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How to Create High-Quality Content With Little Knowledge of an Industry

11 Mar 2013

It is common knowledge that the first step in creating a solid marketing plan is drafting high quality, relevant content. In doing so you draw your audience in and make everything that follows that much more effective. But what happens when you don’t know anything about the industry you are writing for? Whether you’re responsible for content creation at an agency, or an in-house marketer in an industry about which you know only a little, this problem presents itself to most marketers at some point in their career.

These days, this problem is more challenging than ever; it is no longer enough to write “surface” content. Meaning, publishing a piece of content powered by a cursory knowledge of a quick Google search isn’t going to yield the kind of in-depth, quality content readers and search engines now expect.

However, don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. Follow these steps and you will be able to write quality content, no matter what the subject matter is.

Learn the Lingo

Have you ever heard someone speak in a language you aren’t familiar with? They could be saying … anything, really. Even if you have the information they’re looking for, you probably can’t help them. Why? You don’t speak the language. Duh.

Before you begin writing any content, you need to learn the industry lingo. Unfortunately, most industries don’t come with their own Rosetta Stone. First, learn important industry definitions. If you’re starting from square one, look for resources written for others that aren’t industry insiders yet. Some places to start your search are Wikipedia, books from the For Dummies series, and industry forums targeted to your skill level – you might find groups of like-minded individuals on Quora or in LinkedIn Groups.

Subscribe to Industry Publications

As your base level of understanding about your industry increases, you’ll be able to parse industry content much better. It’ll be kind of like reading through a French textbook when you know, like, 75% of the terminology. It’s not totally foreign, and you’re starting to understand the context, but you’re still gonna be reading pretty slowly, re-reading sentences, and looking up terms once in a while.

Start subscribing to blogs and newsletters. As you get more comfortable reading industry material, you should also advance to downloading longer form content like whitepapers and ebooks. Reading these types of content assets regularly, especially when you now know the lingo a bit better, will start to give some context that provides a deeper understanding of your subject matter. In fact, you may even find that you’ll start having questions — ones that don’t stem from a misunderstanding of the subject matter, but instead from a desire to learn more about the subject matter. That’s a great sign that your knowledge gap is decreasing!

Identify and Follow Influencers on Social Media

No matter what industry you are writing about, you can find some industry professional tweeting about it. One place to start finding these folks is using social ranking tools like Little Bird or Klout. Both are research tools that help marketers identify influencers in their industry — Little Bird focuses on Twitter, while Klout tackles multiple social networks. By identifying top influencers for your industry, you can get access to the content they think is worth reading.

Attend Live Industry Events

Live industry events include trade shows, meetup groups and even webinars.

1) You know the lingo and have enough context to be able to hold an intelligent and meaningful conversation. This will help you increase your knowledge with the kinds of details only other subject matter experts can help fill in for you.
2) You can ask all those questions you’ve been writing down as you learn more about the industry!

Take a Class

Coursework is excellent for marketers that will need to create very advanced content. Check out online learning communities, like Skillshare, which offers multiple in person and online classes that can be taught by anyone. Even top-tier colleges often offer adult education courses, if online learning isn’t suited to your learning style. (Tip: Ask your employer if they offer any tuition reimbursement. Some employers will offer to foot the bill, or part of it, for employees advancing a skill set that’s directly related to their job.)

Form Your Own Little Industry Community

Not that you have begun to immerse yourself in the industry, form your own circle of trust with others that you find knowledgable. This will come in handy for taking yourself form an introductory or intermediate knowledge level to a higher level of understanding. The most useful aspect of this is that you will have people to bounce ideas off with and tremendously increase your knowledge.

Start Forming Opinions

In order to create effective content, you need to establish a point of view. Look back at all the connections you have made with industry leaders and get an understanding of their opinions. Weigh the different sides and start to form your own.

To further expand your opinions, reference your little community because great opinions come from discussion, scrutiny and supplementary ideas.

Align Objective Knowledge With Your Company’s Positioning

Now that you speak the industry language, understand its ins and outs, and even have some opinions of your own, it’s time to learn your company’s accent. How is your company or client different from others in the space? What words do they emphasize in their value proposition? The content you write needs to not only sound like your company or client’s voice, but also highlight the strengths that make them different from anyone else in the space. Here’s how to get caught up to speed:
Research any current lead- or customer-facing content, and see if you can succinctly describe the tone. If it’s not clear, there’s good news and bad news. Good news: You don’t have to adapt to a pre-established tone. Bad news: You have to define your company’s tone.

Identify your company’s buyer persona. This will help you define the tone your content should carry — after all, you want your target audience to enjoy reading your content, right? Bury yourself in your company’s mission statement, value proposition, and any other branding materials they have. You should be able to define your company’s value proposition and mission statement easily, so you can ensure all content you create aligns with it.

Create Your Editorial Calendar

Now that you’re educated and you’ve got an idea of what your audience wants your content to sound like, it’s time to figure out what the heck to write. I recommend creating an editorial calendar so you have a backlog of topics in case you hit writer’s block, but also so you can have that trusted circle of subject matter experts review it for relevancy. At this point, it’s also wise to open up your circle to leads and customers — you know, the people for whom you’re creating content — and any employees on the front-lines of your company. These folks are “in the thick of it,” and know the pain points that lead generation content should ideally be addressing.

You can also check out FAQs on other industry websites, use tools like Google’s Keyword Tool to help you find out exactly what people are asking and start searching which long-tail keyword phrases start with interrogatives to see the exact questions people are looking for answer to.

Test Drive Your Content

So you have these awesome content ideas, and you’re drawing on all your industry knowledge to create this great blog post. However, don’t publish it just yet. For the first few pieces of content, it’s a good idea to have a subject matter expert review what you’re publishing. This will help you identify the topics that you’ve got down pat, and the ones you still need more brushing up on.

Before you know it, you’ll find you’re the one training a new content hire about all of the little nuances that at one point, read to you like a foreign language. Good luck learning about your new field!