Be The Best Answer: Four Steps to Developing Winning Content

Mimi Thian for Unspla

Once upon a time, Lee Odden of TopRank Marketing gave this advice to content marketers: “Be the best answer.” It’s great advice. You’ll never be the only answer — there’s far too much content competition out there — but you can be the best answer for the prospects and customers you’re marketing to.

After a few decades of doing content marketing (we called it by different names in the past, but the principle is the same), I can think of four foolproof ways for you to be your audience’s best answer. But they come with a caveat, the same caveat marketers and performers, writers and musicians have always known: the first step in connecting to others is always to know your audience. Listen to what they want, listen to what they need, and know what it is.

With that as a given, then, here are four steps to creating content that will be the best answer for your audience:

1. You are probably reading this because of the title, where it says “four steps to developing winning content.” That’s because how-to articles and content offering tips and practical advice are perennial favorites. While I think this Cosmo-style headline is sinking slowly in the west, it’s still effective, because people want to learn how to do whatever they do better, faster, more often, more easily… the list is endless. And so are…