Your audience loves your content. That’s why they keep coming back. But how do you keep your loyal fans interested in your content?
Brands in a niche must continue to write in the same area day after day. This turns into week after week, month after month, and year after year.
How do you keep your subject matter lively while still sticking to your niche?
This post looks at ways to keep your content fresh while keeping it focused.
CONSIDER VARYING PERSPECTIVES
Your audience is composed of a variety of different readers. Some are going to purchase in the future; others will not. Check out this breakout of where most of your audience is in their buying cycle:
- 3% are actively buying
- 7% intend to change
- 30% have a need, but not enough to act
- 30% do not have a need
- 30% are not interested in your company
Even in the narrowest of niches, there will be a little diversity in your buyer personas, even if it’s just where they fall in the above categories.
Look at who has purchased your product and use that information to determine who in your audience seems likely to buy.
Now dive deep into those individuals to determine what they like and what they don’t. From this research, generate a list of problems your brand can solve for them. Think about their needs, wants, and hopes.
Consider what they need and want before, during, and after the purchase of your offering. What will lead them towards the purchase? What factors are roadblocks to the purchase? Is it a knowledge gap, or is it something else?
Also, consider post-purchase. These are problems your customers may have that keep them from using your offering as intended. You want to reduce the friction in these areas, so your customers keep coming back.
Evaluate the topics you write about on your blog and see how this compares with the research you just conducted. Are you missing a critical area of interest on your blog? Take advantage of that knowledge gap and start filling it with great content.
EVOLVE OLD CONTENT
If it feels like you’re writing about the same thing repeatedly, you probably are. Current research in SEO dictates that unless you’re writing long-form, in-depth content, it will never be the top-ranking article on Google. The age of the content now also plays a factor, which is just another reason you should be on top of updating old content.
Your content needs to cover the subject matter as thoroughly as possible. If the specific topics you need to include in an article are represented by letters of the alphabet, you need to cover A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. You can’t just cover A, C, and F and expect your content will do well.
This shift is positive for brands that already have hundreds of pieces of content in an area. Pull old posts that may have only covered C, D, and E. Do some research and figure out what areas you missed the first time you wrote the post. This may even involve combining a couple of posts.
Then, fill in the blanks and republish that same work. Seeing the same ideas covered in greater depth will show your audience that you care about giving them the best content possible, with the added benefit of improving your SEO.
ASK THEM WHAT THEY WANT
Researching your customers and leads is great, but have you tried asking them what they want? Ask your audience questions, be inquisitive.
Find out where most of your conversions (e.g., form completion, download, etc.) come from, then ask questions on those channels.
If you are looking for broader answers from your audience, think about asking your audience questions on a public forum like Twitter or Instagram (especially Stories).
If you have a community on Facebook or LinkedIn, consider asking questions in those groups.
What should you ask?
- What topics would you like to see us cover?
- Is there a topic you would like to see on [Your Brand]’s blog?
- Is there anyone you would like to see us interview?
- What topics are you interested in learning more about?
Keep questions open-ended, or at least multiple choice. Never ask a question that will allow leads to simply answer yes or no. Like a lawyer cross-examining a witness, you want to get as much detail as possible out of your leads, not just a grudging, one-word answer.
DIG THE WELL DEEPER
When it feels like you’ve written about everything, consider where you can expand and improve on the same topics you’ve already written about. You wouldn’t just dig a new well if yours went dry. You would likely try to dig that same well even deeper, in hopes that there is more water.
It’s the same with writing content. You write content for beginners, intermediates, and experts. Each is a different depth of the well.
Our post, “What is a Lead? What is a Prospect? What’s the Difference?” is a perfect example of beginner/intermediate content. It asks a simple, high-level question and gives a straightforward, detailed answer.
Content for beginners has the following characteristics:
- Simple language
- Defines industry jargon (either in the post or as its own post)
- Addresses easy questions
- Doesn’t get into overly complicated topics
- Answers the “what”
Content for intermediate marketers might:
- Get into more obscure topics
- Answer the “how” for less complex topics
- Use more industry-specific jargon (assumes readers already know more)
- Touch upon trends
Content for experts might look like:
- The “how” and “why” in more complex areas
- The current trends and their context in the industry landscape
- Original research on a subject matter
- More granular instruction on denser subject matters
If you feel like you’ve covered most topic areas already, consider how you can dig even deeper. Figure out the questions that your most knowledgeable audience members are asking, then answer them.
KEEP TRACK OF THE SUBJECT MATTER YOU WRITE ABOUT
Most of the time, your niche is broad enough to cover a variety of subject matters.
Here at HIPB2B, we primarily focus on email and content marketing, but also occasionally branch out into areas of social media marketing and other topics.
Keep track of what topics you write about and categorize them.
Then make it so there’s a way you can visually see each of the areas you write about. You can do this through a calendar or color-coded list. By visually representing the areas you cover, you can see what you are covering well at a glance.
Maybe you are writing too much about content marketing, and you haven’t covered marketing automation for several months. This will be obvious if all your content marketing posts are highlighted blue, and all your marketing automation posts are in red. A totally blue month means you need to switch it up a little.
Keeping your content focused, yet diverse enough to keep your audience continually interested is a challenge. But if you stay on the scent and follow up on what your audience wants, you can’t go wrong. Create new and better content to challenge them, what they know, and solve their problems.
Interact with them; ask them what they want. Everyone loves giving their favorite brands advice. And every question they answer is another step towards conversion. Keep your content diverse, and leads will come back for more.
Let us know what you think:
- Did you enjoy this post?
- What else do you do to keep leads interested in your content?
