Pumping out content for your audience is hard and keeping it regular to market your business is even harder. It takes time and effort. You can do it for yourself or outsource it, but either way, you want to make the most of it for all your investment. You want to be content smart.

 

5 Ways To Be Content Smart

 

I’ve written about why good value content is so important and how it benefits your business. Now I want to talk about how to be smart with your content. With just a little effort and skill, you can ensure that your content returns your time and energy investment, and if you outsourced it then your financial as well.

 

This was a learning curve for me as well.

 

I didn’t start out with producing smart content at all. I learnt it bit by bit through many lacklustre attempts. Now, here I am, writing to you about what I have learnt. It’s worth investing the time and effort into creating content smarter and developing better habits.

 

SEO

My biggest learning curve with my content was SEO. Even if you don’t know exactly what SEO means, you will have an idea that it has something to do with you being found on a search engine like Google.

 

Ideally, all your content should include an SEO component as all online content is searchable. Even your videos and audios. Not to take advantage of such power would be just plain silly.

 

Your website platform will include an SEO element. Some are better to manage than others. I use Yoast SEO on my self-hosted WordPress website. I also install that plug-in on all websites I create for my clients.

 

SEO isn’t just a buzzword and there really is no excuse not to include it in your content strategy.

 

Apart from keywords, my Yoast SEO plug-in helps me with making my website content easier to read. It also helps me with controlling how my pages come up in the search results on Google. You want to take every opportunity to grab your audience, so spending some time or money on your SEO is time and money well spent.

 

Value

Online platforms make it so easy to publish any type of media. According to hostingfacts.com, there are over 2 million blog posts published every single day online. One of the best ways to stand out and appeal to your audience is by providing exceptional value.

 

You want to attract new audiences to your content as well as keep your existing followers happy. Creating content that is useful, not just entertaining, to your audience is a key factor in growing your business.

 

To become the go-to person for your customers in your market niche means they will come to you not only for free content but also for your paid services when the time comes and they are ready to part with their cash. Your investment of time and effort to create content that is of value to your customers will pay off.

 

This applies to content you write for your blog as much as it does to content people have to sign up for. Content you publish to social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, is likely less formal than your blog. Video and audio content can deliver just as much value to your audience as a well written and informational blog.

 

Do not overlook the opportunities there. Social media is great for connecting with your audience on a more direct and personal level so the value provided on those platforms can be your accessibility.

 

Quality (good writing, good audio, good video)

Quality is quite different from value. I have abandoned content before because of poor quality. It can be great value and easily accessible but if it’s something that is hard to read, I will move on and find a source that is better quality.

Blogs and marketing posts on Facebook written in text speak turn me off quicker than you can say autocorrect. Bad punctuation and grammar make a text hard to read and a spade of spelling errors can be distracting.

 

Same goes for audio and video content. If I have no choice but to watch 5 minutes of ads before I can access the content I came to watch, I will be quick to click away.

 

If the sound or image quality is poor, I will not strain myself to watch or listen to the content, no matter how good value it is.

 

With over 1.2 billion websites currently, I’m sure I will be able to find content I’m after that will not give me a royal headache from watching a fuzzy or blurry image.

 

Authenticity

Being consistent with your branding creates and nurtures customer confidence. Using your authentic voice is a huge part of staying consistent with your brand. If you’re staying authentic, your messaging will be as well. I won’t lie, creating authentic content for your branding is hard work.

 

Once you find your voice and start connecting with your audience, you will attract the people who are drawn to your messaging. If your messaging and branding is not authentic and doesn’t reflect who you are, you risk damaging your credibility with your customer base.

 

It takes a while to find your authentic voice in your content. It is a process that happens naturally. If your intention is to let your own light shine through the content you create, you will achieve it. Your messaging and brand will be the stronger for it.

 

If you choose to skip this step and knock off someone else’s content, thinking you can change it here and there to make it look or sound like yours, you will attract customers with similar behaviour. Develop your own voice and stick to it.

 

Relevance

Very close relationship with authenticity but it’s worth a mention in its own section. If your business is to sell blingy cat jumpers and logic toys for rabbits and one day you start blogging about how to survive planning your wedding with your mother-in-law, your audience will get a whiplash.

 

You’re unlikely to reach much of your audience with that content. If you keep jumping from one unrelated thing to the other, you will lose the existing audience you have for your existing business.

 

When creating content, always ask yourself the question. How is this topic or piece of content relevant to my existing audience?

Some of the attributes in this article can be acquired as a skill, some can be developed by practice and some require a level of self-awareness. Don’t beat yourself up if you don’t get it right the first time or even the first 10 times.

 

I go back to some of my earlier blogs and go, what was I thinking with some of them.

 

Learn a new content smart skill and implement it. Practice it until it becomes a habit and second nature.

 

Want a hand with smartening up your content? Let’s have a chat.