How to Create Valuable Content

Do you want to be the website that readers feel lucky to find? Create valuable content that makes one’s day better just by reading it. In other words, don’t write a bunch of fluff. Provide information so useful and interesting they can’t wait for the next one.

The most successful way to content creation is the author’s dedication to satisfy the readers.

When you focus on creating valuable content, you’ll be able to achieve amazing things for your business. It will help you attract more customers, increase sales, and position yourself as an authority in your industry.

What makes content valuable? How to create it? How do you measure its value?

You’ll find answers here. Read on.

Key Takeaways

• Valuable content is essential for attracting and satisfying readers. It should be informative, interesting, and well-written, satisfying search intent and enhancing user experience.
• Focus on addressing audience needs and wants creatively. Go beyond basics, provide comprehensive information, and keep content interesting through personalization and visual appeal.
• Evaluate content performance through metrics like reach, frequency, and engagement. Continuously update and improve content over time. Promote content effectively to increase its visibility and engagement.

What is Valuable Content?

Valid and valuable content is useful, accurate, truthful, and informative. It is interesting and improves the user experience. Valuable content is also well-written, consistent, attention-grabbing, beneficial, persuasive, and shareable.

The overall goal is to satisfy the search intent that leads to website ranking in search engines.

How to Create Valuable and Compelling Content?

The number one rule for creating valuable content for your audience is to ensure you’re addressing their needs and wants. Figure out what they’re looking for, then deliver creatively.

Remember that different people will have different perspectives, so cater to as many different types of learners as possible.

Aside from that, you must:

Go Above and Beyond the Basics

It is something that I’m constantly reminded of, especially when it comes to creating relevant content.

When you’re starting, it’s crucial to establish yourself as an authority on the basics. However, once you’ve built up a following, you must provide more than just the basics.

Your audience already knows the basics; they need you to give them more. That means going beyond the surface and providing insights and perspectives they can’t find anywhere else.

Don’t disappoint them with fluff or filler. Give them the good stuff. The stuff that will help them achieve their goals. The stuff that they need to know to be successful. That’s what they want to find when they visit your site or blog. So give it to them.

With that in mind, here are a few ways to create content that is so much more than the basics:

• Go deep instead of wide.
• Share your unique perspective.
• Be vulnerable and authentic.
• Get personal and share your story.
• Go above and beyond to provide value.

Be Comprehensive

Being comprehensive means covering all the bases and providing your audience with everything they need to know about a topic. You may be tempted to cut corners and only include the bare essentials, but this will ultimately leave your audience unsatisfied.

There’s no room for half-measures when creating good content – if you want to succeed, you must go all out. Give them the whole picture. Include all the relevant details and make sure your arguments are airtight.

Keep It Interesting

Boring content will quickly lose your audience’s attention, so add some personality and flair.

You have to find ways to keep your content interesting, whether by adding new perspectives, bringing in new experts, or simply looking at old topics in new ways. Use humor, stories, and real-world examples to illustrate your points.

Here are five tips:

1. Write about what interests your audience and be interested in it. It’s hard to make others interested in something if you’re not interested in it yourself. Make your reader’s needs your own. Make these topics fascinate you until you can’t stop thinking about them.
2. Be curious. Follow your curiosity and see where it leads you. The more curious you are, the more interesting your writing will be.
3. Get personal. Share your own experiences and stories. We all share unique perspectives and experiences, so don’t be afraid to get personal in your writing.
4. Be challenging. Ask tough questions and push boundaries. Challenging ideas are often the most interesting ones.
5. Be yourself. Ultimately, being yourself is the best way to keep your content interesting. Write in your voice and share your thoughts and feelings. That’s what makes us all unique, and that’s what makes us all interesting.

Make It Visually Appealing

People often ask me how to make content so visually appealing. The answer is simple: focus on delivering value first and then worry about the packaging second.

That doesn’t mean that the packaging isn’t important–far from it. After all, you wouldn’t want to package up a filet mignon in a plastic bag, would you? But if you start with great content, you’ll have a much easier time making it look good.

Here are a few tips for creating visually appealing content:

• Use high-quality images

Blurry or low-resolution photos will make your content look unprofessional. Make sure to use high-quality images that are clear and interesting.

• Use infographics

People love infographics because they’re easy to understand and visually appealing. If you have complex information to communicate, consider using an infographic.

• Use videos

Videos are extremely popular now, so incorporating them into your content can help you reach a wider audience. Just make sure that your videos are well-produced and add value to your content.

• Make it easy to consume

Short paragraphs, bullet points, and headlines make your content much easier to consume. No one wants to read a wall of text, so make sure your content is easy to scan and understand.

• Use strong visuals to break up the text and add interest.

Including visuals in your content is a great way to break up the text and add interest. Again, remember to use high-quality and relevant visuals for your topic.

Pay Attention to SEO

In any content you’re creating – a blog post, an article, or even a podcast episode – you must pay attention to SEO (search engine optimization).

Your potential customer may never find your content without SEO. To maximize the reach of your content, it is important to optimize your website and blog posts for search engines.

In the past, keyword stuffing and other black hat techniques could be used to game the system and achieve high rankings in search engines. However, today’s algorithms are much more sophisticated and can penalize sites that engage in such practices.

One major step in search engine optimization is including relevant keywords throughout your text. However, don’t overdo it – too many keywords will trigger a red flag for search engines.

How to do successful keyword research?

1. Do your research before you start creating content. It will help you ensure that you’re targeting the right keywords and writing content that will interest your target audience.
2. Use various tools to help you find keywords relevant to your business. Free tools like Google Analytics, Google AdWords Keyword Planner, and Ubersuggest are a good place to start. Google trends is also a valuable resource that can help you understand which keywords are being searched for most often. There are also paid tools like SEMrush and Ahrefs that can provide more in-depth keyword data.
3. Once you’ve identified a few potential keywords, look at the search results to see what kind of content is already out there. You want to ensure that your content is different (and better!) than what’s already out there.
4. If you can’t find any good keywords, try looking at your competitors’ websites and see what keywords they are targeting.

Promote Your Content

Content amplification is necessary for virtual marketing, content development, or inbound marketing strategy. If you don’t actively promote your content, no one will find it and other websites may steal it and pass it off as their own. Promoting your content helps increase brand awareness and can help increase traffic to your website.

How to get your content in front of the right people?

• Identify your dream 100. These people are most likely interested in your content and/or share it with their networks. It could be a list of influencers, customers, or even people you admire.
• Once you have your list, reach out to them individually and tell them about your content. Be personal and tailored in your approach – don’t just send a generic message.
• Promote your content across social media networks. But don’t just spam people – use targeted ads and ensure you share relevant, interesting content that will capture people’s attention.
• Make it easy for people to share your content. Add social sharing buttons to your website or blog, and include a call-to-action in every piece of content you create.
• Keep creating new, fresh content regularly. It will keep people coming back for more and help you attract new readers and followers over time.

The Best Social Media Platforms for Content Marketing

When choosing the best social media platform for content marketing, there’s no easy answer. Each platform has its unique audience and features, and what works for one business might not work for another.

A few general principles can help you choose the right platform for your content operations.

• Think about where your target audience is most likely to be active. If you’re targeting millennials, Instagram and Snapchat are likely to be more effective than LinkedIn.
• Consider the kind of content you want to create. If you’re focused on visual content, platforms like Instagram and Pinterest will better suit your needs than Twitter or Facebook.
• Take advantage of each platform’s features to help you reach your goals. For example, Facebook offers powerful targeting options that can help you ensure that your content is seen by the people most likely to be interested in it.

Considering these factors, you can narrow down your options, create high-quality social media content, and choose the best platform for your content marketing efforts.

Update and Improve Your Content Over Time

Don’t just create content and then forget about it.

Over time, your content will become outdated. It’s inevitable. The best way to prevent this is to have a system for regularly updating and improving your content. That way, when something does become outdated, you can quickly update it without starting from scratch.

Here are a few ways to keep your content fresh and relevant:

1. Set aside time each week to review your content. As you review it, look for areas that could be updated or improved.
2. Make a list of topics that you want to cover in future content. As you create new content, try to incorporate these topics.
3. Pay attention to feedback from your audience. If they’re asking questions or requesting certain topics, take note and try to address their needs in future content.

We’ve gone over the best practices for ensuring you produce valuable content. Now, we’ll talk about what you should avoid doing.

5 Don’ts When Creating Valuable Content

Don’t Make It All About You

We can’t emphasize this enough. Your content should be about your audience, not about you.

Getting caught up in promoting your products or services is easy, but if you want people to read and share your content, you must focus on providing value first and foremost.

Don’t Write for the Audience You Think You Should Have

Don’t write for the “ideal” audience; write for the people who already enjoy reading your blog instead. You want to attract new readers, but your existing audience matters more.

By doing so, you will keep up the relationship you’ve already established with them and make sure they return, tugging someone along.

Here are a few tips on how to write for your existing audience:

1. Know who your existing readers are: Get to know the people who read your blog. What do they like? What don’t they like? What are their interests? The better you know your readers, the better equipped you will be to give them the content they want.
2. Create content that appeals to your readers: Once you know who your readers are, creating content that appeals to them will be a breeze. Write about the things they are interested in and avoid writing about the things that bore them.
3. Keep your promises: If you promise regular updates, stick to it. If you promised in-depth analysis, make sure each post delivers on that promise. Failing to deliver on your promises will only lead to disappointed readers who will eventually stop reading altogether.
4. Create a community: One of the best ways to keep existing readers engaged is by creating a community around your blog. You can do this by hosting regular contests or including interactive features like comments and forums on your site. Creating a sense of community will make readers feel like they are part of something special and worth sticking around for.
5. Write with sincerity: One thing all successful bloggers have in common is sincerity. When writing for your audience, each post must come from a place of genuineness. Try not to ride trends or write about things just because you think they would be popular. Stick to what will help increase the relevance of your blog.

Don’t Use Industry Jargon

When writing for a general audience, it’s important to use language everyone can understand. That means avoiding industry jargon, which can be confusing or off-putting for readers unfamiliar with the terms.

Of course, there will be times when you need to use specialized language to communicate effectively with your target audience.

But if you can, try to provide additional context or explanations so that everyone who reads your work understands what you’re saying.

It’s also important to be concise and avoid using unnecessary words. Clarity and conciseness are must-have skills for content creators. This makes it easier for readers to comprehend the information you are communicating quickly and accurately.

Don’t Be Monotonous

Monotonous content is usually the result of a lack of creativity or trying to produce too much content in too short a period. If you’re not careful, you can quickly find yourself in a content rut, pumping out boring article after article that doesn’t engage readers.

To avoid this, you must get your creative juices flowing. Here are a few things you can do:

1. Take a break from social media. Social media can be a great way to stay up-to-date on industry news and trends, but it can also be a major time suck. If you spend hours scrolling through your feed without coming up with any new ideas, it might be time to step away for a bit. Instead, try reading a book or walking outdoors for fresh air and inspiration.
2. Set some structure for yourself. If you’re the type who works best with a plan, then sit down and map out some ideas for future content pieces. Having a list of potential topics to write about will help ensure that you never find yourself staring at a blank screen again.
3. Talk to people in your industry. Oftentimes, the best ideas come from other people. If you’re struggling to come up with something new to say, reach out to your network and see what’s top of mind for them. This is also a great way to generate new leads and build relationships with other thought leaders in your field.
4. Use content curation tools. There are dozens of content curation tools available online that can help you save time by compiling relevant articles and blog posts from around the web into one place. This is a great way to stay up-to-date on industry news while getting inspiration for your writing.
5. Brain-dump everything in your head onto paper (or a Google Doc). Sometimes the hardest part of writing is getting started. Once you have something down on paper (or digitally), it’ll be much easier to edit and expand upon it until you have something worth publishing.

Don’t Sacrifice Quality for Quantity

It’s better to publish fewer pieces of high-quality content than a lot of low-quality content.

If you’re struggling with quality content ideas, try brainstorming with someone else or looking for inspiration from other sources.

Here are four tips to help ensure that your content is high-quality:

1. Pay attention to grammar and spelling. Nothing will turn off readers faster than errors in your writing. Be sure to proofread your work before publishing it.
2. Write in a clear, concise style. Get to the point and make your arguments clearly and persuasively.
3. Support your claims with evidence. When making assertions, back them up with data or other supporting information. This will make your argument more credible and convincing.
4. Choose an interesting angle. No one wants to read stale content. Try to find a fresh perspective on your topic, something that will pique your reader’s curiosity.

The last section of this post covers how you can evaluate your content’s performance, so you will know what further steps to take.

Measure the Value of a Content

How do you measure the value of a blog post or article? How do you know if it’s any good?

The three basic ways to measure the value of your content are Reach, Frequency, and Engagement.

Reach

Reach is the first way to measure the value of your content. This metric refers to the number of people who see your content.

To calculate reach, simply divide the number of unique views by the number of total views. For example, if your content is seen by 1,000 people and 875 of them are unique, your reach would be 87.5%.

Frequency

Frequency is the second way to measure the value of your content. This metric refers to the number of times each person sees your content.

To calculate frequency, divide the number of total views by the number of unique views. For example, if 1,000 people see your content and 875 are unique, your frequency would be 1.14%.

Engagement

Engagement is the third way to measure the value of your content. This metric refers to how often people interact with your content.

To calculate engagement, divide the number of interactions by the number of views. For example, if your content is seen by 1,000 people and 100 interact with it, your engagement would be 10%.

What do these metrics tell you?

• If you have a high reach but low engagement, people see your content but do not interact with it. They either find it uninteresting or don’t understand it.
• If you have a low reach but high engagement, only a small number of people see your content, but those who do see it interact with it a lot. It could be because you have a niche audience that is highly engaged with your content.
• Many people see and interact with your content if you have a high reach and engagement.

The third is the ideal scenario, meaning your content is valuable to your audience.

An example:

You have an article that gets 1,000 page views but only ten shares. It has a reach of 1,000 people but a frequency of 10. The article was not very valuable to the people who saw it because it was not shared much.

However, if the same article got 100 shares, it would reach 1,000 people and a frequency of 100. It would mean that the article was much more valuable to those who saw it because it was shared more often.

The engagement metric is also important when measuring the value of a piece of content. If an article gets 100 comments, it has a higher engagement than one with ten comments. The people who saw the article found it interesting enough to leave a comment.

A content marketing funnel is essential for any marketer who wants to generate leads and convert them into customers. By creating valuable, targeted content at each funnel stage, you can nurture prospects through their journey from awareness to purchase.

Conclusion

The most effective content marketing strategy is simple: providing free value without expecting anything in return.

You create goodwill and build trust when you give something of value away for free. People are more likely to do business with you when they know, like, and trust you. And the best way to build that trust is by providing value upfront, without asking for anything in return.

Of course, this doesn’t mean you should never ask for anything in return. If you’ve built up enough goodwill and trust, you can nurture prospects through their journey from awareness to purchase.

FAQs

Here are other questions about creating valuable content marketing that we have not discussed in the article.