How many times have you sat down to write a blog post (or any other piece of content) only to end up staring at a blinking cursor on a blank page? Or browsing the internet for information on something completely unrelated to your task? You didn’t want to write that blog post, so you suddenly had to find out the answer to some random question, and the next thing you know, you’ve disappeared into the Wikipedia black hole and the time you set aside to write has completely vanished.
Sound familiar?
I get asked about my content creation process all the time, both from prospective clients and from people attending networking events who are just curious about the life of a content strategist and might be looking for tips for writing their own content.
In this article I’ll go over my entire content creation process, from concept to distribution. I’ll talk about my process for my own content, as well as the process I use when creating content for my clients. There’s a lot of overlap between the two, but when they differ, I’ll make it clear whether I’m talking about creating my own content or my client work.
I’m not promising you’ll never have to stare at a blinking cursor again if you follow these tips, but you’ll at least reduce the amount of time you spend staring at a blank screen. We can’t always afford to wait for inspiration to strike when we’re on a deadline, so use these tips to summon your muse when you need them.
Table of Contents
- Identify Your Brand Tone of Voice to Start Your Content Creation Process
- Keep an Eye Out for Content Ideas
- Make Your List, Check It Twice Before Creating Content
- Research Keywords Before Creating Content
- Do Your Research Before (or During) the Content Creation Phase
- Write Your Content
- Leave Your Content Alone After First Creating It
- Optimize Your Content
- Distribute Your Content
1) Identify Your Brand Tone of Voice to Start Your Content Creation Process
This is the very first thing I do when I get a new client. If they already have content on their website, I spend some time reading through their content to get a feel for the tone of voice they like to use, as well as the topics they tend to cover. If they don’t yet have a website, or if they’re going through a rebranding process and they want a new tone of voice for their brand, I’ll ask about some websites whose content they like and would like to emulate on their own website. For solopreneurs who are just starting out, I’ll usually interview them to get an idea of how they speak and the kinds of words and phrases they tend to use.
If you’re just starting out creating content for your business, the first thing you need to do is figure out your brand’s tone of voice. Do you want to keep it upbeat and playful? Or serious and formal? Can you use lots of acronyms and industry-specific jargon? Or should you keep it simple?
The answer will depend on your target audience, but it will also depend on who you are as a person and the type of company you want to run. If you want your work to be fun for both you and your clients, then inject that sense of fun into your content as you would any other aspect of your business.
I talk all the time about identifying your target audience before you do any kind of content marketing, so I won’t go into that again here, but identifying your target audience and deciding on your brand’s tone of voice should be done at the same time – right when you’re starting your business, before you create any content.
2) Keep an Eye Out for Content Ideas
You may or may not know that I write short stories and book reviews over on this website, just for fun. When I launched that website, I committed to writing a short story and a book review every week. Suddenly short stories went from something I did once in a while when I felt like it/when I had time, to something I felt I had to do every week. Once I made that commitment, I started looking for short story ideas everywhere – and I found them. It turns out creativity is like a muscle. It really does grow stronger the more you use it.
The same goes for coming up with ideas for this blog. Whether it’s a question someone asks me at a networking event, inspiration from something I see online, or random ideas popping in my head when I least expect it, I’m always on the lookout for things to blog about.
For more tips on how to determine what to write about, check out this blog post, which actually provides a nice segue into my next tip…
3) Make Your List, Check It Twice Before Creating Content
I’ve only had this blog for about a year and a half, and I still find myself checking to make sure I haven’t already covered a certain topic when inspiration strikes. Sometimes an idea is so good I’ll have it two or three times, so it’s important to make sure I’m not repeating myself.
WordPress makes it easy for me to see all my blog post titles in one list, but for clients, I tend to keep a spreadsheet of all the topics that have already been covered on their blog so I can make sure every post I write for them is providing value in the form of something new.
4) Research Keywords Before Creating Content
This is where content marketing becomes content strategy. I always say you can blog about whatever comes to mind whenever you feel like it and call it content marketing … but not content strategy.
Content strategy requires a tone/voice that remains consistent through all your brand’s messaging, a content calendar, and keyword research.
Before writing about any given topic, you need to make sure a) your target audience is looking for information on that topic, and b) that topic has not already been covered by all your competitors. If you come up with a topic you think is brilliant, but it doesn’t meet both of the criteria I just mentioned, it’s time to go back to the drawing board.
But you don’t always have to completely start over. If the first keyword you look up turns out to be a bust, try a few variations on that keyword, specifically long-tail keywords (where you add words to your keyphrase to make it more specific). Long-tail keywords tend to get a lower search volume, but also a lower competition rate and a higher conversion rate. So if your first keyword doesn’t have the numbers you want, try a few variations before moving on to another topic.
5) Do Your Research Before (or During) the Content Creation Phase
Even a keyword with a low competition rate is bound to have some information out there, so do some research to see what other people have already covered on the topic before you write your own blog post. The goal is to make your content the go-to piece of content on that topic by making it as informative and in depth as possible. If you make sure your content has all the answers, Google will be more likely to direct people to your content, and prospects will be more likely to click through to your website and convert into customers (or at least warmer leads).
Researching your topic is also a necessary part of making sure you have all the answers, which is especially important if you’re writing in a B2B or professional services industry where you need to do more than just tell it like it is – you need to back it up with stats and research. How do you know XYZ is true? Why should your readers believe you? Rather than making them take your word for it, you can cite sources and studies with links back to the original content. Just make sure the websites you’re linking back to are power partners and not competitors.
6) Write Your Content
I usually do my research and writing at the same time, but everyone is different. I’m definitely a pantser, meaning I like to write “by the seat of my pants” without taking the time to write an outline. Other people might like to do their research and write an outline so they can come back to their content later and write it all out in one sitting without wasting too much time. Neither method is good or bad, just find what works for you and stick with it.
7) Leave Your Content Alone After First Creating It
If you’re editing your own work, you need to leave it alone for at least 24 hours before coming back for the editing phase. The longer you can leave it alone without looking at, or even thinking about it, the better. That will enable to you to look at it with fresh eyes and see what you wrote instead of what you meant to write.
Ideally, you should get a professional editor or even a colleague with strong writing skills and attention to detail to look over your work before you hit that publish button, but if that’s not possible, use these tips to copyedit your own work.
8) Optimize Your Content
Once I’m satisfied the content is high quality, I add subheadings, meta-tags, links, and images before scheduling it to be published. I go back to my list of target keywords and make sure they’re in all the right places, including subheadings, meta-tags, etc, all of which helps Google index the content so it shows up in the right searches. Finally, I always schedule the publication of all my blog posts so they can all go up at the same time on the same day each week, thereby ensuring the consistency of my content calendar.
9) Distribute Your Content
I don’t offer content distribution as a service, except for newsletters. I do have a client for whom I write her newsletters as well as her blog posts, and the newsletters get scheduled to go out the same day the blog post gets published. I will say that the data suggests the more traffic you can drive to your blog post the day it gets published, the better it will rank in online searches because that traffic will signal to Google that it’s valuable content.
I usually write my newsletter as soon as I schedule the blog post to go up and I have the link under which it will be published. I also create a video in which I talk through the points given in the blog post so I can include that video in my newsletter.
Once the blog post is published, I spend a few hours scheduling social media posts to promote it throughout the week, and then it’s on to the next piece of content!
What are your tips for maintaining an excellent content creation process? Anything you think I should have covered in this post? Let me know in the comments.
If you’re looking for more tips on taking your blogging game to the next level, my blogging accountability group might be just what you need. Each week I provide resources to help you blog better, as well as hold you accountable to your goals.
If you found this content useful and would like to receive more like it, you can sign up for our newsletter in the space below. You can also see what we’re up to by following us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.
