We are more overcommunicated than ever today with messages bombarded across multiple channels. It is overcommunication overload! The digital noise across the board is constant with emails, social media, WhatsApp messages, ads and push notifications competing for attention 24/7. The internet is flooded with so much content making it harder to stand out! So how can we make sure our effort in building content delivers the impact that it is supposed to?
You got to go beyond the generic content. It has got to make a difference, create a bang, and be worth the reader’s time. How can you do that?
Build high-quality leadership content – aka original research, case studies that solve real life problems, expert insights on reducing pain points and more. Providing insider perspective with content that includes authentic research, reports or industry expert interviews, is a great way to stand our and be seen. Focusing on a niche is a great way to show your depth of knowledge, build trust and add value through your content.
Make it fun – To make your content stand out, you got to make it fun and engaging. Build interactive content based on your user interest. You can understand what their preferences are by testing and more testing. With attention spans reducing you got to think, how can you hold a gaze for longer? Creativity comes to the rescue. Build content that involves the reader to take action. Encourage them to take a survey, solve a quiz, play an interactive game, use ROI calculators, participate in a poll and so much more.
Use AI to your advantage – Search engine optimize your content, use AI-driven search to make sure your content is searchable. Using long-tail and intent based keywords, optimizing for voice search and AI-driven assistants will help your content be more searchable. You could structure your content with FAQs, snippets, and schema markup so search engines understand the language on your page, which in turn will help to improve its visibility.
Strategize your distribution channels – If you know your customer well, you will know where they are looking. Promote your content across the relevant social media channels, industry forums, groups and newsletters. You can always repurpose one piece of content across multiple channels to make it go further. For example, a blog can be used to write up a Twitter/ X thread or other social media posts. It can be repurposed as a very visual infographic or converted into a video. If you present it in a Q&A format and bring along a guest speaker you can repurpose it into a webinar too. There are many possibilities.
User generated or community driven content – Some of the best way to create engaging content is to use your audience to contribute towards stories and experiences, testimonials or insights. Once you have a content strategy and you have identified the key topics, you can encourage discussions on them on your groups, communities or forums. Check out my post on the ‘power of user generated content‘ for more information on to go about it.
As we evolve every day in the way we consume content, it becomes critical to find ways to break the content saturation cycle and the content overload. Most importantly, for your content to stand out, it has to be authentic, engaging and deeply valuable. Leveraging interactive formats along with strong story telling will engage and nurture your audience encouraging them to keep coming back.
