One of the biggest challenges for people setting up an Inbound Marketing program is generating enough quality content. Keeping in mind Inbound Marketing starts with great content, we all need ways to get that process started and to keep it rolling once we’re going. Fortunately there are plenty of ways to do this.

Over the coming weeks we’ll be talking about concrete ways you can create content for your site that your prospects and customers will find useful. What constitutes “useful” information will vary from person to person. This is why it’s imperative to just go beyond the basics of a brochure website. Without useful information to showcase your expertise visitors will quickly scan your site and then leave. In other words, your lead generation efforts will be in vain.

If you follow the steps we talk about and put in some elbow grease, you’ll have enough content to fill your online marketing channels with something useful every day of the year.

FRESHNESS

I’m going to assume that you’re an expert at what you do. You know your stuff. You’ve been at it for years and you know what you’re talking about. Hopefully this describes you 🙂 In short, you know more than Joe and Jane Q public about your area of expertise.

If you’re an expert and know your industry or craft inside and out then you should be able to talk about it at length and in depth. That’s good, because your knowledge base is what’s going to help you create fresh content on a regular basis.

Let’s talk about this concept of “fresh”. Fresh does not mean fresh to you. It means fresh to your audience. Chances are, things that are “old hat” to you are going to feel brand new to your site visitors. You’re not reinventing the wheel by creating fresh content. You’re communicating useful information about your field of expertise to prospects in ways they will hopefully find interesting and engaging.

One thing I find helpful is to have structure to the idea generation process. Over the next several weeks I’m going to talk about some of the formats I use to help kickstart the content creation process. Knowing what format you’re going to put content in makes it easier to focus your ideas and creative energy. I hope you enjoy our content creation series!