What is valuable content? Why is it important? How do you create it? Here’s a little beginners’ guide to help you figure out what to do.
As an affiliate marketer or an online business owner, you hear all the time that you have to create valuable content for your audience. But does anyone really take time to explain what valuable content is?
Not really. Since content is king, all I keep hearing is create valuable content for your audience, give value to your customers. I’m sure you have experienced the same.
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What is Valuable Content?
I would say that valuable content is the content that will be helpful to your audience. The content that can create an Ah-ah moment. The content your audience will be happy to read, share with others and put into action.
It’s the kind of content people read and learn something new that will help them in the future.
It’s also the content that makes people think about a new perspective you share with them and they go: Ah-ah, I didn’t think about it that way.
And sometimes it can be a reminder of the things they should be doing and may have forgotten about it.
Valuable content is something that is going to have an impact on your audience. It’s going to have them learn, think or take action.
Why is Valuable Content Important? Why do You Need to Create Valuable Content?
Valuable content is the key to build a relationship with your audience.
Why do you need to build a relationship with your audience? To build trust. Yes, trust. You want to be the person people go to when they need advice or when they need to buy a product or service in your niche.
Why do you need your audience to trust you? So it will be easier to promote or sell the products/services to your audience once they know who you are and what are your skills that make your credibility in your niche.
Voilà. As simple as that. This is why you need to give value to your audience.
How to Create Valuable Content?
This is the fun part. There are a few steps to follow in order to create good pieces of valuable content.
1- Know who your audience is. This can take a little while to determine, especially if you are just getting started. Don’t overthink it and ask yourself who is going to buy the product or service you are promoting or selling.
Here are a few more questions to help you determine your audience: What problems are you solving with your products? Is your audience mostly men or women? Are your future customers young or older? What is the age range that is most likely to be interested in your products?
What kind of person would be interested in your products? Were you that person and you solve your biggest problems using the products you promote/sell? Do you already know what your audience is going through because you’ve been there yourself?
If you were your perfect audience, it will be easier to share valuable content since you know what people need to succeed.
Once you know a little bit more about your audience, it will be easier to create content that people will like. It will be easier to grow your authority and build a relationship with your audience.
Make sure, before you start creating any piece of content, that you have some kind of idea about who would be interested in what you promote. Are you targeting pregnant women, retirees, college students, parents having trouble disciplining their kids, people with back pain?
2- Choose your platform. Since you took some time to get to know who your audience is, now you want to choose a platform where you will be able to reach it.
Depending on what your niche is, you may consider different platforms.
For building your authority, having a website or a blog where you share your content is always a good start. If you don’t like writing, you can either use a voice-to-text application, so you need to edit and post or you can create a YouTube channel.
This also depends on the amount of time you have to create your content each week. Keep in mind that you can’t solely rely on social media platforms to build your business. You need more in case your accounts get shut down.
For the more visual niche, your audience is probably on Pinterest and Instagram. You may want to consider creating a YouTube channel to connect with your audience.
If you are in a B2B niche, of course you will consider using LinkeDin. That’s where many business owners are.
Maybe your audience likes on-the-go content. Then you may want to consider creating a podcast.
Do a little research to see where your audience is so you can make a good impact and reach as many people as possible.
Know that in most niches, an email list is a great way to keep in touch with your audience.
3- Create content that is compatible with the platform you choose. I know it’s easy to share the same piece of content everywhere but it doesn’t necessarily mean good results. Each platform has its specificalities.
The people on the platforms expect a certain type of content. You may want to tweak your content a little for each platform so you get the best results.
Yes, it will take time. Yes, you need to put in the work so you get results. No, it won’t happen overnight. Yes, you are going to make mistakes and yes,you will learn from them.
I wrote a series of articles on creating content for social media. You can start reading them here.
I have seen people creating a blog post using a YouTube video and a little description and that was their blog post. That is not interesting since there is nothing to read and I don’t know how Google can rank that, if ranked at all.
Be smart on how you use the different platforms. You don’t need to be everywhere. You can start with a blog or a YouTube channel and share what you create on your personal social media accounts.
4- Create your content. Now that you know who your audience is and where you can reach it, you can start creating your valuable content.
If you are writing, keep it readable. It has to be easy to read. No big paragraphs. Keep your content scannable. Avoid spelling mistakes and grammar errors as much as possible.
I often see good content on Instagram or Facebook, but I don’t share it if it contains errors. A lot of people are like that and a lot of people don’t even notice the mistakes. It’s OK.
Everyone is different and to win your audience, you want to make sure your content isn’t hurting the eyes of the ones who love pointing fingers at others’ mistakes.
If your content is video or audio, make sure the sound is good. If there is too much echo or if we can barely hear you, people won’t bother listening to what you have to say, even if you are giving the best tips on the world.
Always keep in mind who you are talking to. You won’t be speaking the same way to a 20 years old as you would to a 65 years old.
Create your content keeping in mind that you want people to share your content with others.
What Kind of Content Can Bring Value to Your Audience?
Tidbits and tips are a great way to create valuable content. Make sure you are not taking the exact same tips that 1,000 others have already shared, in the same format. Make it your own. That also can take time and practice.
I know I like to see some good tips on certain topics when I scroll on social media. It can also be in a good blog post or in a good YouTube video.
So any little tips that could help your audience with something that could be an issue if they don’t know about those tips.
Storytelling is good to create Ah-ah moments. It can be your story or someone else’s story. You want to share the moment when everything changed because of what you discovered, the product you promote.
It helps connect with your audience when you share a little bit about yourself. It is also great for people who can relate to your story. They may be more likely to follow you.
This is the place to share your story and your struggles and what you do to change your life.
Giving away part of the solution. You can’t give it all since your products should be doing that for you. What you can do is talk about all the different solutions available and then explain why you choose one over the others.
Educating your audience so they can make the best possible choice, even if they don’t buy from you is important. Again, you build trust and people will come back for more whenever they need it and they may bring others along.
Asking questions. Creating polls or asking questions on how do you handle X, why do you want X, what do you know about X, etc will make people think. Thinking is good.
A lot of people don’t ask themselves any questions. They are on autopilot and that’s good enough for them. But putting out a question breaks that pattern and grabs attention.
You can create quizzes with a fun outcome or on a serious topic. Vary the types of questions you ask: yes or no, polls, open answers. If you don’t get answers the first time around, you can always wait about a month and try again at a different time.
No matter what type of valuable content you create, stay relevant to your niche.
There is always a place for fun facts and other things going on that you can share on social media.
Remember to interact with people who leave comments. If you want people to take action, you need to “reward” those who leave you a comment with an answer and a like for their comment. That will tell people that you do care and that you are social.
In Conclusion
Creating valuable content for your audience is simple once you know who your audience is, where to find it and what they struggle with.
Keep in mind that a problem is the difference between the reality and the expectations of your audience.
Create tidbits and tips that are easily shareable. Write stories about the problems you faced and how your life has changed because of the product you promote. Ask questions, be interested in the other person who is reading your content.
Be genuine and authentic in what you create. People will stick to you better than if you only want to promote and sell products all the time. There is nothing worse than a salesperson who doesn’t listen to what its customers need.
People, strangers, don’t care about you. They care about themselves and what’s in it for them.
Are you ready to give value to your audience?
Cynthia