Avoid making a deadly sin with your brand's online content. Silverbean's 10 Commandments of Creating Brilliant Branded Content

will help you to create successful content that your audience, and future customers, will worship.

T H E

10 COMMANDMENTS O F

CREATING BRILLIANT BRANDED CONTENT

I

THOU SHALT �NOW THY AUDIENCE

3 | THE 10 COMMANDMENTS OF CREATING BRILLIANT BRANDED CONTENT

Before you even begin writing, ask yourself: ‘Who on earth am I even writing for?’. Knowing your brand’s audience, and their needs and interests is crucial for creating content that really matters to them, and finding an appropriate tone of voice for your brand that they really can identify with. As the old adage goes, it’s not what you say, but how you say it, that makes all the difference.

1. THOU SHALT KNOW THY AUDIENCE

it's not what you say, but how you say it.

II

THOU SHALT CARRY OUT A

CONTENT AUDIT

5 | THE 10 COMMANDMENTS OF CREATING BRILLIANT BRANDED CONTENT

If you've previously dabbled in the world of content, be critical and analytical of your past attempts by carrying out a content audit. Which of your content pieces worked well – or didn’t? Was there a particular theme or topic area that resonated with your readers? Were your audience motivated by a certain type of content? Google Analytics data will help your content audit to be objective, and don’t be afraid to rework or even remove content which isn't performing.

2. THOU SHALT CARRY OUT A CONTENT AUDIT

" if it ain't broke,

don't fix it."

Record the following information in a spreadsheet to kick start the content audit process:

6 | THE 10 COMMANDMENTS OF CREATING BRILLIANT BRANDED CONTENT

Title Time on page Date published

URL Inbound links An action point2

Page views Social shares1

Page bounce rate Conversions

1 including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram and Google+2 e.g. rework, add imagery, include template, keep existing content

2. THOU SHALT CARRY OUT A CONTENT AUDIT

Completely new to online content? Then the next step is wherethe majority of your inspiration should come from...

III

THOU SHALT COVET THE CONTENT OF THY NEIGHBOUR

For inspiration to help shape your unique and original content strategy, look no further than your competitors.

Use content marketing tools like Buzzsumo to analyse their content and spot themes that are relevant and successful with your audience, as well as to determine how frequently you should be posting and the best length, format and style for articles. Look for stand-out content pieces and think about how your brand can put its stamp on that topic using the Skyscraper technique.

3. THOU SHALT COVET THE CONTENT OF THY NEIGHBOUR

8 | THE 10 COMMANDMENTS OF CREATING BRILLIANT BRANDED CONTENT

" Luckily content marketing tools like BuzzSumo will do most of the legwork for you"

THE SKYSCRAPER TECHNIQUE

9 | THE 10 COMMANDMENTS OF CREATING BRILLIANT BRANDED CONTENT

Step 1: Find link-worthy content

Step 2: Make something even better

Step 3: Reach out to the right people

3. THOU SHALT COVET THE CONTENT OF THY NEIGHBOUR

IV

REMEMBER THE RESEARCH,

TO KEEP IT HOLY

The best content out there is informative and addresses unanswered questions for its audience, so find inspiration and insight from Q&A sites such as Quora and Answer the Public, and look to industry relevant forums.

Thorough keyword research should also be undertaken as part of your idea generation process, but rather than targeting high volume phrases, look for more conversational longtail search queries (e.g. ‘how to...’, ‘where can I...’) to combine specific phrases for your industry with a sense of usefulness.

4. REMEMBER THE RESEARCH, TO KEEP IT HOLY

11 | THE 10 COMMANDMENTS OF CREATING BRILLIANT BRANDED CONTENT

V

THOU SHALT PLAN THY CONTENT CALENDAR

Failing to plan is planning to fail, so think ahead with your content by mapping it out at least a few weeks in advance – but ideally three months.

This allows you to plot in coverage for new product launches, industry and brand events, and take into account your key selling periods, but also to carry out thorough research for each individual blog post. However, don’t be a slave to your content calendar; allow yourself to be reactive too so you can keep your content fresh and relevant.

5. THOU SHALT PLAN THY CONTENT CALENDAR

13 | THE 10 COMMANDMENTS OF CREATING BRILLIANT BRANDED CONTENT

C O N T E N T

VI

THOU SHALT NOT KILL (THY AUDIENCE

WITH BOREDOM)

Forget the incessant self-promotion in your content, and instead think about the key takeaways for your readers.

As Jay Baer, author of YouTility says, "smart marketing is about help, not hype", meaning that your content should be inherently useful for your audience, and not about explicitly selling your products or services. This places your prospective customers further down the sales funnel: a single piece of content rarely makes for a sale, but starts a brand-consumer relationship that you can strengthen by continuing to deliver valuable content.

6. THOU SHALT NOT KILL (THY AUDIENCE WITH BOREDOM)

15 | THE 10 COMMANDMENTS OF CREATING BRILLIANT BRANDED CONTENT

" Smart marketing is about help, not hype"

VII

THOU SHALT CONSIDER THE SEO BENEFITS

Quality should always be the primary focus of your content, but it's a sin to forget the SEO considerations too. Always be sure to check:

7. THOU SHALT CONSIDER THE SEO BENEFITS

17 | THE 10 COMMANDMENTS OF CREATING BRILLIANT BRANDED CONTENT

LENGTH:

Google prefers quality over quantity, but aim to make each of your articles a minimum of 250 words in length, as the more relevant content you have on your page, the better chance you will have of that page ranking for your key words and terms.

KEY PHRASES:

To further improve visibility of your content, include the relevant key phrase that you are targeting in the title and first paragraph, without appearing unnatural. Keep the key phrase density of your text below 3%.

LINKS:

Support the content on your main site by creating ‘topical hubs’, and place internal links in your blog posts that point to these hubs to help categorise your content and rank better for your key phrases and terms. Also include links to relevant publications and bloggers, especially where credit is due.

VIII

THOU SHALT NOT STEAL (THY NEIGHBOUR'S

CONTENT)

8. THOU SHALT NOT STEAL (THY NEIGHBOUR'S CONTENT)

19 | THE 10 COMMANDMENTS OF CREATING BRILLIANT BRANDED CONTENT

Taking inspiration from the blog content of your competitors is fine, but under no circumstances should you steal, or replicate their content. Not only is it lazy, but it’s detrimental to your content’s SEO value too! Take the time to do your own research, put things in your own words, credit your sources, and check your facts before hitting 'Publish'.

IX

HONOUR THY BLOGGER AND THY INFLUENCER

Successful content is supported by a well-planned promotion strategy. WordStream spend 80% of their time on content promotion and only 20% time on the creation of fewer, higher quality stories - a figure which will certainly get you thinking. Use the expertise of bloggers and industry influencers to improve your content’s quality and help with promotion – this can be as easy as simply approaching them for a quote, and may help ensure your content is shared.

9. HONOUR THY BLOGGER AND THY INFLUENCER

21 | THE 10 COMMANDMENTS OF CREATING BRILLIANT BRANDED CONTENT

X

THOU SHALT MAKE THY CONTENT VISUALLY

APPEALING

When your content is well-presented, the reader will be drawn in to find out what it says. Images and graphics are a great way of tapping into visual content marketing - source them legally from sites such as Getty Images, Shutterstock and Canva, which also enables you to create sophisticated, affordable graphic designs online.

If your content includes a lot of stats, make it digestible by presenting it as an infographic; alternatively if you haven't yet embraced video content marketing, now's the time - Hubspot research found that 63% of B2C marketers and53% of B2B marketers plan to do so in 2015.

10. THOU SHALT MAKE THY CONTENT VISUALLY APPEALING

23 | THE 10 COMMANDMENTS OF CREATING BRILLIANT BRANDED CONTENT

Vicky Cawthorne, Content Marketing Executive Vicky has been writing copy and creating content for over seven years, and has worked on dozens of exciting brands across a vast range of industries. Nothing makes her sadder than spotting a spelling error, or happier than a well-timed pun.

victoria.cawthorne@silverbean.com

Lisa Kelly, Social Media & Content

Marketing Manager

With six years of experience producing content on and offline for well-known organisations and

leading publications, Lisa now specialises in engaging social

media content. Bursting with ideas, she finds nothing more satisfying

than seeing a creative piece of content executed from idea

generation to completion.

lisa.kelly@silverbean.com

info@silverbean.com

facebook.com/silverbeanmarketing

twitter.com/silverbean

linkedin.com/company/silverbean

THE AUTHORS