How To Become A Successful Content Creator In 2020

The marketing industry is evolving big time and has been adapting to a lot of changes in the past decade. Traditional marketing is no more the only marketing option, particularly for companies whose audience is the millennials. These brands are choosing content marketing which aids them in interacting with their clients and helps build a...

The marketing industry is evolving big time and has been adapting to a lot of changes in the past decade.

Traditional marketing is no more the only marketing option, particularly for companies whose audience is the millennials.

These brands are choosing content marketing which aids them in interacting with their clients and helps build a good relationship via their online content.

Content marketing has proved to be more effective than traditional marketing and the $300 billion-plus dollar industry is now booming with opportunities.

More than 90 % of B2B professionals have adopted contain marketing as a go-to strategy to reach their audience.

With top brands getting into content marketing, creating top-notch and evergreen content is no easy task.

What does it take to become a successful content creator? How many visits do you need for your blog post to hit the viral article mark?

No author wrote a bestseller in their first attempt!  

Becoming a successful content creator takes excellent copywriting skills, regular practice, research, a good writing routine, and patience.

This article is a guideline material on how to become a content creator and establish yourself as an expert to attract qualified prospects through your content.

What is a content creator?

And, what do content creators do?

A Content creator/writer is a person who is responsible for the creation of marketing materials for a brand to communicate with their audience.

Content is now widespread everywhere from books, newspapers, blogs, apps, and all social media platforms. 

A successful digital content creator has a decent amount of following across all social media platforms. They usually specialize in a particular segment of a market and write engaging content for a specific audience. Many good content creators also have a lot of email subscribers.

Every writer is not a content creator! There is a lot to understand about the role of a content creator.

In fact, content creators these days are backing their content with so much research that makes their audience share what they are reading. 

The responsibility of a content creator lies in crafting compelling content that helps to convert the visitors of a website into customers.

The tougher task is to make these visitors come back again for more content by making them subscribe to the company’s blog.

Content creation is not as simple as throwing up a few Instagram posts or creating edited YouTube videos. 

It is a profession that requires dedication, good copywriting skills, understanding of the audience, a strategic approach, and primarily communicating values in the form of text.

According to CMI:

  • Content marketing has lower upfront costs and deeper long-term benefits than paid search 
  • Content marketing generates over three times as many leads as outbound marketing and costs 62% less

Types of content:

A content creator can contribute any of the following types of content.

  • Blog articles
  • Whitepapers
  • Case Studies
  • Knowledgebase of products
  • Email newsletters 
  • Social media copy 
  • Infographics
  • Interviews
  • Checklists
  • How-to guides
  • Video marketing/editing 
  • eBooks 
  • Brochures
  • GIFs
  • Memes

The type of content you create should go well with your brand’s marketing strategy. 

We all now realize that videos have gained more attention from the audience. But, according to CMI the text content has also not lost its glory yet and is keeping its pace.

Successful content creators focus on creating compelling, ROI based content that helps the brand build authority and trust with their target audience.

This, in turn, helps the brand generate more sales.

The best way to keep your content creation process perennial is to have an active in-house content marketing team. 

Habits of content creators

Every successful content creator has their own secret formula that helps them to write excellent articles. The function of their secret formula doesn’t stop there. It makes the viewers like, share, and also ignite conversations about their content.

Science proves that if any activity practiced for more than 3 weeks, it becomes a habit. 

If you are a beginner at content creation, here is your first thing to do – Create a content creation routine!

Below is a list of habits that will help you create a highly functional and actionable content creation routine. 

I am sure this routine will help you create successful content effortlessly.

1. Keep reading and stay updated

The content you create doesn’t work well with the audience unless you are updated about what is going on in your industry.

This way you can also help your readers understand how your industry is evolving and guide them with your tips on staying updated too.

Use tools like Google alert or Social Animal to set up content alerts for your target keywords.

Log in to Social Animal if you have an account or sign up here for a free trial.

In the onboarding process, Social Animal will ask you to enter keywords and competitor names.

We recommend that you add at least 3 keywords and competitors to get the best results to stay updated.

You can also add/edit your inputs from the Dashboard screen itself.

Here is how the result screen looks after the input is given. 

Once you have entered your domains and keywords, you are also subscribed to Social Animal’s daily digest emails where you will be getting alerts for the latest content published for your keyword and from your competitor domains.

2. Practice writing regularly

Content is now everywhere and in all possible forms. It is not like the olden days where you have to sit down to write in front of a typewriter or your desktop to write a piece of text. 

When you are creating a piece of content, you are not just competing with someone who writes text but also with the search engines that index any form of content taking keywords as their input.

There might be a hundred people who are creating videos, podcasts, infographics, animations, and even the text articles on the same topic that you are planning to write.

You know what? Writing forms the basis for all types of content.

Be it a video, a podcast, or an interview, any individual the media industry will agree that a good script always matters.

So here are a few tips that can help you practice the art of writing with ease.

Tip 1: Always have a deadline to publish your content

It is always good to have a goal and work towards it. 

When you know the deadline of publishing content, you can organize the time to work on sections of your article and this will definitely give you the chance to edit or recheck.

Tip 2: Identify your best type of content

A lot of content marketing influencers always try recreating what has worked well for them. 

For example, Brian Dean (one of the best backlink builders in the industry) creates long-form guides that stand out on the SERPs. 

So his speciality is the skyscraper content that provides great value to the readers.  

This way you need to analyze what is your best form of content. Also try to work on increasing the variety (like how-to articles, videos, listicles, checklists, etc) of content you create.

Tip 3: Create a content calendar

A content calendar is a must for everyone who is trying to improve their business through content marketing. Plan and publish your content on the decided date.

Use tools like CoSchedule to create your content calendar.

Tip 4: Ask for review from writing professionals

Not many writers do this. 

Having a mentor always helps. This might probably be the best thing for a writing professional as word of mouth also plays a significant role in gaining prospective opportunities.

This activity can primarily help you in networking within your industry.

Tip 5: Track the progress of your articles

Just writing a piece of content and hitting publish on a regular basis does not make you a successful writer.

You should also be tracking the progress of your articles using tools like Social Animal, Ahrefs, or SEM Rush. 

Try being active in writing communities and promote your content on all major platforms and make sure you follow social media etiquette.

3. Understand your audience

Understanding your audience does not mean getting a grasp of their mindset alone. It involves a good amount of reading and intense research.

It is always good to think you are one among them rather than putting yourself in their shoes.

Do not create content just by assuming what your audience likes. This is one major mistake many writers might be doing in your industry.

Understanding your audience becomes easy with content research. You can get to know:

  • what are the top websites they visit 
  • what kind of blogs they subscribe to
  • what is their most used social media platform 
  • what kind of content do they share 
  • what type of videos they like and 
  • who all are the influencers they follow.

With Social Animal, you can gain all the above-mentioned data within minutes. 

Please watch this demo video showcasing all the features and capabilities of Social Animal:

4. Create your own style

It is a fact that you are not the only writer trying to create evergreen content in your industry.

All established writers stand out from the crowd by creating their own style. Just as we saw earlier, Brian Dean(CEO of Backlinko) has established himself as someone who does things out of the box in the content marketing industry.

Establishing your own style does not happen overnight. It takes time.

Start with research.

If you are planning to create a video on B2B marketing start with analyzing the top videos that have been produced on this topic.

Here is how you can find top-performing videos on Youtube.com

Log in to Social Animal

To find what kind of videos top the social media, pick your target keyword(say ‘B2B‘) and enter it in the article section after youtube.com.

Target query – Youtube.com B2b

Now, you’ll see the list of top-performing videos.

Sign up here for a free trial and discover more!

Find what additional value you can add to your viewers and write your article(in this case your video script) based on that. 

5. Offer solutions with your content 

Google has now become a place where people search for every situation they face to find articles that can help them.

In business cases, people often tend to search online to try learning or to look out for solutions based on the problems they are facing.

Let’s now take up use case to explain. 

Imagine that you’re someone who writes for an E-learning company. Now, a user who is trying to learn a programming language(say Python).

The first thing they would do is search for the best resources online to learn this powerful language.

The query will probably be – best resources to learn Python. If your brand is offering a course on Python, the smartest idea would be to create a listicle article of all top resources to learn Python, where you promote your brand as well.

This way, you have helped users in real-time, made them remember you, and have also promoted your brand genuinely.

Note: Keyword research is a must to identify content gaps.

6. Network with relevant professionals 

Networking with the most relevant professionals from your industry is as important as staying updated about your industry trends.

This is because you are getting an opportunity to interact and build a relationship with people who set the trends in your niche.

There are a lot of tools and sources that can help you stay connected with influences in your industry.

A few best examples are Slack communities, Facebook groups, Twitter, and also Quora.

Twitter is a good platform to stay connected with a lot of people at once.

Here is how you can find Top Influencers on Twitter using Social Animal:

  •  Sign up or Log in to Social Animal and head over to the Influencers section. 
  • Type your industry keyword (ex: entertainment) and hit enter to get results.

  • You can Tweet to the person, add them to a list, save their profiles to your dashboard, and also export the results as well.

Top Content Marketers

Successful content creators are a source of inspiration for a number of people to create good quality content.

If you are from an agency background, you might find your best content campaign partner from the list of top content creators.

If you are an SMB looking for guest writers, you might find the best in your industry too. If you are a blogger, you can build a relationship with them and probably find your mentor among them.

So, here is Social Animal’s list of top 125 content marketing influencers.

Conclusion:

The habits mentioned can help you create a good content creating routine.

The excellence of a content creator lies in inheriting the value of a brand and communicating it consistently throughout the content they create.

Each time you start creating a new piece of content extensively and make sure you stand out not just being any with your words but also with the value you provided in your content.

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Krishna works as an Inbound Marketer at Social Animal. Being a marketing enthusiast, he loves reading and sharing the best articles on Growth, SEO and Sales.