to building long-lasting relationships with them.

 

As consumers move online to look for solutions and ideas, you need to follow in their steps. If you’re not where your customers are, then you don’t exist. 

 

And one way you can ensure you are seen is through relevant, top quality content.

 

Why should you create content?

 

As more and more consumers rely on information they find online to make decisions, businesses also need to transition from traditional marketing to digital marketing. That includes offline businesses, like restaurants and mom & pop shops. 

 

But what if I can’t sell my products/services online? In that case, you can still educate your target customers while they’re looking for solutions and ideas. Or, at the very least, you can make your presence known when they’re looking for businesses in their area. 

 

Content is also a key feature of keeping your customers happy and ensuring they’re successful when dealing with your product or service. 

 

Online businesses may find that customer success and customer support are mistaken for one another. But they’re not the same thing. You don’t want to just solve your customers’ problems – which is what customer support does. 

 

You want to proactively provide your customers with all the tools they need to become successful on their own. And that can be achieved through content.

 

That being said, content can also prove useful for your customer support team. By creating tutorials and knowledge bases, you can better prepare your representatives to answer your customers’ questions. And you also provide them with references they can use as part of your support strategy. 

 

Next up, we’ll dive into how exactly you can use content marketing to increase customer retention and boost revenue. 

How to use content marketing to retain customers

 

Content marketing can do wonders for retention, but only when used right. Depending on your needs, here are the 3 different types of content you can use:

 

• content for pre-sale;
• content for the onboarding period;
• content for after the onboarding period.

Content for pre-sale

 

If you want your customers to stick around, you need to make them happy before they even make a purchase from you. What does this mean? 

 

Clearing up any questions and objections they might have regarding your product/service.

 

When you produce helpful content you’re actually making helping customers a lot easier – like FAQs where you include all the questions and objections your sales team repeatedly gets. Not to mention you’re helping your sales team close new deals a lot faster. 

 

If there are any serious objections, you can address them separately, by writing dedicated articles or downloadable guides.

 

Here’s the most important part: the main purpose of pre-sale content is not actually to sell but to create trust, which goes a long way in building lasting business relationships with your customers.

 

This type of content isn’t always suitable for offline businesses, but potential customers will still have their curiosities and doubts, and addressing them will prove just as effective. 

Content for the onboarding period

 

Once you close a customer, you should focus on making them successful as soon as possible. If they can’t see the value you’re providing soon after purchase, they’re going to stop doing business with you.

 

Again, content marketing can provide you with the tools you need for onboarding new clients. Education is crucial at this stage, so in-depth tutorials where you explain your product/service should be a priority. 

 

But don’t limit yourself to just that; there are many other types of content you can use to educate your customers: 

 

• how-to videos
• webinars
• calls
• user groups
• consulting sessions
• knowledge bases 

 

Any content you produce at this stage should come in different formats so customers can choose the one that suits them best. Variety is key. 

Content for after the onboarding period

 

Once the onboarding stage is over, your focus should be on delighting your customers, providing ongoing value, and staying top-of-mind.

 

At this stage, it’s important to also consider the customer’s history with you. If they’re having trouble, you can step in and proactively offer a solution. 

 

Segmentation also plays an important role as you want to provide relevant content, not just lump everyone together.

 

This is when customer success software can prove most useful. By analyzing your customers and seeing if, when, and how they’re using your product/service, you can come up with the right content that will help you retain them. 

 

Let’s take a look at an example. If you know that using a certain feature is crucial for customers to keep using your product/service, but notice that not all of them are using it, you can create content that can teach them how they should use that feature and why it benefits them. 

 

If you help them see the value of your product through content, they’re more likely to stick with you. Even unhappy customers can be turned into advocates with the right content.

 

What if you don’t have an online business?

 

Now, all this sounds pretty easy to implement if you have an online business, like a software platform. But what if you don’t?

 

Well, even if your business isn’t online, your customers are. And as marketing is increasingly turning digital, you should also follow the consumer trends in the same direction.

 

The most important thing for any business is to create engagement. When customers are engaged, it’s easier to remain top-of-mind. And one of the easiest ways to create engagement is through story-telling.

 

There are many content types you can use to tell your story: blog posts, interviews, videos, photos, visual graphics, etc. There’s really no reason you can’t use the same tools online businesses can and adapt them to suit your needs. 

 

For example, if you’re a restaurant, you can approach subjects like: 

 

• events happening in your restaurant (wine tastings or food tastings);
• interviews with your chefs;
• cooking shows and demonstrations;
• tutorials for your most popular dishes.

 

Another aspect that’s crucial for long and fructuous relationships with customers is being open and honest. 

 

Think about how you can help your customers. Prove that your relationship is real and can add real value. Once they see that, they won’t want to leave you.

 

3 goals you should aim to accomplish through content

 

By itself, content is just that – content. It may be educational, it may be entertaining, but no matter how great it is, it won’t transform your business overnight if it doesn’t have a goal. 

 

Here are the 3 goals your content should aim to achieve:

 

1. Building trust
2. Being relevant
3. Delivering great customer experience

 

To give your content a purpose, you need to first evaluate your business and find out what you want to achieve. 

 

Do you want to position yourself as a subject-matter-expert? 

Do you want to help your community? 

Do you want to raise awareness of important issues?

 

Once you figure out what your marketing and business goals are, you can go ahead and create content that will build trust, that is relevant for your customers, and that helps them have a great customer experience.

 

One more little thing, though. For your content to be successful, you also need to understand how you can strategically and effectively place it in front of your audience. This is where a tool such as Buzzsumo can help.

 

It’s not always easy to see what the best course of action is. So having tools that can help you create content that your customers resonate with and find influencers that can get your content further will go a long way into ensuring your customers’ success.

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How to Use Facebook Audience Insights for Content Creation

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Use These 2 Advanced Link Building Tactics to Optimize Your Content Marketing Outreach

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Your Pre-Launch Marketing Checklist – 5 Steps to Success

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