Creating VALUABLE Content for your Community

Creating content regularly is a strongly recommended marketing activity. 
One of the best ways to stay top-of-mind is to regularly post fresh new content in front of your target audience, community, and tribe. 
Of course, the content you produce has to be valuable to your audience. 

Here is the dilemma: What exactly is valuable content? Putting forth relevant, useful, actionable information is of utmost importance. Ask yourself...does the reader gain something from applying the information you are sharing? You should make an impression on them even if they decide never to buy from you. That is how you decide what is valuable content.

Take out a lot of the guesswork. Here are some ways to figure out what your target audience or community will value...​

Social media is one foolproof way to discover what information is useful and captivating to your community.​

#1 Engage – Behind every tweet, post, or question is a customer and it is your job to engage with them. Spark conversations with your connections. Ask compelling questions to find out their interests.

#2 Mentions - Keep an eye on the attention that your blogs, posts, and articles are getting. Which ones are being re-posted, commented on, and "liked" the most? This is a great way to see what you are doing right and what your connections find compelling. 

#3 Questions – Watch for questions on social media platforms that you can answer immediately, then take those questions and write articles or blogs discussing the topics. You can also pose your own questions and dissect the responses.

#4 Competition – Pay attention to what is working for your competitors and use those topics to create your own content. If a competitor is getting a lot of responses, retweets, and comments on a topic, you know it is a valuable topic. And think about collaborating with your competitors in a friendly way regarding the topics of interest. 

Take just 15 minutes out of every day to "listen" to your community. It will make a real difference in the number of followers you have and in the level of commitment they have to you. Followers eventually turn into customers. So, don’t miss out on the opportunity to communicate with them. 

Does this article resonate with you? What content strategy do you use, or struggle with it?

As always, if you have questions about what you just read, or about anything else marketing related, I would be happy to answer them and help in any way that I can.
To your Illumination,