Your success online depends a great deal on the value of your content. No matter what you are marketing, it’s up to you to provide your audience with content that’s original, high quality and relevant to their needs. Many things have changed in the world of online marketing. We’ve seen the growth of social media and the rise of mobile devices, for example. What hasn’t changed however, is the need for great content. Let’s look at how you can provide the best possible content to your audience.
Basic Qualities of Great Content
You have quite a bit of leeway when it comes to the content you provide. You have your own particular topic, audience, personal style and objectives. For example, you may be pre-selling potential customers on a product, seeking sign-ups for your mailing list or building your brand. You may have these or other goals. There are, however, certain criteria that must be followed for all of your content.
- Relevance. No matter how interesting your content may be, it has to be relevant to your audience. That’s why it’s so important to have a thorough understanding of your readers, viewers or listeners. The demographics and preferences of your audience will determine what kind of content to provide. This also gives you clues about where to share your content and how to present it. For example, a business blog generally has a more formal style than one that covers popular culture.
- Uniqueness. The idea that you need original content isn’t new. This helps you build your brand and makes it easier to rank your content with the search engines. Sometimes you may want to ethically share content from other websites, such as videos or links to articles. This is fine as long as you give the proper credit. Even when you curate other people’s content, however, you can make it unique by adding your own commentary.
- Helpfulness. The definition of value depends on the kind of site you have. If your readers are looking for information on a topic such as business, health, weight loss, gardening, dog training or golf, they will appreciate getting information that teaches them something new. Good content, then, is helpful and informative. If your website is in a niche such as self-help, spirituality or religion, your main goal may be inspire people. Some websites are mainly designed to entertain. You have to decide what your audience wants from you and provide them with content that gives it to them.
- User-friendly. Your content should be not only unique and helpful but also easy to access. Your website should be easy to navigate. The layout of your content should be easy to read. This means having adequate spacing between paragraphs and not having pages overly cluttered with distractions such as pop-ups, ads and images. You can have such elements on your pages, but they shouldn’t overwhelm the reader.
Let’s go into more detail about what it takes to provide unique value with your content.
Ways to Make Your Content Unique
If you can provide your audience with truly unique content, they will surely appreciate it. This requires a certain expertise on your part or an ability to access experts in your field. There are several ways to provide information that’s not available anywhere else.
- Share your own knowledge. If you’re an expert in your niche, you may have insights based on experience or education that no one else has. This could be from running your business, training your dog, taking photographs or getting great travel deals. If you have a food-based site, you may have your own unique recipes. In this case, you want to go beyond sharing generic tips that are found everywhere. The information doesn’t have to be earth-shattering, but it should be hard to find.
- Interview experts. Another way to get expert information is to get leaders in your field to talk to you. This could be a podcast, an interview done via webinar or Google Hangouts or an interview published in written form. Another possibility is to find experts who are willing to publish exclusive guest posts with you. Of course, you’ll have to provide some value in return.
- Offer timely information. Some information is valuable based on when it’s released. This is especially true in the field of finance. Even before the days of the internet, people paid large sums of money for financial newsletters that released vital stats and financial news ahead of the major media. If you’re among the first to share tech news, business trends, entertainment news or other information that your audience craves, your content will be highly valued.
Make Content Appealing and User-Friendly
While it’s nice to be able to offer information that’s unavailable anywhere else, not everyone can do this all the time. Nor is it always possible to be the first to release crucial news. Fortunately, there’s another way to make your content distinctive. You can present material in a manner that’s more appealing, understandable or user-friendly than your competitors are doing.
If you can make a complex topic understandable, your information doesn’t have to be unique. There are many topics that are difficult for the lay person to understand. If you can explain how technology, financial markets, SEO or the legal system works in a way that’s accessible, your content will be very valuable to people who need this knowledge but don’t have the time or expertise to study the subject in detail.
One approach is to curate information from other sources. Many top websites, such as Huffington Post, AllTop, Feedly and Pocket get their news from other sources. You can do this on a smaller scale by searching for relevant links, trends and news stories in your field. This brings content to people who might not have the time to search for it on their own.
Content today must also be accessible to people on every type of device. More and more people are using mobile phones and tablets to get online. If your website is only accessible to people using computers, you’re excluding a large number of potential visitors. That’s why you either have to build a mobile-friendly website. You can either have a separate mobile website or have a single site that uses responsive design, which naturally adjusts screens to accommodate people using any kind of device.
Present Content With a Unique Presentation
Most content on the web is not unique in every respect. No matter what kind of information you’re presenting, there are probably many other websites or social media pages that share similar information. One of the most important ways to differentiate yourself, however, is with your style. Style and tone apply to all types of content, from a blog to a Facebook page to a YouTube channel. No matter what niche you’re in, the way you present information is at least as important as what you’re sharing. Let’s look at some examples.
The gaming niche is one where presentation is especially important. People who play computer games are generally young and tech savvy. They don’t only want to learn more about gaming strategies, they want to be entertained. That’s why the top gaming blogs and YouTube channels are run by colorful personalities. The best example is Felix Arvid Kjellberg, the Swedish gamer also known as PewDiePie, who has more than 46 million subscribers and more than 12 billion views on YouTube. People watch his videos for his unique style of humor as well as for his insights on gaming.
Another example of someone who has created a unique brand by having a distinctive personality is Mario Lavandeira, better known as Perez Hilton. His blog, which covers celebrity gossip and scandals, is controversial and probably hated by at least as many people as love it. However, there’s no denying that he’s one of the most successful and wealthy bloggers in the world. Perez Hilton embodies the fact that you don’t have to please everyone with your content. You only have to please an audience that’s large enough to make you successful.
These are just a couple of examples of people whose content is defined by their distinctive personalities. You don’t have to be outrageous or controversial to attract attention. It does help, however, if you can present information in a unique manner.
More Tips to Add Value to Your Content
In addition to the above guidelines, there are some additional ways that you can provide more value in all of your content.
- Use a variety of formats. Different people respond to different types of content. Some prefer reading. Others prefer watching videos. Others prefer images and infographics. You can make your content more accessible by mixing it up and using a combination of text, images and videos. Even a single piece of content is more multifaceted when you add a visual element. People are also more likely to share images and videos than articles.
- Interact with your audience. One of the best ways to provide value is to encourage feedback. Ask plenty of open-ended questions. Conduct polls and surveys. Invite people to leave comments on your blogs, Facebook page and videos. Pay attention to what people are saying. This helps you create content in the future that people will appreciate.
- Monitor current trends. We already mentioned the value of offering time sensitive information. Yet, even if you aren’t able to provide time-sensitive financial tips or insider gossip about your industry, your content is more valuable when it reflects current trends and tastes. You may want to cover evergreen subjects as well. However, people are always eager to hear about the very latest developments in their field of interest. This is true across the board, whether you’re talking about the latest Hollywood movies, the latest Google algorithm, current trends in fashion or the most popular travel destinations this year. To create compelling and valuable content, you need to stay on top of the latest news.
Providing unique value with your content is a constant challenge, whether you’re publishing on your website or on social media sites. Truly valuable content has to be more than just original. It has to be relevant, timely, user-friendly and helpful. You should strive to develop your own voice and style so that your content becomes recognizable. This allows you to build a loyal following of people who look forward to receiving the value that your content brings.