If time equals money, then having a standard recipe or formula for producing your content is not only going to capture your audience and make you money, but it’s going to save you even more, right?
Wrong.
If I’ve learnt anything about copywriting and content creation, then it’s not to treat your audience – and potential audience – like fools. Why read something that is exactly the same as what came before save a different header and some different pictures? You wouldn’t do it and your audience won’t either. Not only will they not read it but they’re more likely to go somewhere else and forget about you completely. There is no shortcut here; quality pays more than quantity, and in more ways than one.
Why is quality better?
There are a number of reasons why fewer, higher quality pieces of content are the better option compared to mass produced, boring content. Google updates are getting smarter all the time, whether we like it or not, and this has caused a difference in ranking protocols and algorithms – essentially, spam and mass posting is losing power.
Social media is becoming a bigger factor in determining authority, and this is because real people share real things they like, are interested in or think others will be interested in. Flat content that’s boring has no appeal, and receives no support. Unique content that is engaging, enjoyable and informative wins here, and puts authority into not only the creator of the content, but the people sharing it.
The most important reason why quality is better, however, is because we all look for it. Mass media in the form of books, films, television shows and music can churn out as much as they want, but only the highest quality, most popular and talked about products get any traction. Yes, everyone has different opinions but there’s a pattern forming here. A film lasting a week in the cinema is unlikely to sell as well on DVD as one kept in for three months, usually.
It’s the same with your content. If you put time and effort into creating content, whether it is a blog post, an infographic, a video or anything else, it shows. It’s about how it’s presented, finding the right tone, researching the facts and situation and even sharing it to the right audience. This generates interaction and engagement, which is much better than a ten second glance. If you really want to engage and make an impression, you’ve got be able to take criticism, firstly from yourself, and then from others – after all, is the content for you or your audience? Who should you really be listening to?
Is it fit for purpose?
This is probably the biggest question to ask, and you should be asking it at every stage of content creation. From finding and creating images to writing each individual paragraph, this big question can be broken down to several more refined questions that you can judge your work on:
- Is the tone right for the audience?
- Do the headers match the content?
- Is the content relevant?
- Is the platform going to attract the right audience?
- How are people going to find the content?
- Is there any way to increase awareness and engagement?
You should be able to answer yes to all of these questions to be confident your content is fit for purpose. You can spend hours on a single piece and always find ways to improve, but as long as you have put the time, effort and research in to make it unique, enjoyable and informative, it’s going to be more successful and have better results than a standard template or recipe used somewhere else.
So, take care to really make that content awesome, and it will pay off for you each time.
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