Content Marketing Perth | How to Create Killer Content (Part 2)

Hello again budding content geniuses and welcome to part 2 of our (rather) comprehensive guide to creating killer content and hyper-boosting your digital marketing efforts in Perth which come to you from the Summit Web team in conjunction with the guys at Content Marketing Perth

In the last instalment we went over the foundation for awesome content – Research.

**If you haven’t read it go ahead and check it out before continuing on with this guide.

Hopefully (now) you understand the hows and whys of good content research. You also have a nice list of optimised keywords, you’ve checked out the competition and you’re ready to start the good part: World Dominating Content Creation.

Yes! Finally! Let’s open up Word and DO THIS?!

Whoa whoa whoa. You’re almost there. But before you start banging away at that inspired piece of content, there are a few really important things we need to cover.

And that’s where Summit Web is here to help. In part 2 of our guide we’re going to run you through:

• Planning & Structure – An Overview in 2 Easy Steps
• Best Practices for SEO – How you can squeeze the most juice out of those precious keywords.

So without further ado, let’s crack into it.

Planning & Structure – An Overview in 2 Easy Steps

Step 1. Planning

You’re going to hate us for this – but the very first thing you need to do is plan. Yeah we know you’re thinking:

“What? I already did the research, just let me write this thing!”. And that’s fair enough. But take it from us – without proper planning you’re never going to create the amazing content that you, or your customer wants.

The great news is that, because of all your good research, the planning stage is quick and easy.

Why plan?

The answer is simple – it saves you time. And as small business owners ourselves we know how important time is.

What does a good plan look like?

More good news! A great plan doesn’t necessarily need to be a big plan. In fact it really doesn’t need to be more than a few dot points.

Essentially your plan is there to act as a guide as you write your content. Think of it as a lighthouse that keeps you headed in the right direction.

And that’s why size doesn’t (really) matter.

In fact you’re plan only needs to include three main things:

• The Question, Query or Problem You’re Answering – Remember your content is an answer to your customers queries. Keeping the question handy forces you to stay on track and actually provide an answer(sounds basic but it is SUPER easy to stray into other territory).
• A Very Basic Answer – Essentially this is a short answer to the above question. It is also a short overview of your entire piece of content. This keeps your content contained and targeted.

**Hot Tip – if your question cannot be answered in a sentence (or two) then it is almost certainly too broad. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, check out the tips at the end

of this article to see how it can actually be helpful.

• The Main Points of your Answer (the HOWS) – Again very basic, but having the main points you’d like to use in your answer jotted down keeps you from veering off track. It also allows you to segment your writing into easily digestible pieces (I’ll talk more about this when I get to LINK structure).

As you can see, planning is really about keeping you on-point when creating your content. And that’s what saves you time.

So as an example, here’s my plan for this article:

1. Question: “How do I create great SEO optimised content to market in Perth?”
2. Answer: Great content creation comes down to using simple techniques, knowing your audience and following SEO optimising best practices.
3. Main Points:

• SEO Optimising
• Planning & Structure
• Language and Style Choice

As you can see there’s really not much here. But with this plan as a guide I always know what I am doing and (even more importantly) why I am doing it.

Of course you can expand on your plan. For example add more notes to your main points (think quotes or statistics you want to use).

Realistically, the more work you put into this stage, the better.

In the end the benefits of a good plan is two fold:

a) it creates a much better article and
b) it saves you stress and time.

STEP 2. Structure

Ok so you’ve got a plan. Great! Now it’s time to talk structure.

While (again) this may seem basic, knowing the ideal way to structure your content is paramount to creating the best article you can.

Oh yeah. Why?

Well mainly because a good structure allows your potential customers to get the information they want easily. Giving them that coveted feel of ‘instant value’.

And that’s where some creators go wrong. They waffle, or go off track, or start to talk about things that are either a) irrelevant or b) haven’t been properly discussed yet. And this isn’t what you want.

At its core, a well structured piece of content needs to:

• Be easy to navigate.
• Be easily recognisable.
• Flow in a way that makes sense.

Happily enough, the structure is another pretty easy part of the content creation process.

So how do we do it?

Basically it comes down to:

1. Title
2. Intro
3. Body
4. Conclusion

More good news? You’re pretty much halfway there. The ‘HOWs’ that we discussed above fill the body portion of your content.

But let’s break it down a little further.

Intro:

Wait, aren’t introductions a little redundant? I mean I know I hardly read them anymore.

You’re half right.

In this age of instant gratification (our hot jar) tests have shown that (more than) often introductions are quickly skimmed as customers dig for the meat of your content.

BUT that doesn’t mean that you can ignore it. If anything it means that you need to focus on your introduction even more. Why? Because you need to lock people into your article as soon as possible, with as little words as possible.

That means getting to the point quickly and making the point a good one.

With that in mind your intro needs to contain:

1. The question, query or problem (QQP) in some form.
2. How your content plans to answer it (ie. THE POINT)

That’s it!

Of course there is more to it than that – especially when we talk about style and language choice, both of which are covered a little later in this article.

Body:

As we mentioned earlier, this is where the ‘Hows’ of your plan come into action. Typically each of your dot points will transform into a seperate sections. This ‘sectioning’ is what makes your article easy to read and consume.

And while it may seem counter-intuitive to make your content easy to love and leave – it’s exactly what your audience wants.

In fact, that’s why you’ll find the big bloggers (for example Neil Patel, Gary Vaynerchuck, Mark Manson etc) using this technique.

**HOT TIP – if you DON’T want your audience to hit it and quit it immediately, use numbers on your sections.

People love numbers. This is the reason there are so many articles like 7 reasons to buy a camel this summer and the entire reason Buzzfeed has become such a global phenomenon. And they’re also more likely to read more of the article if the sections are numbered.

The Conclusion:

Phew finally! Made it to the end.

…Is the feeling almost everyone has when they reach the conclusion. Unfortunately this is the most costly mistake you could make when creating content.

Oh yeah, why’s that?

Because it’s the ideal time to market your business to your consumer.

Think about it. If someone’s reached the conclusion of your article you have them hooked. They’ve consumed your content and enjoyed it (at least enough to stick with you). They see you as as experienced, knowledgeable and trustworthy. These are three huge barriers to selling and you’ve broken them.

So make your pitch!

It doesn’t even need to be particularly discreet. For example, after repeating the QQP and your answer (again a good reason to have your plan handy) add something like:

“Still not sure of which one is for you? For more insider tips on camel breeds and making the right choice give the experts at Camels R Us a call today.”

It’s short, simple but not overly forward. We’re simply allowing someone with a question, query or problem continue the conversation.

**HOT TIP – We would recommend also asking for feedback or interaction. Getting your readers to share, or follow or comment on your article is a HUGE win for you. Even feedback that isn’t entirely positive is an incredible way to sharpen and define your content.

And that’s the structure.

Wait wait wait.

“What about the title?”

Best Practices for SEO – How to squeeze the most juice out of those precious keywords.

Ok, so now that you’ve got an overview of what makes really good content stand out from the crowd we are literally one step away from hitting the keys.

And that step is Search Engine Optimisation.

Urgh, do I really need to do that?

No. You absolutely don’t. But you should, because you want all your hard work to result in Google gains (after all that is the second prong of the content fork). And with all your prep work, it’s really easy.

Here are the Summit Web keys to SEOing the hell out of your content:

• Pick a Primary Keyword from your pre-researched keyword list eg: “Hiring Ice Cream Van”
• Include this keyword (or a very close variation) in the title of your content – eg: “7 Reasons an Ice Cream Van Hire Will Heat Up Your Perth Party ”.
• This keyword should also be included in the first and last sentence of the article – eg: “Never thought about hiring an ice cream van for your party?”
• Your primary Keyword should also be used as a ‘sub heading’ (eg. the title of one of your sections) somewhere in the article – eg: “Reason 5. Perth is the ideal place to hire an Ice Cream van.”
• And finally, as a rule of thumb you want to spread the Keyword (or close variation) with a density of about 1% (eg. 10 times in a thousand word article)

Following these fairly simple rules will ensure that your get the maximum benifit from all your hard research.

**HOT TIP – Don’t just stop at one keyword! A good strategy is to pick a secondary keyword  (something that can easily be spread into your work) and occasionally sprinkling it throughout you content. Just ensure that it feels ‘natural’.

And that’s it for this section of our Content Creation Guide for Perth Business!

But don’t stress – we will be back soon with our next part of the series:

• Language and style – How to speak to your customer.
• Our inside Trick and Tips for getting the most out of your hard work.

Of course, if you’re keen to get more information on content marketing now or all this sounds like too much work, give the team at Summit Web a call. We live to help Perth Businesses expand and excel online and are always happy to help.