How to Create Content That Connects To Your Audience | Marketing expert Melanie Deziel

Yeah. Well, I think exactly as you said, we get really excited about a particular format and we're like, I'm gonna, I'm gonna make a podcast. I'm gonna start a YouTube channel. I'm gonna become an Instagram influencer, you know, whatever the case may be. And I think what we find is when you do that first, you often end up with content that doesn't suit that format very well. So maybe your, you know, your editing skills aren't up to par, or you don't have enough of the kind of sets and technology you need. The stories aren't well suited to a podcast or well suited to do a video. And so what ends up happening is you have these stories to tell, but you're not able to showcase them in the best way because you're sort of forcing them into a format that may not be the best fit. Now, I know a lot of people want to start on a particular channel, and if that's your goal, what you want to do is you still want to start with the stories that you want to tell and keep going until you find one that is a natural fit for video, for example, if that's what you're working on. But what we don't want to do is say, okay, I'm doing video and this is what we're going to do without really thinking about whether it's well suited. It's much better to start with, okay, this is a great story, or this is a great series we could do. Is it well-suited to video? If so, then yes, let's move forward in that way. Or is it well-suited to podcasts? Yes, let's move forward in that way. But I think we really have to think about what we're gonna say before we decide how to say it. It's a little bit like picking, you know, a recipe for dinner before you know what ingredients you have in the fridge, you know?

Yeah, correct. Yeah. I want pizza, but I have no dough, right? Or no cheese. So, yeah, makes sense. So speaking more about the actual Content Fuel framework, which you talk about, and the creativity process behind it, can you share how other marketers can start maybe improving their content idea process through those 2 elements? And then what are the options available that they can look at?

Definitely. So the idea with the process is the 2 factors that you discussed. So we have the focus, which again is what you're going to say, and then the format is how you bring it to life. That first mindset shift is the one we just talked about, is start thinking about what you're going to say. What is the story about? You know, how are you going to approach that story first? And then you decide your format. When it comes to figuring out the focus, I think what's really helpful, and part of my goal with creating the book, is to give you a list of different perspectives and lenses through which you can tell those stories so that you branch out beyond your normal routines. We don't want to get stuck. We don't want our stories to feel— So in the book, we list out 10 different examples and I'll share a few of them here. So people is one of the most common ones. Like we're creating people-focused content right now. You pick a guest, you talk to them, it's about a person in some way, right?

Mm-hmm.

So people-focused content is a really good place to start when you wanna tell a story, but you can also create data-focused content. So you could tell, for example, you could have created this podcast by saying, I'm gonna share a bunch of statistics statistics with you about how creativity works and how brainstorms work and about content marketing, right? So it might not be as exciting through audio, but, you know, if you just wanted to share the data around content marketing and idea generation, you totally could. Another one that is really fun is curation. So curation-focused content is when we go around and collect like items. So for this episode, for example, imagine you found 6 different experts in content marketing who come at it from different perspectives, and you talk to all of us almost like a panel. So you could tell this same kind of story through all these different focuses. You could approach it in these different ways. Once you figure out the right one, like we said, you try to figure out what's the best way to bring that story to life. And so that's where you want to ask, if we have our panel of experts, that might work pretty well as a video because we could go back and forth between the different experts. On audio, it might be a little confusing because if the audience doesn't know who's talking, they've got to keep track of all these different people. So it's just— When you start with that focus and you consider all those different options, it really makes it a lot easier for you to figure out how do you bring that to life in a compelling way.

It makes sense. And then, you know, somebody like myself who's an engineer background, very analytical thinking, I don't have that creative mindset as much. Um, but is this kind of creative process something everybody can learn or is there a way that it shows you how to apply it?

100%. We got to back up. You're not allowed to say that anymore, that you don't have a creative process, that you're not a creative person. So one of the things that, that happens throughout life, and it happens to all of us, is we kind of get in our heads that we're good at these kinds of mental processes and we're not good at these other kinds. And what we know is that all the data shows that we all have the same innate creative abilities, especially as children, right? You can turn a cardboard box into a spaceship or, you know, a horse or anything else. We all have that ability. And what happens is over time, we just tend to focus on those things where we excel most naturally, and so it sort of falls to the back, but it's still there. So even if you have that feeling like, I'm not a creative, or this isn't my strong suit, all that means is you haven't trained and practiced as hard at that thing as you have at something else.

Hmm.

And so that's where it really comes down to having a process, practicing, coming up with many more ideas than you need helps you pick the best one. And so same thing, like when you're doing your analysis, the first report you ever created was probably not the best report, right? Or the first insights you came up with in looking at a dataset was probably not the best insight. Now you would see something much more advanced. So we wanna look at creative idea generation in the same way as a skill you can practice and learn. So yeah, when people say I'm not creative, it breaks my heart because you totally, totally are. And the example I like to give everybody is think of the last time you were worried about something or stressed. How many ways did you imagine things could go wrong? You probably came up with 500 different creative scenarios about why it wouldn't work and how it could all come crashing down and all the obstacles and things, right? So you're good at that. We do that naturally. It just comes down to, do you have the right prompt to get that ball rolling? So it's in there for sure. Even if you don't think it's your strong suit, we just got to figure out how to get the ball rolling for you.

That's true. And it's always the worst case scenario that comes, right? It's always doomsday when things go wrong, right?

That's right. Yeah.

So you have that process, you create the ideas, now you decide on your focus, but how do you create content that connects with your audience? Because I feel that's a big challenge for SaaS startups specifically. We want to define the users and our audience and we want to create the content. Is that something that you guys could— is there some exercises in terms of content to create to improve that marketing success and get the results you want?

Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. I think the most simple solution is actually the best one, which is you've got to talk to your audience. And I know that sounds so obvious and so minor, but it's the same thing we do when we're testing product, right? We roll out a beta and we see how real people react to it. We get their feedback and we adapt our course of actions. So we want to approach content in the same way. You can start with your gut or start with what you think you've heard from various people in your audience, create something, and then get feedback. Was this helpful for you? What else could we have provided that would be more helpful? Talk to them. And there's different ways to do that. You know, call them or have a Zoom call, whatever it is, and get that feedback directly. You can look in the comments, the replies, you know, the DMs on social media to see what kind of response you're getting to it and if people have questions. But my favorite thing to do, if you can't have access to them, is to just do a little bit of keyword research. Now, my guess is your audience probably already has, you know, different tools and things that they're using for this kind of stuff. But if you don't, or if you're new to doing it from a content perspective, then it might be worth checking out AnswerThePublic. Are you familiar with this tool?

I've heard of it, yeah.

So yeah, answerthepublic.com. It's a free tool. You can of course buy more advanced pieces, but at the most basic level, you can type in your product, your product category, some high-level audience keywords. And what it will do is tell you and create a nice visual for you of the questions that people ask around that topic. So all of them might not be a good fit But if you plug in the specific type of tool that you have, the specific problems you solve, the solutions you offer, you can see people want to know, does it integrate with X, Y, and Z technology? Can I use this if in certain conditions? They might be asking, you know, what's the price point of these types of features or these types of products? So it'll give you a lead on here's what people in my audience actually want to know. And I think that's really the best way to get quality engagement is create content your audience actually wants and needs. That's, that's really the easiest place to start. And so if you have the ability to talk to them, do that. If you don't, look for tools like Answer the Public that can tell you what they might be thinking.