Three-quarters of internet users want to consume content to learn about a brand’s products and services and prefer engaging articles, blogs and infographics over traditional ads. That’s why there has never been a better time to up your “how-to” game. How-tos serve up knowledge and insights, push brand authority, and perhaps most importantly, are relevant and provide added value for end users.
Research
Your journey to how-to success begins with research. You first need to find out the topics that will interest consumers. You can tap into data and analytics to see what keywords are popular or use tools to generate ideas from trends that are currently popular in your sector or industry. Polls and quizzes and social media are also useful for increasing engagement and gleaning information from audiences.
Strategy
Now you have laid the groundwork, you can move on to formulating a strategy. The natural progression from topic selection is choosing the medium that will deliver your messages. Do you want to use your corporate blog for a how-to or distribute it on social media or via email? Would a short, bullet-point article, fact-heavy infographic or creative video be best? Whatever you choose, make sure that you have a thorough understanding of the subject at hand. Any instructional or educational content requires attention to detail.
SEO
How-tos dovetail naturally with SEO as audiences often start queries with “how to” or “how do I”. Rather than creating content for search engines specifically – keyword stuffing is a huge red flag in 2018 – think about the person who will be reading or watching your blogs and videos. Focusing on the person will ensure that you create informative, engaging and entertaining materials, which is now the best way to rank on the first page of Google SERPs.
Make it a series
The best way to follow up one or two successful how-tos is to make a series a core part of your content marketing campaign. This also lends itself to snackable, digestible pieces of content that audiences will look forward to coming back to and learning from. Finally, remember to liven up your content with visuals as they will be crucial in retaining the interest of your readers throughout.
