Before there can be successful content marketing, there must be great content. Without that, the rest really doesn’t make much difference. Unless you have an informative, educational, and unique slant on whatever your topic du jour happens to be, why bother? No matter how good your content marketing might be, if you’re selling crap, few are likely to buy.
There are two simple reasons you want to market content: bigger communities and more revenue.
But we can already hear the whining beginning. “I don’t know how to create content.” You’re familiar with the alphabet, right, and know how to rearrange the 26 letters into the building blocks of words and sentences? Good, that’s all you really need to know, but the following might come in handy to know.
1. Remember your audience: You’re not writing for yourself. Always keep your audience in mind when you sit down to write. Share information that will help make their lives easier. If they leave comments or specific questions, respond to them. Make them feel like you’re paying attention.
2. Short is better: The art of creating online content is the art of brevity. Today’s web surfer doesn’t stop by your blog to read an encyclopedic recounting of the topic that takes two hours to read. Hit the pertinent information hard and fast, and get out. If it looks like the subject is going to run long, split it into more articles.
3. What’s your voice? Every writing voice is unique. The best way to find yours is to write genuine content in an as authentic manner as possible. Do it long enough and your true voice emerges. When you’re keeping it real, and have something worth saying, people pay attention.
This last one is a biggie. Use proper spelling, grammar, and be accurate about your subject matter. While blogging/content creation doesn’t require a degree in Journalism, you better bet people are paying attention to your presentation. Bad spelling, poor grammar, and only moderately accurate blogs are soon ignored. Sure, modern content management systems make it easy to clean up sloppy postings after the fact, but it’s likely some people will have already seen it. The closer to a finished product it is with the first draft, the better.
Now get out there and create some great content!
The Creating Wealth Team
Flickr / jma.work
