Content. It’s something every brand wants – especially the kind that goes viral and spreads the company name far and wide. Creating content can seem easy, and in its rawest form, it is: but creating content that will leave a lasting impact on a user is trickier.
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In this article, we’ll explore 8 ways to help you create better content to help inform your practise at work.
1 Curate with care
We’ll start with what perhaps seems the most straight forward, but hardest to implement: curating content with care.
Producing something with feeling inherently changes the work. Neil Patel says an ‘engaged audience hangs on to every word’ – so make your next piece of content thought-provoking and full of personal nuance to give the reader a feel for you, the writer.
With so many articles populating search results, you need to stand out – so don’t write just another article for content’s sake. Make it different: make it caring.
2 Keep it timely
There’s no point in responding to trending news stories weeks after they’ve passed. Keep your finger on the pulse – and on your keyboard – and get content out as quickly as possible.
Not only will this increase your hit rate with engagements through being one of the first voices in the digital stratosphere commenting, but it’ll also prove your brand is in touch with what’s happening in the world, instead of just pedalling your product or service.
3 Rise above clickbait
As convincing as those call to actions can be, they’re not a good business model if you want to grow your reputation. Rohit Bhargava, writer of Non Obvious suggests that instead of clickbait you ‘put something more positive, useful, and valuable out into the world.’
So, instead of duping users into clicking your content to get something they could have easily Googled, produce articles with value. Weigh in on a topic which is hotly debated with an opposing view – this type of ‘exclusive’ content still has the same CTA appeal as clickbait but will leave the user with something of value once they’re done reading, instead of feeling a bit used.
4 Fact-check
This goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway: fact-check anything you produce. If your content contains statistics to back up a point, check they’re legitimate and recent enough to be of use. There’s no good in including some percentages to look authentic if they’re from a 2000 study.
Any content you create can leave you open to criticism, so don’t fall down and cripple the validation of your work with such a simple-to-fix point.
5 Consider the user experience
Where users consume your content impacts their experience. If they visit your blog and are hit with popups, cookie warnings, email sign-up requests, and first-time-visitor welcome all at once, it doesn’t make a smooth user experience.
Consider the format in which these notifications flow to the user. There’s nothing more annoying than trying to find out something simple and having to click off a dozen pages to get to what you want. So, keep your site usable and clean with a great WordPress web host, well-optimized content and a seamless page structure.
6 Keep it consistent
This point is two-fold: both in the consistency of your posting schedule and in the actual style of your content.
From writing tone and length through to the imagery used to promote it, by keeping things within the boundaries of your corporate identity you can bring greater awareness to your brand, making content that is intrinsically ‘you’.
Think of Innocent You can tell their branding a mile off, and their tone of voice is easy to pick out of a lineup. This is the kind of behaviour that builds brand awareness and reputation.
7 Utilize online scheduling tools
It’s one thing to create content, but getting it out into the world is another puzzle altogether.
By loading batches of content using online scheduling tools, like Twitter’s recently launched post later feature, you can keep your content regularly populating timelines without taking yourself away from the important job of creating the content in the first place.
Utilize time-saving tools like these, and give yourself one less thing to think about.
8 Consider the time it takes
A great idea is great, but if it will negatively affect your workflow maybe you need to reconsider it.
Produce content efficiently, and keep it as effective as possible. A blog post can be turned around in a few hours, but a short video could take a few days to refine. Consider the content type and the build time needed – and then weigh up if it’s worth investing that time in creating something if you think the topic, and your content spin, has longevity.
Employing these techniques can help to ensure your content is the best it can be, helping to engage your audience and build greater awareness for your brand.
Author bio: “I’m Lucy Farrington-Smith, a 27-year-old freelance writer. I started out as an actor before I put the scripts down and chose to write my own words instead of saying someone else’s. One Master’s in Creative Writing and many coffee cups later; you can now find my bylines on HuffPost, Metro.co.uk and my own website www.lucywrites.co”