Golden Rules of Content

 

If digital marketing symbolises one traditional saying it's quality over quantity. Of course this didn't used to be the case in the early days of the Web when link farms, spam, meta keywords and repetitive content was enough to game the search engines. Back then unscrupulous webmasters would hide keywords at the bottom of pages and create posts that were nothing more than a stream of key messaging regarding the company and the product they were trying to sell. For the most part this worked and the search engines were in danger of losing their customers because the results they were supplying were not what users were looking for.


It's well accepted that interesting, engaging content is key when it comes to a successful digital marketing strategy but how many of us actually examine the content we are creating and editing to ensure that it is interesting and engaging? I'll wager not that many. Unfortunately there seems to be an emphasis on distribution method rather than what we are actually going to distribute. For example a number of companies spend a lot of time wondering whether or not they should use LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook for their digital marketing and all the while assume that they have content in spades.




Think about a manufacturing company, they wouldn't buy a number of lorries to distribute goods before they have decided what goods they are going to make.




Many times I have seen a company take a large, word-heavy publication and simply break it up into individual articles in order to distribute https://yoo.rs/. This is not a strategy I recommend as this is simply diluting the message of the original publication and isn't necessarily going to make the content any more interesting.




A real content strategy consists of creating new, fresh, creative content in a variety of mediums from word to image to sound to video. Gone are the days when a standard 400 word blog would be the beginning and end of the content strategy. While word-based articles certainly still carry a lot of weight from a search point of view it's important to understand that engaging content generates interest which generates traffic and, hopefully, repeat, quality traffic.




Engaging content is hard to create, some people have the knack and some don't. Look at the content you plan to distribute and create a small focus group internally and externally to your business and see what the feedback produces. Cast a critical eye over your content and ask yourself if you would find it engaging, would you bother to look at it if you didn't have to?




Remember, sometimes dry content can be turned into more interesting content by the way you present it to your audience. A 600 word article may generate some click-through traffic but adding some images, a sound clip and a 30 second video takes that piece of content to a whole new level.




Content is still king but gone are the days when digital marketing was only for the few and the content available was in short supply. These days all manner companies are creating content and the Web is becoming crowded and it is becoming more difficult to grab the attention and ongoing interest of prospects.




Here are some easy tips for killer content creation;


1) Don't recycle old content, create something new and fresh. No one likes repeats.


2) Read your content, ask others to read it too. Are you proud of what you have created and what you plan to distribute?


3) Remember that content creation isn't for everyone, sometimes paying a professional is a better use of your time than trying to create it yourself.


Original Content



The most valuable thing online is original content. How is original content created? It begins with either original thought or an original perspective on existing content.




The problem with original thought is, although it is probably very common, it must be expressed to be shared. It can only be expressed either verbally or in writing. Both are different skill sets. For the Web, writing is writing and verbal can be either audio or video w/audio. Writing is more work and all require a separate talent.




So it is easier to proceed in sections. ID the original thought, organize it and decide how it should be expressed. Work on the expression until it matches the thought as closely as possible.




That is how to get great content which will eventuate into great traffic for your Facebook page or anything online.




The overwhelming majority of people who provide content for the Web have the original thoughts, but they are never conveyed online. There seems to be an invisible border.




Out of everything I do to drive traffic to a website, how it is built, keyword research, site optimization, advertising...everything...it all can be replaced with consistent, regular original content.




So why is there so much mediocre content on the Web? Google referred to it as a "cesspool" a few months ago. It is because of two primary reasons. 1. People don't realize what they are sharing, there is a formality to it that people new to the Web bring; that is not necessary. We forget how far we have come and how quickly. Adding content to the Web is actually publishing something. Prior to the Web getting published was a big deal. The second thing is that providing quality content is actual work.