16 Practical Strategies for Creating Compelling Content

Creating Compelling Content is Essential!

The good news is that by now, most brands are aware of the benefits of content marketing. The bad news is that many brands are not publishing effective content due to the lack of a creating compelling content strategy. Publishing content is not enough. Creating compelling content is essential if you want your content marketing strategy to succeed. Creating compelling content is not difficult. Simply take a look at our suggestions to get some ideas.

Before businesses can start creating compelling content, they need to understand that content marketing is not a one-time effort. Instead, you need to prepare for the content marketing marathon. You need to publish ongoing content that your audience is looking for to satisfy Google’s Search Algorithms and your human audience. And it better not be something that you simply copied from somewhere else, it has to be unique as well.

By this stage, many of our clients feel overwhelmed. Many of them are small business owners with only limited resources. And even bigger brands with larger marketing teams can get overwhelmed quickly. We have great news for all of you! Creating compelling content is much easier than you think. Why not try one of the following strategies yourself?

16 Strategies for Creating Compelling Content

1 – Think Like a Journalist

Don’t get too bogged down with the ‘meat and potatoes’ of your story. Remember that you win or lose about 90% of your target audience with your headlines and introductions. Win them over at the beginning, and you will have a much easier time with the rest.

2 – Inspiration is Everywhere

Believe us; we have been there! Without inspiration, the whole creating compelling content goes down the tubes. If you are in a dry-spell, try to find out out what juicy nuggets of wisdom are floating around in the brains of the people around you. Family, friends, and colleagues alike, even those with no interest in your niche, can provide new and exciting perspectives.

3 – Keep It Short

If you think your audience is willing to read reams of text until they find something of interest, think again! A few lines are all you have before they get bored and move on. Be sure to keep what you are saying concise, to the point, and ideally in bite-sized chunks.

4 – Make It Your Own

The nature of the news world has always been one of poaching other brand’s stories and headlines. The key is to get there first and make it your own. Never underestimate the importance of keeping one finger on your niche’s pulse at all times, sharing anything of interest to your audience before it goes stale.

5 – Keep it Conversational

An overly formal language is a big turn-off for most as they quickly feel they are being lectured, rather than informed. Be sure always to keep your tone at an appropriate conversational level. Don’t cross the line into inappropriateness.

6 – Don’t Oversell

Your audience already knows that you think you are great, so there is no point in always blowing your trumpet and going for the hard sell. If you do, anything you say will lose its sparkle and come across as a pure sales spiel.

7 – Keep it Real With Photos

Images are a vital part of any compelling content strategy. If you plan to use any pictures whatsoever to back up your text content, don’t fall into the habit of using those oh-so-easy stock photos! Sure they look nice, but they don’t tell your readers anything about you and what makes you tick.

Even worse, some stock images are so popular that your visitors may have seen them on other websites. Investing in professional photography services is a small price to pay to create an effective online brand.

8 – Invite Guests

Invite others to help you with creating compelling content! Guest posts allow for new perspectives and inspiration and show your readers that you are welcoming and open, which are hugely attractive traits. Whether it is a guest blog, a comments section, or a simple open invite to share views, you can’t go wrong. Look at how guest blogging can help you reach a new audience.

9 – Reach Out and Ask for Help

If you seem to continually strikeout in terms of figuring out what interests your audience, why not ask them? Yes, we know what a bold concept. But it works! Send out a few emails, make a few calls, or even post a few questions online through a service like SurveyMonkey. But quit assuming you know what your audience wants, and ask them instead!

10 – Go Down Memory Lane

If you struck gold in a big way with a fantastic piece of content you created earlier, don’t deprive your growing and engaged audience of your brilliance! Instead, update it as necessary and re-post it for those who have not already read it. Reuse and recycle content at all times!

11 – Honesty is The Best Policy

Let’s make sure you are clear on this! None of our creating compelling content strategies will work if you are perceived as a flake, or worse, a fraud! Don’t pretend you know what you are talking about if you don’t. Even worse, don’t pretend to like something you hate. Your content will reek of fabrication and send your readers packing. Stick with what you know and love instead.

12 – Do Your Homework

Your creating compelling content no longer has to rely on guesswork. You can count on Google and others to tell you what’s hot and trending in your niche. Look into plenty of available up-to-date statistics and analytics to learn what interests your audience, and give it to them!

13 – Keep Navigation Simple

Often an overlooked part of creating compelling content, make it clear, easy, and fast for readers to find it! There is no point in promising them the world on your home page if they then can’t find where to click to move forward. Millions of conversions are lost this way every day!

14 – Keep Topics Separated

Another critical aspect of creating compelling content is to keep your topics apart. Topics with individual landing pages have much better conversion rates than those squeezed in on other non-dedicated pages. Therefore you must give every issue you consider to be of importance to your audience a separate landing page. Specific landing pages are an excellent way of conveying the importance to the reader.

15 – Be Timeless

When it comes to the permanent content on your pages, never include anything that can or will go stale in weeks or months. In other words, your creating compelling content needs to focus on ‘evergreen’ content that is still valid in a year. Never make your permanent content accurate only for today!

16 – Transcribe Your Content

Last on our list of creating compelling content strategies is not to forget to include transcripts! Don’t forget that not every reader will be able to listen to your audio and video content, so be sure to include transcripts to be accessible when and where needed. There is a bonus as well; transcripts will be picked up and indexed by search engine spiders; audio and video content will not.

Creating Compelling Content for Your Brand

OK, now you know the basics of creating compelling content. If you are already creating online content, you can simply follow our creating persuasive content strategies. You should be good to go.

Content Creation Resources

Creating compelling content does take some time and effort. For most small to mid-size businesses, that is the biggest obstacle. And many business owners are unaware of available resources. If you fall into that category, you may want to check out professional networks and Meetup groups to help you find the following outside resources:

• A content strategist can help you create and document your content marketing strategy and determine your target audience.
• A copywriter or editor can help you create compelling content and develop an editorial calendar.

Bigger businesses with more resources can do some or all of this in-house, most often through an in-house marketing team. Maybe you only need occasional outside help. In that case, you may want to establish a relationship with a temp agency specializing in creative and marketing services, such as Creative Circle, Filter Digital, or VitaminT.

Are You Creating Compelling Content for Your Brand?

Do you have any small business content creation tips you would like to share? Feel free to add your comments below so our audience can benefit and grab our feed, so you don’t miss our next post! And feel free to share our creating compelling content strategies with your audience!

Thank you! We appreciate your help to end bad business websites, one pixel at a time!

By Gregor Schmidt
Co-Founder / CXO
@gregoraschmidt