Tag: content calendar

10 tips for creating engaging content

While anyone can create content, the key is creating engaging content that helps your brand achieve your goals on social media and beyond.

Engaging content is all about getting results, such as:

  • Click-throughs to your website
  • Overall increase in website traffic
  • Social media mentions, likes, comments and/or shares
  • Opt-ins
  • Conversions
  • Sales

Ask yourself what you want your target audience to do when they consume your content. The extra effort to put out great (rather than just good) content is worth it.

About 69 percent of Twitter users have bought something because of a tweet, but about 65 percent of marketers find it difficult to produce engaging content.

The following are 10 tips for creating engaging content that will drive results for your brand.

Strive for originality

Easier said than done, right? Keep in mind that even though someone else could be talking about the same thing or using a similar image, but it’s all about your unique voice and spin.

Consider leveraging your personal experiences or even customer experiences, depending on what makes sense for your brand. Those are truly unique to you and your brand.

And lean on what makes your brand itself original. Not sure what that is? Check out our nine tips that can be considered a branding walk-through.

Think actionable

When engaging content translates into results, what action do you want your audience to take? 

Consider your goals.

For example, let’s say that you want to promote a new product you’re launching. A salesy blog about the product probably won’t do the trick. Instead, think about creating an “unboxing” video, formatted differently for each social media platform, that can generate interest with a call to action directing consumers to your website to find out more (or offering a discount code to save on purchasing) is a more engaging way to go. 

Of course, there is not a one-size-fits-all single piece of content (no matter how engaging) that will work. Think of every piece of content as simply a drop in the bucket that you can keep adding to in different ways with different angles.

But always keep the point of your content in mind. Draw their attention in and show them the next step that you want them to take. Just keep it simple.

Use (accurate) data

Numbers and statistics can be incredibly engaging in your content. An interesting fact (whether stataed or visually displayed) can catch internet users’ attention. But make sure that whatever data you’re using is accurate and up to date.

Anyone can post anything on the internet essentially. So, double check that you’re pulling your data from a trustworthy source.

Then, use relevant statistics wherever it makes sense to do so. What you use can easily inspire an infographic or a topic for a Facebook or Instagram Live conversation.

Explore storytelling opportunities

While numbers are great, stories are even more compelling.

Storytelling can help you connect with your target audience and boost your authority on a topic, depending.

Be sure to speak or write in a way that’s relatable to your audience, maintaining a conversational tone. Depending on the nature of the story, you want to spur emotions, such as joy or sadness.

Consider a fitness blog. Would you as a consumer want to know the fitness trainer’s list of certifications, or the backstory that inspired that person to get certified in the first place? The two are not exclusive. It’s just about the angle that the content creator takes to engage you. The list of certifications is not going to engage you, but that story might (and you can still see the list, too).

Think about real-time engaging content

The more you know and understand your target audience, the easier it is to identify their interests and plan your content accordingly. Consider asking:

  • What events are they interested in?
  • Which television shows or movies are they watching?
  • What holidays are significant?
  • Are there any special times of year for them (such as summer vacations, tax season or school exam periods)?

Creating content around and related to these real-time events and interests will be that much more engaging for your audience.

Provoke thought

Simply put, you want to make your audience think. Many topics that are related to your industry and brand might fall into a gray zone, where opinions reighn supreme. The idea is to ask the right open-ended questions in your engaging content to spark discussion.

For example, a baby supplies brand could ask its audience what the top tip is that every new mom should know. This can be presented a simple graphically designed image post on a social media platform with the goal of a robust comment thread.

Explore humor

Humor is an excellent way to engage with your audience. Making people laugh forms a stronger bond with your brand.

This can involve sharing a meme, celebrating an unusual holiday or just asking silly questions. Just make sure that what you think is funny is actually funny and not inappropriate, confusing or even offensive.

Humor can definitely go wrong, so tread carefully and stay true to your brand. Check out whether humor is right for your digital marketing.

Involve your followers

About 85 percent of consumers think that visual user-generated content (UGC) is more persuasive than branded photos or videos.

UGC is unpaid or unsponsored social media posts that consumers share about a product or service. Essentially, it’s content created by your audience that you then are resharing with that audience. Not only is it engaging, but it takes some of the burden off of you to create every piece of content from scratch.

Check out our 10 tips to encourage more user-generated content.

Visuals are a must

In this era of digital marketing, your visuals are everything. Images and especially videos are the most engaging types of content online.

Half of social media users prefer video over other types of content, and users share video content with others twice as much as any other type of content.

Take and use original photos as much as you can, and embrace video. Just keep in mind that a vast majority of videos (particularly on Facebook) are watched without sound.

Consider the 10 types of videos you can use in your digital marketing, and check out these 18 video-editing apps that you should know about.

And when photos or videos aren’t an option, consider infographics and other graphic images that you can use. We found these 11 free graphic design tools for the non-designer.

Plus, the right visuals can even increase your email conversions.

Mix up your content

Hold yourself accountable for keeping a fresh mix of content publishing from your brand. The same thing over and over is going to lose your audience’s interest and lose engagement.

Mix in videos with blog shares, polls with photo galleries, whatever makes sense for your brand.

A content calendar can help you stay organized with all your planning and ensure that you’re not overlooking the overall mix of your content. Check out our eight tips to create an effective content calendar.

In conclusion

Creating engaging content takes work, but that work is worth it. Remember your goals every time you plan and execute a new piece of content. Make sure that you’re not just sticking with “good” content but that you’re striving for “great” content.

See our seven tips to level up your content marketing.

As you create more and more engaging content, consider optimizing your digital marketing process, such as automation, audience segmentation and enhanced email marketing capabilities, to name a few. DailyStory can help. Schedule your free demo with us today.

8 tips to create an effective content calendar

Content marketing has many moving parts.

From what to write to where to post, how to post and what else can be brought back (and when), you then have to ensure that everything you’re doing is engaging and relevant.

Organization is critical.

A content calendar can help you plan and maintain your content marketing strategy across platforms. Specifically, a content calendar is a written schedule of when and where you plan to publish your upcoming content. It can be as simple or as complex as you need it to be, with the option to include:

  • Upcoming content pieces
  • Status updates
  • Planned promotions
  • Partnerships
  • Updates to your existing content

About 40 percent of marketers say content marketing is a very important part of their overall marketing strategy. And effective content marketing comes down to great planning.

The following are eight tips to create an effective content calendar that works for your business and your content marketing goals.

Determine your goals

Your goals typically revolve around what you hope to achieve with your content marketing in general.

Are you hoping to generate new leads? Grow your social media following? Increase your website traffic?

Your goals impact not only who you’re targeting but also where and how often you should publish content, which then will guide what needs you have for your content calendar.

Check out our seven tips to level up your content marketing (which includes more than just goal-setting).

Create your content calendar template

A simple search will yield many content calendar templates that you can use. Whether you’re looking to adopt a new software application, download a pre-made template or create your own, remember that again, this can be as simple or complex as you want it to be.

Truly, a basic spreadsheet would do the trick.

Just make sure that it’s easy to update and share with other team members.

Some information that would be helpful to include:

  • Topic of the content
  • Type of content
  • Date and time for publishing
  • Channels (social media and otherwise) where the content will be published and/or shared
  • Point person for the content
  • Link to the published content
  • Confirmation that the content has, in fact, published according to the schedule
  • Any relevant notes

Look ahead to the calendar year

To start the planning process, it’s helpful to lay out the year ahead and make note of all the important events that your content can reflect and/or promote.

This can include:

  • Holidays
  • Product releases
  • Anniversaries
  • Seminars
  • Seasonal promotions

Doing so will not ensure that you can seize these opportunities with your content marketing.

Choose your publishing frequency

The frequency of your new content as well as the sharing of existing content is typically a balance between what’s ideal for your audience and what you have the resources (including time) to do.

It’s important to not overcommit yourself or your team. Success is more tied to quality than quantity. If you’re stretching yourself so thin just to publish something new, it’s not going to be as engaging or relevant as it could be otherwise.

On the flip side, overstuffing your content calendar just because you can also is not recommended.

Visualizing your frequency on a content calendar can help you find the best balance for your brand and your team. It can help you anticipate traditionally busier times and how your content can expand and contract accordingly.

Of course, keep in mind that your content calendar does not have to be set in stone. The beauty of planning your content further out in advance is that you can easily adjust well before you even begin working on impacted campaigns or content pieces.

Approach your content calendar with that flexibility in mind. You want to hold yourself accountable, of course, but you also want to adapt to whatever might pop up.

As far as sharing your content on social media platforms, consider these seven opportunities for social media automation that can save you time.

Consider your content workflow

If you’re a team of one, this is simple. However, as soon as you have more than just you involved in the content planning, you must consider:

  • Who needs to approve content and/or posts
  • How approval is communicated
  • The process for brainstorming new content
  • How to assign roles and what that should look like

Streamlining a workflow that works for your team will only benefit the overall effectiveness of your content calendar.

Evergreen content is just as important as new content

When developing a content calendar, the tendency is to populate it with content ideas that are new.

But don’t shortchange your existing, evergreen content, which is the content that (while it might seem old to you) is continually relevant and fresh for users.

Whether you’re updating, bringing back “as is” or repurposing your evergreen content entirely, this is a treasure trove of content opportunities that you can’t ignore. Be sure to make a point to sprinkle this existing content throughout your content calendar.

See our 13 tips to repurpose your content like a marketing rockstar.

Consistently update and review your content calendar

A content calendar, no matter how much information is on it, is only as good as how active you are using it.

Commit to checking in on your calendar regularly. Schedule at least monthly brainstorming planning sessions where you flush out the next month’s content calendar in greater detail and sketch out ideas for months further in advance that can be revisited as needed.

Struggling with marketing writer’s block? See our seven tips to beat it.

Ideally, you’ll want the flow of your brand’s content to stay uninterrupted no matter what the frequency is.

Monitor the performance of your content

The upside of content marketing is that everything is measurable. Take advantage.

Be sure to track how your content is performing across platforms.

What’s working, and what’s not?

Take those insights and apply them to future planning in your content calendar. It is through those performance insights that you can continually improve your content strategy.

While you’re embracing a new content calendar, consider leveling up your digital marketing strategy. DailyStory specializes in automation, email marketing, audience segmentation and more. Level up your process, and schedule a free demo with us today.