5 Top Tips to Produce Content That Converts
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There is so much content available online. So how do you ensure your content rises above the competition to engage and draw in your intended audience? We’ve got five tried-and-tested tips to help you rise above the noise and achieve your content marketing goals.
Hire a smart copywriter with an excellent portfolio. You’ll need to provide all the training they require to familiarize themselves with your company, the product, the culture, and the department’s way of working. But leave the writing expertise to them. Many people think they can be a writer, but not everyone is a great writer.
The same approach applies to other crucial content marketing roles, including the content manager.
A streamlined editing process is critical to the efficiency and success of your content marketing function. Of course, content does and should involve subject matter experts from other departments, typically the sales and product teams, to educate and inform the writer. But any role during the editing process should be limited strictly to reviewing and offering their opinion on whether the content achieves the aims laid out in the brief and if anything is amiss.
The lifecycle of producing content often runs into problems due to delaysed review processes or unclear rules on who does what and at what stage and who’s the final call. Avoid all this by laying out crystal-clear roles from the get-go and adhered-to timelines.
There’s nothing wrong with using business buzzwords now and again, but when used ad nauseum, the words quickly lose their power to persuade. A popular example: a company’s “disrupting” an industry. You see this sentiment everywhere!
Remember, every word in a piece of content should help convert. And to reach this end, the copy must persuade. Using too many buzzwords tends to have the opposite effect.
Content should create true value for the reader by falling into one or more of the three E’s of content: educational, entertaining, and emotional. While it is tempting to insert a self-promotional line or two or get a little trigger-happy with the inbound links to your website, these tactics can be self-defeating. Content is about cultivating a relationship with your reader through the continual supply of truly valuable content. To achieve this, content must be original and provide unique value to the reader.
Captivating images give you the chance to truly differentiate yourself and stand out from an overcrowded content space.
Stock images are popular for their convenience and cost-effectiveness. But they’re rarely fresh or anywhere near visually captivating. And the most popular ones show up in a lot of places online and in print.
You know the ones—yet another blog post with the same financial district skyline from New York or London or the businessperson smiling at their cell phone in their hand. Ask yourself: Do these images excite or entice you to read the article? What’s the point of an image if it doesn’t move you to click on the article or keep reading?
Buying high-quality photos can be expensive. But you don’t always have to purchase them. Even with a good smartphone camera, you can start taking excellent shots of real-world scenarios.
Another excellent option is to use stock images but edit them to match your brand’s aesthetic. This enables you to capitalize on the convenience of stock images while also making them your own. As a result, you can create fresh, on-brand imagery to enhance your written content.
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