IIn an attempt to minimize costs while maximizing output, many content marketers over the years have fallen into a common trap: “me first” content that takes an assembly-line approach and offers little to no real value. Updates from Google have played a big role in pushing aside subpar content, but that hasn’t stopped people from creating more fluff every day.
Content isn’t something that you can crank out without thought or strategy; you’ll end up sacrificing quality for volume. When your quality drops, your content will quickly become outdated, and you’ll lose the interest of your audience. Short posts churned out in rapid-fire style might make you feel productive, but they’ll leave your readers wanting more substance.
Consider these four ways to ensure that your content is valuable, up-to-date, and high-quality.
There’s no substitute for continual research. Whether you’re trying to choose a topic for your next post or come up with a keyword strategy, the best way to start is focusing on the topics that interest your audience the most. Some marketers create buyer personas to help them plan their content strategy. While these can be extremely helpful, they can also quickly become outdated. Ongoing research can help you keep up with your changing audience. Listen to what they talk about online, create surveys, review frequently asked questions, and pay attention to the content that they share the most.
The type of content that you’re publishing matters as much as your topics. What worked last year–or three months ago–might not hold the attention of your readers today. In addition to conducting audience research, you should stay up-to-date on content marketing trends to ensure that you don’t produce content that no longer interests your audience. Trends can change quickly, so don’t let yourself get complacent.
One major reason trends shift constantly is that technology is quickly advancing. Changes in the ways people access content, the available platforms for content, content formats, and content development are some of the areas in which technology drives changes in content marketing trends. One strong recent trend that appears to have staying power is interactive content such as specialty calculators. These tech-driven features give your audience more information, more engagement, and more of a personal experience with your content.
You may have created some content that you perceive to be valuable, but that doesn’t necessarily mean your audience will agree with you. Even when your topic is on point and your content aligns with your audience’s interests and needs, it won’t be well-received if it’s no better than what everyone else is publishing. This insight represents one of the main problems with cookie-cutter content: your readers will become bored with it easily and turn elsewhere to find the real, personally relevant information they want.
If you don’t want to become outdated, then you have to strive to become the go-to resource in your market. Aim to publish content that’s well-researched, unique, comprehensive, highly readable, and jam-packed with relevant information to keep your audience interested and your content relevant.