Creating high-quality content that drives traffic to your website and converts buyers is not as elusive as you may think. While search engines, Google in particular, and your own marketing goals come into play, your audience ultimately decides what is high-quality content. A clear understanding of your buyers’ wants and needs is paramount to implementing a successful inbound content marketing strategy.
In this guide, we define high-quality content, explain how quality content fits into your overall inbound marketing strategy, and provide the five key components you need when writing high-quality content.
What is High-Quality Content?
Simply put, high-quality content is content that people want to consume and ultimately drives sales to your business. These goals may appear to be different, but they are the same.
The primary purpose of quality content is to both inform and entertain. You want to pull readers in and engage them while providing the information they need to make an informed decision.
Using Google best practices and algorithms is a helpful guide to writing content that ranks high in search engines and gets put in front of potential customers. Quality and originality matter to Google. You don’t have to redefine the wheel, but you do need to find a way to add value to a trending topic or current conversation.
It is your customers that ultimately decide what quality content is. The issue is every potential customer has a different intent. This is where defining your buyer personas provides focus and insights for your brand on your audience’s needs. You won’t speak to everyone individually, but you can create informative, shareable, and engaging high-quality content that many find valuable.
Inbound Strategy + High-Quality Content
Marketing strategy and inbound marketing tactics are continually evolving. In the past, an outbound approach worked well with companies promoting their websites and products through press releases and banner ads to drive traffic from other websites.
Today, search engines and social media have shifted digital content marketing strategies to an inbound marketing approach. Buyers now have the means and ability to find what they are looking for across multiple marketing channels. Social media specifically allows consumers to find new products and brands that speak to them and share content, allowing them to have more control over the buyer’s journey while interacting directly with a brand.
Google lets buyers decide their path along the buyer’s journey. Delve deeper and map out an approach to cater content toward buyer personas. The most important thing is that you’re bringing value to your audience—research what is already being said and dig deeper to find your angle.
Implementing a few must-have components to your content is essential to delivering the right content to the right buyer.
5 Key Components of High-Quality Content
Write for Your Audience
First and foremost, when writing quality content, what the reader wants matters more than what you want to write. In an ideal world, these two will match up from the start, but you may have to do a little digging to find out your readers’ interests, needs, and problems they want to be solved. How do you do this – keyword research.
Keyword research lets you know what your readers are searching for and what you should be writing. It helps you pull in more readers, keep them on your pages longer, and lowers bounce rates, showing Google your page is a reliable source of information.
Clear, Engaging Content
For your content to educate someone, they need to understand what you’re saying. Keep it simple. Avoid using too much industry jargon and obscure words.
You can be clever without alienating your audience. Alternate between longer and shorter sentences to give your content a natural flow and keep readers engaged when possible. Use the simplest words and phrases so anyone can understand your message.
If your content is too confusing, it will turn your audience off and possibly drive them to your competitors.
Your Headline Matters
The headline is the first thing your readers and Google notice. It needs to capture the attention of your intended audience and give them a reason to continue reading.
If your headline is inaccurate or misleading, your audience will figure it out quickly and move on—and, most likely, not come back.
Spend time on your headline and try incorporating these tricks:
- Write Multiple Versions: Try writing ten versions before deciding on the final headline.
- Keep It Short: Google recommends keeping it at or under 60 characters to avoid cutting off at Google’s 600-pixel word limit.
- Ask A Question: Frame your headline as a question to make it clear what problem you’re going to solve.
- Incorporate Numbers: A recent study from Moz showed, at a whopping 31%, headlines including numbers resonated the most with readers.
Use Formatting to Guide Your Reader
In addition to using clear, engaging language when writing high-quality content, you also want to utilize formatting to provide visual cues and ease.
- Use Headers: Most people tend to skim content; help them find what they’re looking for with headers throughout your text. Headings also help Google understand what information your page provides.
- Emphasize With Bold, Italics, and Underling: Have a crucial point you don’t want readers to miss; emphasize your point with bold, italics, and underlines.
- Keep Paragraphs Short: Long chunks of text can be intimidating. Utilize “white space” and keep paragraphs 2 to 4 sentences.
- Bullet & Numbered Lists Work: Both readers and Google love lists. They help organize your content while emphasizing essential information.
- Don’t Forget Visuals: Include visual elements, including videos, images, and charts, to help readers remember information you shared.
Be Relevant
You can write the most well-formatted and entertaining piece of content, but if what you’re saying isn’t relevant to your audience, it doesn’t matter. For your content to hold any value, it must speak to your audience’s wants and needs.
Writing high-quality content for your audience drives traffic to your website and turns readers into buyers. To fully reap the benefits of inbound digital content, you need to put in the time and effort. Keep an eye on current trends and conversations in your industry. If you already wrote about a current trend, repost it with a few updates to show audiences you’re paying attention.
Remember, there are no shortcuts. Building an authoritative website with your audience and search engines takes time.
At New Path, we put people first when it comes to marketing. We believe growing your business starts with mastering your customer’s experience to understand the complete path to purchase.
Understanding who your customers are, their pain points, and what they find interesting is critical to your success in creating high-quality, engaging content. New Path can help you create buyer personas that your marketing team can use to develop content, and we can even create the content for you.
Ready to take control of your content creation? Schedule a free consultation today or view Our Services to learn more about our offerings.
Blog Last Updated on 2 years by New Path Digital
