The digital landscape is crowded with content, and it can be hard to stand out from the noise. How can you create content that attracts and engages your audience, and helps you achieve your goals? In this article, you will learn some of the most effective strategies to create content that stands out in a crowded digital landscape.
The first step to creating content that stands out is to know your audience. Who are they, what are their needs, challenges, goals, and preferences? How do they consume content, and what kind of content do they like and trust? You can use tools like surveys, interviews, analytics, and personas to understand your audience better. Knowing your audience will help you create content that is relevant, valuable, and personalized for them.
Create your content... based on what YOU love... YOU believe... and YOU dream. Nothing. Else. Is. Yours. And anything less... is just a job. ??
When making content online, being real is super important. Know who you're talking to, tell interesting stories, and be helpful. Try different things, keep your content good and regular. Your specialness is what makes you stand out in the busy online world.
Don't just know your audience but be realistic about them and remember one of the critical rules of digital -- you are not your user. People are really interested in being "viral" but fame doesn't always come with an increase in sales or conversion. And if you're speaking to a small, limited audience, be real about whether or not you are going to go "viral" with niche content. It's about quality, not quantity.
To create content that stands out in a crowded digital landscape, we can consider the below factors, - Make sure the content is created in line with business objective and end user expectations - Content should be cross device and cross browser compatible for better accessibility - Make sure the content is relevant and up to date - Based on the testing outcomes, make necessary updates so that the content stays effective
The second step to creating content that stands out is to define your goals and metrics. What are you trying to achieve with your content, and how will you measure your success? Your goals should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. Your metrics should be aligned with your goals, and help you track your progress and performance. For example, if your goal is to increase brand awareness, you might use metrics like reach, impressions, and social shares. If your goal is to generate leads, you might use metrics like conversions, click-through rates, and lead quality.
Keep in mind your overall sales window when it comes to your goals and metrics. How long does it take people to make a decision to convert? Is it realistic to expect a single content piece to convert? How does the single content piece play into your overall offering? Have you perfected parts of your site that could be affecting your ability to convert? You could create amazing, stellar content but if, for example, your checkout process involves asking people way too much information or has bugs, then you won't be able to accurately understand what converts.
The third step to creating content that stands out is to choose your format and channel. Based on your audience, goals, and metrics, you should decide what kind of content you will create, and where you will distribute it. You can use different formats and channels to deliver different messages, and appeal to different audiences. For example, you might use blog posts, ebooks, or white papers to educate your audience, podcasts, videos, or webinars to entertain or inspire them, and infographics, case studies, or testimonials to persuade or convince them. You should also choose the channels that your audience uses and trusts, such as social media, email, or search engines.
Be realistic about the channels you can engage with and what the channel's *own* goals are. Social media platforms are ad platforms and they are designed to either show ads to someone or take ad money. You don't have direct access to your audience and your reach could be limited randomly by the platform. Most channels do not want people navigating off of the platform, so they will prioritise self-hosted content. Do you have the ability to produce effective content for all of the channels? Don't just join a channel because it's there. Make sure you have an individualised strategy and the resources to actually build the content for the channel. If that means you are on less channels, that's fine. Quality over quantity.
The fourth step to creating content that stands out is to create high-quality content. Quality is more important than quantity, and it can make or break your content strategy. High-quality content is content that is original, accurate, relevant, engaging, and useful for your audience. It should also be well-written, well-designed, well-structured, and well-optimized for your format and channel. You should use clear and concise language, attractive and consistent visuals, logical and coherent flow, and relevant and appropriate keywords and tags.
Simple things that make your content high quality 1. Relevance: Tailor your content to your audience's needs. 2. Clarity: Use clear language and organize ideas logically. 3. Engaging Headlines: Capture attention with compelling titles. 4. Quality Writing: Check grammar, spelling, and writing style. 5. Visual Appeal: Include images, infographics, and videos. 6. Value Addition: Provide meaningful information or entertainment. 7. Consistency: Maintain a consistent style and tone. 8. Originality: Offer unique perspectives or insights. 9. Credibility: Back up claims with credible sources or data. 10. User-Friendly Format: Use short paragraphs and subheadings.
When you create content, think about how the user is going to get to the content. Digital isn't the Field of Dreams: "If you build it, they will come." Realistically, your content either has to be shared on a social platform, who will de-prioritise it if it's not content that's hosted inside of the platform, through advertisements or through organic SEO. Figure out how someone is going to find the content and build from that. Make social content for the platform it's hosted on where possible. Build advertising content that's going to load quickly and convey an obvious CTA. Build SEO content that answers questions and focuses on main keywords. You can write beautiful, original, accurate and engaging content no one sees.
The fifth step to creating content that stands out is to promote and distribute your content. Creating content is not enough, you also need to make sure that your content reaches your audience, and that they take action on it. You should use a mix of paid, earned, and owned media to promote and distribute your content. Paid media is any form of advertising that you pay for, such as social media ads, search engine ads, or influencer marketing. Earned media is any form of exposure that you earn, such as word-of-mouth, reviews, or press coverage. Owned media is any form of media that you own, such as your website, blog, or email list.
You should think about promotion and distribution before you even put "pen to paper" as it were. You always have to consider how people are going to arrive onto the page and design the content based off of that. You can create content and distribute it fine on different platforms, but someone who clicks on an ad doesn't have the same mindset as someone who is reading something on Instagram. Make sure you keep this in mind from the start, not just after you build the content.
The sixth and final step to creating content that stands out is to analyze and optimize your content. You should monitor and measure your content performance, and use the data and feedback to improve your content strategy. You should use tools like Google Analytics, social media analytics, email analytics, and content analytics to collect and analyze your data. You should also use tools like surveys, polls, comments, and reviews to collect and analyze your feedback. You should look for patterns, trends, insights, and opportunities to enhance your content quality, relevance, and effectiveness.
Analyzing and optimizing content is crucial. Using tools like Google Analytics and social media analytics, I've tracked user engagement and traffic, identifying what resonates with the audience. This data helps refine content strategies, highlighting successful topics and formats. Email analytics offer insights into open and click-through rates, guiding improvements in email content. Additionally, qualitative feedback from surveys, polls, and comments is invaluable. It provides direct audience insights, shaping more targeted content. The key is identifying patterns and trends in both data and feedback, continuously adapting and enhancing content quality and relevance for better engagement and effectiveness.
Get to the point, faster. Delete "stage-setting" intros and rather obvious statements you know your reader already knows. Stop boring people to death. Hit them hard with a fact, observation, relatable reflection or a conversational opinion.