Is Your Content Marketing a Reader Magnet? [Chart]

How to Create Content That Attracts Readers

Do you pray for readers when you publish your content marketing? If so, you’re not alone.

Don’t worry—super powers aren’t needed to attract more readers. Rather, you must understand what your prospects, customers and the public want and are looking to you to supply. By focusing on their needs and desires, you’ll be able to create content for which they’re searching across a variety of format options. Recognize that the type of content they want will vary based on where they are, the type of device they’re using to gather this information, and the amount of time they have to consume it. Take time to assess your objectives and your target market’s needs to ensure that your content maximizes its effectiveness.

5 Steps to create magnetic content

Before you dive in and develop your content, follow these five steps to ensure that your content marketing is effective at attracting the right audience for you.

Understand your overarching business goals. The primary goals most businesses have are to expand the number of prospects (includes improved branding), increase sales, reactivate former customers, engage fans and advocates, and monitor reputation. From these flow more specific objectives around which content is developed.
Know your target audience. Instead of chasing numbers of readers, attract more prospects who are interested in what you have to offer in terms of content and ultimately paid goods and services.
Develop marketing personas. The purpose is to help content developers understand your prospect’s mindset. As a result, they should be able to write more compelling content because they better appreciate customers’ pain points, motivations and what they’re looking for from your content. Consider how your target market will consume your content, on what type of device (Here’s multi-platform research to help you understand these trends.), and where they’ll be when they read it. (Here’s a great chart for content and the purchase process.)
Determine optimal content format. Based on your business objectives and the prospect’s needs, decide which content format is most effective.
Integrate specific content assignments into editorial calendar. Incorporate all of these elements into an editorial calendar to help produce content on schedule.

Content By Category to Attract Readers Chart

To put these factors into perspective to create tailored content, here’s a chart. (For more detail on content categories, here’s a detailed breakout of the five content categories.)

Regardless of where your content appears, whether it’s internal media such as your product packaging, customer communications, or website, social media such as a blog, video, podcast, eBook or photographs, or third party media such as news sites or category specific sites, both online and offline, it must be help achieve your organization’s goals while meeting prospects’ desires. To this end, offer your audience a selection of information across content categories.

Is your content marketing a reader magnet? If so, what suggestions can you offer to other readers? If not, what challenges have you encountered?

Happy marketing,
Heidi Cohen

Here are some related readings that you may find interesting.

Photo credit: DougWW via Flickr