When it comes to creating an online presence, developing great content should take centre-stage. This is why:
Excellent online content creates positive experiences for your audience.
It creates connections between your customers and yourself.
It encourages your audience to share, which increases brand visibility and recognition.
Here are five tips to guide you towards excellent online content with growing readership and engagement:
- Outline Goals
The primary function of clearly outlined goals is that they help you focus your content towards the end game. The goal could be awareness building, lead generation, increased conversion and so on. Figure out what it is for your specific brand and go from there.
Take your time to carefully analyse what you need your content to address before setting and communicating the goals.
In addition, goals allow you to be aware of what the measurables are. Ultimately, the metrics are the only way to know if your actions are making an impact in your organization. Find free backlinks checker tool which will help you to check the number of backlinks to your blog or website.
- Arrange Your Content In a Simple Inviting Way
Today, people are in a hurry for most things. This includes finding information on the internet. How you can aid this and ensure your content is viewed and read is to simplify it.
Here are a few tips on how to do this:
Avoid flowery language.
Use shorter sentences arranged in short paragraphs.
Use simple words that are easily recognized and understood. Do not task your audience with looking up jargon and difficult words. More often than not, they will lose interest and exit your site.
Use headline, subheadings and bulleted lists so that your readers can pick out the information they are looking for quickly.
For your website, having an easily navigable menu is just as important as the information provided in your content.
Make sure your content can be viewed easily on smaller mobile gadgets as well. You can run your URL on the Google mobile test tool to see how it handles on smaller devices.
- Focus on People
While it’s good to pay attention to SEO; write for people, not for search engines. This means that you must develop great content that is useful and actionable.
Always write each piece with your audience in mind. Try and answer the questions they might want to be answered. Conversely, ensure all content is thoroughly proofread to ensure it’s free of grammatical errors.
Posting less than stellar content lessens your credibility as a business and makes it harder for your customers to trust you and your services. If you have the slightest doubt that your content might not be crisp, clear and error-free, your best bet is to engage professionals on board.
An agency like Sketch Corp Advertising Agency can accord you the services of a copywriter and a journalist specifically for this role.
- Visuals. Visuals and More Visuals
For most people, endless blocks of text are off-putting. Do consider breaking up the text with visuals; photos, images, and even video. Visuals are more memorable. For example, have a video DIY video instead of a written instruction list.
And science supports this as well: human beings respond to visuals data better than any other form of data. The human brain processes visuals 60,000 faster than text. Further, 90% of the information sent to the brain is visual.
Tap into this when developing your content and you are assured of a wider readership as well as more shares across social media networks. Among your actionable should be to include:
- Memes (very useful and shareable on social media platforms).
- Infographics to provide data quickly and in a simplified format.
- Videos and vlogs.
- Photos (of products, of people interacting with your business as well as your work culture and environment). This show what you do as well as who you are.
Another great thing about visuals is that they can be used to increase engagement. For example, “caption this” where you post a photo and ask your audience to caption it.
Or even to do mini product rollouts where you ask your audience to vote for one of your new product packaging. Or to help you settle on a staff uniform. Visuals are versatile and provide an inexhaustible list of opportunities.
If you want to bring your A-game, then consider augmented reality. This allows your audience to have realistic interactions with your brand. For example, picking lipstick shades and virtually trying them out on yourself is more memorable than reading a text about how a certain hue would be perfect for your skin tone. Simply put, this is a way to grab your audience’s attention and walk them right into your business.
- Position Yourself as an Expert
If you have been in business for some time, you definitely have a wealth of knowledge on the products you sell and the industry. This means that you can speak authoritatively on various issues concerning your business.
Harness this knowledge and at the same time, thoroughly research on topics you are developing content on. In addition, carry out interviews with experts and quote them. Lastly, use respected sources of information as well as published data and statistics. Take special care too to ensure that your information is properly cited so that you are not merely stealing other people’s ideas.
If you are caught up in falsehood in your content, or plagiarism (intentional or not), your brand’s reputation will be injured. While it takes years to build a reputable brand, it takes fraction of that duration to destroy it.
The long and short of online content is simple. Think about what you would be looking for if you were a client. Think about the information you would want on a company’s website, then develop that content. It also helps to know your audience well to create content that appeals to them. When you do have great content, make sure you have sharing tools on your website so that your audience can share with others on their networks and increase your brand’s visibility.
