5 Habits of Highly Successful Content Creators

Black and white. Peanut jelly and butter. Tom and Jerry. You’re probably pretty familiar with these combos. But for marketers, one pairing is particularly important:?content and marketing.

Content marketing is focused on writing, editing, publishing and distributing (usually digital) content to a targeted online audience. But content is not just limited to writing blog posts. Social media copy, email newsletters, video, advertising images, eBooks, infographics and more are all considered content marketing. Content marketing is an essential tool businesses use to attract customer attention, increase revenue, generate leads, engage users, increase brand awareness and improve their return on investment.

“Great marketers have immense empathy for their audience. They can put themselves in their shoes, live their lives, feel what they feel, go where they go, and respond how they’d respond. That empathy comes out in content that resonates with your audience.”

– Napoleon Bonaparte

No business achieves success today—or the degree of business growth they’re aiming for—without an effective content marketing strategy. A relatively new form of marketing, content marketing is already a vital tool in building strong relations between businesses and customers. Companies use content marketing to entice their target audience to make a purchase under the guise of providing valuable information. But when they start a content marketing strategy, the content isn’t always attractive, compelling, informative or valuable.

“Make it simple. Make it memorable. Make it inviting to look at. Make it fun to read.”

– Leo Burnett

What is a content creator?

When businesses need content that converts, content marketers are the solution. So what do you need to do to become a successful?content creator?and start helping companies provide content that actually sells their product?

For successful content creators, skills and professional experience are only the beginning of the journey. In fact, what you do before you start writing is almost more important to your success than the writing.

“What helps people helps business.”

– Leo Burnett

How do you become a successful content creator?

Make these five useful habits part of your daily routine, and you’ll soon be a successful content creator.

1. Work on coming up with unique, creative approaches

Professional content creators may not always feel like sitting down to write. And that’s okay. But the?best content creators?are always on the lookout for inspiration. Converting random thoughts into unique and appealing content may not be easy when you start out, but practice makes perfect.

Every day take 10-20 minutes to look for and save interesting thoughts and ideas. Read everything you can—especially articles outside your comfort zone. You never know where you’ll make a connection or when inspiration will strike. After a few months, you’ll always find something unique and inspiring when you start looking.

2. Understand the audience, their preferences and their interests

Talk with the company you’re working for and learn their audience’s interests, needs and preferences. Ask “What are your audience’s top-of-mind problems?” And from there, based on your experience and expertise, determine how to present the client’s product as the solution to their problems. Understand the client’s audience inside and out, and you’ll discover how to kick off your particular creative process.

3. Understand your Key Performance Indicators

Unfortunately, the internet is a very noisy place. So simply publishing content online doesn’t automatically mean your article will receive the level of traffic you want. When the client shares your content, keep an eye on how well the piece performs. Although the ultimate outcome depends on how the content is promoted, set your own Key Performance Indicators to judge your success and skill.

4. Take on the client’s voice

While the need for content creation seems endless, there is quite a bit of competition for good clients. So aside from the talent and skill to create interesting, engaging and relevant content, you need to stand out from the crowd. Content needs to be not just keyword-focused and SEO-friendly but to also accurately represent the client’s voice and branding.

5. Find great resources for research

Your job is to attract the attention of the reader. So including exciting, fresh and useful information should be your number one priority. Be resourceful, in terms of both informational and human resources. Incorporating data and statistics makes your content more compelling to readers.

Successful content creators are always honing their research, writing and marketing skills. Practice these five effective content writing habits, and you’ll achieve your dream of becoming a successful content creator.