What is Content Development?
Content development is researching, producing, and publishing information to meet a strategic goal. That goal will either be to build a connection with an audience or to encourage some kind of marketing or sales outcome.
Content marketing development includes the ‘why’ included in creating content. It explains why you create content, who you are interested in helping, and how you will help them in a way that others can’t. The content you develop should serve a purpose such as working toward one of the following goals that drive profitable behavior:
- Conversions
- Lead generation
- Organic traffic
- Brand awareness
Although there isn’t one strict way to develop content, you can think of content development in two phases: the analysis phase and the planning and strategy phase. Splitting content development into phases helps you to understand what strategies work and which ones you can change to help you reach your content marketing goals.
Here is a description of the two phases:
Analysis Phase
Before you develop new content, you must analyze the content you already have. This means you need to know how your current content is performing to identify opportunities for improvement. You must conduct a content audit to improve your content plans. The important elements to review include:
- Organic search visibility
- Traffic
- Content posting frequency
- Content length
- Top linked content
- Top landing pages
Planning and Strategy
Phase The content analysis should provide you with some insight, but you likely won’t be able to gain an accurate idea of exactly what content to post on what days. Content development has a great deal of trial and error involved with planning and content strategy. You must try a few things before you can see what strategy works best for each content or post type.
Who Uses Content Development?
Professionals use content development across various industries such as science, film, marketing, education, fashion, and others. As online content becomes the primary way to reach audiences, several businesses have developed their own content or use turnkey companies to create and develop effective content.
Here are a few examples of positions that regularly develop content for consumers:
- Web content developer: A content developer is often responsible for creating and updating a company’s website, developing a content strategy, and tracking web analytics.
- Project manager: Content project managers help to direct the production of visual and written content projects, ensuring that each step of the process is completed on time.
- Director of content: A director of content focuses on collaborating with managers to create content in line with the company’s vision. They also ensure that their content applies to their audience by reviewing data.
- Content strategist: A content strategist is an inbound marketer that uses their knowledge of content creation, social media, content promotion, and SEO to manage, develop, and grow a company’s content.
- Video content creator: A video content creator is often responsible for creating compelling visual content that contributes information to digital media for a strategic purpose.
- Content marketing managers: Content marketing managers distribute content that increases brand awareness and web traffic through marketing online content across multiple web channels.
- Social media content developer: Social media content developers specialize in creating content for social media channels to drive traffic to a company website, sell products, or create brand awareness.
- Blogger: A blogger usually creates written content for websites in the form of blog posts, blog articles, blog content, copy, web articles, and web content. Bloggers also analyze their content and use content development to promote and market their content, services, or products.
Why Should You Use Online Content Development?
Online content development provides many benefits to more and more people who use the web each day for product and service research. Here are some reasons your business should use online content development:
- To Attract Potential Customers to Your Website
- It Provides Free and Useful Information to Your Audience
- It Connects and Engages You With Your Audience
- It Develops Thought-Leadership For Your Company
- To Help Your Sales Team Tell Your Story More Effectively
- It Improves the SEO Rankings For Your Business
- To Drive Social Media Strategies
- It Helps You Visualize Your Goals
Most businesses use content development today, and they benefit from telling their stories through great content. If your company wants to tell its story to its consumers through content, then you should consider a content development process and strategy that works best for planning, organizing, implementing, and publishing your content. Don’t know how to start? Schedule a Free Session here.
