According to Technavio’s content marketing industry forecast and analysis report, the market is predicted to grow by 417.85 billion USD from 2021 to 2025. The content marketing landscape is becoming more sophisticated, focusing on customer experience and strategy.
However, brand marketers continue to face problems such as generating leads, coming up with new content ideas, and creating content that obtains high levels of online interaction. This is why marketers are increasingly collaborating with talented content creators to outsource content creation.
To navigate this dynamic market, content creators must focus on creating habits of successful influencers that will help them stay relevant as demand and competition increase. Only then can you provide value to others through the services you provide.
10 Habits To Elevate Your Influence
Industry-related habits
Content creation is more than discovering the #thisandthatchallenge or a random TikTok video. To be a successful content creator, you need to cultivate industry-related abilities ahead of time to be the first on the scene. Ultimately, this will allow your work to be seen by a broader audience sooner.
Stay updated on industry trends
Regularly read industry news. New information constantly stimulates your creativity. Reading industry publications and news will keep you updated on current market trends. Obtaining a wide range of knowledge might help you position yourself to comprehend the context of an industry event. As a result, you can use your content to influence your audience’s perspective.
You should understand what is most important in your niche and how your content can add value.
Here are a few ways how you can keep up with the trends:
- Follow top influencers and brands on social media
- Listen to podcasts or watch informative videos
- Subscribe to popular business blogs and newsletters
- Leverage the training opportunities like seminars and workshops
Remember that the Internet is a worldwide community; it is impossible to develop fresh content if you are limited in your area of expertise.
Keenly follow audience interest
Producing content mindlessly for the sake of posting is a novice mistake. No target audience enjoys being presented with content that has no value. They want content tailored to them and to converse with you without feeling like you don’t “know” them.
The bottom line is that one of the essential habits of successful influencers is that they make an effort to understand their target audiences.
They are aware of the following:
- What age group, demographics, and gender they’re writing for
- Which pain points their content must address
- What nuances of language appeal to their intended audience
- How can they keep their target audiences interested
- What kinds of content immediately catch their audience’s attention
Personal habits
Content creation is never about quick fixes. You must strive to constantly improve your skills by adopting personal habits that help you do so.
Write everyday
Successful content creators exercise their content-creation muscles regularly. Creating content daily allows them to go through various content ideas. Successful content creators understand that this method will help them produce something inspiring from their work.
Writing is an exercise that, like any other, improves and becomes more straightforward with practice. Practicing writing can also help you clear your mind of old thoughts and produce and work on new ones over time. A significant advantage of writing regularly is that it allows you to determine when you are at your best for writing clear, concise copy.
Establish a voice
Finding your voice is similar to discovering what outfit best suits you. It begins with a healthy dose of self-awareness, which includes your talents and flaws.
If you know you prefer writing to special effects, it doesn’t hurt to focus on that aspect of your skill set as a way to discover your voice. In addition to your skills and weaknesses, consider your hobbies and interests. Make a list of influencers or content creators whose work you admire. Examine them and think about why their work resonates with you. Before you know it, you’ll be able to look through their style and uncover what you can add a twist to.
Pro tip: As you grow into this habit as a successful influencer, you will realize that finding your voice isn’t a matter of chance but more about developing a USP as you start noticing what works and brings results.
Network whenever possible
This habit turns influencers into successful content creators. They’ve recognized that there’s more to learn than what they already know, and they’re willing to try new things.
Networking with the experts in the business is a terrific approach to boost content development. If you can form partnerships with people who are already successful, you will be able to learn from their mistakes without making the same ones.
Pro tip: This kind of networking is only effective if you first provide value. You must always lead with solutions rather than request favors or expect help. Once the collaboration begins, you should also give your partners something of value in return.
Know how to market yourself
As content marketing grows and evolves, there’s always a need for more creators and artists — you just have to know how to market yourself. While it’s tempting to fantasize about gaining hundreds of thousands of followers and “going viral” overnight, effectively developing your social media presence needs a planned strategy.
Here are some quick marketing tips:
- Create profiles that are welcoming and encourage an audience to want to engage.
- Post thought leadership pieces. They are great for any creator wanting to be noticed.
- Make a conscious decision about where you want to expand your following and create content exclusively for that platform.
- Create a personalized branding theme that reflects who you are
Pro tip: The secret is to see yourself as a creator worthy of being influential and followed.
Campaign habits
Ultimately, you will want to work with brands on paid collaborations. This will require you to have the mindset of an entrepreneur and develop skills that help you strategically plan your career.
Understand KPIs
Just because you publish information online does not guarantee that it will receive the attention it deserves. To have your content discovered, use a key performance indicator (KPI) and optimize your content for it. By choosing specific metrics to assess, you can gauge how well your content performs compared to your expectations.
Some KPIs every content creator must track:
- Engagement
- Reach
- Organic traffic
- Active followers
- Impressions
Pro tip: Check out this detailed guide about the two most important KPIs we suggest every influencer must stay on top of (tips included).
Offer solutions, not just commentary
As a beginner staying on the surface of an issue made sense. But as you grow your influence, it is not enough if you want to grow. One habit of successful influencers is that they keep raising their performance level (in this case, content).
Do you want to make an impact on your audience? Don’t just repeat what you know; explain why it’s significant and what your audience can learn from it. People that consume your content aren’t interested in simply hearing you repeat information. They come with specific needs in mind. Whether those demands solve an issue or merely boost their faith in your sector, you are responsible for translating your market insights into a language they can comprehend and learn from.
Always use analytics
Content is a type of marketing medium. So it’s critical for your writing, videos, or any other creative product to contribute to the business’s bottom line you partner with, and data can be a remarkable indicator of this. You can, for example, measure:
- brand awareness (website traffic, UGC, brand mentions)
- leads (newsletter signups, product trials, demo signups, etc.)
- sales (direct revenue, affiliate link performance).
Install Google Analytics (GA) on your website to track the performance of your content, and urge that your clients do the same. Aside from your website, any channels for which you publish content (YouTube, Spotify, Twitter, Facebook, you name it) will have analytics.
Pro tip: Knowing what to do about the data you see can be a game changer for your career. Here are some ways to use the results from your analytics:
- Determine the audience you want to target, then dismiss the big numbers in favor of the important ones.
- Monitor the early data to adjust your strategy immediately.
- Use the data to determine the proper frequency.
- Allow the data to serve as your community’s voice — what do they want to hear more of?
Ask the client for clarification
You may know this pain point if you have experience working with brands on paid partnerships. As a social media content creator or freelancer, how often have you felt unsure of what a brand wants? It’s tempting to keep going to save face, but every successful content creator will tell you that’s a big mistake.
If unsure, you should not hesitate to request information and clarity. You will be doing yourself and your client a disservice if you submit something way off the mark. You will have spent resources behind it in vain.
Make sure that you understand every aspect of the task at hand. This means knowing the intended audience, the expected outcome, and the deadline — request for detailed campaign briefs. Study them well and understand the tangible and intangible expectations of the client. Also, study the contracts and payment details well before starting the job.
Never hesitating to ask questions is one of the habits of successful influencers, but they also understand that asking the right questions is critical.
Create Content For Global Brands
There are many content creators out there, but not all of them are successful. Some people enjoy their jobs, while others are constantly hunting for work. Adopting these ten habits of successful influencers listed above will help you advance your career as a content creator.
Want to create content for brands without having to hunt for partnerships? Put your new skills to use with Atisfyre, where creators can collaborate with brands worldwide and work on their chosen campaigns. Guaranteed payments, no paperwork, and features designed to keep you in charge of your future. There’s no reason to wait; JOIN NOW!
