Are you sure that you are posting great content?

The Internet is a crowded place. Social Media in particular is very crowded. Think of it like commute rush hour in any major city around the world. Lot's to see, but it's beyond crowded

There is an old joke that you can hide a dead body on the third page of Google. And that's what happens if your content is not relevant, useful and optimised. So how do you stand out if you are in the business of content marketing?

To first understand this - we need to forget the true elements that go into great content, instead focusing on what you are competing against. The changing nature of social means that the ability to stand out is becoming ever more decreasing. It is no longer the 'Pay-to-Play' environment of 2016, it is now the 'Pay-to-exist' as content saturation is vast.

In looking at the above, if you are a content marketeer you are probably already breaking out into a cold-sweat, thinking - how do I stand out in this!! However - I would challenge this, and say that though it is hard to attract the audience, at least you know that there is one there. So below, let me help explain, how you can help your content be in the top 1% so it gets visibility. Below are a number of strategies that we have incorporated in the all new Honda Engine Room to ensure that the content we lovingly produce, reaches people.

Research and testing

Before you even start publishing, you must have a strategy and goals you want to achieve. Figuring out why are you posting content and for whom. What is your competition and how saturated is the market, and would you be able to offer a unique perspective?

Things that can help you with that is Google Analytics and Google Trends, to see what keywords people are searching for, or do an A/B testing to see what they react to better. If you need to learn more about these - I thoroughly recommend checking out Econsultancy

It's all about the customer

You must give the people what they want. That's why you always need to listen to your audience and track possible changes in customer behavior. You can't make your content about you; you have to offer value. Your content must do some of the following:

• Answer questions
• Teach
• Motivate
• Tell stories and create a connection
• Entertain

If you simply just outline your product with a sales message, people switch off. As they say, you can lead a horse to water....

Consistency

For every website, blog, channel or a social media venture to be successful, they have to be consistent. Putting out content as often and as high quality as you can. It’s not easy to be consistent; it has to become a habit. Keep giving people reasons to come back, keep showing them things that THEY will want to see (look above).

A great example of that is a famous vlogger Casey Neistat, who was vlogging daily for a year and his channel grew from 500k to 2.5 million:

How to make great blogs

The good news is that you don't need to be an extremely good writer to write quality blog posts. Also, you can always hire somebody else to do it if for you and places like Upwork can be a great place to find a network of specialist freelance talent.

However, if you want to do it yourself or with your team, here are some guidelines:

• Headlines – The most important thing. People just won't open the article if the headline is weak.
• SEO – Searching for the right keywords, using SEO tools, including the keyword in your title and meta description are all parts of being discoverable on Google.
• Formatting – Not creating big chunks of text, using bullet points, breaking content with pictures and infographics, using appropriate fonts.
• Research – Your blogs will be better if you back them up with some well-researched facts and information.
• Media-rich – Using infographics, pictures, videos, memes, etc., to make your content stand out. As we saw above - you need to do something that makes somebody stop. If it is wallpaper and average, people will skip past.
• RITE – Stands for Relevant, Interesting, Timely and Entertaining. Keep these in mind.

The above outlines everything we have tried to do with the Honda Engine Room - starting with an SEO strategy first and building Honda content and stories around what people are searching for. We at Honda want to be an authority around these subject matters, we also just happen to sell products that are directly applicable.

This article on How to Test Drive a Car is a superb example of this. 'Test Drive Car' is a highly searched term, and so we have a strategy to make sure people visit the page. From visiting they may just buy a Honda as their next car.

How to make great videos

When it comes to videos, a lot of the same principles apply that apply to the blog. You need to have a great headline for videos too, but you also need to have great thumbnails. Apart from the fact you need to offer value by being RITE; your videos also must be visually engaging.

Proper equipment doesn't cost a fortune these days, but you will have to think about the lighting, filming locations, effects, editing and some other fun stuff that you don't have to think about with blogs. For some further tips read: https://bit.ly/2wLbn6f

Podcasting

There are about 550 000 active podcasts with over 18.5 million episodes, which still is way less than blogs (2 million new blog posts every day!), and podcasting has become an uprising trend.

They are a great way to diversify your content and to connect with your audience on a deeper level. With the power of the human voice, you can reach people in a way you can't with a written word, and they are easier to make than videos.

Also, podcasting allows you to bring guests, and thus broaden your audience, as well as establishing connections in the industry. Podcasting takes time to develop into a powerful content tool, but if done right it can bring many benefits.

However, podcasting is not for everyone, and this great article explains why it's not that easy: https://bit.ly/2MQoFsa

Mixing up your content

Some people read some people watch, while others just listen. Content can be consumed in many ways, and there are many types of consumers. I, for example, am a reader, and can't focus on audio for more than 10 minutes.

By producing various types of content and on a different channel you will see different results, and see what works. Because on Facebook you might post something, and people will maybe get bored if it's too long, but it may go exceptionally well on Medium or Linkedin because people there are looking for in-depth analysis. You have to see where your audience is.

It's good to have different types of content, especially if you are a bigger company, but don't force anything. If you don't feel like writing, don't write. If you don't like being in front a camera, don't do video. Maybe you won't be able to catch every audience, but it's better to be great at one thing than do more stuff half-hearted.

How to get ideas and be unique

Producing great content must come from having original ideas. It's good to use some people or company as a benchmark and steal some of their concepts, but the only way to stand out is to be original and offering something unique. Ideas can come from all kinds of sources:

• News and articles
• Books and podcasts
• Networking and people you know
• Questions from your audience

Once you get the ideas, write them down them immediately before you forget. After that, it's all about the execution and making content out of them. Remember to be consistent, and good luck!