How To Create Content That Compels

Creating content nowadays is easy enough to do, whether it's written, visual or audio - we have so many tools at our disposal. But creating content that compels the viewers/readers to engage and take action? That's a whole different game. At the same time, as a business or marketer, creating content just for the sake of it simply doesn't cut it.

After all, you're spending all this time creating content, so you need it to get you results, not just something to populate your website or your social media.

So how do you create content that gets your audience to take action? What are your secrets to great content?

In this guide, find out how to create content that compels, in order to generate more engagement, more leads and more sales for your business.

Why Do You Need Content?

When you create high-quality content that compels your audience to take action, you can get amazing results for your business - and reach almost any type of marketing objectives:

Brand awareness - for a small company, for example, achieving brand awareness is crucial. First of all, you have to let customers know you exist, make your company visible to them and try to get their attention. How to do this? Through great content, obviously: publish quality content on your website and social media platforms and start guest posting on blogs in your niche.

Lead generation - by offering value to your audience, you get leads in return. Of course, it's a bit more complicated than that; but, by leveraging content marketing lead generation tactics, you can considerably boost your number of leads. For example, great content gives people a reason to subscribe and give away their contact information.

Thought leadership - great content leads to value and thought leadership. If you create and publish trustworthy information related to your industry that is needed by the target audience, then you could start to be considered an authority in your field and thought leadership status.

This is a strategy that has worked for numerous companies.

Traffic: another big reason to love content? More traffic to your account and, what's more, when you give people good content on your social media account, you also give them reason to stick around on your page for longer. And maybe later on, even convert.

Having said, in order to achieve these results, you need compelling content first.

Here is what you need to keep in mind in order to create content that compels:

1. Write for your audience

You already know who forms your target audience: the people or the businesses that would need your products or services.

And if you're creating content already, then you're probably keeping them in mind so that you can cover topics that are relevant to them and to their industry.

In order to create content for your target audience, you need to:

Create buyer personas

Perform keyword research: put yourself in your audiences shoes and think of the keywords they might use that could lead them to your business.

Basically, the idea is to create content that your audience actually wants, discussing the topics they want to learn more about using the formats that they want(videos, blog posts, podcasts, etc).

2. Offer something new

There's a lot of content out there - it doesn't even matter what niche or industry you're in, chances are it's overflowing with content on any topic you can think of.

So if you want to compel your readers/viewers etc you need to offer them something new and unique. Something that makes your content stand out so that your audience sits up and takes notice.

But that's easier said than done: precisely because there is so much content out there, it can seem impossible to come up with something new and original.

And of course, you can't make each and every piece of content you create a work of art. But what you can do is make your content better than others.

You can give it a unique spin that's all you. And you can come up with new and interesting angles that others might not have thought about before. Most importantly though, focus on being better than your competitors.

3. It's all in the headline

There's no denying the power of a strong headline. Most often than not, it's how we all make the decision to read a piece of content, watch a video or open an email.

If the title isn't compelling enough, it will be difficult to get people to check out your content.

4. Do your research

As I mentioned earlier, the quality of your content is extremely important. But in order to deliver great content, you need to do your research first.

In other words, you need to:

Find out what your audience really wants to see/read/hear etc and what topics are truly relevant to them.

Research the content in your niche: in order to create amazing content, you need to first see what other content is being shared in your niche and understand what makes the most popular posts so popular - you can use a tool like Buzzsumo or Social Animal to help - and of course, there's always google: just look up your keywords and check out the first results.

Research your topic: this depends on the type of content you're creating; but, if you're offering any kind of information to your audience, then you should perform as much research as possible on the topic. This will make for better, more compelling content and it will show your audience that you're very knowledgeable.

Ensure you're using the right information: make sure any claims you make are backed up by real data and that you have a credible source - misinforming your audience or directing them to a poor website can damage the trust they have in you(or starting to have!)

5. What is the reader/viewer getting out off this? Make your content actionable

Why are you reading this guide? I'm going to go ahead and assume it's because you want truly actionable tips to help you create compelling content.

And hopefully, it's delivering.

My promise from the start was to show you what you need to do in order to create content that works so that when you've finished reading, you know what to do next:

What types of headlines to write

What types of visuals you should use to offer more value

How to make your content readable etc.

The goal was to give you actionable tips that you can take - and actually use. After-all, what better way to capture your audiences attention than to give them something truly useful? So whenever you think of a new topic, ask yourself this: what can your audience take out of this and use for themselves.

6. There's always room for improvement:

Take the time to regularly update your content and see some great results.

Improve your content: sometimes, it's simply a question of improving your content. After-all, the more content you produce, the better you get at it - so look back at your earlier content to see how you can improve it.

Conclusion

Creating content that compels isn't easy, especially now when there is so much amazing content being shared left and right. But by following these tips and guidelines, you can considerably improve your content and boost your results from it.

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