Anticipating exactly what kind of content your audience is most interested in is difficult to do without first conducting market research.
The key is to research potential content before you write it, and there are a few ways to accomplish that quickly and easily.
The first easy way is to evaluate social media, like Facebook or twitter, to look for articles that have received a high number of likes, retweets and shares. That’s a clear indication that the type of content being shared is well received and in demand by your target audience.
Makes sense, right?
You can also keep tabs on the type of content that has very few likes and shares to see if you can spot why it may have performed so poorly. You can look for the differences between poorly received content and information that generated a positive response from your target audience. Quite often it isn’t just about which author had the larger following, but about the type of content itself.
Social media provides you with a clear and concise snapshot of content that is being widely distributed through sharing, and content that is stale (no retweets, limited sharing), making it easy for you to create content based on the formats proven to be successful.
This type of market research also puts you in the seat of your potential prospect, providing you with a different perspective on what you would find engaging, and what kind of content truly reaches out to you and pulls you in.
Would you want to share content that contains factual errors, inconsistences, or grammatical mistakes? Would you want to share content that was thin on value and thick on advertising? And you certainly wouldn’t want to share content that was boring or uninteresting.
It’s important to create the type of content that you personally would want to read and share, but you must also make sure this content is right for your audience. That’s why it’s important to research carefully before you create content.
Another easy way to research what people are looking for is to explore the comments pertaining to an article on popular websites in your market. Make sure to also include Facebook comments, blog comments, etc. This type of direct feedback can be an absolute goldmine of information and will help to shape the type of content you decide to create for your audience.
For example, a comment on an article might say something like:
“Great article, but you didn’t mention what qualifications one might need. Is a degree required, or would a certificate be enough to land a job in this field?”
This would tell you exactly what information you might want to include in your own article on the subject to make sure you hit all the points a reader might expect to see and be most interested in.
This is especially true if you see the same type of comments multiple times. Taking note of how often a particular question is asked, or comment made about something that is lacking, the easier it will be for you to craft compelling articles that answer burning questions in your market.
By studying your competitors’ content, focusing on the comments it receives, and the level of distribution it gets through sharing on social media, the better understanding you will have about the type of content will be most appealing to your average prospect.