In the age of infoxication, we must tread carefully when we offer content on our website, and even more so when what we want is to offer quality content.
Videos, posts, lead magnets, webinars, infographics, podcast episodes…
There are many ways to provide content to our audience, but if we make the mistake of “creating for the sake of creating” we will end up investing a lot of hours and what we will get in return could be negligible or even nil.
And would that be quality content?
Before moving on to the list of suggestions, we are going to clarify some points about quality content, starting with what it is.
What is Quality Content?
Quality content is much more than well-written, well-recorded, or well-laid content.
A priori, the question seems to have an easy and short answer, but nothing is further from reality.
Who has the total truth that something is, in absolute terms, “good” enough to be considered quality?
As far as I know, no one.
Imagine that you write a great post and send it to some contacts.
- Your neighbor in the room loves it. Bravo!
- Your cousin from Burgos loves it. Good!
- That former workmate thinks it’s perfect. Bravo!
- Your partner thinks it’s the best. Top!
Your confidence grows and you come over because everyone seems to like your latest creation; but then your potential client enters your blog, reads it, and goes where he came from without any intention of returning to your website.
No matter how well it has been written, raised, or laid out, if it doesn’t like whoever has to like it, I would never consider it to be of quality.
It is evident that we cannot like everyone and that the potential customer is not strictly real, but if the person who makes us earn money or grow does not start to like it, bad business.
The quality of content is not in the how, but mainly in the effects, it causes.
Where Can We Offer Quality Content?
Based on the fact that quality content is considered as such in part because of the (good) effect it causes on your target audience, the channels to offer it are extremely varied.
When we talk about content, the blog automatically comes to mind.
If you want to see the content offered by WpSuggest for example, you just have to click here.
With so much “content is king” we have accommodated in our heads the idea that content = blog, but come on and there are no formats and formats today.
I, for example, am a born consumer of content written on blogs because I prefer to read while listening to Chet Baker than to consume audio or video content to which I have to dedicate more senses.
It is a totally personal example.
Like me, there are tons of users and there are also others different from me who prefer to invest their time in the video format and would never spend 8 minutes reading a post, no matter how complete it may be.
Everyone’s tastes are respectable, but that is not the issue at hand.
We are talking about where to offer quality content and this occurs to me among other options:
- In a written blog.
- In a podcast.
- In a podcast transcribed in a post.
- In a video.
- In a video transcribed in a post.
- In a social media post.
- In a LinkedIn article.
- In a recorded masterclass.
- In a downloadable ebook.
- In a live webinar.
- In a newsletter.
- …
All the communication channels that you use to talk to your audience can be good candidates to transmit quality content.
My 8 Tips for Creating Quality Content
He said that we can take quality content as such depending on the effect it causes, rather than how it is written, recorded, or layout.
I am going to dive a little deeper into this idea and I am going to give you eight particular suggestions for the next time you are going to generate your own content.
1. Contribute Something to Your Buyer Persona
It is the main idea that you should focus on: quality content should bring something to your Buyer Persona.
Is your neighbor from the room your buyer persona?
And your cousin from Darbhanga?
And the ex-work colleague?
And your couple?
If the answer to the above questions is no, take them all out of the equation and forget about them.
Think only of those people who unequivocally represent that Buyer Persona profile you created at the time.
You generate your content for them, who are the ones that – presumably – will help you pay your bills.
Well, when you create your content, keep in mind the idea that yes or yes, it must add something of value to that Buyer Persona and to your potential client.
Think about how you come to consume that content, in what state, knowing what things, and then think about the transformation you will undergo when you consume it.
If that transformation is not going to happen, change your mind and think about something else because you will be getting dangerously close to the “create for the sake of creating” that I said at the beginning.
2. Align the Content with the Objectives of Your Business
Let’s see if thinking so much about the consumer of the content we are going to forget about the side effect.
Secondary, because the main effect is that transformation of the recipient, who could later, why not, become our client.
And that effect, however secondary it may be, is what makes the difference.
It is the reason that we invest hours in preparing our content.
If we do not have a return in the short, medium, or long term, no matter how much our Buyer Persona likes our content, it will not be of quality.
Let us not forget: nobody gives anything away on the Internet.
When you see something “free”, that there is, it is that an apparently hidden but existing objective is being pursued: your lead, your phone number, your mere perception of that brand, or your visit to a landing page to then crunch into remarketing.
3. Provide Examples
For me, if the two previous points are met, we could already be saying that content, whatever its format, is of quality.
Now we enter a more subjective part, which has more to do with what, than with the effects it causes and helps to fulfill the first two points.
We start with examples.
Don’t tell me that there is something better than seeing brutal content and that in the end it is complemented by real examples.
Boom!
I love them, I think it’s the best way to generate content that my audience likes, so I expect the same in the content I consume.
4. Provide Real Data and Statistics
Include study data with its corresponding link for which you want to verify and thus give “weight” to your content.
A piece of content that puts the consumer in context with real numbers or data, whether absolute or relative, has much more chance to like it than one that is based on mere assumptions.
5. Provide Personalized Audiovisual Elements
With the arrival of video into our lives a couple of years ago, we confirmed that the audiovisual, in general, suits us.
We no longer contemplate consuming written content if there is nothing breaking the monotony of the text, in the same way, that it is very difficult for us to watch a video with someone talking non-stop or listen to a 50-minute podcast with the same monotonous voice.
We do not like to get bored, and if we are not stimulated we get bored very quickly.
To avoid this, we all resort to the same thing: images or videos in blogs, presentations, emails, or ebooks, sound effects in audio communications, visual effects in videos, and so on.
Hey, that’s not bad, huh?
But if we want to make sure we don’t cause a bad impression due to lack of originality – read between the lines: “another with the same image; they must all use the same photo bank»–, it is time to innovate.
How can we innovate if we don’t have our own database?
Creativity to power!
I would love to be a designer to answer you with more reason, but I am one of those who uses a bank of paid images and little else.
The “much more” is to take the same images or videos and put a wiggle in them.
Change things up, add elements to make them look different, and mix and match.
In short, put on your artist overalls and get, from elements and materials that everyone has, something that only you have.
Look, for example, how they do it in this travel agency:
Some nice drawn flip-flops have been worked on, they have added two little graphic details and that’s it: they already make a difference in their sector.
6. Provide Relevant Resources
Quality content provides, when necessary, the necessary resources and tools to better understand/apply what is being transmitted.
For example: a post that talks openly about Ahrefs’s features and doesn’t link to the tool even once makes no sense.
And it makes all the sense in the world that a video in which you are sharing a screen and explaining graphically how ActiveCampaign works inside includes a link to a post that supports writing the information given in that video.
The easier we make it for the content consumer, the better.
7. It makes it Easier for the Consumer to Delve into the Subject
As much as our content is of quality, we cannot assume that the user will have enough of it.
We have to make it easier for them to investigate more about the topic that you are communicating.
The best way is to do it at the end of the content: if you have consumed it in its entirety, it is a strong candidate to continue looking, so links or oral references cannot be missing there.
The relevant resources that I have told you about could also be included in this section, as well as the sources that you have used for inspiration, in case you have done so.
Plus, it’s a great way to say thank you.
8. Make it Easy to Consume
I end the suggestions with a no-brainer before moving on to the examples: quality content is often easy to consume.
I say usually because of course, as long as the first two points are fulfilled, everything else would not matter, but if this point is not given, then it will be difficult.
No matter how interesting your content is:
- Who watches a 10-minute video at a resolution so bad it looks like a LEGO movie?
- Who listens to a 15-minute podcast with an annoying little noise in the background? And you don’t have to have an OCD for it.
- Who reads a post written in yellow letters on a green background?
Nobody, nobody, and nobody.
Make sure your content is easy to consume, in every way, not just the mentioned ones.
For example, if it is a written document:
- Structure the information well, in a way that allows quick scanning.
- Separate the paragraphs well, leaving enough space.
- Format with bold, italics, and underlining when you deem appropriate.
- Alternate lists with paragraphs.
- Includes visually recognizable headers.
- …
By doing all this, you will improve the experience of your Buyer Persona, who will be a little closer to undergoing the transformation that we mentioned.
And you will help it end up giving you what you wanted when you started to create your content.
Conclusions About Quality Content
There is no doubt that there are aspects that are still subjective, but others are irrefutable: content is of quality when it contributes in both directions.
That is, both the consumer of the content and the producer of the same have to achieve something in the short, medium, or long term.
The rest that we have seen helps to make that happen.
Creating quality content is not complicated; You just have to dedicate, like everything in life, a little time and attention.
Thanks for Reading.
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