Content marketers are finding it difficult to produce content that is engaging, according to a 2015 study by the Content Marketing Institute on B2B content marketing trends, budgets and benchmarks. It can be difficult for both B2B and B2C marketers, with 54% and 50% respectively finding it a struggle.
Why is it so difficult to create great content? There is no question that the vast amount of content being created is partially responsible.
The best way to be different is to concentrate on being the best. You need to make your content better.
What Does It Mean to Improve the Quality of Your Posts?
Quality content has become something of a buzzword. In other words, effective content marketing persuades readers to do what the marketer wants them to do.
In other words, metrics you would look out for are:
- Time on page/post.
- Shares of the post and comments on the post.
- Number of people added to your list/funnel.
- The number of purchases (if it suits that purpose).
It’s more important than ever to improve the quality of your content, since there are so many things competing for your audience’s attention. And even if your content is great, there might be something in the post itself that will turn them off. If your business’ content is high-quality, it will be unique and stand out among other businesses, as well as be seen as credible.
What are some ways you can improve your content without sacrificing optimizations that will improve your organic search visibility? Here are 12 ways.
1. Focus on Your Audience
Seth Godin believes that true content marketing is not simply repurposed advertising, but something that is actually worth talking about.
Your reader is the reason you are creating content. In order to get your audience to read your content, it needs to be both persuasive and entertaining.
One of the reasons marketers have trouble creating engaging content is that they don’t think about who their audience is. According to a Forrester survey:
- 71 percent of brands include case studies and customer stories in their content, but only 3 percent delve deeper into these stories to make them relatable to their readers.
- Only 12 percent prioritize publishing research and perspectives to offer actionable insights to their readers.
It is more effective to create content that is interesting or informative rather than content that is only meant to sell a product. To be successful, your content must be targeted towards a specific person and their journey towards making a purchase.
To that end, you really need to determine whether your content needs to:
- Address problems your audience is facing.
- Promote discovery of your business solutions.
- Address comparison questions.
- Encourage a sale by providing persuasive information the person needs.
Buyer personas play a critical role in this process.
Whole Foods is an example of a company that doesn’t just try to sell itself as a grocery store, but as a lifestyle choice. This is evident in the content that Whole Foods shares. Their content is focused on healthy living and eating in a way that is friendly to the environment. The website has a range of articles discussing topics such as how to eat healthily on a budget, and how to change your diet. The goal of the site’s design is to make the audience feel empowered and like they are playing a role in the experience.
The New York Times is another example. The company is a top provider of print and newspaper services. They also combine old mediums with new technology developments to create new innovative mediums. The NYTVR is a new app that gives users a VR experience of the world using Google Cardboard.
2. Fact Check
If you want your audience to trust you, then you need to fact check your information.
When you’re writing about new topics or trying to capitalize on trending events, it’s easy to make mistakes.
If you want people to trust your content and see you as an expert, make sure it is unbiased and accurate.
3. Add Research to Back Up Your Points
If you want to be seen as credible, you should reference research and data in your writing. You will sound more convincing to your audience if you can demonstrate that you are knowledgeable about the topic you are discussing.
We could have simply provided a list of the 12 ways to improve the quality of your posts, but we thought it would be more beneficial to explain each one in more detail. We haven’t just used our own opinion to pick these places, research and data is used to show you why they are worth your attention.
It’s always important to cite credible and reputable sources.
4. Use Quotes or Insights From Experts
A technique to increase your level of credibility is by sharing quotes or industry insights from experts on a specific topic. This provides social proof to your audience.
When you feature an expert in your content, it not only helps build trust with your audience, but also helps position you as an authority in your industry.
As an example of what to look for, SEJ’s article on SEO Trends for 2017 provides input from 44 experts on the future of SEO.
Another advantage is that it allows you to cover a wider range of topics, even if you don’t know much about them.
5. Use Visuals and Examples to Illustrate Your Point
Sometimes there is a better way to communicate. Not every piece of content has to be text-based.
This is where visuals and examples come in.
A picture or graph of the data or process can be more effective than writing everything out.
Visuals can also act as a metaphor. That stock photo is illustrating a point. (Or she’s pointing, anyway.)
6. Avoid Jargon
High-quality content is always easy to understand. Jargon may not be easy to understand depending on your audience.
If some of your listeners know more about the topic than others, you can change your language and topic to fit their level of understanding.
If you want to check if the language you are using is appropriate, ask someone from the target audience to read the material and highlight any jargon they don’t understand.
7. Use an Editor
Don’t publish anything without a thorough edit and proofread. If your content contains mistakes or is poorly structured, it will ruin the reader’s experience and cause them to lose trust in you.
A proofreader’s job is to fix small errors like missing commas, typos, etc. An editor’s job is to help improve the story by working on things like the phrasing, order of points, and determining what is missing.
If you’re worried about the quality of your content, hire a freelance editor or add an in-house editor to your team. This will help you stick to your style guide and make your content stronger.
8. Be Bold and Speak Your Mind (Especially When Others Don’t Dare)
The large amount of content being created is one of the biggest difficulties that marketers who produce content have to face. It can be very difficult to get your voice heard among the millions of blog posts published every day, especially if the content is not well written or useful. However, you may be able to stand out if you take a stance that others are unwilling to take.
A lot of the content that is being created (especially in areas where there is a lot of competition such as digital marketing) just repeats the opinions and ideas of a small group of people. Readers are rapidly becoming desensitized to content because there are hundreds of blogs all saying the same things. This is what makes producing contrarian content so powerful.
Being controversial in your content can be an effective way to get attention. Be careful not to offend or go against the grain unnecessarily, but feel free to be daring and express your opinion. Your readers will appreciate your honesty. Additionally, you will likely sound and look more genuine than if you simply regurgitate what others have said.
9. Accept That Not All Content HAS to Tell a Story
One of the things that I don’t like about the content marketing industry is the focus on storytelling. I don’t want to give the wrong impression, I really believe that storytelling is a essential skill for people who want to be content marketers, and that using stories is one of the best ways to get your message to people who could be new customers.
Not all content is storytelling, and not all content marketers are storytellers.
Stefan Sagmeister does not think that you are a storyteller.
Not all content has to tell a story. When creating content for your blog, sometimes all you need is a simple, straightforward post that serves a purpose and is valuable to your readers. The people who talk the most about storytelling in content marketing are those who either don’t do it or don’t understand it. Do not listen to people who say you need to be a natural-born storyteller to be successful in content marketing.
Although stories can be used to make your content more engaging, you shouldn’t believe that every piece of content needs to be a long, complicated story.
10. Reuse Your Best Headlines in PPC Ads
If you’re running a PPC campaign and want to make the most of your content, repurpose your headlines that perform the best into ad copy. If you have a headline that is appealing to your readers, you will probably have a headline that is appealing to prospective buyers.
PPC ads and content have a lot in common, such as an emotionally appealing angle, powerful verbs, and clear benefits. Both AdWords and Bing Ads have character limits that advertisers have to follow. Shorter headlines of around six words tend to perform well from a content perspective.
If something you found online (e.g. a blog post, webinar, or whitepaper) did better than you thought it would, try running an A/B test to see if it performs similarly to an advertisement. Keep reading for tips on how to get your content to work harder for you by thinking like a content marketer for PPC.
11. Repurpose Your Content
Creating high-quality content requires time, effort, and skill. Even if you’re giving away your best content for free, you can still get a higher return on investment from your content. This is why businesses reuse content from one format in multiple ways.
The last blog post you published that performed well is probably a good example of the kind of content that resonates with your audience. Did the text have a positive effect on readers because it provided them with useful, practical information? Did your content provide value that your audience couldn’t find elsewhere? Then it would likely perform well as a downloadable guide. Some blog posts might be appropriate for an email campaign, or a live webinar. Select the content that will give you the biggest bang for your buck and repurpose it accordingly.
This blog post will tell you when and how you can reuse your content to get the most out of it.
12. Evaluate the Success of Your Content with Data
There is a common misconception that content marketing will make your business successful and you will have a lot of customers. Unfortunately, this is rarely the case. Smart content marketers not only produce excellent content, but also know how to measure the results of their efforts.
Some bloggers just check how many social shares their latest post has and decide if it was successful based on that. If a blog post is widely shared, it still might not help achieve your business goals. What is your goal for your content, and how will you know if you have succeeded?
If you want your content to achieve something, it is essential that you use data-driven methods such as analytics to see how well it is doing. Otherwise you could end up wasting time and money on content that makes no difference to your business. Success can be measured in many ways, but one way is by looking at the overall traffic using Google Analytics. Some people think that things like social shares or “attention metrics” like scroll depth are more important than things like pageviews. You can use tools like Chartbeat to measure scroll depth.
It is important to measure the performance of your content to ensure that your time and money are being used wisely. If you want to learn more about content marketing metrics and how to measure them, read this guide by Larry Kim.
A content audit could really help you out here! If you want to know which of your blog posts are performing the best and which ones you should get rid of, check out our guide (with free templates!).
13. Only Publish Your Very Best Material—and Be Consistent
There has never been more competition for people’s attention than there is now. This means that it is important that you only share content that is high quality if you want to be successful. It’s better to have one amazing post each week rather than five posts that are just okay.
You must set the quality bar Exceptionally high and continue to meet or exceed this standard. It can be challenging to produce content that stands out from the increasingly large crowd, but it is essential to make your voice heard. There are no shortcuts to creating exceptional content. It takes time, effort, and money.
If you want to learn how to make your content stand out in a sea of competition, read this post on the 11 biggest content marketing challenges and how to overcome them.
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