Identifying Content Topics that Matter

In Blair's previous blog you learned how to find the right audience for your content. Once you've determined your audience, it's time to develop the content. Content can sometimes be tricky. What you think may be important and what your audience wants to hear may be completely different.

Photo Credit: Jeff Bullas

Sometimes what your audience is looking for may go overlooked or actually be to their interests or needs. So how do you determine what content actually matters to your target audience? 

Here are some tips and exercises that you can try:

• Keyword research - Review the keywords that readers have entered to find you. This will be a great starting place to decide what exactly your audience is looking for. If they are searching for it, chances are these keywords are relevant to them. Create content around or related to these keywords and try to work these keywords into your content, tags or meta data. 
• Popular industry news - Stay up to date on industry news to make sure that your content is relevant, timely and incorporates the latest and greatest topics within your industry or the industry of the audience that you are targeting.
• Content that supports your target audience's goals and challenges- Often when someone is searching for something online they are looking for an answer on how to overcome and obstacle or to help them. By focusing your content around your target goals and challenges, you are meeting them where they are looking and positioning yourself as a helpful resource and thought leader.
• Internet forums - Do some investigative work. Find out what people are talking about. What's the current conversation? You can do this through searching online forums or social media platforms. Incorporate your findings into your content.
• Sales and support FAQs - Think of the questions that your company or sales team are asked most frequently, these are clearly topics that your customer are interested in learning more about. This will drive interesting and informative content.

Need more help creating effective content? Contact IGPR for a FREE consultation.