How to Be a Content Creator: The Ultimate Guide For Brands

Content creation isn’t just for influencers. You're not the only one who is interested in learning how to create content for your brand.

Brands are now creating original content on multiple platforms in order to connect with their customers. This is a great way to show your brand personality and build customer relationships. It also helps drive more traffic and conversions.

Content creation should not be done randomly. Brands must make decisions about the types of content, processes and resources they use.

This article will discuss how content creation has changed over time, why it is important for brands, the types of content brands create, and how to start creating consistent, high-quality, quality content.

Quick Takeaways

• Over the past ten year, content creation has become a vital part of any digital marketing strategy.

• Celebrity endorsements have been largely replaced by influencer content.

• B2B buyers depend on brand content for more than half their research before they ever contact a brand directly.

• Video will soon be the most popular and widely consumed content type.

• If their internal resources are insufficient to achieve content goals, companies should outsource content creation.

• To ensure content creation is on track, work plans and content calendars can be important planning tools.

Content creation's evolving role

In 2012, when I first wrote this article about content creation for this blog, I called it: Join the 1% to Become a Content Creator. I didn't realize that content creation would grow exponentially over the next ten years. Content creation is now a career option for influencers, and a competitive requirement for brands that are successful in digital marketing.

Influencer marketing has a huge impact

With the launch of Instagram, influencer culture exploded and changed the nature of content creation. Consumers cared more about the opinions of influencers about brands and products than celebrities who had been paid advertising deals.

To resonate with modern consumers, brands had to shift their focus towards influencer partnerships and authentic messaging.

This is now known as the creator economy. In this model, influencers can monetize social media content via strategic brand partnerships. The influencer marketing market has grown 10X in the last six years. 93% of marketers have used influencer advertising at some point in their lives.

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Buyers from B2B look online

Consumers in the B2B market looked to the internet for brand research. Today, 57% of them have completed more than 57% before contacting a brand. This has had a profound impact on the sales process for B2B brands and required them to create content to reach customers who are in dire need of their solutions.

Content marketing will be used by over 90% of organizations in 2022 and generates 6X more ROI than other forms of marketing. Even brands that adopted content marketing in the early days and were seen as innovators need to continue being creative and keep up with current trends. They also need to produce better content in a competitive market.

Even traditional brick-and mortar businesses had to go online in order to reach new audiences through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Brands must use content marketing. They must also be content creators in order to achieve this.

What does content creation mean for brands in 2022

Today, content creation is multiform and multichannel for brands. Blogs, videos, infographics and email are all forms of content creation. While not all channels or content are suitable for every brand, it is important for companies to have a customer-focused process and plan when creating content. This involves understanding your target audience, what content is valuable to them and what your brand can create.

Below is a graphic that shows the various channels and types of content marketing, as well as the goals they achieve for brands.

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Learn more about the overall strategy for managing content in our guide to developing a content marketing plan. We'll be focusing on content creation. Let's begin by looking at some of the most effective and popular types of content that brands create.

Blogs

When people hear the phrase “content marketing,” blogging is the first thing they think of. A blog typically has between 1000 and 2000 words. Blogs with a longer form are more likely to achieve the best results. Hubspot says that blogging requires regular post publishing (11-16 per month) and an SEO strategy to get your articles ranked in the SERPs.

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Blog writing can be time-consuming. Many brands fail to do it right because of this. You need a dedicated team of bloggers with the right experience and knowledge to make blogging a success. Or you can outsource it to an agency who can help you.

Video

Video is now the most popular and most consumed content type. Cisco predicted that video would make up 82% of all internet traffic by 2022. The current trends are in line with this prediction. Short form video is ubiquitous (thanks to TikTok!) COVID-19 made longer videos such as lectures, workshops, webinars, the norm.

Brands often face the main obstacle of production costs and skills. This can prove to be costly. It doesn't have be this way for all types of video content like social media stories or webinars. Your content team can create engaging video content with an iPhone by utilizing the right training and practice.

Email

72 percent of consumers prefer email to all other forms of direct communication from brands. People check their emails multiple times per day. This is a great way to get in touch with your audience. It also serves as a channel for amplifying any content you have created.

Image Source: Marketing Sherpa

Email is all about timing and targeting. If you send an email at a random time, your open rate could really drop. Spammy emails can be sent too often. Sending too many emails at once can make you look generic. The best emails are targeted to specific customer segments and based on preferences or demographics.

This being said, you have tons of email marketing tools that can automate your sending, segment lists and track email performance metrics.

Infographics

Infographics can be a great way to make complex information (even technical or dry) more engaging. You can make them for any topic, but they are especially useful for conveying a lot of information in one place.

Marketing Insider Group, for example, used infographics to present our blog post checklist and anatomy (both full of information) in one place.

Posts on social media

Social media is a great way to connect with your favorite brands. According to social media users, 90% have made a purchase through a brand that they follow. They also interact with brands in many other ways.

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Social media is often seen as a way to share other content, such as YouTube videos or blogs. However, you can create content for specific social media platforms, such polls or surveys, or stories or short videos for Instagram and TikTok. Social content is one of the most interactive types of content we have. It's an excellent way to establish relationships with your audience.

How to be a content creator: The brand version

After we have discussed why content is important for brands, and the various types of content they create, you might be wondering how your brand can actually become a content creator. How do you start? Let's take a look at your next steps.

Assess your current team members and resources

The first thing you need to do is determine how much current resources you have for content creation. This is an important step to make before you decide whether to outsource content creation to an agency or handle it internally. This is not a complete list. However, you will need to have writers, SEO-experienced people, and designers right away. Access to key tools such as email and social media automation and data tracking are essential for your strategic job.

Your current staff will also be required to allow you to devote significant time to content creation. Bad content is worse than no content. You don't want it to happen without the right resources.

Choose the types of content that you will create

I would recommend that you start small and build on your successes. You might want to start a blog that is great and then be more active on social media. This will allow you to share your blogs and create interactive content. After your blog is established, you may add another platform to create short-form video content. This is only one example. This is just one example.

Create your content calendar and work plan

This is a critical step. Without a well-documented work plan and content calendar you run the risk of your content being lost. The work plan should detail every task, its deadline, and who is responsible. Your content calendar will track when and where your content will appear.

You don't need to reinvent the wheel. You can find many content planning and content calendar templates that you can download free of charge and modify for your company.

Identify the performance metrics that you will measure

You need to establish goals for your content in order to keep your team on track and hold them accountable. What are you looking to achieve for your brand with content? An obvious goal is to increase traffic to your site. Perhaps you are looking to increase your social media followers. Maybe you are looking to make your brand an authority on a topic.

No matter what your goals may be, it is important to define and set them. To help you achieve your goals, I recommend the SMART goal framework.

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Execute!

Now it's time for you to make the jump! You will start to see results if you follow your plan.

Continuously evaluate, refine, & improve

Although it is the last, it is certainly not the least. Remember that content plan we spoke of before? You should have defined processes and times that you can use to assess the performance of your content and make adjustments if necessary. This can be done in an ongoing manner using tools such as Google Analytics and your CMS platform's analytics program. You can also use social media performance analytics dashboards.

For reliable and high-quality content, outsource

Content creation takes time! You probably don't have the time to write blogs or make videos if you run a business. 70% of businesses outsource content creation to agencies that have the knowledge, experience, and resources to do it. MIG's team includes SEO specialists and writers who can provide you with optimized content that is ready to publish every week for a year.

To get started, check out our SEO blog writing services or book a consultation with me.