How to design distinctive content
Copywriters nowadays are increasingly turned into content marketers, creating distinctive content for clients who want to inform their target audience with something grabbing. There is a growing need for good, relevant content. Content that informs, entertains, meets a need and is open to input from others. The time of the unilateral push advertising seems finally over.
Good content starts with good listening, learning and interpreting. And then of course responding. At the right time, through various channels and through content that meets the needs of your target audience. That way you get content that is valuable and people who want to share with others. A few tips from this copywriter:
1 Step into the shoes of your customer / audience. Try to understand him of her. In particular through social media you can try to figure out what information, products or services, he (or she) needs. But what drives him, how he thinks, how you can help him, how you can reach him best etc.
2 Create customized content. Consider your audience and the medium on which you distribute content and provide good timing. There are many ways to get in touch with your target audience: a traditional brochure or web page, but also LinkedIn profile might do the trick, YouTube videos, online games, tweets, e-zines, white papers, blog posts, or mobile app’s, all these are excellent ways to create customized content.
3 Make sure that your content fits together and strengthens each other.
4 Good content is educational, entertaining, amusing, relevant, honest, and provides for a specific need. Don’t be a gray mouse. Dare to be different from your competitors. Create strong content even if you are a SME business, try to offer content with a soul and a personality.
5 Take care of content that is interesting to your audience and remember just how content can best be found through search engines and the like. You don’t have to be a SEO goeroe, but you might want to check the latest trends regarding search.
6 Good content design is not always easy. A few tips for inspiration:
- provide information on key developments and trends in your industry
- write about a particular problem of your target audience is, and offer practical solutions
- Create a list of helpful tips about a product, service or relevant subject
- Give your opinion or analysis about a particular topic, product, interesting development etc.
- Make a video where you explain how a product or service works or interview a happy customer
- Hold a survey among your visitors and write an article about the results
- Provide links / tips where people can find good information about a specific topic
- Answer common questions your readers might have and ask other readers to contribute to a discussion
- Go out looking for partners (suppliers, organizations) and exchange content with eachother.
7 People do not read entire web texts but first zapp through a text to determine if it’s interesting. So be sure you are offer concise and scannable text, so:
- write as concisely as possible
- Create short sentences and paragraphs
- Make clear (informational and motivational) titles and headers
- Put the most important information at the top
- Ensure that important things stand out. For example, by color, words bold or italic, using hyperlinks, bullets, and the like bullits
- Difficult words are a nono,, try to explain something complicated by using simple words
8 Create a stash of content, so that it regularly with new things that are interesting to your target audience.
9 Reuse good content. Gather your best example read / viewed content and create an e-zine or newsletter using your best content.
10 Before people buy a service or product, they usually use the web to inform themselves. Therefore invest in interesting educational content. Quality educational content ensures a good name and reputation. And in addition might result in higher Google Page Ranking.