Creating Great Content

You’ve heard it a million times “Content is King.”  Well, that’s because it’s true.  If you can create engaging and informative content, you will have an edge on your competition by standing out as an industry expert.  Most of the time, just getting started is the most difficult part.  Once you get in the habit of developing topics and content, the possibilities are endless. 

I do not know what to write about

A lot of people freeze up when they are tasked to write something and create content for their company.  Believe it or not, you probably are already sitting a gold mine, stockpile of content! 

There are possibly project descriptions, power point presentations and other content that has been sitting on your shared drive for months, untouched.  Tap into these items first before you try to reinvent the wheel.  We will touch more on this item later. 

Let Your Clients or Current Projects Lead the Way

What are you currently working on?  What problems have you solved for your client lately? What is something you are really good at?  WRITE ABOUT THAT.  Any time you can tell a story and provide informative content, you are winning. 

What questions would your clients ask?

Put yourself in the shoes of a potential client or someone who may not be familiar with your business and type of services you offer.  What are the most popular questions your clients and prospects have?  Write them down and use that as a starting point for what to write about.  Fill in your answers and you will have the beginnings of a great piece that can address your clients’ concerns and hot button industry questions. 

What Problems Do You Solve?

The best content offers solutions and information for you potential clients.  They are not so much focused on what you sell but rather why you sell.  What problems are you solving?  Once you shift your content to be results focused, it becomes more valuable and accessible to your readers. 

Be Personal

Write like you are speaking directly to your specific audience.  Focus on what problems you can fix for them and answer any objections they may have.  Also, try to avoid technical, industry terms or abbreviations that most people would not know.  If you must use an abbreviation or acronym, make sure you spell it out first, so your reader knows what it stands for. 

Don’t Be Too “Salesy.” Your Posts Should Engage, Education or Entertain

Great content has the intention to teach and inform, not to directly sell.  “Sell without selling.”  No one wants to read an article that is trying to directly sell them something (unless they requested it).  That is why you have a brochure.

However, it is important to have a “call to action.” This is a sentence or two at the end of your blog or social media post which directs your reader to do something.  It could be something like this: “Please visit our website for more information.”  In this case, you are asking the reader to check out your website.  Or “Call us Today for a Free Quote.”  Just make sure you include your phone number if you want them to call you.

Good content informs and then directs the reader to perform an action.  When you consistently post, you are educating, setting yourself apart as an expert and letting them know how to reach you or buy your service or product. 

Have a Friend or Coworker Proofread

Having another set of eyes on your masterpiece is so vital to the content creating process.  As we work on a piece of content, we become blind to small punctuation or usage errors. 

It is also best to write for a bit and walk away, work on something else and come back to it.  Taking frequent breaks from writing is actually more productive.  You can clear your mind and think about more information and other items to add.   You may also catch a typo you did not previously see.

Repurpose and Remix

As stated earlier, you most likely have some content already on your shared drive or filed away somewhere.  Client power point presentations are a good place to start.  These usually have introductory information about your industry and (hopefully) contain great images and infographics or charts. 

What problems do your clients or industry currently face?  This is also a great place to start.  This leaves a lot of room to tell a story and paint a picture.  Addressing an industry-wide issue and telling a compelling story on how these issues can be alleviated is great content.

Let’s imagine you work for a construction management firm.  What issues are your clients facing? What stories can you tell?

1. Green Building & LEED Certified Projects – how did this benefit the tenants/community?
2. Building a Successful Project/Project Teams
3. Finding Qualified Subcontractors
4. Jobsite Safety & Insurance Premiums
5. Value Engineering & Budgeting
6. Timelines & Streamlining the Process
7. Site Selection
8. Adaptive Reuse
9. Diversity Requirements on Projects
10. Case Studies / Lessons Learned

I came up with this list in about 10 seconds and I am sure if you are in the industry, you could come up with a few more to add to this list. 

Now, the goal here is not to rattle off what services you provide to the client.  You want to tell a story so that the client will understand the benefits of these items and how it is going to make their life easier, better, faster, safer, etc. 

A hospital is not hiring a construction firm for just their construction services, they want a state-of-the-art, latest technology, energy efficient new wing for their hospital that is going to treat patients, help families and save lives.  Once you start focusing on results and the end-game rather than the services, so many content topics will come to mind. 

Social Media Posts

Pulling multiple social media posts from one lengthy article is smart.  One article may give you 5 more take away facts.  Use that for a social media post.  Have one post link back to your original blog to invite your reader “to learn more” about this topic on your website. 

Create Conversations

Take this a step further:  When posting to social media, you want to use the post as a means to “start the conversation.”  Having great information but asking what your audience thinks or asking them to chime in creates more of a dialogue and relationship building.  As a contractor or construction company, maybe ask others: “How is your company implementing safety programs?”  This creates an open-ended dialogue and helps create engagement on your blog or social media. 

In Conclusion

More often than not, there is already existing topics and content within your company that can be brought to light through a simple blog post, social media share or email blast.  Sharing this information sets you apart as an industry expert and opens the door to engage with your connections.

If you would like to learn more about writing great content, please contact me via email:  jessica@vailmarketingsolutions.com