One of the biggest mistakes that I see a lot of content marketers make is that they don’t ask “Why?” before writing an article or producing any type of content. Without knowing who your target audience is, the reason behind why they want to buy a certain product or knowing at all what they want, then it becomes a guessing game.

This is why it is important that every single content marketer or writer should ask “Why?” before they begin writing.

Key questions to ask before producing content

The following questions are the questions that I ask myself before I write a single word or even begin the research process for every single client.

What is the call of action of the article/content?

Why does the reader want to read this article, to begin with?

What keywords are the buyers searching for?

What makes this article stand out from other topics in this industry?

What’s the point of this article?

How does this article provide value?

What will make this article share-worthy?

What is the tone of this type of article?

Of course, those are just the basics. Every situation is different and every client is different. That’s why it’s important that you also do your research and read other articles in the same industry that’s ranking well.

These questions make us have a strong critical outline of each piece. These questions make us do research, ask our customers for more input, and consider extenuating circumstances all of which help us turn out high-performing pieces of content.

Asking why during the research process

As apart of our process, we always do our research on the content topic before writing a single word.

What’s amazing about this research process is that you learn something new along the way that may change the initial answers for the questions listed above.

An idea might seem fantastic in the beginning, but it’s only after I dig in a little deeper that I might realize it’s completely the wrong time of year for the content. Usually, during the research process, I’ll be able to dig deeper at their competitors and figure out new things that I can add to make my article even better.

I repeat the same questions again and again in my head when conducting research on any topic.

During the research process, you should always have an intent/call to action in mind.

What’s this piece of content going to do? Educate the readers? Sell a product? Tell a story? Get people to visit a store? In other words, know your goals.

The next question during the research process that you must ask yourself is who is the target audience? Who’s going to be reading this article?

Your article might be written for the 30-year-old trying to purchase a hair loss product or it could be a rave shop catering to the younger folks who like to party. Every single type of article requires a different tone.

If it’s a medical website, then it might need a more professional educational tone.

Next up, I almost always look into previous content written by the company. What’s been working? What hasn’t been? How can we improve what’s not working?

It’s all apart of the research process.

Make asking why a habit

The key thing to keep in mind as you’re asking yourself “why” over and over again, is that it’s not meant to make your life harder, but to make your content much more powerful and result driven.

All content marketers need to make this a natural habit and quite frankly the more you do it, the easier it gets.

Another trick I like to use is to ask people outside the industry their thoughts behind the content and topic. Is it something that they would want to read? How can I make it even better?

Never be afraid to ask why.

I’m going to keep this article short and straight-forward by ending it here, but if you’re a content marketer or any sort of business that’s going to be using content to grow your business, then it’s crucial to start with asking why before doing anything else.

Thanks for reading and if you’re looking for content marketing that works with a search based process, then don’t hesitate to reach out to us anytime!

wilson@sumodash.com