Create Content Marketing that is Appealing
It can be a real shame to see articles on the web that have been well written with lots of great content, ideas and information only for them to be slapped up on a blog without regard for how the content presents. In fact it may even have the reverse effect of what the creator was hoping for, with viewers horrified of the dreaded slab of text and the thought of having to sit there and read through it to find what they are after. In this case, the only thing that gets clicked on is the back button as the wave goodbye to your website for good.
Have you noticed this..?
Content is created for two audiences
When using content marketing as an online strategy, we need to stop and remember that we are trying to appeal to two audiences. They are:
Google, the Robot:
We want our content to rank well in search engines and some content marketing agencies will hype this as being the main reason as to why you should be doing content marketing. While I can’t and won’t argue with the importance of ranking well in SEO or the effectiveness of Content Marketing to achieve this, we also can’t forget the next audience…
You, a Human:
The first impression that a person is going to have of you content as they skim over it, is that of visual appeal. If I go to a webpage and it is simply a slab of text, the only thing that I am going to read are the search results as I go back to them.
Whether it is because we are being conditioned by Social Media or our busy lifestyles, most of the time we will simply skim over content to both; try and find the information that we are after quickly and decide if we are going to devote the time to reading the full article.
By keeping both audiences in mind as we write, create and format our content, we will create content marketing that not only ranks really well but is appealing to people and therefore converts!
After all, Google isn’t going to buy anything off you…
How can we create content marketing that is more appealing?
Obviously when creating Content Marketing you are trying to create engaging, informative and appealing content that people will devour. But let’s say that we have created content that has the first two elements in spades, we have added it to our webpage and now we need to spruce it up.
Here are 5 incredibly easy ways to enhance a webpages appeal:
#1. Break your content up with headings:
Forget appealing for a second, headings are so incredibly important to a webpage full stop! But visually headings and subheadings help break up your content and help people quickly understand what that paragraph and article will be about.
You can also get creative with your headings… Different colours, different sizes, even different fonts altogether. The trick with styling your headings however, is to come up with a format that suits the overall design of your site and then apply it throughout the site.
#2. White Space:
If you have a look now at some of the more modern looking websites, you will see that they all take advantage of wide open spaces. This is for a very good reason. You don’t want your content to be packed in so tightly that it is hard to distinguish what is part of the content, what is an ad, what is your sidebar, call to action, etc.
#3. Images:
You might be forgiven for thinking that you need at least one mandatory image per article but adding a couple of images to your content will help jazz your article up and make your content more appealing.
Think about that old saying, ‘A picture tells a thousand words.’ Therefore adding images also helps to add meaning and context to your content and allows a reader to understand your message that little bit easier. It’s a win win really!
#4. Horizontal Lines:
Such a simple thing to add to a webpage is a HTML Horizontal Line Tag. However it is also such a simple way of breaking up your content in an appealing way and distinguishing different areas of information. A way that you might like to use it is to help separate the introduction, body and conclusion of your article.
#5. Links:
If people can see that you have taken the time to link to other relevant content that supports your information, it will help make your content that little bit more appealing. Now like headings, links are often formatted in a different way to your normal content and therefore will stand out from the crowd and pretty up your text.
Now in saying that please don’t go filling up your content with links. This could get you into a lot of trouble with the search engines like Google. Simply link to a few different pages, whether on your website or others, that as mentioned, help support and are relevant to your article.
Take infographics as an example?
By now, you will know doubt have seen some type of infographic that presents information in a visually appealing way. Infographics get a ridiculous amount of shares for this very reason. If you could and you can, achieve something similar with the content that you create within a webpage, wouldn’t that be awesome! =)
The happy benefit of doing the above
Better for SEO:
Adding relevant links, images and headings to your content will help with your on-page SEO and move your article up the rankings. Plus if people are loving it and sharing it via their social media channels, it is also going to help SEO and bring more inbound traffic.
Better Conversions:
People will also be more likely to purchase a product, hire you for a service or engage with a call to action if they feel like your content is worth while. By making your content more visually appealing your are giving them every reason to do that and who doesn’t want more sales!
Now go and make content that’s sexy!
If you spend the time writing and researching brilliant information that people are going to love, do yourself a favour and make it look great. Otherwise, sure Google might like it but nobody with eyes is going to.
If you would like to speak to a Content Marketing Agency about how you can create and leverage your content marketing efforts, then please give us a call on (02) 9111 5000 or send us a message via our contact page.
Thanks so much for reading,
Rob Potter
If you like what I have written here, connect with me on Twitter or LinkedIn. I would love to continue the conversation. Cheers.