11 Questions Every Content Creator Should Be Able to Answer
Our days are spent in research, discovery, and creation, solving problems for brands and for their audiences. When brands approach us with the following questions, our response is: Bravo! Thank you for asking. Thank you for taking the time to care. Because if you’re producing content without pausing to ask these questions, you’re likely wasting your employees’ energy, your audiences’ time, and your own money.
We’ve rounded up a list of foundational questions we field – and how we go about seeking the answers.
What should we be talking about, as a brand? Let’s begin with who you are, what your purpose is, and what your brand voice should be. We workshop with you to help focus and clearly define your brand positioning. This not only can serve as the foundation of your content strategy, it unveils who your audiences could and should be.
Who are our audiences? What are they seeking? It’s wonderful when brands take the time to truly understand what their audiences need. We conduct audience research – focus groups, surveys, and secondary research, to develop detailed personas that are fully realized and actionable.
Are we talking to the right audiences? You’d be surprised at how often a business knows its audiences, yet is reaching the wrong people through misfires in content creation and distribution. We audit your content activities and user journey data to see if you’re connecting with your target audiences where they are.
What do our audiences want from us, in terms of content? The best way for us to understand audience needs is through understanding your audience. One way is through in-depth interviews. When we know audience mindsets, we can understand the needs you’ll meet and the problems your brand can solve through content.
Are we sharing our content on the right platforms? Our detailed personas allow us to create reliable content journeys that show us where your audiences are going to get educated, informed, entertained and engaged.
Is our content working for us? Now that we know who your audiences are, what they need, and where they’re going for content to meet those needs, we can develop a thoughtful “content codebook” with quality criteria to determine whether your existing content supports your brand and audience goals.
Do we have the right amount and mix of content? By conducting a comprehensive content audit with your “content codebook” in hand, we can create an actionable gap analysis that shows how you could and should create more, different, and better content for your audiences.
What makes our existing content a satisfying search result? Brands often neglect to consider that their audiences aren’t coming through the home page…they’re finding content through search. Is every piece of content delivering on its promise? If audiences get what they’re looking for, you will likely get rewarded with a higher search ranking.
Are we talking in the right way with our content? Your brand positioning will help us develop a consistent and authentic brand voice for your content, but your tone will vary based on where your content “lives” in your content ecosystem. Through a blend of brand strategy, channel best practices, competitive analysis, and audience understanding, we develop a content strategy that will help you develop the right content in the right tone for where you’re distributing it.
How do we better plan our content? With a content strategy in place, you can now flesh out your content calendar with themes and stories that your audience will respond to. Consider how you’ll put your own spin on calendered events and holidays (you’ll find good templates through social management software companies like Sprout Social and Hootsuite). Then build this out in your own calendar using a tool like Smartsheet, Airtable, or just a simple Excel or Google sheet.
How do we engage more people in our content — from our customers to our own employees? Once you know the content you intend to create, be generous with your information. Your audiences may be eager to participate, so engage them with opportunities to connect through hashtag challenges and co-creation. And we’ve found that employees are excited and proud to join in on content creation will share with their own networks if invited, not obligated.
