It’s no secret that content is the lifeblood of every business. Content needs to be created, curated, and shared to reach your target audience. Whether it’s blog posts, images, or videos – all this content has to be compelling enough to attract your customers.
For example, if you’re an SEO company working on a blog post about SEO tips;
Then you need to make them as relevant as possible so that they can attract those who are looking for some guidance on how best to optimize their websites to attract more visitors from search engines
In this article we will go through 32 tips (yes, 32!) for creating compelling content for your website visitors:
| Takeaways |
|---|
| 1. Understand your target audience’s needs and preferences to create content that resonates with them. |
| 2. Focus on providing value and solving problems through your content to attract and engage potential customers. |
| 3. Incorporate relevant keywords and optimize your content for search engines to improve its discoverability. |
| 4. Use a variety of formats such as blog posts, videos, infographics, and podcasts to cater to different audience preferences. |
| 5. Maintain a consistent content schedule to keep your audience engaged and coming back for more. |
| 6. Leverage storytelling techniques to make your content more relatable and memorable. |
| 7. Promote your content through social media, email marketing, and other distribution channels to reach a wider audience. |
| 8. Monitor and analyze the performance of your content to refine your strategies and achieve better results over time. |
Make It Evergreen
Give your content long shelf life.
Avoid outdated facts and figures. While it’s important to be informed about today’s news, you should avoid using any information that is more than two weeks old, as it will be far too dated for most people.
The same goes for references: if the article was written in 2015, don’t reference an event that happened this year!
This can also be applied to opinions; if an opinion has been expressed by someone else recently and you share it, your piece feels outdated and out of touch (even if your own opinion might be different).
Use long-tail keywords to narrow down your audience. It may seem counterintuitive at first but when writing content intended to appeal broadly within an industry or niche market.
Try narrowing down who exactly you’re speaking to by using specific details rather than broad generalizations (e.g., “content writing tips” rather than just “tips”).
Doing so will help ensure that anyone searching for those specifics will find what they’re looking for instantly on any search engine page where they land and then hopefully come back again after reading some of those great tips!
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Don’t Be Boring
As a writer, your job is to entertain and engage your audience. Do not bore them.
Your content should be engaging and easy to read. If you find yourself struggling with the thought of writing something because it’s so boring, then it probably needs some work before going live.
There are two things I see all too often: 1) content that is too technical/wordy/complex for its audience; 2) content that’s too basic or simple for its audience.
Both can be fixed by focusing on who your target reader is who do you want to read this? Why do they need it? How do we make sure they understand what we’re talking about?
Never Forget The CTA (Call To Action)
In the content, you have to make sure that you have a clear and concise call to action. You need to be sure that this is different from the rest of your content so it’s easy for people to find.
It should be relevant to your topic, easy to understand, and easy for them to take action on.
Find The Unique Angle
As the title of this section implies, the goal is to find a unique angle. It’s not enough to just write content and hope that it will be successful.
You need to find a way to make your content different from all of the other writers out there, or at least better than what your competitors are doing.
If you can’t think of a single way that you can add value for your customer through writing (as an inbound marketer) then consider this: do you want to be like everyone else? Would it be worth it if no one knew who they were? I didn’t think so!
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Know What Your Customers Want
As an inbound marketer, one of your most important tasks is to know what your customers want. If you don’t know what they want, how can you give it to them? This can be challenging because it requires that you understand their mindset and motivations.
The best way to do this is by asking questions. You can ask them directly or indirectly through surveys or interviews with other people who are like-minded to your target audience (e.g., if they’re B2C then ask friends or colleagues).
Knowing their wants, needs, and desires as well as dislikes and fears will help you craft content that resonates with them better than any other channel available today!
Avoid Using Too Many Buzzwords
Buzzwords are great for making your content more readable, but only when used in the right context.
Here are some rules to follow when selecting buzzwords:
Avoid using too many buzzwords. As with anything else, too much of something can be a bad thing. The key is moderation if you use too many buzzwords, it will become difficult for readers to understand what you’re trying to say.
If possible, always use the same word or words instead of just one overused term. For example, instead of saying “inbound marketing” throughout your piece on how it’s changing digital marketing forever (and beyond), try using something like “boundless and effective marketing.”
This way readers get the gist without having their eyeballs assaulted by an overwhelming amount of jargon!
Learn Visual Storytelling
Visual storytelling is an important part of content creation. Images can be used in many different ways to add context, personality, and emotion to your business’s story. Here are some ideas:
Use images to break up the text, images help keep the reader engaged with your content. By using an image at each point in your narrative that you want a pause, it keeps the reader focused on what’s being said while also giving them something visually interesting to look at.
Use images to add perspective, use photos from inside your office or from events you have hosted so that readers can see how your business operates or who uses it.
This helps create a connection between what you do for work and its impact on others outside of work hours (if applicable).
Use images as call-to-action buttons! They make great social media posts and blog article headlines because they catch people’s attention right away!
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Learn How To Differentiate Copy From Content
Copywriting is different from content writing. Content is typically long-form, purposeful, and informational. Copywriting is briefer and more sales-focused than content; it’s about getting your audience to take action, whether that be clicking on an ad or buying your product.
Copywriters know that for their “copy” (or words) to be effective at creating a connection with their audience, they must write the emotionally compelling text that resonates with their target customer base and gets them excited about what you have to offer them.
Be Grammatical And Punctual. Always
Use a spell checker. It’s hard to believe, but many people misspell words and use grammatically incorrect sentences without even realizing it.
There are plenty of free tools on the Internet that will catch most grammar mistakes and typos. If you have an editor in-house, ask them to help you proofread your content before publication.
Use a grammar checker, and be original with your ideas! To write content that attracts readers, you can’t just regurgitate ideas from other sources or copy/paste text from another source without giving proper attribution (and credit) where it’s due i.e., do not plagiarize!
This applies whether you’re writing blog posts or creating web pages for your company website:
Give proper attribution to the original author for any content you quote either by using quotation marks (for direct quotes), block quotes (if there’s more than one paragraph), footnotes or endnotes (for longer passages).
Create Content For Where Your Audience Is, Not For Where You Want Them To Be
One of the biggest mistakes marketers make is trying to create content for where they think their audience should be, rather than where they are.
If you’re not listening to your audience and finding out what they want and need, you’re going to have a hard time connecting with them. So how do you find out where your audience is?
The first step is knowing who your target market is and what kind of people are going to be interested in what you offer?
Next, create an idea of what kind of information these people would find useful or interesting (you can also take this opportunity to write down some ideas for blog posts).
Then look at social media platforms like Facebook Groups or LinkedIn Groups as well as forums related specifically to that topic area; see if there are other communities online where potential customers might congregate (and join them!).
Once you know where your ideal customers hang out online and how best to reach them, it’s important not just creating great content but also making sure it’s easily accessible so those who could benefit from it can see it! This means making sure links go directly back into relevant parts
Use Seo Keywords Naturally. Not In A Way That Feels Forced And Awkward
SEO SEO SEO!
It’s the most talked about topic in digital marketing, and a very important part of your content strategy. But you don’t want to force your keywords into each piece of content like they’re some sort of disease that needs to be eradicated.
Keywords are words and phrases that people use to search for information on Google, Bing, and other search engines like them.
When you use these keywords naturally, without trying too hard, it helps your readers find what they need faster – which is exactly what Google wants too (they want their users searching for things).
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Be Concise And Clear
This should be a no-brainer, but it’s amazing how many people don’t get this one. You want your content to be clear and concise, not too wordy or complicated.
You’ve got a limited amount of time to grab the reader’s attention, so you don’t want them to have to do a lot of mental gymnastics when they’re trying to understand what you’re saying.
You also don’t want them zoning out because there are too many words on the page for their brain to process quickly enough!
It’s always best if you can keep your sentences short and sweet you want them easy for anyone in any situation (even someone who isn’t familiar with all the jargon)to understand clearly what point you’re trying to make!
It may take some practice at first but once you get used to being concise (and thinking about how much information needs to be conveyed), this will become second nature!
Find Your Voice And Tone And Stick To It
Your tone and voice are the base of your brand and how you want to be perceived by your audience. It can also be a hindrance if it’s not consistent throughout all content.
TIP: Make sure that when you are writing, what you write sounds like something you would say to someone in person. If it doesn’t sound like something you would say in person, then try again until it does!
TIP: Don’t be afraid to be bold or funny or controversial. Not every piece of content needs to be serious, so don’t feel obligated that if something isn’t serious then it shouldn’t exist.
An article about “How To Not Be Afraid Of Death” wouldn’t normally fit into an Inbound Marketing Playbook but I wrote one anyway because I thought it was important advice for people who have fears about death (which is pretty much everyone).
Keep Learning. Keep Updating Yourself On Best Practices In The Industry
You should also keep learning. The best in the industry are always updating themselves on new trends and best practices, and they’re happy to share their knowledge with you.
If you want to be as successful as possible with your content marketing efforts, you must learn from the experts who have gone before you.
Here are some ways I’ve found helpful for staying up-to-date:
Read other content creators’ work; absorb the lessons they teach with their articles, videos, or podcasts (and then go out and apply them!)
Keep learning from your mistakes – nothing teaches like experience! Everyone makes mistakes; we just hope ours aren’t too public 🙂
Learn from others’ mistakes by reading about what went wrong for others so that it won’t happen again to us!
Think Of Long-Tail Keywords. E.g., ‘best Content Writing Tips’ Is Better Than Simply ‘content Tip
One of the most important ways to make your content more effective for search engines is by including long-tail keywords. Long-tail keywords are more specific and can be used to target a specific audience. For example, ‘best content writing tips’ is better than simply ‘content tips.’
You should use long-tail keywords but don’t overdo it! This will sound insincere and unnatural. Use your keyword as naturally as possible and try not to sound like a robot with every sentence having its separate keyword.
Also, don’t forget that you want people to read your article too! Your readers are looking for useful information and not just some fun facts about what they’re searching for without any real context or explanation behind it all (unless they’re really into etymology).
Make Your Content Understandable To A 12-Year-Old
This is an important tip that many marketers miss, or don’t even know they are doing.
If you write like a 12-year-old, you will be understood by a 12-year-old. This doesn’t mean that every article needs to be written at the level of a child – but if it is hard to understand what you are saying, your readers will get bored and leave your site.
In my opinion, this is one of the most important aspects of writing for inbound marketing: if your content isn’t easy to read then there is no point doing it because no one will read it!
Do Not Forget To Include Metadata, Which Brings Us To Our Next Point
With all the talk about SEO, it’s easy to forget that metadata is a must-have for any webpage. Metadata is what search engines use to index your content, which means that if you don’t include it with your content then there’s no way for people to find you in search results.
Metadata is also used by social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter to show users relevant content from pages they follow.
So if you don’t include metadata then it won’t be possible for these websites’ algorithms to determine what type of posts are most relevant for each user (and thus they can’t show them).
Email marketing platforms rely on metadata as well this is one reason why it’s important: when someone clicks on a link within an email newsletter (whether or not they end up buying anything), this action provides valuable data regarding their preferences and interests:
Having access to this information allows companies sending emails via MailChimp or Constant Contact (etc) to know exactly which type of message might be most effective at engaging recipients so they can customize future messages accordingly!
Use Short URLs – Shorter URLs Are More Attractive And Memorable Than Longer Ones Are
When it comes to writing effective content, one of the best ways to keep readers engaged is to keep things short and sweet. Short URLs are more attractive and memorable than longer ones are;
They’re easier to share (and therefore more likely for people to read), less prone to typos, and less likely to be flagged for spam or security issues by search engines.
You might think a longer URL would get more attention from search engines, after all, it’s got more words in it!
But Google only shows about 50-60 characters at most when displaying a link in SERPs. So if your URL is too long, it can get truncated due to space constraints on their end which means that those extra words won’t even be seen by anyone who finds your page through SEO results!
Inbound marketing thrives on meaningful conversations. Discover more about this approach in our post: Inbound Marketing Is About Conversations, Not Buzzwords. Explore how genuine interactions drive engagement and build lasting relationships with customers.
Conclusion
The tips mentioned above will help you create more effective content for your audience. If you are looking to write better inbound marketing content, then these tips will help you out.
Further Reading
Explore more about content creation and inbound marketing with these valuable resources:
Content Creation Guide: HubSpot’s comprehensive guide to crafting compelling and engaging content that resonates with your target audience.Learn the best practices, tips, and techniques for producing high-quality content that drives traffic and engagement.
Mastering Content Strategy for Inbound Marketing: Rock Content’s in-depth article on creating an effective content strategy tailored for inbound marketing campaigns.Discover how to align your content efforts with inbound strategies to attract, convert, and delight customers.
Inbound Marketing Strategy Tips: Brand24’s blog post offering valuable insights into optimizing your inbound marketing strategy for maximum impact.Learn actionable tips and tricks to enhance your inbound marketing approach and achieve better results.
FAQs
What is the significance of content creation in inbound marketing?
Content creation plays a pivotal role in inbound marketing by providing valuable information to potential customers, establishing authority, and driving organic traffic to your website.
How does a well-defined content strategy enhance inbound marketing efforts?
A well-defined content strategy ensures that the content you create aligns with your target audience’s needs and preferences, increasing the chances of attracting, engaging, and converting leads.
What are some essential components of an effective inbound marketing strategy?
An effective inbound marketing strategy typically includes identifying your target audience, creating valuable content, optimizing for search engines, leveraging social media, and nurturing leads through personalized interactions.
How does inbound marketing differ from traditional outbound marketing?
Inbound marketing focuses on attracting and engaging customers through valuable content and personalized interactions, while outbound marketing relies on interruptive tactics like advertisements to reach a wider audience.
How can I measure the success of my inbound marketing efforts?
Measuring inbound marketing success involves tracking metrics such as website traffic, conversion rates, lead generation, engagement levels, and customer retention to assess the impact of your strategies.
Costantine Edward is a digital marketing expert, freelance writer, and entrepreneur who helps people attain financial freedom. I’ve been working in marketing since I was 18 years old and have managed to build a successful career doing what I love.
