Now that we’re weeks into stay-at-home orders and most of us are working remotely from the comfort of our homes, it’s a great time to review an aspect of marketing that often gets overlooked — content.

Risdall is constantly reminding our clients about the importance of fresh, relevant content. With so many people spending more time online and hungry for information, you have an opportunity to share your expertise with a vast audience who are still looking for information related to doing their jobs and ready to listen. Here are our thoughts on reviewing content and some ideas for ramping up your efforts. 

Don’t create content for the heck of it

Before we get too excited, it’s important to remind everyone that it’s never a good idea to just create content for content’s sake. When creating anything, outline the key points you’re trying to get across to the audience and stick to this plan. 

Take some time to review topics and ideas that are important and helpful to your client base. Also, make sure you (or your organization) has a specific point of view you’re trying to get across in every piece. Whether we’re in quarantine or not, it’s never a good idea to just parrot what other authors are saying. 

Time to highlight your expertise

Whether your content is related to the quarantine or not, now is the time to showcase your expertise in the industries you serve. Take the time to craft content that connects your unique expertise to specific needs and interests of your audience.

You know your clients’ needs better than anyone else, and the better you can speak to meeting these needs (and solving their problems), the more powerful any content you create will be. Be specific about your approach and results. Your audience is looking for real, actionable items. 

It’s probably time to create a big piece

A great way to generate a lot of content at the same time is to create a larger piece like an ebook or white paper. These large content types allow you to cover a variety of topics, then break the content into smaller pieces. A good ebook could be the reference point for months’ worth of blog posts that each include a call to action to download the full piece. There’s also a certain amount of authority that comes with creating long-form, useful content that educates your audience. 

Bigger pieces of content typically take more effort to create than smaller pieces. Your subject matter experts may have more time available to dive into a topic, and you can then repurpose and use this content for other pieces in the future. Investing in content now may prevent you from taking up their time for input when their schedules are packed.

Google (and your prospects) love updated content

A great way to make sure your site is keeping the attention of search engines is to keep creating new content. Google has turned itself into an “answer engine” that provides users with the answers they’re looking for. Make sure your content is covering keywords and topics that prospects are including in searches, whether they’re typing out full questions or just specific words. 

If your content topic is evergreen, you could see visitors coming for years to come. If it’s related to a current subject, you’ll see an uptick of visitors simply because it’s a topic that users are actively searching for right now. 

Don’t forget about case studies and testimonials 

The default for most of us tends to be blog and website content, but let’s not forget that client and customer stories and testimonials are an extremely valuable part of your content library and highly effective on pages of your website where prospects are reviewing specific products or services. This real-world “social proof” showcases your ability to meet the needs of clients and generally contain keywords and phrases that are commonly searched for by prospects. 

Chances are your customers are experiencing a certain amount of downtime right now, and may have the time to write a testimonial or approve a case study. It’s also a great opportunity to keep communication channels open with your current and past clients, and to remind them of all the great work you’ve done together. 

Put content creation into a regular schedule

While most of us still have plenty of regular job duties to attend to, we should really be taking any extra time we have to review and refine current content, not to mention creating new content. Even if it’s only for an extra hour a day, it’s the perfect time to get several months’ worth of blog posts, ebooks, and white papers written and ready for review. 

If you need help getting started in this area, we’d love to walk through your current content strategy and how it can be improved. Whether it’s focused on creating new content or reviewing existing pieces and how they fit into your overall marketing strategy, Risdall’s team is ready to help.