You have heard this many times – when you create content, the goal is to educate, entertain or inspire. The entertainment part can be fun for both you and the reader/viewer; the inspirational part can be rewarding. The educational part? This is the demanding leg of this triangle, and it takes work. Lots of work.
Content writers who do a good job of educating become respected influencers in their niches. They become people that others trust. They become people that others go to for honesty and accuracy.
So, if you are in the business of creating content, building that trustworthy voice and loyal following will demand that you heed the rules – and there are 10 of them as I see it.
Do Your Research
No one is expected to know everything about a subject/topic, not even someone who is considered an expert. If you don’t have all of the information you need to present a topic completely and accurately, then do the research. And part of that research is using sources that are trustworthy.
If, for example, you happen to be writing on the topic of servant leadership and you only have a very basic idea of what it is, then you owe it to your readers to become an expert before you ever put a finger on a key. If you try to “bluff” your way through an article on the topic, you will fail. And anyone reading your article will walk away disappointed, probably never to return again. Do the research, make yourself an expert, and write an article that gives readers solid information.
Cite Your Sources
You know how to do this. When you were in school and wrote research papers, you had to cite sources of information. The same goes now, except you do it through links instead. What you write has credibility when you can point to recognized experts specifically. There is a huge difference between saying, “Studies show that…,” with links to those studies. Now you become a trusted source of information.
Honor Your Readers’ Level of Understanding
You are writing and others are reading what you write because you know more than they do. This means that you write at their level, not at a level that makes you look so smart. Lose the jargon, industry terminology, and long, complex sentences with a big vocabulary. Your job is to present content in an easy-to understand way, and you need to develop the communication skills that will allow you to do this. Pretend you are writing for your 13-year old nephew – your readers will thank you and will trust that you understand their needs.
Create Content For Free
It is tempting for content marketers to gate much of what they produce. After all, this is how an email list develops and grows. But if you consistently want something in return for the information you are providing, readers will come to believe that you are not interested in them and their problems, but, rather, sales and profit. That approach will not work in the consumer-driven e-commerce climate of today. And if they provide an email address reluctantly? They’ll just spam the first email that comes in.
Reader Personas
If you have not developed a very specific and detailed persona of your target audience, then you cannot possibly know its pain points and the solutions it needs that you can provide. Your targets may access your content a few times but will not find what they need and will simply go elsewhere. When you can speak to their pain, you will gain trust.
No comments:
Post a Comment