Few years ago before i started Enovate Lab i was a blogger and my greatest challenge was how to have engagements. Even though i wrote a lot of quality contents but i always felt something was missing. Then i didn’t know how to tackle it but in my curiosity and thirst for knowledge i stumbled upon the concept of Content Development, not just as a term but as a system. Since then i kept learning and also trying new and different ideas. With time i became very good at it, so these days when upcoming digital marketers or content creators reach out i refer them to Google, however their inability to articulate their findings and because of the plethora of articles and ebooks they often consume it makes them even more confuse. This led me curate all what i know into a post to share with you all so as to have an all in one understanding of the concept of content development. I hope you have a good read. Please feel free to reach out via email or you could drop a comment and i’ll respond. Alternatively if you’re looking for more formal training in understanding the concept of digital marketing you can visit Enovate Lab lets discuss over lunch or coffee.
What is Content Development?
Content development is basically about developing good content in a clear and presentable form.
Who is a Content Developer?
Content developers are essentially involved in the creation, development, and editing of content for various activities related to online marketing, online branding or positioning. A content developer is responsible for creating original content for websites, newsletters, press releases, blogs, articles and advertising and marketing materials based on the requirements of an organization.
Hence, a content developer needs to have excellent command over written English. He/she should create web content based on analytical reports, press releases or survey reports and present them in a lucid, simple, easy to understand language. Content development could involve creative work, such as copy writing or graphics, or technical work.
What do they do?
Blogger
Writes personable, often opinionated content and posts frequently to a blog or various social media sites. May also develop and revise text for online communities, press releases, web articles and video blogs. Should be able to engage with consumers and customers and to retain their attention over time. Requires excellent writing skills.
Content Manager
Leads the copy development process through the various content creation and review phases of online projects, and ensures all online copy is strategically sound, brand-appropriate, search engine optimized and aligned with the company’s overall creative approach. Knowledge of content management systems is often required.
Content Strategist
Develops content strategy based on a company’s or client’s business objectives and a customer’s or end user’s needs. Also responsible for overseeing content requirements and creating content strategy deliverables (including content audits, gap analyses, taxonomies, metadata frameworks, style guides, content migration plans and editorial calendars) across a project life cycle. Strong search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) skills are often preferred.
Proofreader
Edits copy to ensure proper grammar, spelling and style. Requires an eye for detail and thorough knowledge of grammatical and stylistic concepts. Often requires proficiency with traditional proofreaders’ marks as well as the editing functions of Acrobat, Word or other software.
Proposal Specialist
Coordinates the development, completion and submission of responses to request for proposals (RPFs) with minimum supervision and under strict deadlines. Collaborates with internal departments to develop proposal content that is high quality, accurate and in accordance with RFP requirements, while effectively communicating company capabilities, policies, products and services.
Content marketing strategy
Organizations typically use content marketing to build an audience and to achieve at least one of these profitable results: increased revenue, lower costs, or better customers.
On the other hand, content strategy is the creation, publication, and governance of useful, usable content. Note that content strategy often goes beyond the scope of a content marketing strategy, as it helps businesses manage all of the content they have.
Content plan
In contrast to the other two, a content plan is very tactical. It documents the specifics of how you will execute your strategy, and who on your team will be handling each task. It’s important to understand that you need a content marketing strategy BEFORE you build your content plan. Think of it as a marketing plan that specifically relates to content; thus, it should include details such as the key topic areas you will cover, what content you will create, when and how to share your content, and specific calls to action you will include.
1) Define your goal.
What’s your aim for developing a content marketing plan? Why do you want to produce content and create a content marketing plan? Know your goals before you begin planning, and you’ll have an easier time determining what’s best for your 2022 strategy.
2) Conduct persona research.
To develop a successful plan, you need to clearly define your content’s target audience — also known as your “buyer persona.” This is especially important for those who are starting out or are new to marketing. By knowing your target audience, you can produce more relevant and valuable content that they’ll want to read and convert on.
3) Run a content audit.
Most people start out with blog posts, but if you want to venture out and try producing other content pieces, consider which ones you want to make. For instance, if you’ve been doing weekly blog posts for the past year, creating an ebook that contains all your blog posts into one ultimate guide. This would be a one way to offer information in a different format. If you’ve been in business for a while, review your content marketing efforts and the results from it in the last year. Figure out what you can do differently in the upcoming year and set new goals to reach.
4) Determine a content management system.
Have a system in place where you can manage your content. A few vital parts of content management include content creation, content publication, and content analytics.
6) Determine which types of content you want to create.
There are a variety of options out there for content you can create. Here are some of the most popular content formats marketers are creating and tools and templates to get you started.
Blog posts
If you haven’t already noticed, you’re currently perusing a blog post. Blog posts live on a website and should be published regularly in order to attract new visitors. Posts should provide valuable content for your audience that makes them inclined to share posts on social media and across other websites. I recommend that blog posts be between 1,000 and 2,000 words in length, but experiment to see if your audience prefers longer or shorter reads.
Ebooks
Ebooks are lead generation tools that potential customers can download after submitting a lead form with their contact information. They’re typically longer, more in-depth, and published less frequently than blog posts, which are written to attract visitors to a website. Ebooks are the next step in the inbound marketing process: After reading a blog post (such as this one), visitors might want more content from an ebook and submit their contact information to learn more valuable information for their business. In turn, the business producing the ebook has a new lead for the sales team to contact.
Templates
Templates are a handy content format to try because they generate leads for you while providing tremendous value to your audience. When you provide your audience with template tools to save them time and help them succeed, they’re more likely to keep engaging with your content in the future.
Infographics
Infographics can organize and visualize data in a more compelling way than words alone. These are great content formats to use if you’re trying to share a lot of data in a way that is clear and easy to understand.
Videos
Videos are a highly engaging content medium that are shareable across social media platforms and websites alike. Videos require a bigger investment of time and resources than written content, but as visual marketing increases in popularity, it’s a medium worth experimenting with.
Podcasts
Starting a podcast will help audiences find your brand if they don’t have time or interest in reading content every day. The number of podcast listeners is growing — in 2016, an estimated 57 million people listened to podcasts each month. If you have interesting people to interview or conversations to host, consider podcasting as another content format to experiment with.
External Content
Once you’ve been regularly publishing content on your own site for a while, it might be time to start thinking about distributing your content on other sites. This could entail a few things: Publishing website content on social media sites, such as LinkedIn. Repurposing content into new formats and publishing them on your blog or social media sites
Creating original content specifically for external sites, such as Medium
7) Publish and manage your content.
Your marketing plan should go beyond the types of content you’ll create — it should also cover and organize your content. With the help of an editorial calendar, you’ll be on the right track for publishing a well-balanced and diverse content library on your website. Then, create a social media content calendar so you can promote and manage your content on other sites.
Many of the ideas you think of will be evergreen — they’re just as relevant months from now as they are today. That being said, you shouldn’t ignore timely topics either. While they may not be the bulk of your editorial calendar, they can help you generate spikes of traffic.
Most people count on incorporating popular holidays such as New Year’s and Festive Celebrations in their marketing efforts, but you don’t have to limit yourself to these important marketing dates. If there are niche holidays that might appeal to your audience, it could be worth publishing content on your blog or on social media.
We know this is a lot of information, but the work has just begun. It takes time, organization, and creativity to grow a successful content marketing strategy. From building the foundation of your content marketing plan to adding tools to better manage your content, setting up your strategy won’t be a hassle if you follow the steps and explore the resources here.
GOOD LUCK!!!