Creating content is essential to business success in modern marketing.
People can access a pool of virtually unlimited information with a simple Google search from their smart phone.
Have you ever heard the saying “Knowledge is Power”? Well, 15-20 years ago, the age-old saying was true, knowledge was power.
Today, however, technology has turned the saying on it’s head.
Knowledge is no longer power, Sharing knowledge is power.
(Now that’s a tweetable! @MichaelRHunter)
In order to even compete in the modern marketplace, you must produce high-quality content, consistently. When people reach into their pocket and search for an answer related to your products, services, or expertise, your content should be what comes up in the search results to guide them and provide the answer they are seeking.
If you are unsure about WHY creating content is essential to your success, read this blog post on my personal site click here.
Otherwise… keep reading for my tips on how to create great content for your personal brand!
Below are the 7 tips to creating great content for your personal brand.
7 Ingredients to Creating Great Content for Your Personal Brand
1) Quality
To get your content seen, you must create high-quality content. 3-5 years ago it was enough just to create mediocre content and people would find you. Today, not only do you need to be found, but your content that’s found has to be great!
The quality of your content is far more important than the amount of content you create. It’s much better to produce one great piece of content per week, than 3 mediocre pieces of content. When building a personal brand, you only have one shot at a first impression. People don’t have time for fluff, so make sure to create great content that people can gain value from.
Unlike your term papers back in the college days, your content does not have any length requirements. Quality blog posts are usually 600-2000+ words long. Depending on the purpose of the content, will determine how long the content will be.
Don’t keep your content short, for the sake of keeping it short. Write clearly and be brief, but add as much value as possible in the shortest amount of time. Don’t be afraid to create long-form content. As I’ve always said, “Your content can never be too long, it can only be too boring.”
Not only is the quality of the content important, but also the quality of the medium is important as well. Make sure that your blog posts are formatted in a way that is easy to read and written in a way that is easy to understand. Make sure that the audio in your video content is high-quality. People will watch a video with poor visual quality as long as the audio is high-quality.
2) Useful
Get to know your target market and their fears, frustrations, goals, and aspirations, then create useful content that adds value and helps them move towards a desired result.
Have you ever watched a video online and thought to yourself, “Wow, I wish I had the last 60 seconds of my life back?”. Whenever you create content, keep that in mind so you make sure that no one can ever say that about your content.
All of your content should add so much value and be so useful, that people just can’t get enough of it!
It’s commonly said that you have to “over-deliver” in order to compete in the content game. When it comes to creating content that “over-delivers”, it’s easy to think you need to create longer, in-depth content. While this is sometimes true, creating longer, more in-depth content is a slippery slope. “Over-delivering” can quickly turn into “over-whelm”!
Be careful not to over complicate things for the sake of trying to “over-deliver”. Simplifying a complex concept is also “over-delivering”. Sometimes less content is more valuable, and far more useful. Cut out all the fluff. Get to the point. Help your target market get the result they want quickly.
3) Unique
Your content should be unique and should be written in your voice. The one thing that makes your personal brand valuable and differentiates you from everyone else is your perspective. There’s no one else with your unique background, experience, and set of skills, so, when you create content, be sure to add your own perspective into the mix. Spice it up, people are sick of consuming boring, bland content.
There are several ways to make your content unique, here are a few ways:
- Create content around a new topic
- EX: Writing content on a new topic or emerging industry
- Create content around a common topic from a new angle or perspective
- EX: Writing blog content on a popular topic from a neuroscience perspective based on cutting-edge research
- Create unique content on a common topic
- EX: A podcast or YouTube show on a topic that is a popular blog topic
- Create content on a common topic with a unique style
- EX: A podcast or YouTube show with a distinct style or structure that sets it apart.
Find creative ways to add personality, offer new insights and share unique perspectives with the people who engage with your content.
4) Relevant
You should be writing your content with your target market in mind. Your content should be relevant to the current landscape of your industry. Always create content with your target customer’s fears, frustrations, goals, and aspirations in mind.
Creating content and weaving in messaging that speaks to those four areas, will almost guarantee that your content is relevant and also resonates on a deep level. When you can speak to the emotions of your target market, you will hook their attention and now you have the opportunity to turn a browser into a customer.
Relevancy isn’t just about being topically relevant, it’s also about publishing your content in a timely manner.
One way to separate yourself from your competition is to stay on top of current events in your industry and publish your perspective on them as soon as you hear about the news. You can still produce a great piece of content on the topic weeks or months down the road, but it has more impact if it’s published while it’s immediately relevant.
5) Strategic
If you want to build a career out of your personal brand, you have to be very strategic about the content you create. Writing content for the sole purpose of adding value to the world is great, however, you also must be strategic about the creation of each piece of content and how it fits into a bigger picture.
If you’re looking to publish a book, it’s a good idea to strategically write that book in a way that tastefully positions you as an expert in your field, and leads people to take the next step by purchasing your online course. The best way to do this is casually tell stories about your products, services, and success stories.
Your blog posts and other free content should lead to a lead magnet, which leads to paid content, which leads to services and high-ticket in-person services. Each piece of content strategically guides the prospect down the funnel to become a customer.
6) Provide Helpful Links
When you are first starting out, it’s a good idea to add links to helpful content from other websites. Besides, you won’t have enough content to be able to link to your own assets on every subject, and while you’re building up your audience, it’s actually better to link out to other articles. Only link to other sites that you believe will serve your audience, will help solidify a point you are making, or will add credibility to your personal brand.
Eventually you will want to produce your own content on a majority of the topics you are linking out to. Circle back and replace links to external pages with links to your own content you’ve produced on that topic.
If you’d like some more information on how to create great content, here are some other blogs that we thought had some great insight and information:
How to Create Consistently Great Content for the Long Haul — Beth Hayden
22 Ways to Create Compelling Content When You Don’t Have a Clue — Brian Clark
The Nine Ingredients That Make Great Content — KISS Metrics
How to Create Great Content For Your Website – Entrepreneur.com
7) Call to Action
At the end of every piece of content you should always have a call to action. Ideally you would have a lead magnet relevant to the topic to generate leads and build your email list with people who are interested in learning more about a topic related to your products or services. If you’re just getting started and don’t have a lead magnet yet, don’t let that hold you back. Get started with just a simple call-to-action to subscribe to your email list, or follow you on Facebook, Twitter, etc.
A strategic call-to-action will guide your reader to take the next step. Nothing could be worse than having a potential customer read your blog, download your ebook, or watch one of your videos, love your content, and then not know what to do next. If you don’t tell them what the next step is, they will likely end up going back to Google search, looking elsewhere and possibly doing business with your competition.
If you don’t have a call-to-action at the end of every piece of content, you’re missing a huge opportunity to build your following and letting thousands of dollars slip through your fingers. You can create a standard “boiler plate” call-to-action that you can use by default for all of your blog posts, like the one below!
Take It One Step Further
A personal brand is the best way to increase your impact, influence and income. Start building your personal brand today, we’re here to help! For more great content on how to build your personal brand, join our private, Personal Brand Builders Community for Free.
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