Creating content is skyrocketing brand awareness for business owners, and it's all due to effective content development. However, this doesn't mean smooth sailing for anyone who decides to start creating content.

With the internet oversaturated with marketing material, proper content development is important because it offers value-driven content to your target audience. This helps build trust, generate leads, and long-term influence. 

Read on to learn about the power of effective content development and how it can transcend your business to new heights. 

​​What is Content Development in Marketing

Content development in marketing is the process of planning, creating, publishing, and analyzing the performance of your content across multiple channels. 

It can be in the form of blogs, videos, e-books, social media posts, podcasts, white papers and more. It's worth noting, however, you don't need to stretch yourself out too thin. 

I've seen too many businesses throw money down the drain because they think they need to make content for every platform. Choose one or two. Master them. Then expand.

The Benefits of Content Development for Business Owners

When you invest in content development, it's almost like you're making a bet whether it'll work out. That's pretty scary—especially when budgets are tight, and you need to make sure you're presenting your brand in the best light, consistently. However, if done correctly, there's a multitude of benefits, such as:

• Generating leads while you sleep

• Gaining more organic traffic to your website 

• Positioning your business as a leader in its field 

• Authority-building influence and reputation growth

• Providing long-term value without the high costs of Google Ads

• Improving SEO that leads to higher rankings on search engines

For further reassurance, here are some insightful facts provided by Forbes Advisor. 

Content Development vs Content Creation

When you hire a freelance graphic designer, for example, you typically hire them to create content for you, which can be very transactional. While talented content creators are fundamental to growing one's brand, the high-value graphic designer is much more. 

They provide in-depth insights and marketing best practices on how to approach your content creation based on their results-driven expertise. 

Let's go over this in a bit more detail below. 

Content development involves understanding your audience’s needs, setting objectives, optimizing content for user intent, and measuring its performance to refine future efforts.

Essentially, it’s the overarching strategy that ensures your content creation efforts are purpose-driven and align with your business goals.

Content creation, on the other hand, is focused more on the creative process and producing high-quality content that aligns with your brand’s messaging and goals. And in the case of hiring a freelancer, can be a bit transactional compared to the overarching value of content development. 

For example, my content development strategy for writing this blog stems from whether I can drive more traffic to my website, add value for my ICP (Ideal Customer Profile), and see how well my content performs on Google's SERP (Search Engine Results Page).

When it comes to creating content, I'm thinking about formatting, word structure, grammar, punctuation, and readability. While it's inherently part of content development, the focus is creating something that's professional and packed with value. 

What are Content Development Tools

As technology advances and more tools are created to help businesses streamline their operations, content development has become easier than ever. And with the right tools, businesses can enhance their content strategy with more efficiency without compromising quality. 

Some key content development tools include:

• Trello: A project management tool that helps organize and track content development workflows, ensuring that tasks are completed on time and efficiently.
  

• Semrush: Aids in keyword research, competitor analysis, and content optimization, helping businesses create content that ranks well on search engines.
  

• Answer the Public: Generates insights on what people are searching for, allowing businesses to create content that addresses specific audience questions and needs.
  

• Canva: Helps you create visually appealing content, such as infographics and social media graphics, even if you're not a designer.
  

• Speechify: A text-to-speech platform that makes it easier to proofread and repurpose content into podcasts or other audio formats.
  

• Google Workspace: A suite of productivity tools, including Docs and Sheets. It simplifies collaboration and content planning, ensuring that teams can work together seamlessly.
  

• WordPress: A content management system (CMS) partnered with Blue Host that simplifies the creation, management, and publishing of content, making it easier to maintain a robust online presence.
  

• Google Search Console: Used for monitoring and maintaining a website's presence in Google search results. It gives a birds-eye view into content performance, indexing issues, and optimization opportunities.

What's the Most Popular Content Marketing Formats

While the essence of creating content is one and the same, there's a distinct difference in format style. Below are some of the most popular content marketing formats that businesses use to engage their audience and achieve their marketing goals.

Video Marketing

According to eMarketing, the average American adult spends 3 hours and 50 minutes per day with digital video. They later go on to mention that's an hour more spent on watching TV!

Whether it's TikToks, YouTube Shorts, or Instagram Reels, videos allow brands to connect with their audience on a more personal level. With high visual and auditory elements of video, it makes it easier to engage viewers and keep their interest.

Blog Post Marketing

Blog post-marketing involves creating written content that provides valuable information, insights, or entertainment to a target audience. 

While there's speculation toward the dying out of this platform (mainly due to video and AI taking over), the SEO game and the written word are and will remain a go-to resource. 

The appeal of this type of content development is that it has a long shelf life. When a video goes viral, the views taper off eventually. 

The average life of a blog is 700 days! This format is also highly effective for establishing authority, driving traffic to a website, and improving search engine rankings. 

Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing includes platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn to share content and interact with followers. These are great for targeting specific age groups and industries. 

Whether it's B2B, e-commerce, or non-profits, the immediacy and interactivity of social media make it a powerful tool for real-time communication and impulsive actions. 

Email Marketing

Over 50% of marketers say email is the most impactful channel, according to Forbes.Understandably, businesses send direct messages to people's personal or business emails, which they check nearly every day. 

That's why this format is effective for nurturing leads, promoting products or services, and maintaining customer relationships. 

Delivering tailored content straight to the inbox can drive high engagement and conversion rates, especially when combined with other content marketing efforts.

AI Marketing Integration

As stated by Mail Chimp, 88% of marketers believe their organization must increase its use of automation and AI to meet customer expectations and stay competitive. 

To that end, AI integration has quickly become a popular choice in content marketing. It empowers brands to deliver personalized, data-driven experiences at scale. Not something that was ever available in the past. 

And by leveraging AI-driven tools, businesses can streamline operations and enhance user experience by delivering highly relevant content that aligns with individual preferences, quickly. The name of the game has become quality and speed, and AI helps people achieve that. 

How to Launch a Successful Content Development Campaign

It's not an easy task to launch a successful content development campaign. It requires careful planning and execution so that your efforts turn into tangible results. With that in mind, here’s an 8-step guide to help you navigate the process.

*These steps will focus on creating impactful blog articles and optimizing landing pages. 

1. Conduct a Content Audit

Before creating new content, start with a thorough audit of your existing content/website. This will give you valuable insights into what’s working, what’s not, and where there are gaps in your content strategy. 

You can use free tools like SEO Optimer to identify performance gaps on your website and tools like Surfer SEO to optimize your blog content. It's also worth comparing your content to brands who do it best. Look into the content that ranks in the top spots and try to emulate that quality. 

2. Define Your Content Marketing Strategy

With insights from your content audit, you can now define a content marketing strategy that aligns with your goals. 

This strategy should be approached with these in mind:

• Target audience 

• Brand messaging 

• Core values

• Unique offer

• Proper optimization

Consistency is the deciding factor of success. So your overall objectives—whether it’s driving traffic, generating leads, or building brand loyalty—should be based on whether you can continually pump out quality content on a regular basis. 

3. Develop a Content Plan

Once your strategy is in place, the next step is to create a content plan that details the specific topics, search intent, and content style. Base the strategy on identifying the core issues that resonate with your audience. 

This can be done by clearly identifying your niche and doing careful research to identify long-tail keyword opportunities with which you can compete. 

4. Perform Keyword Research

As mentioned, long-tail keywords present the golden nuggets of ranking opportunities. By performing in-depth research to identify the search terms and phrases your audience is using, you can naturally add them to your content to improve its visibility on search engines.

5. Create a Content Calendar

Many businesses make the mistake of sporadically creating content when it's most convenient. While a busy schedule is understandable, you need a content calendar to organize and schedule your content development efforts. It helps you stay accountable and encourages consistent posting

6. Write, Edit, and Edit Again 

With your planning in place, it’s time to start writing. Focus on creating high-quality, informative content that provides real value to your audience. Don’t forget to optimize each piece for SEO, using suggested keywords from optimizing tools (I use Market Muse). 

Also, see to it that your content is actually engaging, easy to read, and aligned with your brand’s voice and style. And no, using AI to spin out a bunch of blogs with some keywords sprinkled in will not do. 

Step 7: Publish and Upload to Your CMS

Once your content is written and optimized, the next step is to publish and upload it to your website or content management system. Before hitting publish, remember to optimize image sizes to improve site speed and properly format the writing for visual appeal. 

Also, double-check that the URL is clean, legible, and reflects the content’s topic clearly. These details are subtle, but Google keeps a watchful eye once your content goes live.

8. Measure and Adjust

Finally, monitor the performance of your content development campaign using analytics tools. 

Track metrics like traffic, engagement, conversions, and key events (if you're using Google Analytics) to see how well your content is performing. You can use these insights to refine your strategy and make adjustments if needed. 

Bring Your Brand to Life with Effective Content Development

Subpar content strategies often lead to missed opportunities, lackluster engagement, and a diluted brand presence. On the other hand, a well-executed content strategy builds trust, drives traffic, and positions your brand as a leader in your industry. 

But it's no walk in the park. Effective content development can be time-consuming and confusing. It can also lead to wasted resources if done incorrectly.

Luckily, you can move in the right direction by taking the steps mentioned above and creating killer content that's poised to spark interest in your industry! 

Need a Skilled Writer and Content Strategist?

FAQs

What is digital marketing, and why is it important?

Digital marketing involves promoting products, services, or brands through online channels such as social media, email, search engines, and websites. It allows businesses to reach a targeted audience through alluring content and promotions.

How does great content improve my branding approach?

Great content captures attention, provides value, and builds trust with your audience, making it a powerful tool for marketing. When you create high-quality, informative, and engaging content, it attracts more visitors, boosts your brand’s credibility, and increases conversion potential.

What is interactive content, and how can it benefit my business?

Interactive content includes elements like quizzes, polls, and calculators that actively engage users. It keeps audiences involved, encourages longer site visits, and increases brand recall, which creates a sense of familiarity that people begin to feel comfortable with.

Where can I find fresh content ideas?

Finding content ideas can start with researching industry trends, checking competitor blogs, using keyword tools, or asking your audience directly. Platforms like Reddit and Google Trends can also offer inspiration by showing what people are searching for.

What does a content strategist do?

A content strategist plans, organizes, and oversees a brand’s content to make sure it aligns with business goals and resonates with its target audience. They analyze data, develop content calendars, and optimize content for SEO, all while upholding quality standards to meet business goals.