When writing about tips for producing content, I think back to a time many years ago when I interviewed an Academy Award-winning screenplay writer. Paris Hilton was his neighbor and he lived in the heart of Hollywood. He had achieved extreme career success by creating screenplays that captivated audiences.

“How do you produce content that people actually want to watch,” I asked. “When you have a blank computer screen staring back at you, and you’re in the back of a noisy coffee shop, how do you put words to paper?”

The screenplay writer smiled and gave a pretty simple answer:

“Trust that you’re a valid audience. If you can please yourself, you have to trust that there are enough people out there who will be pleased as well.”

Even in business, this advice holds true. You have to trust that you are the expert in your industry to give valuable information that people want to read. Producing engaging content is a challenge for content writers, small business owners and anyone leveraging their blog to attract prospective readers.ma

To help you create meaningful content, we asked marketing leaders and small business owners for their best content creation tips.

Related: 12 ways to improve your content marketing

11 tips for producing content for your target audience

From leveraging Google to relying on data, here are several strategies that may help you produce valuable content for your website.

1. Google is your best friend
2. Search Pinterest to find new topic ideas
3. Monitor how your content impacts conversions
4. Build up your top performers
5. Interview your target audience
6. Use search listening tools
7. Focus on customer pain points using “AIDA”
8. Pick keywords aligning with a user search intent
9. Be an industry resource
10. Visit spaces where your customers ask questions
11. Analyze content gaps and social media

Below, you’ll have an opportunity to read through advice from key business leaders and see why many of these tips for producing content are so successful.

1. Google is your best friend

All good content starts with some keyword research. But great content starts with “key question” research.

As you examine your target, focus on what questions they have about your product, service or category. A great tool to find out what those questions are is good ol’ Google.

Type in a keyword, scroll down the search results until you get to “People also searched for.” Here you will find great questions that people are turning to Google for answers.

You can be their answer. Go build great content that answers these questions and you will be well on your way to being an authority on topics you know that interests your target.

Eric Rutin, Easy Marketing Lessons

Related: How to do SEO keyword research to drive traffic to your website

2. Search Pinterest to find new topic ideas

A large swath of my audience is on Pinterest, so I utilize the auto-fill in the search tool in Pinterest to find more interesting long-tail keywords — [this works] for content that I may not have considered before utilizing more traditional keyword search platforms, such as Ahrefs.

Not only will this content perform well on Pinterest, but I know that there is an audience interested in this topic. And, I can increase the chance that they will click through to other interesting content on my website.

Kristine Thorndyke, Test Prep Nerds

Related: The entrepreneurs’ guide to Pinterest marketing

3. Monitor how your content impacts conversions

Yes, you should be measuring content performance by looking at metrics like time on page, bounce rate, and more. But if you’re not monitoring which pieces of content are actually driving conversions, then you won’t know what content is meeting your audience’s needs.

To do this, start by enabling ecommerce tracking in Google Analytics or setting up a goal based on what you want your audience to do. Then, use the Assisted Conversions report to see which types of content are moving the needle.

Content is almost always more top-of-the-funnel than bottom. By using the Assisted Conversions report you can see which pieces are contributing throughout the user journey and scale from there.

Sylvia Kang, Mira

4. Build up your top performers

My best tip for producing content that readers will actually enjoy is to see what’s currently ranking and write something better. If long-form content (such as ultimate guides) is ranking for your target keyword, then create an ultimate guide –– but make it stand out.

Use what is already performing well as a baseline, then add another layer of value. This could be something like adding a free downloadable PDF guide to complement the blog post.

Sophia Orlando, Markitors

5. Interview your target audience

The best way to produce content that meets your audience’s needs is to interview your existing customers. Speak to them and find out the challenges they are facing. Discover the hot topic in their industry that everyone is talking about. Once you know what these topics are, you can produce content directly addressing your audience’s questions.

Daniel Lee, Strategyst

6. Use search listening tools

To produce content that meets your target audience’s needs, don’t just take your best guess. To get to grips with what your audience really wants to read, use search listening tools like Answer The Public.

Answer The Public listens to autocomplete data from search engines like Google, then generates a list of audience questions, prepositions and comparisons.

Just by running one or two words through the platform’s tool, you can access and draw from these insights to create content that meets your target audience’s needs. When I’m hitting writer’s block and struggling with what content to plan next, search listening tools always get me back on track and provide a boatload of potential content ideas.

Aaron Gray, NO-BS Marketplace

7. Focus on customer pain points using “AIDA”

Customers have multiple needs. Needs are categorized often as “must” and “nice to have” criteria. But ultimately, there is always one need that creates pain. This is the one need to tackle within your content.

How do you do this? With the proven AIDA model,  an acronym for:

• Attention
• Interest
• Desire
• Action

First, get the attention of the customer by demonstrating you understand their needs and have a good solution.

Second, spark interest with details on your solution and show the user exactly how to solve their problem.

Third, create desire by showing the user how much easier their life is once they purchase your solution. Create the “to-be” state of the customer.

And last, get the user to act through a demo, free call, download or a purchase.

Stephan Wenger, B2B Marketing World

8. Pick keywords aligning with a user search intent

Before crafting your content, first categorize its ideal reader into one of three user search intent categories:

• Informational searchers
• Commercial searchers
• Transactional searchers

Informational searchers are the most passive and broad — [they hunt] online across multiple page-one search engine results pages (SERPs) to better understand a topic.

Commercial searchers go next and [consist of users] searching for the best solution to their questions or problems — not just information.

Finally, transactional searchers are folks who go online specifically to buy something right now.

Once you’ve identified where your reader sits in these three categories, you can scaffold your target keywords accordingly — [aim] to capture their interest and meet their needs in your content. In doing so, you’ve identified the top, middle and bottom funnels. [This] helps ensure that users will find what they need when interacting with your content.

Morgan Taylor, Sourcery

9. Be an industry resource

We see the importance of producing quality content when building our marketing plan, so we focus on addressing our audience’s search intent. You can attract users to your website, but if you’re not answering their questions or filling their needs, you’ll find that they quickly navigate away from the page.

Find relevant keywords and add value to the conversation. Position your business as a resource in your industry.

Blake Murphey, American Pipeline Solutions

10. Visit spaces where your customers ask questions

[Find] the spaces where your ideal customers spend time. A great option is to join or browse Facebook groups that are relevant to your niche. What questions are the people in those groups asking? Are there any recurring topics?

Quora is another platform that can better help you get into the mind of your target audience.

Another place to find inspiration is to talk to your customer service team. What questions do they receive the most from customers or potential customers? Does there appear to be a disconnect anywhere between information available on the website and the questions they hear the most?

Sara Bodner, Conklin Media

11. Analyze content gaps and social media

Perform a content gap analysis. This helps you find topics and keywords that people are searching for or talking about — [especially when] there isn’t much existing content about it.

Doing this would give you ideas for content that meets the needs of your target audience [that isn’t] currently being addressed. Reading social media comments and questions, and seeing what’s trending on social media, also helps in generating content ideas that meet the needs of the target audience.

Ben Rollins, Axon Optics

Make content that connects with your readers

The tips for producing content above will better equip you at connecting with prospective customers.

A perfect piece of content is one that speaks to the needs of your customers.

If every reader can find value in what you’ve created, then you know you’re ready to hit the “publish” button and share with your stakeholders and followers.

Use these content creation tips as a guide when creating your next piece of content and see how it impacts your small business.

Terkel creates community-driven content featuring expert insights. Sign up at terkel.io to answer questions and get published.

How do you know it’s time for a social media makeover?

• Your social media has no rhyme or reason. It’s kind of … random. You’re spending loads of time posting but it looks bland and gets no engagement. All that effort isn’t translating into much growth or profit.
• You know your brand could look better. Do you ever catch yourself scrolling and daydreaming? Imagining how your brand could look a little bit cooler? You know your brand could look more unified, professional and relevant, but you simply don’t know how to do it, or you can’t afford to hire a designer.
• You’re not on social media. You have a business already established and a website up and running, but you need to get your brand on social media.
• You’re just starting out. Maybe you’re a small business or side hustle, and you want to do it properly on social media, from the get-go.

Whether it’s taking someone’s wardrobe from drab to fab, or transforming dull living spaces into a dream home, everybody loves a good makeover — probably because we like to see people living their best lives.

Your social media channels as an everyday entrepreneur are no different. But giving your brand a social media makeover goes further than just looking good.

Having a powerful presence on social media can help you maintain a competitive edge, setting you up to sell more, and keep your business thriving.

Maintaining a social media account might feel like a productive use of your time, but pottering around aimlessly in the digital space can end up wasting more energy than it generates for your brand.

Social media is supposed to work for you, gaining you leads, fans, subscribers, customers and recognition. The juice has to be worth the squeeze.

We’ve got some ideas to help create the best brand presence you possibly can, to increase your odds out there in the social media jungle.

Armed with this knowledge, we’ll show you a little shortcut to creating professional-looking designs too, in the form of Layout Collections in GoDaddy Studio.

What does a great social media feed look like?

You know those social media accounts that you just love to see popping up on your phone? That’s not by accident. Looking effortlessly attractive as a brand takes some upfront work to build solid foundations.

Brands with great social media feeds typically get at least some of these things right:

• They publish excellent content. It’s inspirational, informative, or entertaining – providing some value to their target audience.

• They have a distinct identity. When it’s done well, you can recognize a brand at a glance before you even read the first word. Their coherent brand identity also differentiates their business space from the personal accounts that are intermingled on your feed.

• They touch on a defined pool of topics. You can’t talk about everything to everyone – so they narrow it down to some recurring themes, centered on their audience, their product, and their values. Where these intersect, is their sweet spot; the conversation they can own.
• There’s a defined cadence. Whether it’s three times a day or three times a week, a brand is more likely to show up in our feeds (and become memorable to its audience) if they have a regular publishing routine. Diligence is rewarded on most algorithms, too!

• They value aesthetics. Brands doing well on social media have quality, well-considered content that makes your eyes happy: think beautiful photos, playful design, popping colors, gorgeous fonts, and eye-catching graphics that elevate a post from a random photo to a work of art. Some of the best brands regard their feed as an ever-evolving work of art.

• Their content is actionable. There’s a clear message telling the reader what they want them to do – whether it’s entering a competition, commenting on a particular post, or signing up for a product or service.
• They create content with mutual benefit in mind. This means either delivering a moment of insight or delight, or creating a chance for the reader to reap some benefit – a discount, a sale, a competition, a lesson, or the chance to gain more information about a topic.

• They engage with customers and other brands (they don’t just post and duck). Popular brands are responding to comments, thanking customers for compliments, or solving simple problems, rather than publishing a piece of content and never interacting with it again. They’re part of like-minded online communities and business networks, engaging with these conversations.
• They engage with current events, trends and memes. Inasmuch as we’re encouraging planning, the brands who are strong on social don’t lock things in months ahead without making space for some spontaneous reactions. Bernie on a chair, anyone?
• They sync with special days, seasons and holidays. In doing this, they’re responding to a world that’s constantly in flux.    

Most of all, brands doing well on social media are the ones who are using their social media channels to help them achieve their business goals.

How do you get started on a social media makeover?

It may seem overwhelming to try and get to the same level as bigger, more established brands, but this is absolutely an attainable goal — and you can do it yourself, without spending money on hiring a designer.

Even if you’re a single person side hustle, looking premium will create that perception of professionalism (nobody needs to know it’s just you and your phone).

Remember that it’s more than a once-off brand revamp: reinventing yourself is actually an essential habit to develop as an entrepreneur. Luckily, it’s something you can get better and better at over time, and the proof of the pudding is in the tasting: growth.

We’re going to show you how to up your game on social media, with some best practice tips combined with stacks of practical know-how. But before we dive into the creative stuff, it’s important to address the reasons behind why you’re doing this. Getting this down before you start redesigning will help you reap both immediate and long-term benefits.

What does a social media makeover involve?

There are five fundamental steps you need to walk through when it comes to pulling off a successful social media makeover, with questions to ask yourself at each stage. Let’s take a closer look:

1. Consider your purpose

• Why are you on social media in the first place? What are you trying to achieve?
• Which platforms are right for you, in terms of your big goals? Remember that you don’t have to be everywhere at once.
• What’s worked/not worked for you in the past? Be honest, and learn from your mistakes — as well as your successes of course.
• What’s your brand really about, beyond profit? How do you want to show up and engage on social media, and how do you want your audience to view you?

2. Set measurable goals

Whether it’s more sales, more leads, more engagement or building a community, set yourself a target and a timeline. This doesn’t have to be too complicated if you’re starting out. Use your best guess as a baseline (100 new subscribers a month, 15% more traffic to the blog via Instagram), and adjust your targets once the data starts rolling in week after week.

Hopefully, your feed will start looking more stylish and coherent, creating an impression of improvement, but make sure your goals are something you can measure directly, to keep you on course and motivated.

The good news is that most social platforms have easy access to basic analytics, for free. You don’t need to get neck-deep in the data, but you do want some objective measure to know if your numbers are moving up or down. This basic data will guide your strategy on an ongoing basis.

3. Find your brand’s unique style (your presence)

Nobody knows your brand better than you. So, what is its personality: bold or classic? Playful or street? The design will ultimately create this impression to new customers.

Luckily, there are 13 different styles to guide you here, so you can choose the one that’s absolutely right for you. Naturally, you can customize your unique brand identity, but it’s useful to start with some guardrails.

Remember, your style is inextricably linked to your audience. It reflects a worldview, and not just a “look.”

Once you have your unique style in mind, take some time to explore all the graphics, logos, images, color palettes, and fonts we have in GoDaddy Stuido. Save your favorites — these will form part of your brand identity kit.

4. Customize templates and layout collections

This is the fun part! Find templates for the formats you’ll be using the most, whether it’s a competition poster or a YouTube thumbnail. We have thousands of designs, grouped by platforms, occasions, and styles.

Layout collections make the process even easier, by offering you a full pack of consistently designed templates across a range of formats and platforms.

Customize templates by applying your brand’s unique graphics, fonts, colors, logo, and images to a professional design.

Find the layout collection that suits your brand best and customize it with your brand’s colors, fonts, logo, graphics, and images.

5. Plan ahead with a content calendar

• Content for a week: Pick a few types of social content that you produce on a regular basis. These could include discussion topics, product features, user showcases, links to your blog, motivational quotes… the options are endless, but narrow it down to keep your brand’s messaging consistent.
• Content for a month: Look at the upcoming month(s) to identify special days, holidays, or cultural moments that might create opportunities to produce relevant content.
• Content for a year: Identify a few key holidays/seasons/events that hold maximum marketing potential for your brand well in advance. Use the time to plan campaigns — a sale, a competition, an event — for maximum impact.

Once you have the basic principles in place by working through this framework, the design process should be more logical, much easier, and — most importantly — more fun than complicated. As an everyday entrepreneur, you’ve got a ton of things on your to-do list.

Creating content shouldn’t be sucking hours out of your day, or hundreds of dollars out of your business account.

Make your brand beautiful

Templates and layout collections make it super easy to create a full social media kit with your unique brand identity: simply add your brand’s fonts, colors, graphics, and images to professionally designed templates.

Our layout collections were created with this exact function in mind, to allow you to develop a consistent library of ready-to-go content, instead of designing from templates one at a time, as the need arises. Remember: the secret to success is to have your brand vision and goals clearly identified before you start.

Now that we’ve broken it down for you, giving your brand a social media makeover doesn’t sound that overwhelming, does it? You’ve got this.

GoDaddy Studio is the perfect tool to help you show up beautifully, and make an impact on social media — every time.

The post Is it time for a social media makeover? appeared first on GoDaddy Blog.

As we all come to terms with the new retail landscape after a global pandemic, it’s definitely worth exploring how to use a sale to get more business. Reducing your prices might be a necessary short-term action, but it shouldn’t reek of desperation.

A good sale is sustainable to your bottom line and welcomed by customers feeling the pinch.

It’s also a great opportunity to remind people that you’re still open for business, as you adjust to a new reality.

How to use a sale to get more business

The sale is a tried and trusted way to promote your business, boost revenue, and make people feel good about their purchase. Ultimately, everyone likes to feel like a winner when they walk away with a bargain.

Planned well, they’re a great short-term booster to:

• Spike interest
• Gain customers
• Get some product moving

All of these can be as valuable for motivation as they are for your bottom line.

Why launching a sale is important for small business

For small businesses, a strategic sale can be the gentle nudge to convert a new customer from “I’m interested” to “yeah, might as well.”

If you’re just starting out and trying to gain a foothold in a crowded market, you can start with a tempting introductory offer.

This is a brilliant way to:

• Get your business noticed
• Promote your brand
• Attract some of your competitor’s more fickle followers

For existing customers and followers, you can present discounts as exclusive rewards to help build loyalty.

Treating your core customers right is most important.

And with the right message, a sale could be your brand’s way of helping folks out in a time when money is hard to come by.

Avoid common pitfalls ‍when pricing

Make sure you’re being careful when tinkering with the price of your product. Your product is inextricably linked to its perceived value and a “90% off” or “Five for the price of one” sale could raise a few red flags for savvy shoppers.

Similarly, the sun-bleached “Clearance Sale” poster that’s been stuck on your window all year long isn’t fooling anybody. Remember to use sales sparingly and set a specific goal in mind. This could include a seasonal tradition or a 24-hour flash promotion. Whatever route you decide to take, do it thoughtfully and make it count. ‍

Design tips to get you noticed‍

The most important thing is that people know about your promotion. Take the time to design some eye-grabbing posters and spread the word far and wide. Use the tips below to help get you started.

Be bold, but stay true to yourself: If ever there was an excuse to use bold colors and display fonts, this is it. But stay true to your brand’s identity above all.

Utilize motion to grab attention: It’s worth it to use GIFs or a video template to stand out in people’s social media feeds.

Make sure your call-to-action (CTA) is clear and unmissable: Potential buyers need to know exactly what the special is and what they need to do to get it. Making the mechanism too complex, or burying terms and conditions in the small print, is the easiest way to lose a lead and cause frustration.

Generate hype ahead of time: Creating FOMO and building hype is critical to your sale’s success and promoting your brand. Anticipation and limited availability serve as fuel for the fire when it comes to promotions.

Avoid recycling the same poster design: This might make it invisible over time. Instead, try planning different design phases that lead up to your sale. You can use similar aesthetics to maintain interest and create the impression of something growing day by day.

Additionally, spreading similar promo designs over different platforms can also only help build awareness.

Here’s how GoDaddy Studio can help

Luckily, GoDaddy Studio has specific layout collections to help you design your own sale promo. It allows you to easily create a multi-platform campaign leading up to your business promotion. Simply pop your own images and text into these pre-designed templates for a clean and beautiful design in minutes.

Beyond the specific promotion at hand, wrapping up your marketing material with a coherent and professional design makes a great impression for your brand.‍

Related: GoDaddy Studio — Create eye-catching imagery for your brand

Utilize a marketing calendar‍ to help with promo planning

Take advantage of seasonal opportunities. Many industries (most notably fashion) operate by the shifting seasons.

Clearance sales are the perfect time to refresh your inventory and offer customers a few benefits in the process.

Special celebration days might range from Easter to National Pancake Day. It’s important to be aware of dates like these in regards to sales, especially if they align with your audience’s likes and interests. You can also use them for extra promo power to help encourage meaningful engagement with your target audience.

Key marketing tactics to try‍

These are a few variants of the discount promotion you might want to try for your own brand or small business. Let’s review them below.

The seasonal sale‍

The seasons shift in very convenient three-month phases, enabling four foundational sales every year. These shifts are essential for fashion (or anything fashionable) to keep offerings on-trend.

The upside is that consumers expect these, so you’ll have an eager audience looking out for discounts. But, you’ll need to work hard to stand out and out-promote the competition.

Off-peak deals also work well for seasonal industries like:

• Tourism
• Swimwear
• Restaurants

They often do this to keep business ticking into the quiet times.

Special days

Whereas seasonal sales are quite generic, special days help you find and target a relevant crowd to which you can promote your brand. Most brands plan these days ahead of time on a marketing calendar.

But besides obvious holidays like Christmas and Halloween, you’ll want to look out for celebrations that align with your product and your audience. There are many special days for the following niche audiences:

• Yoga
• Craft beer
• Mental health
• The environment
• Women in tech
• Bulldogs
• Hot dogs

Your company’s anniversary and other milestones count too, so take advantage where you can!

The exclusive sale‍

You’ve worked hard to gain the followers you have, so it’s worth making them feel special to keep ‘em coming back for more.

Never underestimate the marketing power of a happy customer.

An exclusive sale is more likely to have a higher engagement since you’re selling to folks who already know (and hopefully love) your brand.‍

Mystery deals‍

Intrigue new customers by offering a range of variable discounts or special offers to promote your business. These promos can range from 10% to 50% off and entice the customer to click the offer to see if it’s their lucky day or not.

If they end up being offered a discount at the higher end of the spectrum, there’s a decent chance they’ll see it as a sign and jump on the opportunity. Done right, mystery deals can be more engaging and feel more personalized. ‍

Sign-up specials‍

One of the most failsafe ways to acquire a potential customer is with a sign-up offer. You can think of it as a very clean and mutually beneficial agreement. While you gain a new lead, they gain a wicked deal on their first purchase or session. Everybody wins!

Activating a new customer is one of the hardest things to do for a small business, so it’s worth the cost and effort to incentivize this. Simply bringing them into your orbit (via a newsletter sign-up or social media follow) is worth offering something in return. If a customer feels noticed or taken care of from the start, it bodes well for the ongoing journey.‍

Buy one get one

Aah, the classic BOGO technique. There’s a reason we all know the phrase “Buy One Get One” so well. It works like a charm at ramping up sales because free or discounted stuff is very hard to say no to.

A good BOGO promo works great for introducing a wider range of products to your customers.

For example, a candy salesman might notice a customer enjoying something watermelon-flavored and suggest a lime flavor as an add-on. You can also use it to gain new customers by setting up your offer to be shared with a friend.

Checklist‍

Before you go live, make sure you have the essentials in place. Use the checklist below to help launch your sale effectively and better promote your brand.

Timeline ‍

Create a timeline to plan ahead and use the following questions as your guide:

• When does it kick-off and end?
• Are there different phases to the sale?
• When will you start advertising it?

Answering these questions will set up the frame for the rest of your parameters.

Measuring success‍

Zeroing in on goals and objectives will give you a clear direction on how to measure success. Ask yourself the following questions before getting started:

• What are you hoping to achieve with this promotion?
• Is it just about the number of units sold?
• Are you more interested in new leads or retaining customers?

Once you have these answers, work out how you’ll measure success (Google Analytics is a good start). You’ll learn plenty for future promotions by monitoring this data. ‍

Terms and conditions‍

Don’t wait for a disgruntled customer or a devastating loophole to pop up. Take a moment to think through the basic terms and conditions and make them known. Post them on your website or somewhere in your social post. ‍

Unmissable social media posts‍

Visibility within your social media posts can’t be overemphasized. And while attracting attention to your sale is one thing, making it seem enticing and well-organized is another.

That’s what good design does.

A professional design evokes a quality product or service. Nobody needs to know you made it yourself in GoDaddy Studio. Try it out for free and see how it’ll save you time and money.

All images are available as editable templates in GoDaddy Studio.