Raise The Bar NOW! The Fine Line Between Great And Outstanding Content

I am not sure how you feel about my mini-poetry style! We can discuss that later…

Simply put: It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that the content marketing playground is fiercely competitive. If you aspire to position yourself ahead of the pack next year, great content is not enough!

First Things First! Let’s Define Great Content

In a nutshell, great content must fulfill the 3 Es of content marketing: Educate, Entertain and Engage.

The 3Es cover all the basics like having compelling titles, offering “skimmable” content, doing your SEO homework, sharing your brand message, having your own authentic voice and so forth.

To sum it all up in one sentence, great content meets audience expectations.
( In a previous article I warned against, the serious bounce rate ramifications of sending “targeted” traffic to “mediocre” content! )

So far, so good! Now that you decided to rebel against “great” and upgrade to “outstanding”, you need to…

Promise And Over-Deliver!

If you want to skyrocket your readership, get in the habit of giving your readers more than they expected. They will love you for it! Just make sure that your pleasant surprise is still relevant to them.

For example, if your article title is “7 tips to…”, surprise your readers by adding an 8th tip, making sure that your “bonus” tip is really great.

You could have titled your post as “8 tips to…” but I am in favor of the first title because it makes over-delivering super easy! When your readers become programmed that they will learn 7 tips and you exceed their expectations by adding something great to the mix, they will get hooked on your content.

Alternatively, you may include videos or presentations that provide quality information and so forth. The key is to keep over-delivering in mind and get creatively consistent about it.

Become A Restless Bee!

In a previous article about using content curation for content creation, I advised that, as you curate content, think of ways it can inspire your own content.

Let’s delve deeper into that thought. When you say: “Wow I love this eBook!”, get curious about what “wowed” you. In fact, it may be worth your while to reread the entire thing with the intention of discovering its wow factor.

Become very analytical and a keen observer of what makes other people’s content outstanding and think of creative ways to follow their tracks. ( I would advise that you take note of the content you like and what you liked about it so you don’t lose sight of the “good stuff”)

I firmly believe that an outstanding content marketer should be a restless bee that tastes all the flowers in the garden and comes up with his/her wholesome honey.

At the end of the day, your authentic voice will still shine through. I love that thought!

Before You Leave…

If you enjoyed my mini-poem, I have other killer ones that I dedicated to Seth Godin and, the one and only, Charlie Sheen! I invite you to click on their names to read two of my absolute favorite articles of all time. I promise you will be “Edutained”!

That’s Garious bonus gift to you. Did you see it coming or did we over-deliver? Please make my day and share your thoughts in the comments.