The answer to the question, What is the worst thing you can do as a content marketer? seems pretty straightforward: Don’t write bad content.
Bad content can equal content whose quality is poor, but it can also mean content that is just wrong for your audience. Poor quality content can be easy to spot, it can be a badly written eBook, a poorly scripted and produced video, or an infographic that is hard to make sense of. But good content can be bad if it isn’t created with the audience in mind; you could create the greatest thought leadership white paper ever known to man, but if it is not relevant to your audience, then it will not be consumed and will offer no value. That is bad content.
The best way to make sure your marketing content that will resonate with your audience is not to start with the content itself, but to focus on who your audience is. Not knowing who your audience is, what they are interested in, and what will move them to act leaves you out on a limb when creating content. You may have a general idea of the theme of your content (or you may not, and that is ok), but before creating it, ask some key questions to help determine who your audience is and what you want them to do:
1. Are you creating content for your current customers, prospects, your industry at large, or is it germane to a general public audience.
2. Within the segment of people you are creating the content for, what types of content resonate best? Long form or short form? EBook, blog post, case study, video, infographic, etc.?
3. What is the key information you want someone to take away from this content?
4. What is the desired action you want the person consuming your content to take?
Answering these questions can go a long way toward creating content that resonates with your audience, and in that regard, falls into the bucket of good content.
So when you get you ready to create that next great blog post, video, or infographic, take the time to step back, ask some simple questions, and identify who you are creating this content for. In the long run, the little bit of extra time you take to think about your audience will mean better targeted content for them and better business results for you.