Creating content creation ideas that don’t, well stink. Here are 10 content marketing tips to help you create content easier. Make sure that content is actually what your audience wants and needs. So they want to keep coming back for more.

And how to create content that leads to sales. Not just lurkers who never buy. It’s a combination here. You need many different types of content marketing to succeed online. And this is your guide to doing it with less stress. Plus, bonus offers at the end!

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10 Content Creation Ideas

1. Create content around your products.

This sounds so simple, but no one does it. Think about it. How can you prime your audience, so when you finally do sell to them they’re ready to buy? How can you best ensure they’re educated enough on what you do and sell? And understand the benefits of what you offer over your competition? You put your offers in your every day content. The content that isn’t asking for a sale yet. Just priming them to buy.

2. Negative Review Content

Try creating content based off of negative reviews for competitors. What is missing? Add it to your offer or digital product. Then create content around it. You’ll appeal to those who feel they’ve been wronged by your competition. And you’ll resonate with them instantly.

Think about it. When was there a time you had a bad experience with a business? Did you find someone else who did it better? Did they rectify the problem that was bothering you? And if they did, how much better did it make you feel?

Competitor research isn’t just to see what your competitors are doing well. It’s also to see where they’re missing the mark. Where there are gaps in the market that you can fill.

This is great for newer businesses too. You can establish yourself as someone who goes above and beyond. And you can do so just simply by watching and listening online. It’s my favorite content creation idea for creating content that connects. That resonates with your audience more easily.

Related Article: Niche Strategy: Better Business Strategies for Surefire Online Growth

3. Create content that’s educational about your products or services.

This one I feel like everyone talks about. But no one really talks about “how” to do it. Here’s how. You first need to know your products and services inside and out. Not just as yourself who already knows how to use them. But also as someone who is brand new.

What would be difficult to someone trying your digital product or service out for the first time? Where could they get hung up in the process? You can work all of these “kinks” out. Simply work directly with a few people to go through your digital products or services with you. Almost like a trial period. You’re working closely with them to help with any issues that might arise. That way you can update your digital products or services to fix any and all issues. This makes the entire process more seamless. And it makes sure your buyers are getting the easiest solution to their problems. A solution that is problem and frustration free. It’s all about the customer experience.

Want to learn more about creating a great customer and how it fits into the online buyer’s journey? Check out this article: The Buyer’s Journey: How to Create Content That Guides Your Audience to Purchase.

4. Inspire Your Audience

You’ve heard sell the solution, not the product. What solution does your product(s) or services provide? Can you create content that’s inspiring? That shows what life will look like after using your product? Can you get them further in their journey at a faster pace?

Should it highlight how easy it is to use? Anybody can do it?

Should it highlight a faster route to the solution?

Should it highlight the revenue that can be produced?

Do you have a testimonial or case study that shows how much someone’s made with your product or service? Or maybe it’s your own story. Show the end result that’s possible with an example of someone already getting that result.

An easy way to show testimonials for your business is to create a “Wall of Love.” You can call it whatever you want, but it’s one page with testimonials for all of your online offers. You’re showcasing how much people love your content, your digital products, or your service-based products.

You’re showing why someone should choose you over the competition. And you can do it all using automation. Insert Testimonial.to. This is an affiliate link, so I will make a commission if you click the link.

But be sure to check out how easy it is to have all of your testimonials automatically uploaded to this one “Wall of Love.” It’s one landing page that showcases all the love your customers have for you. And it’s great social proof.

Learn more about Social Proof in this article: 6 Principles of Influence. You’ll learn how to become a persuasion powerhouse.

5. Controversial Content

Controversial content is something that’s shocking, or busting myths. It’s most likely an unpopular opinion. Or even just different than what your peers are saying. And it can be one of the best content creation ideas for getting more engagement.

Maybe you don’t think the same as everyone else. What do you hate about your industry? What do you not agree with? Where are you different? Put your stake in the ground.

Basically, you’re looking for that hill that you’re willing to die on topic-wise. Even if its completely different than what everyone else online is saying. State your stance.

Let others who agree with you find you. You’ll get lots of engagement from those that disagree. And engagement (good or bad) is helpful to getting more attention online. It results in more traffic to that social media post, blog post, podcast episode. Whatever it may be.

6. Newsletter Storytelling

Creating a story that goes with your content helps to make it more personable. This is true with all Types of Content Marketing.

But it especially makes it easy to share in your email newsletter. Because you aren’t just sending out an email, “Hey check out this new YouTube video.” Or, “I posted a new blog.” “Here’s the latest podcast episode.”

You’re using your personal story to connect with your audience. And you’re helping them get to know you. You’re also helping them with their problem at the same time. It’s making you personable and approachable. But also saying here’s how I can help you when you’re ready.

You start your story. Weave your piece of long-from content into the story. And then tie it all up in a pretty bow at the end. And that’s storytelling in a nutshell. Learn more about how to get really good at storytelling.

7. How to Survey Your Audience

Create content that answers a question(s) that your audience keeps asking over and over again. Want to know how to find these questions? Check out Customer Research Methods: 4 Ways to Get Inside Your Audience’s Mind.

It’ll guide your through proper customer research methods to find what your audience wants.

Or you can speed the process up by purchasing SurveySolutions in the Taylored Content Shop. It’s pre-made customer surveys using the right questions to get the best testimonials. Ones tailored to highlight what you want to highlight. Those selling points that you want to be names for. With five surveys included and ready to use as your own. Simply update the imagery to match your brand. It’s a quick color change and font change. And you’re all set. Easily setup in under an hour.

Related Article: Crafting Target Audience Survey Questions for Maximum Insight

8. Think in seasons

This isn’t just for product businesses. You can think seasonally with your content for all types of online small businesses.

For example, New Year, New You. It’s a super old seasonal saying. But the way you could spin it is starting fresh in your business.

Maybe you’re a professional organizer and you want to help people with a whole house refresh. Or you could be a homesteader and you’re helping people create a fresh list of vegetables and herbs for their spring garden. If you’re a fitness professional, this should be your best time of year with New Year’s resolutions just beginning.

You could even use it as a way to implement fresh, new ideas. A recipe blogger could create healthy recipes for losing weight. Or fresh ideas for better school lunches for kids that aren’t boring. Or even recipe ideas for cold winter months. That’s three different ways that a recipe blogger could put a spin on the start of a new year using the “fresh” theme. Ideas are all around you, just watch and listen to others to get some inpiration, which brings me to my next point.

9. Learn from content marketing veterans

Learn from others. It could be content marketing veterans, or even just business veterans. People who are doing the same or similar business to yours but they’re further along. Instead of comparing yourself to them. Learn from them.

Create a swipe file and use it as inspiration for your own marketing efforts. Sometimes watching others who are ahead of you online is a great way to find inspiration. Take what you find and turn it into your own content creation ideas. Really make it your own too.

Just as an example. Instagram trending sounds got big. So big people were actually selling (and some still do) memberships to get trending sounds emailed to you daily. But using a trending sound is just a tactic, not a true strategy.

The way you add strategy to it, is to make it your own. Take whatever the trend is for that sound and make it work for your business. If the trend is to say things you hate about xyz. Then find something you hate about your industry. Preferably something that you also solve.

And state those things with the trending sound. Then you have a way to either show your solution at the end of the video. Or create a connecting video or story highlight where you show your solution. Now, you’ve taken inspiration from others, but you’ve used your content strategy to create your actual content.

That’s the type of content that gets engagement, online traffic, and sales. And that engagement and traffic is from the right people. Just using a trending sound without your content strategy added to it will yield such a broad selection of people.

It’ll be good for engagement sure. But not good, quality engagement that leads to traffic to your website and actual sales. We need the sales. That’s how you monetize your online audience. Otherwise you’re just a creator getting more traffic for the owners of that social media platform.

Related Article: Digital Content Strategy: Why is it important?

10. Content Analytics

Trust the data and what the actions of your audience show. Listen to their actions by looking at your content analytics.

This is last but definitely not least. It’s actually the most important thing you can do. It’s so important because it’s relying on your specific audience to tell you (without actually telling you) what they want.

It’s paying attention to what they’re saying with their actions online. Ensuring you’re following the data and giving your audience what they truly want. What they’re looking and asking for is the number one thing you can do with your content creation ideas.

For example, if you use Google Search Console (and you should), it’ll show you the pages on your website with the most traffic. It also shows you other topics and keyword phrases that you are showing up for.

If you click on Performance on the left hand side of Search Console. Then click on the average position box to make sure it has a check beside it. Then scroll down. On the right, you’ll see Clicks, Impressions, Position. Click position until you see a down arrow beside it. Like the picture below.

These are topics that you’re showing up for. Really far down the Google Results pages, but still showing up. These are outlier topics that you may want to look into using as your keyword phrase for new blog post.

And this is just one example of using your data to know what to create next.

If you’re on social media, any platform. Look for your posts that get the most engagement, clicks, and impressions. If you’re looking for more traffic to your website, create more posts like those that are getting the most clicks.

If you’re looking for more impressions, then create posts like those that got the most reach. So they were in front of the most eyes. Even if they didn’t get a lot of clicks. Some posts aren’t created to get clicks. They’re created for more impressions. More eyes on your business. Brand awareness.

So, what should you look for? What commonalities do you want to pay attention to?

Well, did you talk about a specific topic? Are they extra interested in that particular topic?

Did you create a post that is exciting or did something different in it? It could be how you worded it, how you set it up, or even what it linked to.

Maybe you created a post that shared a quick tip. Do you love getting quick results? Can you do more of those? Better yet, do these quick tips link to any paid offers that you have? A digital download product that offers a series of quick tips. Or a one hour 1 on 1 Zoom call.

Find the common themes around your best performing posts. And continue to make more of those.

It really doesn’t have to be complicated. Look for the similarities and try to recreate those posts in as many different ways as you can.

Content Creation 101

Diving into Content Creation 101. Learn how to create unique content. The kind that delivers real value for your audience. Even if you’re just getting started online.

What you’ll learn:

• What organic content is.
• Content Creation 101 Guidelines to set your online business apart.
• Storytelling inspirations and how to become a better storyteller yourself.
• What the different types of content are and how to best utilize them.
• The number one tip to get your content shared online.

Read the article now: Content Creation 101: How to Create Unique Content

4 Customer Experience Research Methods

What does it take to create killer content marketing? The type of content marketing that drives more traffic to your website or email list. Creates more sales for your digital product shop, online course, or membership.

Creating great content comes from creating things that your audience is actually looking for. It comes from talking to your audience and engaging with them on the platforms they’re already on.

And making sure you connect with them. Using their terminology for content that instantly resonates with them. And all of this comes from proper Market Research.

Learn for free: Customer Research Methods.

Or get started today: Purchase the Market Research Guide and Workbook digital download. Your guide to better market research. And a content strategy that uses your customers’ online actions to sell and make more money online.

Content Strategy Framework

Content is one of the most important parts of your business goals as an online small business owner. No matter the industry that you’re in, it’s crucial to create a content strategy. A strategy that resonates with your target audience and gets them to take action. 

It’s also important to track and measure your efforts to make sure your strategy is paying off. You want to do the least amount of work with the highest reward.