Express Writers

#ContentWritingChat Recap: Successful Content Creation and Marketing in 2017 with Don Purdum

by | Jan 27, 2017 | ContentWritingChat

#ContentWritingChat Recap: Successful Content Creation and Marketing in 2017 with Don Purdum

Did you catch our latest #ContentWritingChat over on Twitter? If not, you missed one informative chat! We talked all about successful content creation to help you prepare for the year ahead. If you missed out or you need a refresher on all those amazing tips, this recap is for you!

#ContentWritingChat Recap: Successful Content Creation and Marketing in 2017 with Don Purdum


For this week’s chat, our guest host was Don Purdum. Don is an award-winning blogger and a marketing consultant. He joined us to share his top content creation and marketing tips so you can put them to use for your brand this year.

Q1: Why is it vital to have a relevant message for your audience, especially in 2017?

It’s so important, now more than ever, to make sure you’re sharing a message that’s relevant to your audience. But do you know why? We’ve got the answer, courtesy of our chat participants!

Don said that relevance determines how your audience experiences you based on their problems, needs, wants, or desires. He also brought up a great point that your content shouldn’t be all about you. It needs to provide some sort of incentive to your audience to get them read, comment, share, and link to you.

As Jason said, without a relevant message, your audience won’t resonate with you. You have to develop a connection with them and understand their needs.

Jason pointed out that talking to everyone is essentially talking to no one. You aren’t going to attract your ideal audience if you aren’t directly speaking to them and addressing their needs.

A relevant message is going to help you stand out in an otherwise crowded online space. Jacob said you need to produce a relevant message if you want your content to be read.

As Savannah said, there’s a lot of noise online today. We have to be wise about what we choose to consume. When you provide a clear message to your audience, it will help them easily decide if your content is right for them and worth their time.

Our CEO, Julia, is spot on with her answer. Relevant content = winning content! You want to create the content your audience will love.

Q2: Define giving value in content marketing. How do I know if my audience receives it?

We know it’s important to give our audience tremendous value in the content we create, but what does that actually mean? And how can you tell if your audience has received value? Here’s what you need to know:

For Don, he feels that providing value is when you can solve a problem your audience is facing or meeting one of their needs. He also said that you can tell your audience has received value when you notice things like social media shares, links to your content, and comments.

Christoph said that you provide value to your audience when you give them content that is useful in some way.

Julia knows that when you research, write, and create the best answer to your audience’s questions, you provide tremendous value.

Sarah from ThinkSEM said you can provide value to your audience by knowing what they need and want and delivering on it. When you see them taking action, that’s when you know they’ve received the value you aimed to provide.

Zala brought up some great questions you can ask yourself to determine if you’re providing value. Are you speaking to the needs of your audience? Are they giving you their attention? Are they actually reading your content, leaving comments, buying what you’re offering, or coming back for more?

Engagement and conversions are two ways you can tell if your audience is receiving the value you provide.

Q3: In order to increase conversion rates, what should be a content creation focus for 2017?

Whether you’re trying to get someone to buy a product, sign-up for your email list, or something else, those conversions are very important. So, how do you increase your conversion rates to get major results online? Check out these tips:

Don recommends following Google’s EAT principle. E = Expertise, A = Authority, T = Trustworthiness.

You should have a purpose to every piece of content you create. You need to have a goal that you’re working toward so you can measure the results you receive. It’ll let you know if your content is working or not.

Great advice from Bill! He said to focus on content that fills a need for your audience and provide clear calls to action throughout the customer funnel.

Once you know what you want to achieve with the content you create, you need to tell people want to do next. Don’t just hope they’ll figure it out on their own. Provide a call to action so they know what the next step is with you.

Jason also knows the importance of a call to action, but he also said you need to connect with your audience. If you lack that connection, they aren’t likely to take the next step.

Julia said you should spend time researching hot topics that your audience would be interested in. She loves tools like Answer the Public and BuzzSumo for this.

Caleb brings up a great point about knowing how your audience likes to receive content. Do they prefer audio, video, or written blog posts? Figure out what they want and create it because you’ll be more likely to see conversions taking place with the right content.

Q4: What are steps you can take to ensure a lower bounce rate on your website?

If you want to lower your bounce rate and get people staying on your website for a long time, here’s what you need to know:

When you actually deliver on the value you promised to people, they’ll want to stay on your site to read more and more. One great way to get visitors to check out more content on your website is to interlink relevant blog posts.

You also want to make sure you’re creating content that is targeting your ideal audience. If you aren’t, you’re going to wind up attracting all the wrong people and they aren’t going to stick around.

Brandie’s advice is to write content you’re passionate about, but also content that your audience wants to read.

It’s also a great idea that you don’t mislead people with a clickbait headline. They won’t be inclined to stick around if you do. Then, provide readers with quality writing and real value.

Good content will attract the right people to your site, but it’s ultimately great content that will keep them hanging around.

Q5: Describe the connection between a message, content, and SEO.

What is the connection between a message, content, and SEO? How do they work together? Let’s find out:

Don said you need to keep your content within your area of expertise, as opposed to straying from your core message. This helps to create relevance. You can also use your content as a way to position yourself as an authority.

Great answer from Caleb! Your message is what you want to say, your content is how you say it, and SEO is how it gets found organically.

As Julia said, your message comes first. Quality and high standards of the copy you create come second, then it wraps up with SEO.

SEO gets readers to your site, which is where you share content that delivers the message your audience needs to hear.

In the end, what matters is that all of these three things are stronger when you use them together.

Q6: How do you bring your message to the forefront of your target audience and make them aware of it?

Once you’ve created an amazing piece of content, you need to make your audience aware of it. Here’s how:

Don recommends building relationships with relevant influencers. You can comment on their blogs and share their content on social media as a way to get them to take notice. When an influencer shares your content, it’s a great way to make new people aware of your work.

Jacob said to figure out where your audience is already spending time online. Go there and start engaging with them. It’s a great way to build a relationship with them.

As Debi said, you need to start by optimizing your content. This ensures people are going to find it organically. Then, spread the word yourself by sharing content on al relevant online channels that your audience is using.

Jess is all about the target social campaigns. This is a great way to reach those who already read your site, plus many of other new people.

Shanelle offered a piece of helpful advice as she reminds us to be persistent. You can’t expect to receive results overnight, so keep trying to get your content out there.

Q7: What kinds of content work best to earn links and shares for your brand?

What kinds of content are going to get you the most links and shares? Check out what our chat participants had to say about this one:

For Don’ts brand, long-form content reigns supreme. His audience loves the 6,000+ word content they create, as well as infographics and resource guides.

It looks like we have another fan of infographics! Here at Express Writers, we also love them.

For Savannah, it’s all about educational, out-of-the-box posts. She also knows that great graphics and collaborations are powerful as well.

Readers love a good list post!

A picture is worth a thousand words, which is why images, videos, and GIFs are so powerful when it comes to gaining more links and shares.

You can’t go wrong with amazing, evergreen content!

Lex knows that long-form content that provides value is key to getting that SEO juice.

Q8: Share a few tools you use to create compelling content and relevant messaging.

The good news is, there are always tools to help you create amazing content for your brand. Check out some of these tool suggestions and try using them for yourself:

SEMrush is one powerful tool to have in your arsenal.

These are definitely some favorite tools for the Express Writers team!

Hashtagify, Feedly, and HubSpot are all must-haves for Ellie.

Tony is a fan of Canva for creating graphics. The best part is that you don’t need to be a design expert to create something that looks nice.

These tools that Cassandra suggested are all great. Have you tried them?

Smart answer from Michelle! She knows the importance of social listening, as it’s a great way to figure out what your audience wants and needs.

We look forward to seeing you at the next #ContentWritingChat! Mark your calendars weekly for Tuesday at 10 AM Central Time for great chats centered around content writing and marketing. Follow @ExpWriters to stay updated on our new topics and guests!

Tags: content creation