Making your content (into a) king: The 4 dimensions
(Introduction for everyone who decides to spend 2 or 3 minutes to read my Monday evening thoughts) The number of blog posts and articles on content creation is vast: both B2B and B2C companies are listing content creation in the top 3 priorities for their future marketing strategies. Brands have finally understood that publishing/sharing bits and pieces of information with little relevance to their audience just to keep blogs and social media accounts frequently updated, does not achieve much in terms of building brand awareness and engagement.
(Introduction for fellow Squares) Class finished an hour ago- greatly enjoyed it, thank you Mike! However, dear reader, this post has nothing to do with the 3 questions we were left with- I will have to revisit those at a later time. It ‘s about creating the kind of content that has the right to claim to be king.
Personally, prior to creating and publishing content, be it just the title or the main body of an article/post/email, I find it quite helpful to think about what its performance would be on 4 different dimensions:
First of all, will it be useful to my potential audience? Are there specific problems I am targeting and trying to solve by writing or sharing this?
Secondly, is it something new or unique? Something that less than a million other people have already published, who also happen to have a lot more credibility than me on the matter? (and yes, I know what you ’re thinking dear reader, that’s why I went for 1st person instead of 2nd person in this post, “I” instead of “You should”)
Also, am I referring to something specific enough? Readers nowadays tend to search for 3- or 4-word phrases to make sure they land on results that are highly relevant to what they are looking for. We don’t have time to read about vague ideas & concepts anymore (which is not necessarily good, but anyway)
Finally, have I managed to infuse a sense of urgency in my “story”? In a world where we are inclined to bookmark or flag things to read them at a later (more convenient?) time, content creators need to use some tools to catch the attention of the audience here & now (80% of the articles I bookmark I either never read properly or, by the time I decide to do it, there are 3 new and better ones already published on the subject).
It goes without saying however, that, if the content is not relevant & useful to the reader, urgency will not get you anywhere. Do I really care there is a special 60% discount on running shoes ending tonight when I am in desperate need for a cocktail dress and high-heel shoes for a party? (ok, not so desperate)
Of course, successful content strategies need to find ways to also inspire and entertain the audience. Mastering storytelling does not happen overnight, at least for most people - it needs practice, testing, trial and failure. But, as a starting point, I find that the 4 “dimensions” mentioned above can help pave the way towards more effective content marketing.
Before I go, I would like to share with you some of my favourite articles on content marketing:
4 U’s of Web Copywriting: Tips for Writing Great Headlines & Copy (and thanks for the inspiration!)
The 10 commandments of content
Want to create innovative content? Do these 3 things
Content marketing: welcome to the world of Fast-Moving Consumer Content (FMCC)