Good content isn’t just entertaining and informative. It provides an answer to a question a lot of people are asking. But anyone can give an answer. The challenge is the quality of your answer.
- The better your answer, the more powerful your content. And power doesn’t mean X number of likes, shares or comments on the Facebook post you write with the link, and it doesn’t mean the number of views on the post itself. No, the power lies in whether or not people decide to list your answer as the THE answer. For example, in Buzzsumo’s recent post “How to be the Best Answer to Customer Questions,” they look at Content Marketing Institute’s answer to “What is content marketing?” as an example. It has low views overall but a large amount of links that make it the top ranking “answer” for Google. In short, when you’re writing content think not only about what your answer is going to look like but how to make it better than your competitors.
- Break it up with visuals. Nobody likes to read long-form content anymore unless it’s an inspiring story or novel. In the land of digital marketing, pictures, gifs and infographics reign supreme. If your content requires a lot of textual elements, try breaking them up with visuals. Even better, if you can substitute a helpful infographic for a few paragraphs of content, do it. Visuals are easily digestible and highly engaging.
- Get the facts straight and keep your sources strong. What’s almost as important as your answer, if not more so? Where you got the content from in the first place. If you’re able to write content and provide an answer from scratch, great, but for the most part, you will need outside supporting sources. Try to use only strong, reputable sources with large trustworthy followings and good reputations. Unknown sources or those with fickle reputations can do more damage than good to your answer. And, check your facts! Just because one source says A+ B=C doesn’t mean that’s true. Peruse other competing sources and check for similar answers to help confirm facts. If sources link to other sources, go all the way back to the original expert. Another great resource can be found at WritersHQ.com. The effort pays off.
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