5 Keys To Creating Great Content Readers Love
Making your content stand out in an arena where there is so much noise is pretty tough. Keeping the attention of your readers once they finally make it to your content is even harder, so you need to do as much as you can to make sure your content is top of the line. These keys can help your content stand out in the digital world’s crowded arena. Here are 5 Keys to Creating Great Content Readers Love.
1. Research, research, and more research
It’s easy to think we have the answers to everything, but simply put we don’t. When you’re producing your blog content it is important to take the extra time to find out more information about the subject ensuring you have all of your facts right. Nothing will feel worse than people in the comments correcting information that you have written.
This should be one of the longer steps in your writing process, take the time verify information, gather more information (statistics if needed), and start to create your road map to writing. The research will add significant time to you creating content, but you will be creating much more informative content that will be much more beneficial to your audience.
2. Know your audience
Context is everything. A 16-year-old in high school and a 40-year-old marketing executive aren’t going to have the same use for Snapchat as one another. Before you even start writing, you need to identify who your content is for and tailor it for them.
If you are writing for a 40-year-old marketing executive you’re going to need to include reasons why Snapchat is beneficial to his/her business and what it does better or worse than other social media platforms. If you choose to write to that 16-year-old in high school you are more than likely to discuss ways to get the best lighting for selfies or the cool filters they should expect coming to the platform.
3. Headlines win attention
Internet users see 100s of different types of content every day scrolling their newsfeed on Facebook or their timeline on Instagram or Twitter. In order to win their attention, your title is going to need to stand out from the rest of the content they come across. It might seem like an afterthought, but spend some time choosing your headline. Brian Clark, from CopyBlogger, insists on spending equal amounts of time formulating a headline and creating content.
This is the first thing any potential reader is going to see and it might the only chance you have to catch their attention, spend some extra time choosing your headline – it’s the most important sentence you’ll write.
4. Make it visually appealing
Many people retain information better if it is easy or attractive to look at. Your content can be much more than just words, add images, videos, gifs, infographics to make them more visually appealing while making it easier for a different type of learner.
These visuals supplement to the strength of your words and add some pizazz to your content that can definitely help with keeping the reader engaged until the very end.
5. Write, edit, proof, write, proof, publish
Everyone has their own method to the madness when they are writing, but one thing that all writers can agree on is that someone else should always read your work before you put it out the public. This is, of course, great to catch mistakes that you most likely became blind to as you were writing, but also a second reader could give you an idea you might have overlooked.
Two heads are always better than one, so make use of your team and get another set of eyes to edit your work before it goes out to the world.
If you’re looking for more, watch this video on how to create great content:
