Creating Killer Content

While at the Midwest Digital Marketing Conference (MDMC) in St. Louis, one of the most useful and educational presentations was from Julie Ewald, CEO and creative director at Impressa Solutions LLC. She educated the audience on how to produce “killer content” and maximize your ROI.

According to Ewald, killer content is technically good, error free writing that is engaging, high value to the audience, original, on-brand and relevant. While search engine optimization (SEO) is always important, there is more to effective writing than just that.

Here are some of the key takeaways from the presentation:

• Know your brand: Always consider what content makes sense for your brand’s character, voice and positioning. Perform brand and positioning research and utilize it. When it comes to SEO, use keywords you want your brand to be associated with.
• Know your audience: Your content is a gift to your audience. After researching who your audience is, create content that makes sense for them. Produce content that your consumers actually want to consume at that time.
• Sort your SEO keywords: Evaluate the keywords you selected to boost your SEO and use them at the proper time.
• Prioritize ideas you can repurpose: Don’t create content that is just a “one hit wonder.” Take big content and repurpose it to make smaller content. One example is to do this with video. Smaller content can also be built up to make bigger content.
• Have content go somewhere: What do you want people to do after they enjoy your content? Download an offer? Contact you? Always have a call to action and make sure it is direct, obvious and never confusing.
• Plan and document your content: Plan out what you’re going to create and track what you actually create. This will help you plan campaigns and delegate your time and budget accordingly. One way to do this is by creating an editorial calendar and having a content organizer.
• Create technically good content: Make sure your content is clean and error free. It should always be high value, original content that is interesting and compelling for your audience. Use proper links and citations when applicable.
• Promote your content: No one will know your content is out there if you don’t promote it. A minimum of 20-percent of time and budget should go into promoting your content. It cannot perform if no one knows it exists.