It’s time to take your content marketing up a notch.
Just throwing articles on your blog isn’t enough. And you know it.
Readers are looking for in-depth information—and typically buy from the brand that gives it to them. And Google rewards high-quality content with top ranking in the SERPs.
So improving your content isn’t just a feel-good thing. It’s critical to your business success.
With that in mind, I’ve come up with 21 simple things you can do to step up your content creation and start impressing the socks off your customers and competitors alike.
Here they are…
21 tips for higher quality content
1. Get to know your readers better.
Your readers are the reason you write content. It should be for them and about them—not about your brand or your benefits or the next product you want them to buy. Get to know your readers, and you won’t have any trouble coming up with ideas for ground-breaking content.
2. Improve your writing (in general)
You don’t need to be a poet or playwright to be a great content writer. But you do need to know the basics of good writing. People are pretty forgiving of a misspelling or two, but if your writing is hard to understand, they’ll click off and visit your competitors’ blog instead. Improve your skill as a writer, and you’ll find your content improves without you even trying.
3. Know your point before you start writing.
If you can’t tell me your point in 25 words or less before you start writing, you’re going to struggle to write that piece of content. I’ll confess, I sometimes have to write an article before I know what I’m saying, but when that happens, I generally have to write the article over again from scratch. Know your point up front, and you’ll save tons of time (and write better content too).
4. Stay focused—in your strategy and within each piece.
Focus is the name of the game. Your blog should cover one overarching theme and a handful of topics related to that theme. Each piece of content (no matter which category) should cover one topic as well. Try to do too much in that space and you’ll confuse your readers. Confused readers don’t stick around. So keep it tight. State your point and stick with it.
5. Don’t post unless you have something new to say.
Scraping ideas (or full articles) from another site wastes everyone’s time. Shallow content that regurgitates ideas already published on the Web doesn’t impress. It doesn’t make you a thought leader. And it doesn’t build traffic. So why bother? Look for something new to say and you’ll gain a lot more respect.
6. Research more.
How do you find something original to say? You research your ideas. Find the little known statistic or a real-life example of the point you’re making. Specifics sell, and you’ll only get them from research.
7. Read more.
If you stop reading, your creative juices will dry up and blow away in a slight breeze. Seriously, if you want to write, read. This isn’t an option.
8. Experiment more.
Don’t settle into a rut as a content creator. Experiment with formats, channels and style. You’ll find it feeds your creativity and engages people better. Who knows, you may find a style or format that really resonates with your followers. If you don’t experiment, you’ll never know.
9. Always use a nut graf. (Well, almost always.)
Remember point 3 above? Know your point? Well, your readers want to know your point too. So tell them. At the end of your intro, tell people what they’ll get if they keep reading. This is your main point laid bare. For bonus points, tell them how it will benefit them. (Learn what a nut graf is in this article I wrote for Firepole Marketing.)
10. Learn to close better.
Most writing teachers emphasize that you need a strong start. Few mention how important a strong close is. Too many articles just restate the main point with something like, “See, now you know [topic].” Don’t do that. Add value. Tell them how their new knowledge will make their life better. Give them something to think about. Or ask them to act on the information you just gave them. Close strong, and they’ll feel like your content was worth reading.
11. Know the type of content that resonates with your readers.
Analytics. You have to do it. Track your traffic, which posts people come in on and which ones they leave on. They use this data to create content people really want to read.
12. Think epic.
Short, pithy posts may work for Seth Godin, but for the rest of us, longer, better researched content gets the best response (from readers and search engines). If you’re going to talk about something, then talk about it. Go deep. Make it a goal to provide the best coverage ever of your topic.
13. Create a style guide and stick to it.
Decide up front how you’ll handle things like serial commas, capitalizations, slang, and other stylistic issues. Then be consistent from one piece to another. It may seem like a little thing, but it’s often the details that take your content to the next level.
14. Add images to your posts.
Research has shown that you can nearly double readership by including images in your posts. Yes, it adds time to your production schedule, but it’s well worth the effort.
15. Get better at writing meta data—and take time to do it.
Your readers are your first priority, sure, but you also need to make sure search engines know what your content is about. This makes a big difference in your ability to rank for specific search terms—and makes it more likely people will click through to your content when they see it in the SERPs. Make it a priority to improve your meta writing skills, then make time to enter your meta title, meta description and primary keyword for every piece of content.
16. Test titles.
There are plugins that allow you to enter two headlines for your blog posts. This allows you to test different types of titles, so you can improve click-through, readership and engagement. If you aren’t already A/B testing your blog titles, make it a goal to start soon.
17. Spend less time creating and more time promoting.
If writing an article every day means lower-quality content, you’ll do better to create less content. That will also give you time to improve promotion (which, by the way, ought to get at least as much of your energy as content creation). After an article goes live, promote it through social media. For extra oomph, make sure you notify experts or brands who got mentioned in your article. In many cases, they’ll help you promote your article and may even comment in it.
18. Build connections with other people in your industry, and tap into their expertise.
You’d be surprised at the number of ideas you generate from interacting with other people in the industry. I’ve had people ask me to review a book or plugin for them. Each became one or more articles. And a random comment can spark inspiration, clarify a new idea, or help you find the questions people need answered.
19. Involve your readers more
This builds rapport and engagement, which will definitely take your content marketing to a new level. Engage more when people make comments on your post. Talk with them in social media. My recommendation: Crowd source at least one piece of content this year. You can do this by asking a question in social media, then compiling the answers in an article or SharePoint.
20. Build your email list.
This is one of the bigggest reasons we create content in the first place. Great information supplied for free is a fair trade for people’s email address. If you don’t already have an email opt-in box on your website, create one. If you do, tweak it to entice more sign ups.
21. Make it fun to comment and engage on your blog.
People like to feel like they belong to an elite group, and they like to feel like they have inside access to a celebrity. Whether you feel it or not, if you write high-quality content, you’re a type of celebrity, which means your readers will love engaging with you. So respond. Answer questions. Make it fun for people to get involved with your content.
What else?
Ultimately, your goal as content creator and publisher is to increase traffic and shares. Put your readers first—creating content they love and an online space where it’s fun to hang out—and you’ll hit your goals.
Follow the 21 tips above, and you’ll get there faster than you expect. But there are probably other, even better ways to take your content to another level. If you have one, feel free to share it below.
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