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What Is Content Creation? Steps to Create Amazing Content

Updated on March 17, 2024
Posted on December 14, 2020 by Michael White

What is Content Creation - Follow these steps to creating amazing content. Hands hold a tablet devise.

Put simply, content creation is the creation of new content. Online content can be blogs, e-books, videos, or images. While creating content may seem simple enough, making amazing content is a different story.

So how do you create amazing content?

Creating effective content that generates leads is a time-consuming process that requires strategic planning, but the rewards make it worth it. With the use of proper content creation strategies, you can increase conversions by 785% in one day. Ready to get in on some of that 7x action? You need a lead magnet.

 


 

What Is a Lead Magnet?

A lead magnet is a piece of content that offers value to your visitors in exchange for their contact information. You might recognize them as “Download Our Free eBook” or “Find Out the Secrets to Reaching A Million Page Views.” Most lead magnets come in the form of a downloadable PDF, but there are tons of variations you can use. 

A lead magnet is a great way of attracting new leads - a large magnet attracting people

The trick to creating a powerful lead magnet is to create a piece of content that is both high-quality and covers the topic in-depth, so that the end-user is willing to fill out the form to obtain it. People are hesitant to give out their information. You need to convince them that your content is worth the cost. Once you convince them, you need to follow up on that promise.

While a lead magnet itself won’t earn you any money (they’re supposed to be free), they establish expertise, build your brand's trust and authority, and generate plenty of leads for you to nurture further down the sales funnel. If all goes well, a percentage of users who download your lead magnet will convert to sales.

 


 

Steps to Create Amazing Content that Generates Leads

If you want to create amazing content for your lead magnet, you need to think about:

  • who you're creating content for
  • why they want it, and
  • how it links to your company's products and services.

Ready to create amazing content? Here are the steps:

 

1. Build a Buyer Persona

It all starts with the audience. Marketing of any kind is all about knowing your audience. The best way to do this is to create a buyer persona. A buyer persona is a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer. Take all your stats about sales and customer demographics and use them to make the perfect customer, who would absolutely, positively buy all your products.

Once you know who your ideal customer is, you have a target for your content. Why wouldn’t you make your content general so it attracts more people? While that may sound like a good idea, we know that the ROI of personalized, targeted content is much greater than content created without the buyer personas in mind. If your content isn’t EXACTLY what someone is looking for, they won’t download it.

Make your content as audience-specific as you possibly can—the more focused, the better. 

Your content should be created for one persona at a time. If you have more than one buyer persona, you’ll have more content to make! Eventually, you should have lead magnets for each one of your buyer personas.

 

2. Consider Where Your Content Fits into the Buyer’s Journey

2007-20-Copy That Closes-image-1-BuyersJourney

The next step in creating awesome content is to understand where it fits into the buyer’s journey. The buyer’s journey is the process that customers go through before making a purchase. There are three stages:

  1. Awareness – Customers are just learning about solutions to a problem. They’re not sure what they need, only that they have a need. 
  2. Consideration – Buyers know their challenge, and they’re committed to fixing it. They’re just not sure how to fix it.
  3. Decision-Making – Buyers know the challenges and the solutions available. They just need to pick one. 

When crafting your content, think about how it fits into the buyer’s journey. If you’re targeting people in the awareness stage, a lead magnet offering an in-depth guide to your latest product won’t be helpful. They don’t even know they need a product yet! However, that guide is a perfect piece of content for buyers in the decision-making stage.

For a handy visual, see HubSpot's blog post discussing what types of content is commonly used at different stages of the buyer's journey. 

 

3. Identify a Value Proposition

Why would someone download your lead magnet? If you can’t answer that question, neither can your website visitors. Figure out what your buyer persona needs and provide it.

If you already know your customers face a specific problem, create content to help them resolve it. And don’t worry about long-form e-books and month-long online courses. The faster you can give your website visitors a solution, the more leads you’ll generate. 

 

Follow these steps to create a lead magnet - create a catchy name, buyer personas, a value prop and understand where your content fits.4. Craft a Catchy Name

Your content title is like a headline. It’s the first thing website visitors see, so it needs to draw them in. Use these five tips to make your title pop:

  • Use unique, exciting adjectives (ex. irresistible, mind-altering, alarming)
  • Be specific about what you’re offering (ex. "and boost conversion rates by 78%!")
  • Talk about a common enemy (ex. "Things your contractor doesn’t want you to know")
  • Make a bold or shocking statement (ex. "Content marketing is dead!")
  • Use numbers (ex. "15 best design trends of this year.")

Your title will make or break your content lead magnet. Take some time to think about the value it offers to your specific buyer persona and what kinds of headlines would appeal the most.

 

5. Decide What Type of Lead Magnet You Want to Offer

Now that you know the who, what, and why, it’s time to think about the how. What format should your content take to make the greatest impact on your buyer persona? There are countless ways to answer this question, but here are the most common:

  • Guides
  • Videos
  • Surveys
  • Checklists
  • Assessments
  • Sales Materials

Consider the format your buyer persona likes most and which type of content your team is most comfortable creating. If your buyer persona likes e-books but you’re not a good writer, maybe you should make a video instead. Your content needs to be good enough to follow through on the value proposition. Bad content doesn’t convert.

 

6. Create!

It’s finally time to create. As you write, film, or design, keep your buyer persona and buyer’s journey in mind. Remember, the more specific, the better. 

Also, keep your goal in mind. What do you want users to do next? If your goal is to boost sales, guide potential customers down the sales funnel and end with an explanation of why your products or services are the best way to solve their problems.


 

Use these Steps to Guide your Content Creation Strategy.

The key to amazing content is specificity and conciseness. Know your audience and create content that helps solve their problems. Using the steps above, you'll generate leads through amazing content in no time.

 

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