There are an astounding 2.5 quintillion bytes of data created on a daily basis. 

Let that sink in for a moment. 

In fact, how many people even know what a quintillion is? What we do know is that it’s a heck of a large number. 

But what’s more astonishing is that 90% of the data we have online was generated within just the past several years. 

So the question now is how can your content compete? 

We live in an age where there’s an abundance of information floating around the web. But a lot of it is watered down, irrelevant, and unengaging. 

This is where your opportunity awaits. 

If you’re able to fine tune your content marketing strategy so that it resonates with your audience, then you’ll have no problem rising above all the noise. 

But how do you do that?

What we’re about to show you will help you to find ideas for content your audience actually wants. 

1. Go Right to the Source

Seems like a no-brainer, yet a lot of content marketers fail to use their #1 resource — their audience!

There are different methods you can use to pull this information out of your target customers. For example, you can start conversations on social media. 

If you have followers or know of forums your audience frequents, then you can post your question there. 

Ask something like, “What are your biggest concerns today as a small business owner?” Or “What are your business goals for 2019?”

These are questions fit for a B2B marketer, but you should catch the drift. 

You want to try to get conversations started to dive into the most pressing problems they have. Then you can develop content that answers their questions and gives advice on how to achieve their goals. 

Another option is to use surveys asking about the content they like, which formats, and why. 

Use the information you gather to tweak your strategy and include the topics and formats they want. Now, keep in mind that what surveyors claim they want/do and what they actually want/do is sometimes different. 

So you’ll have to test everything to verify you’re taking the right course of action. 

2. Analyze Data Collected from Your Content

If you’re already publishing content on your blog, YouTube channel, social media, or elsewhere, then there’s a lot you can learn there. 

All you have to do is take your analytics data and pinpoint which posts performed the best. Make a note of any posts that did the best. 

What you’re looking for is user engagement, such as likes, comments, and shares. Take a look at the topic, the format, and even the time of day it was published. 

See if there’s a pattern with which type of content gets the best results. If you can spot it, then you have a lead on what your audience wants more of. 

Develop a strategy around this data so you can offer content that drives more engagement. 

3. Create Content with the Buyer’s Journey in Mind

You can’t go wrong when you’re crafting content for each stage of the buyer’s journey. 

The buyer’s journey consists of awareness, consideration, and decision stages. There are different types of content you can produce to engage your audience and drive them through the funnel. 

For example, prospects who are in the awareness stage aren’t ready to buy, but they are hungry for knowledge. They have a problem, and they’re looking to learn more about it and possible resolutions. 

So in this stage, you can create content with lots of value for the reader. This can be long-form blog posts, videos, and infographics. The idea is to provide lots of information about their issue and ways to fix it. 

Then once they become educated about their problem, they’ll enter into the consideration stage. They’re now looking for solutions to buy.

At this stage, you want to offer e-books, guides, checklists, comparison videos, blog posts, and webinars. The purpose of this content is to help them learn about their options so they can enter into the next step — the decision stage. 

In the decision stage, you want to seal the deal that your solution is the best solution. The content you can create here includes whitepapers, reports, case studies, use cases, and blog posts. 

The purpose of the content in this phase is to show why your solution is the best option. The case studies help them make their decision by showing proof your product or service worked in the past for others. 

When talking about your product or service, you should focus on the benefits — not the features. This way, your audience will understand what they will get out of buying from your brand. 

4. Share Customer Stories

Your end goal is always the same — to boost conversions and sales. One way to promote this, while also delivering content that helps your audience, is to share customer stories. 

People love success stories, especially when it resonates with them. Your audience has the same problems your past customers had so this will capture their attention.

You can create testimonials where your customers talk about their issue and how your product/service resolved it. And you can also create a downloadable booklet filled with case studies. 

Attract More of Your Customers with Relevant Content!

When’s the last time you clicked on a post that had nothing to do with your current interests? 

Likely, never. 

It’s human nature and you have to play into it as a content marketer. So as you design your content strategy, focus on your customers’ interest. 

Scour the web for their questions, start conversations on social media, give surveys, and use the buyer’s journey to create content strategically. 

Before you know it, you’ll have a list of content ideas you can use to plan topics and the best formats to present them in.

Have other ideas that can help drive more traffic to content? Then let us know about them in the comments or reach out to us at [email protected]!