Content creators, sometimes called influencers, create much of the media users consume online. These professionals create media for their audience by using their creative and analytical skills. Understanding what qualifies as success in the digital world for content creation can help determine if this is your career path.
1. Choose your industry
Digital marketing is becoming widespread globally, which means there are several industries you can choose from to create content for based on your interests. Researching different industries can help you identify what established content creators publish and if you can add new content in that market.
By conducting research, you can get a basic idea of the potential audience, topics and content ideas for your desired industry so that you understand what to expect if you work in a certain area.Here are some industries in which you might consider creating content:
- Retail
- Hospitality
- Health care
- Government
- Media and entertainment
2. Establish your voice and style
Differentiating yourself from other content creators and engaging your audience can help you establish your voice and style. An audience primarily returns to creators for their personality, meaning they enjoy how you deliver information to them. Here are some ways to establish your voice as a content creator:
- Read frequently
- Read your work aloud
- Consider your word choices
If you’re partnering with another brand, try to find ways to intertwine your voice and style with their guidelines. For example, if you’re promoting a food delivery company, you might share the points they want you to make throughout your content while explaining how the company’s services fit into your personal life. By doing this, you can stay within the guidelines of what the company wants and share the type of content that your audience expects from you.
3. Practice every day
Practice writing every day to help you refine your skills. Improving your writing skills can increase your confidence in your creative abilities and motivate you to keep creating content. When practicing, you can journal, free write or create drafts for upcoming posts. While writing, you might even think of a potential project or post idea to use. Consider doing this activity for at least 10-20 minutes daily to help you improve your writing skills.
4. Analyze your target audience
You can analyze your target audience to determine factors like what they enjoy, how old they are, their economic status, where they’re from and what general education level they possess. Getting to know your target audience can help you create better-curated content for them to consume.
You may do this by studying your analytics to discover what content is most popular with your audience.Additionally, if you understand any specific challenges your audience faces, you can use that information to create valuable content for them as a solution. For instance, if you run a gardening blog and know that your readers struggle with their plants dying in the winter, you might create a blog post sharing tips for keeping plants alive during the cold seasons.
5. Provide value for your audience
When you’re creating content, try to add value to your work. This means providing your audience with relevant and meaningful content that’s useful to them. Adding value to your work can include:
- Covering breaking news, if it applies to your industry
- Encouraging audience participation by asking questions or making a poll
- Incorporating different mediums of content within a piece, such as embedding a video in a blog post
- Telling your audience a story, if it applies to the message of your content
- Linking to external sources for your audience to learn more about a subject