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12 Tenets of Content Creation

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CONTENTCREATIONHow to Answer Your Customers’ Questions with Compelling Content

LISTENSocial media, email, telephone...wherever (and whenever) your customers ask questions, you should be there listening. These questions will serve as the fuel for your content

creation strategy.

List out all of the questions your customers commonly ask. A 30-minute brainstorm session should yield AT LEAST 50

customer questions.

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ADDRESS EVERY QUESTION

Even if you can’t directly answer a question, take the time to provide some insight around it. From an SEO perspective, search engines aren’t looking for an exact answer: they’re

looking for content that addresses the question.

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PAY ATTENTION TO TITLING

Titles are like mini calls-to-action that compel people to click. To help folks click into your incredibly useful content, dedicate time to coming up with great titles that incorporate your

target keywords.

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TALK ABOUT THE COMPETITIONIt’s no secret: Your prospective customers are going to compare

you with your competitors online. So, if this competition conversation is going to happen anyway, wouldn’t you rather

have it happen at your house (a.k.a. on your blog)?

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“How much does a fiberglass pool cost?” was the most common question posed to Marcus Sheridan’s pool company, River Pools and Spas. Since it was impossible to provide an exact answer, Marcus wrote an article that explored the various factors that impact price and provided an average price range. To date, Marcus has been able to attribute a minimum of $1.7 million in sales to that one article.sales to that one article.

MARCUSSHERIDAN

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MAKE A LIST

For each question on your list, do some keyword research to figure out what keywords and long tail phrases you should be targeting. After all, folks need to be able to find your content

in order for it to be helpful.

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RESEARCH KEYWORDS

Always answer your customers’ questions honestly, even if they pertain to “taboo” topics (like problems or issues with

your businesses’ products/services).

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BE HONEST

12TENETS OF

The second most common question Marcus used to get was, “What are the problems and issues with fiberglass pools?” Considering River Pools and Spas specializes in fiberglass, this might have been a touchy subject. But instead of skirting around the question, Marcus wrote an article that addressed it honestly. The result? Do a search for “problems with fiberglass pools” and see whose website shows up first.whose website shows up first.

MARCUSSHERIDAN

A great way to create content around your competition is with the “vs.” format: “You vs. Them,” “Your Services vs. Their

Services,” etc. Create a “vs.” post for each and every one of your competitors. Don’t go out of your way to make the other guy

look bad: Just stick to the facts.

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USE THE “VS”FORMAT

WRITE ABOUT “THE BEST”

How often have you typed in “best [fill-in-the-blank]” when searching for a product or service online? By writing reviews or ratings of the best businesses in your industry, you can own the results for this common search while also providing prospective customers with helpful information.

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KEEP ONCREATING

Well all know that having more content on your site can help your search rankings. But more importantly, you should keep creating content so you can be the best resource out there. Once a potential customer lands on your site to learn the answer to one question,

make sure they can find answers to other questions too!

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Marcus knows from his analytics research that if someone visits 30 pages of the River Pools and Spas website, and then moves to a sales appointment, that visitor will buy a pool 80 percent of the time. (The industry average for sales appointments is 10 percent.) Marcus’s whole marketing strategy revolves around getting people to stick around on the site and consume content. content. The more content they consume, the more likely it is that they’ll convert into a paying customer.

MARCUSSHERIDAN

Never make a content marketing decision out of fear. You might worry about talking about the competition or revealing too

much about your products or services. Don’t. When it comes to content, you should only worry about being the best resource

that you can possibly be.

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BE FEARLESS

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RESOURCES

INFOGRAPHIC BY PLACESTER

Built with indexable IDX for better online marketing, local search, and SEO. For expert help, visit placester.com

BEAUTIFUL REAL ESTATE

WEBSITES THAT WORK

Don’t create content to impress folks or to sound clever...create content to educate! The goal isn’t to show off your genius-level intellect by using big words. So keep it simple and make sure your audience can understand all of the information you’re

trying to convey.

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BE CLEAR AND CONCISE