Creating content is crucial for your business but also for your brand. This isn’t to say that it doesn’t come without challenges, even more so depending on your industry. It’s more than a case of publishing content just because you feel you have to. Authentic, engaging content can not only truly inform but it can turn browsers into loyal customers. What are the key challenges and how do you overcome them when it comes to content creation?
1. No one engages with our content
You’ve spent a long time devising a content strategy, have published content month on month to see that your users aren’t engaging. No one is reading, your user journey is minimal, your page isn’t ranking and there’s definitely no chance of a conversion from a blog post.
The thing is with many content strategies, there’s a presumption of what it is that your users want. In a world where we want the answers to queries and fast, research is key. If you feel your industry is ‘boring’, that isn’t to say that your content has to be.
- Look for long tail queries that may require more than just a brief summary from a Google search to get the answer. Provide enough information, internal links and varied media to keep your user’s engagement.
- Do your customers enjoy ‘boring’? If your industry isn’t the most entertaining, know your audience. Think about practical ways of giving your customers content that they really need. Don’t re-invent the wheel by creating the same content repeatedly, do your customer research to become truly engaging.
2. AI is ruining our chances of ranking
We’ve all seen the AI overview summaries that answer our queries without the need to even visit a webpage. This poses both a positive and negative impact, perhaps you’re ranking for a specific term because your content is doing what it should be. On the other hand, no one is visiting your site because of this.
Don’t see AI as your enemy, but an accomplice. Learn from it, add more internal links and call to actions when appropriate so that AI summaries can actually help to encourage more site visits.
If you’re using AI to create content, then in all honesty, re-think your strategy. People buy from people and ultimately want views, opinions, expertise and your brand’s tone that AI is unable to (currently) achieve. Use it to aid you, to give you more insights and competitor analysis but always fact-check. I’ve seen a worrying amount of pages that contain incorrect information as a case of AI content creation.
3. We've ran out of ideas
Knowing what to write about is possibly the hardest part of content creation. The thing is you’ll never actually run out of things to create content about. You just need new ways to find ideas.
- Use existing data, run content audits, look at analytics to identify gaps and which current pages could do with a re-fresh. Not only can this impact your engagement levels, keyword positioning but also your overall UX. I’m a big advocate for recycling content, it doesn’t mean that your users are no longer interested, it’s that trends change and if you want to stay ahead, you have to stay current.
- Going back to AI, this is where it can and should be used. Go wild, I often ask where there’s content gaps, for trends or what type of content that a key demographic is most engaged with. As long as this is verified, it’s amazing the amount of information and research that can be provided. Map out content ideas and add research or even thoughts and come back to it. Our best ideas usually appear when we’re not even looking for them.
Content requires some care
Remember that content has changed. We’re impatient and not only do we want answers or to be entertained, we don’t have long in order to be informed or entertained. This means as content creators, the window of opportunity is incredibly small. Going back to the drawing board is never a bad thing, it gives you time to create content that is evergreen and has longevity.
Talk to the Victress team, whether that’s for content strategy options, workshops, consultancy or management. We’d love to hear from you and your current content woes.
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