What is Content Hacking?
The idea behind content hacking isn’t a new one, but it demands going beyond the conventional publish-and-share technique of content creation and marketing. The term ‘hacking’ itself or ‘growth hacking’, as coined by startup marketer Sean Ellis, is a startup marketing methodology through which brands utilize clever tactics to generate rapid growth. “Hacking” speeds up the process of content creation, allowing a creator to be more effective in what they produce.
While content creation deals with creativity, and content marketing focuses on selling that creativity; content hacking is all about creating a smart model that can be used to heighten the creativity and productivity rate of a brand in a goal-oriented manner, such that the brand becomes relevant to the audience and formidable to competitors in the market. Having the “content hack” entails knowing what your target audience wants and needs, and finding convincing ways to give it to them using the right distribution channels.
Interestingly, in this same sense, content marketing is very much similar to content hacking. Where the purpose of content marketing is to attract ideal customers and to connect them with the sales process, content hacking is similarly concerned with how marketers can use a range of strategies to drive the growth of production and sales. In this sense, content marketing and content hacking entail having to create relevant content (blog posts, videos, articles, podcasts, etc) that will interest buyers and customers. Basically then, marketing and hacking both have the same goal: to grow customer engagement and increase revenue.
Creating Content for Your Target Audience
Generally, content creation has to do with the contribution of information to the media and most importantly to digital media for an audience/potential client in specific contexts. A content creator is then traditionally required to use any of the several types of content creation, some of which include articles, audio, blog posts, e-books, emails, infographics, e-marking, newsletters, etc.
However, with so much available information about content creation and marketing out there, fast-tracking content and making it attractive to potential customers remain difficult to a lot of brand managers. Fortunately, at the next stage of this article, we will explore 7 useful content hacks that content creators and marketers can apply to their respective work.
Below are 7 hacks to create content for your target audience.
Hacks to Improve Your Content Creation and Marketing
- Work with micro-influencers
Micro-influencers, otherwise known as social media influencers, are individuals who make use of social media platforms to express their opinions, specifically tailored to help a particular brand to generate customers and boost sales. They represent a new and powerful independent third-party endorser who helps to shape audience attitudes and reactions through blog posts, tweets, and generally the use of social media. What’s more, is that influencers are not just awareness drivers – they are expert content creators and marketers. Working with one whose style matches the values of your brand can just be what your brand needs to get its much-needed traction.
- Collaborate with creators on Tiktok
Yes, you read that right. The impact Tiktok now has on marketing cannot be underestimated. Even though the biggest brand moments on Tiktok have been accidental, there is no denying the fact that this platform may be a good investment for your brand. Tiktok marketing helps to build massive brand awareness, creating an engaged community that fosters sales of products and services. You’d need to work with Tiktok creators who have followings between 7,000 and 100,000. Ensure to look for a creative fit with your brand values.
- Leverage news hacking
News hacking is a really effective tactic that marketers can adopt. It entails looking for a trending story in the media, and then locating the right angle to insert your own idea into the theme. For example, an online startup investment company could cut into story about the stock exchange rate fall of Crypto, and develop a compelling content which details the interesting terms and distinct rates their own company has to offer.
- Model your competitors
Competition is a natural aspect of business; however, intimidating it may seem, it is actually necessary for the success of any business, because it forces you to be creative and stay on top of current trends and tactics. One of the most important hacks is modeling your competitors. It’s that curiosity that helps you monitor what your competitors are doing and how they are doing it. It helps you to then reassess your own performances. You simply go on to research what your competitors are doing and conduct a competitive analysis using a competitive matrix. A competitive matrix is an effective tool for comparing certain features or perceived benefits between your own business and that of the competition. In reviewing your own performances, you then proceed to perform a SWOT analysis which allows you to consider strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Overall, all of this helps you to study your competition, get to know what they are doing and do it better!
- Create in-depth infographics
Creating infographics related to your industry can be very helpful. Infographics are visual representations of information which reflect or present complex details in interesting and engaging ways. They are a combination of graphics, content and organized data. This makes them ideally something that can be shared on social media. The main purpose of infographics is to ensure that content that would otherwise be solely communicated using the typical and tedious medium of writing, is expressed majorly using designs to attract audience attention.
- Listen to your customers’ feedbacks
It’s important to listen to your customers’ reviews. It helps you to gather sufficient business-relevant information which can be used to improve on your research, plans and designs. Since the best business decisions are based off actual data and not guesses, customer feedback becomes one of the best ways to identify business-specific data which allows you to understand how your customers actually feel about your products and services. Another importance of listening to customers’ feedbacks is that it helps to build loyalty for your brand. Nothing proves to your customer that they are important than asking for their opinions and acting accordingly to them.
- Display reviews on your homepage
Currently, reviews seem to be the most prominent ranking determinant in local research, as it allows businesses rank well. It’s advisable that you display reviews so as to enable potential customers who visit your page see several good reviews from customers. This gives them a sense of assurance and trust in the products you have to deliver or services you are offering.
Overall, hacks for effective content involves discovering and utilizing better and more compelling ways to create ideas and market them. As such, you are required to study current trends, do enough findings, collaborate with the right people – all in productive attempts to cull innovative techniques or approaches which can be used to drive the growth of your brand and extend its reach to a mass audience.