Every content writer, especially those working in an SEO agency, has their own expertise in writing a different style to entice, intrigue, and engage the readers. The foundation of SEO is content writing, and this is the highly crucial, anticipated attribute of a website. However, the thorough process of content writing has become unknowingly less significant, considering the fact that it should be prioritized. To be specific, brainstorming of ideas is lost in the process- meaning no commitment on the writing process, no investment of content writers, and no thorough discussion of the topics that needed to be addressed.
Brainstorming is the very first step of content creation and the footing of the process on what ideas, topics, or issues should be translated to text with the intent of educating and informing the population in the market. By definition, brainstorming refers to the process of combining a relaxed, strategic, and informal approach in solving any type of problem with a group of people. It’s a venue for exchanging ideas and insights and turning it into innovative yet creative solutions.
Brainstorming is a process that shouldn’t be overlooked, and creativity is something that is not forced. The more ideas, the better, which means that with the diverse ideas from other people, it would make the process even more innovative and creative to target the problem. It’s an exercise of rights to speak up and make a difference for the company or business as no idea that is too big or too small, everything is perfect.
There’s a huge difference between group brainstorming and solo brainstorming, even though both are content idea creation. Nevertheless, solo brainstorming is depending only on a professional individual who has a wide knowledge and background about content creation, no pressure of sharing an idea, and can be done anywhere. On the other hand, group brainstorming is more preferable because a group of people will be sharing their ideas and filtering those ideas to create a better solution.
1. Defining the problem
Defining the problem is the topmost step of brainstorming. This is a process where the people in the discussion identify the problem that currently affects the marketing of the business, creating a proposal to address the problem, and other misguided aspects. Pointing out the causes that made some of the marketing weak and ineffective in terms of generating sales, driving traffic, and attracting potential customers, or it could be any reason.
This is the foundation of the second step, which is the creation of user persona, but before that, it’s vital to assess the wholistic condition of the business and website rather than resorting to immediate actions without prior observation. Problems can arise at any moment, and it could be from other reasons why people are not liking the website. Evaluating performance like:
- What content should be made to attract people?
- What made the decision of the people to immediately exit the website?
- What will be the next point of interest to entertain and entice the population?
- What are the causes of this problem?
Although it may seem not a first step for others but going back to the purpose of brainstorming- to create solutions for a particular problem and if there’s no problem to address, it will only negate the validation of brainstorming as a concept.
2. Create a user persona
After defining the problem, creating a user persona is the next step. This is where the whole group will decide where to target the solution based on prior information. If a business receives massive negative feedback, then the best solution is to target those customers and address individual issues. The purpose of a user persona is to understand and identify the behavior of the people pertaining to the causes of the problem that made the business stagnant.
Even though there’s still no concrete action and plan, a user persona will be the guide to target those people who have common issues and the foundation of creating the right content for them. Content creation is not only limited to writing information, but it can also be creating video presentations, images, and doing live to address the issues at once. Try answering these questions to assess:
- What content should be made for the people?
- Who are the group of people that were greatly having issues?
- What behaviour they possess when engaging content?
- What topic that will entice the people?
- How to personalize the experience of the people so they won’t have to deal the same problem again?
3. Researching
Researching is the process of finding a serious topic or information that worth address and helpful to the community. This is also a vital part of brainstorming and it’s the layout of creating content after a discussion being pulled through. What a business or a company will write is a reflection of how they have been valuing the customers since the first attack of the problem. By this, it doesn’t mean being able to research a bunch of topics but rather curating a topic that well resonated with the people, captures their interest, and fills in the knowledge gap in the market.
However, with the rise of digital information, content analysis and data have become widely trusted by many people, even with weak intentions. Business owners and writers should know that creating a content is making sure that the intent is direct and researching is the first step of achieving that concept. Focus on the topics that need serious attention and unique so it would not be hard competing with other websites.
4. Keyword fabrication and research
When discussing about content creation, that includes keyword fabrication and research-meaning to be able to create a keyword that had direct and clear intent to lead the users in the right content. This is still part of brainstorming, and as a result of research, it’s logical to say that making a keyword is the next step. In doing this part of the process, make a list of 20-30 keywords that the whole team agreed and narrow the list to the best keyword to represent the content.
5. Exploring on the different platforms
There are many websites on the internet that host online reviews and feedbacks for almost all brands. This can be absolutely helpful in creating the right content for the target market as these pieces of information will serve as the basis and guide to pick the right topic to write. In these platforms, people have the chance to express their opinions and feedback regarding a certain brand product, and it happens 24/7.
Platforms such as Facebook, Slack, Reddit, Quora, and Google search engines. For Facebook, there are groups or pages to explore where users on this platform showed transparency and honesty on their firsthand experience of the product. For Google search engines, it’s important to examine the behavior of the users- meaning knowing the recent searches on Google and using it as an advantage to create a better version.
6. Competitor analysis
Everyone can agree that the competition in the marketing industry has never been this intense and shredded. With the vast knowledge in the market, some competing brands have top-notched content that made other websites weak and less engaging. Doing this process is not a competitive stance rather than an inspiration and examination to use to improve the generation of content ideas. This could also mean pointing out the lacking information in the market that brands don’t have any source about and grabbing the opportunity to write a fresh and unique content that addresses common scenic problems experienced by the people.
7. Preparing and planning for content creation
After a thorough brainstorming and as the last part of the process, planning when to start the content creation and setting a schedule should be done at every end of the discussion. This is to prepare the team for whatever changes may hinder the process and to distinguish the right time to publish the content. Also, choosing the right platform to publish the content- meaning platforms that are being constantly engaged by the customers and people who are interested to explore the brand.
