Content creation is the cornerstone of all marketing strategies. Beyond your field or industry, the content you make has a strong impact on your business outcome. In other words, high-quality content is an absolute must for any venture. Yet, this edge is quite relevant for the IT world. Due to the global economic recession, tech sectors had to let go of over 150,000 employees in 2022. Further, ten of the biggest tech stocks lost over USD4T market cap. Hence, having solid marketing and content is crucial to stay ahead in troubled waters! Here, we've put together some essential keynotes on content creation for IT. Plus, we added modern tactics and tools to create great content easily. Grab your notebook and pencil, and join us!
Content creation is a fundamental piece of marketing. It starts by identifying potentially relevant ideas for a target audience. Later, it translates those into valuable content. Business content often encloses social media posts, blogs, podcasts, newsletters, and videos. These aim to create brand awareness and build trust with potential users and clients. As a result, companies gain engagement to enhance relations with their audiences. This procedure can lead to more sales and revenue.
"Content builds relationships. Relationships are built on trust. Trust drives revenue." - Andrew Davis
When creating content, the first thing to acknowledge is the message. Your message as a brand needs to be present in all marketing efforts. And that, of course, includes its content. Yet, it's vital to recognize what value you can uniquely provide to a specific market. Your value proposition has to be clear and solid! Another strong edge is choosing the correct format for your content's subject. Do you want to make content about complex topics like Machine Learning? You should go for formats that better suit the topic's complexity.
There's another keynote, one that often goes under whispers. Focus on getting good at a format before moving forward to others! If you don't quite master blog posts, getting into video-making may cause more wrongs than good.
Let's review some great topics to create valuable content for your audience. IT world has many highly-demanded subgenres. Here are some of the most popular topics within it!
Solid software involves using an ocean of tech and tools. In this scenario, web developers need to master users' expectations. Here, you can segment content into several categories. These go from front and back end to programming languages and frameworks. You should start with popular tools in the large dev community, like React.js! You also have several options if you're leaning more toward mobile dev. Excellent mobile products also involve a plethora of techs and tools. If that's your jam, a good starting point could be React Native or iOS' Swift.
Compelling interfaces with impeccable UX is fundamental for product development. Beyond the several UX/UI tools, there are other exciting takes. Its vast universe also encompasses user behavior, goals, and workflows. You've got plenty of topics to create relevant content!
PMs (Project Managers) are critical for any business, keeping teams organized and on track. This role defines projects' scope, identifies needed resources, and divides tasks. It also encloses cost analysis and risk assessment. Writing about their duties can create quite an IT impact!
Automating and testing to ensure the quality of a product embodies many concepts. From Selenium to Cypress, it's vital to any development process. Make sure you pay attention to it when making IT-related content!
We've already talked about some of the main steps of content creation. In short, it all starts with a solid value proposition and a strong buyer persona. The path from here relies on finding valuable insights that match both! Yet, we also talked about the many available content types or formats. Thus, it's also important to notice each user journey stage. These are Awareness, Interest, and Decision.
Awareness-focused content relies on familiarizing your audience. How can your product or service become valuable for them? Here, some efficient formats are videos and articles. According to 10% of marketers, these represent the biggest ROI. Videos can increase CTRs by up to 157%. Besides, these help your audience stay longer on your site. On top of that, 64% of users actually buy a product after watching a branded and targeted video.
In the consideration stages, potential customers know which problems they aim to solve. While your product or service may be an option, they aren't ready to buy yet. Likely, they are checking the market's different offers. So, your job here is to highlight the benefits of your products compared to your competitors.
Within IT, this phase extends from discussion topics to technical issues. Are they trying to build a website but don't know which CMS to use? Do they know which language suits them best for their goals? You'll be a step ahead if you can address the pros and cons of their myriad options. Your content should leave them satisfied and with a clear solution. Here, some content types that work great are case studies and comparison guides.
When reaching the decision stages, users have most likely chosen a solution. Thus, they're looking for warranties that your product can meet their expectations. You should include customers' feedback and reviews or offer free consultations. These options will be more comfortable and backed up to make the acquisition. Spiceworks states that 97% of users rely on reviews and ratings in their buying processes!
Nonetheless, decision-focused content must also include existing clients. Nurturing customers with valuable content will pay off. You can write blog posts aligned with their goals and further steps. Also, you can start a newsletter to celebrate achievements and give them tips and advice. There are some keys recommended for client retention. To Hubspot, these include thanking messages, acknowledging mistakes, and offering support.
While not new, AIDA is one of the most powerful techniques for writing relevant content. Plus, you can use it on many content types and formats to get the most out of marketing efforts. In case you don't know, AIDA stands for Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action. Let's talk about writing for every stage of this model!
In this context, attention means your first sentence needs to be as appealing as possible. The goal of it is to grab readers' attention from the beginning and get them engaged with your content. With an intriguing starting point, they're more likely to keep reading further. You can use meaningful takes on the subject or include relevant statistics. Also, asking intelligent questions that address your audiences' doubts can do wonders.
Following the previous step, your goal is to keep readers interested in your content. Here, you can go deeper into your audiences' needs and let them know you understand them. Further, you can give them a detailed solution for those needs or desires. You can include specific subheadings, bullets, and numbered lists to raise interest.
When stepping into the desire phase, it all goes down to the buyer's journey stage. Hence, you need to highlight the unique benefits your product can offer. In content terms, you should address how valuable the main topic is for your audience. You can add testimonials, recommendations, portfolios, or success cases here.
Being the one that leads to tangible acts, action may be the most notable section. In this last stage, you invite users to take specific actions with strategy-based CTAs. Typical "Call To Action" include subscriptions, free consultations, or free documents.
This method is another excellent and helpful tool for creating tech-related content. 5W1H stands for What, Where, When, Who, Why, and How. These items gather and organize information to craft a complete and coherent text. Users can get answers to their questions while you keep a cohesive narrative. Let's explore how to cover each of these critical questions.
● What. Definition, description, and topic subcategories.
● Where. Topic's real-life applications, uses, and examples.
● When. The moments or contexts when it gains unique value.
● Who. All parties involved in the topic's concept or execution.
● Why. Topic's evolution, relevance, and possible futures.
● How. The process of properly managing all topic areas.
With the current AI boom, infinite tools can help you write more compelling texts. Here, we included some of the platforms that we deem the most helpful.
Let's face it. After writing a long piece of content, it's hard to ensure you didn't make any grammatical mistakes. Besides being time-consuming, it can also harm user engagement. Thus, Grammarly is quite an ally in saving proofreading time. It also offers unique insights to enhance your content's quality!
There's no doubt of the tremendous power of OpenAI's tool. ChatGPT has been so influential that people often compare it to Google itself! The web app allows you to write almost endless content based on the prompts you give it. Not only can it answer questions, but it also provides insights based on your goals.
This wonderful AI tool helps you write several content formats from scratch. Besides blog posts, it helps with social media copy and newsletter content. Jasper also allows you to write based on the AIDA model we mentioned before! It also has templates for PAS (Problem, Agitate, Solution) and BAB (Before, After, Bridge) frameworks.
It's worth mentioning that there is no perfect AI tool. None of them is exempt from making occasional factual or logical mistakes. It's vital to fact-check the received info and suggestions. Think of them as assistants, but trust your common sense! These tools won't do all the hard work but will help you gather insights for making better content.
Content Creation is a first-necessity tool for any business. In today's troubled waters, no business can survive with no online presence. Further, it also offers many benefits! Some include brand awareness, customer loyalty, and SEO optimization. Needless to say, all these examples have a massive impact on sales and revenue. That's why relevant content significantly impacts any tech company's outcome! So, are you ready to start writing?
