The type of content you’re putting out on a daily, weekly, monthly basis can come in a wide array of forms.
You could be blogging, producing webinars, or creating a podcast about your life as a cat lady.
Regardless of what you’re doing, your content is not being produced for you; it’s being produced for your audience. And if you don’t have an audience, your content doesn’t matter.
You could be the best cat lady podcast out there, but if no one knows about it, it doesn’t matter. Let’s look at 8 ways you can underline, circle and highlight your content on the Internet.
Be Accessible on All Devices
Five years ago, it used to be that if you couldn’t view a webpage on a certain browser, it wasn’t worth your time. Today, it’s not just about your browser, but it’s also about your phone, your tablet, your eReader or any other device of choice.
There’s nothing worse than making somebody work to find you, so it’s best to ensure your content is accessible from any platform, anywhere and anytime.
Actionable tip: Use great cross-platform curators like WordPress which allows you to create high quality content, and have it optimized for all platforms and devices.
The nice thing about WordPress is its wide adoption: Everything has already been created for you: There’s WordPress friendly hosting, mobile optimization WordPress plugins and responsive mobile-friendly WordPress themes. WordPress is installed and optimized with just a few clicks of a button.
Focus on the Content Purpose
You can’t create content for the sake of creating content: That’s one of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs and marketers make when planning content strategy.
Every content asset you publish needs to have a well-defined purpose. Every time you come up with the article idea or work on a content asset, keep asking yourself the following questions:
- Is this content solving any problem?
- Who am I targeting?
- Would I find it useful if I find this article?
Quora is a good source of content ideas that clearly have a purpose.
Use Infographics
There is a little bit of magic in the infographic. It’s highly visible and easily read. It’s easy to find and share on major forms social media and high ranking sites.
The highest quality graphics, professionally produced, won’t even compare when you think about purchasing tweets, or likes, or paying to unique visitors to your site. Your infographic is easily picked up by sites like Facebook, Pinterest and major media sites like Huffington Post and Gawker. It’s a tool that should in every content creator’s arsenal.
Actionable tip: It’s also incredibly cheap (and sometimes free) to produce compared with other purposeful marketing campaigns.
Increase the Quality of Your Content
People want to read your content, but only if it’s any good. If you’re a writer, there are a whole host of tools available to you to improve your writing. Hemingway Editor is a neat tool that is like an English Teacher for your content, showing how to make it easier to read and share your work.
If you’re a media fiend, use Canva, a brilliant site that allows you to easily create and design graphics without having the graphic design degree. Best, and cheapest, of all, follow the leaders in your field to see how they do it. Constantly pay attention to the leaders in your niche, and you can emulate their style and format to gain more followers.
Keep an Eye on Your Competitors
You may have someone in your field that you follow and admire, but you should also follow those who are producing content just like you. By monitoring what they’re doing, you can see what works and doesn’t work for them.
You can also see what mistakes to avoid by letting them learn the lessons for you.
There are great tools to monitor your competitors like BuzzSumo. This handy app instantly shows you what type of content are most shared in your niche. If you’re trying to get more Facebook likes for your videos, but most others are using Pinterest, this app will point you in the way you should go.
Engage with Your Audience
People want to be heard and acknowledged. By encouraging your content to be discussed, you can engage your audience, find out what they like and don’t like and what they will share. Build a community around your site and brand.
You can get instant feedback, which is great, and you can also get instant referrals, which is even greater. Respond to tweets, comment on Facebook posts and reply to questions on your website. These simple actions go a long way to demonstrating that you’re interested in your audience.
Engage with Your Influencers
Identify the people in your area of content that are most successful at producing content. You’re probably already following their blog, or subscribed to their YouTube channel. But by engaging with them, you have a greater chance of their audience seeing the content you’re producing.
Sites like InkyBee allow you to find those people with the most influence and get your content noticed by them. Their audience can become your greatest resource for finding your own audience.
Focus on What Works
Take a moment to look at what’s worked for you in the past, where your traffic is coming from and focus on that. If you find that most of your traffic comes from Pinterest, an increased production of high-quality imagery and highly sharable infographics could dramatically increase traffic to your site.
Don’t pay for videographers to produce YouTube videos nobody watches; stick with what is working. Justin Morgan of DMG explains:
“In every industry, there are marketing trends that don’t work, but create a domino effect. Avoid the hype and stick to what works, regardless of the industry.”
Content marketing doesn’t have to be hard. Everyone knows the simple tips to produce constant content or create with your audience in mind. But with a few simple tools and some purposefully planned analysis, you can get your content into the hands of your audience easier. If there’s something that works well for you, we’d love to know.
Supercharger Photo via Shutterstock
Aira Bongco
In this mobile world, it cannot be stressed enough that compatibility is a must. In fact, it is no longer an option lest you want your customers to go to another site if they can’t view your content well.
So true, Aira! thanks for the comment!
What’s / who is a Dweep? 😉
I like all of these… except the infographic recommendation. Not that I hate them but some are so unwieldy that whenever I see one that’s just a bit bigger than a square I leave. One can’t account for personal preference I guess; otherwise, the rest are solid with me.