March 10, 2014

Make Your Online Content Stand Out from the White Noise

Published: 10 March 2014 

Content is powerful in the online world and people know it. If created and used well it can powerfully drive traffic, engage audiences and boost SEO. In other words better content means better digital marketing. So how do you stand out from all the other content flooding the internet?

Keep your finger on the pulse

keep_your_finger_on_the_pulse

To create great content you need to keep your finger on the pulse.

  1. Take the time to find out who the key influencers are in your industry and what they like to share with their audience.
  2. Learn about your audience and know what they are looking for.
  3. Watch what your competitors are doing.
  4. Keep an eye on social media and what people are sharing.

Create epic content

epic_content

The fact is that there’s no room for average or even good content. Whether it’s written or multimedia content - it has to be great. If it fails to reach the mark it will fade into the white noise and people simply won’t be interested. Is your content relevant? Engaging? Does it have emotional appeal? Is it original? If the answer is no; either figure out how you can turn it into a yes or scrap the idea and find a better one.

Will people want to share it?

share

Okay so you’ve thought up a great idea and you are ready for some creative action! STOP. Can you think of at least 10 websites that would be interested in sharing it? If the answer to this question is no then your idea isn’t great; it’s average or good. You might even like to do some pre-outreach to test the waters and ask relevant websites or bloggers if they would be interested in sharing your idea once it is created. If people are interested it proves your idea is engaging, relevant and appealing enough to be created.

Quality over quantity

quality

When it comes to creating your piece take the time to make it quality. Earn your backlinks and don’t ruin the potential of a good idea by being lazy. People may have been interested in the concept but if you don’t follow through with strong creation you risk losing their shares. Bloggers are often approached by people wanting their content shared and if it doesn’t grab their attention they simply won’t give you the time of day.

If people aren’t listening, find out why and fix it!

listening

If you find people still aren’t listening don’t just stay bent on a particular strategy - find out why they aren’t listening and fix it.

  • If your audience doesn’t relate - why don’t they?
  • Are you drowning them in content? - step back a little
  • Are you not posting regularly enough? - get back in the convo
  • Are they hearing about it in the first place? - find out where they are looking and get your content in front of them (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest)
  • Is your content higgledy piggledy? - make it consistent

Don’t waste your time creating average content. Make it great and stand out from the white noise - you’ll be doing yourself a huge favour.

Content is powerful in the online world and people know it. If created and used well it can powerfully drive traffic, engage audiences and boost SEO. In other words better content means better digital marketing. So how do you stand out from all the other content flooding the internet?

Keep your finger on the pulse

keep_your_finger_on_the_pulse

To create great content you need to keep your finger on the pulse.

  1. Take the time to find out who the key influencers are in your industry and what they like to share with their audience.
  2. Learn about your audience and know what they are looking for.
  3. Watch what your competitors are doing.
  4. Keep an eye on social media and what people are sharing.

Create epic content

epic_content

The fact is that there’s no room for average or even good content. Whether it’s written or multimedia content - it has to be great. If it fails to reach the mark it will fade into the white noise and people simply won’t be interested. Is your content relevant? Engaging? Does it have emotional appeal? Is it original? If the answer is no; either figure out how you can turn it into a yes or scrap the idea and find a better one.

Will people want to share it?

share

Okay so you’ve thought up a great idea and you are ready for some creative action! STOP. Can you think of at least 10 websites that would be interested in sharing it? If the answer to this question is no then your idea isn’t great; it’s average or good. You might even like to do some pre-outreach to test the waters and ask relevant websites or bloggers if they would be interested in sharing your idea once it is created. If people are interested it proves your idea is engaging, relevant and appealing enough to be created.

Quality over quantity

quality

When it comes to creating your piece take the time to make it quality. Earn your backlinks and don’t ruin the potential of a good idea by being lazy. People may have been interested in the concept but if you don’t follow through with strong creation you risk losing their shares. Bloggers are often approached by people wanting their content shared and if it doesn’t grab their attention they simply won’t give you the time of day.

If people aren’t listening, find out why and fix it!

listening

If you find people still aren’t listening don’t just stay bent on a particular strategy - find out why they aren’t listening and fix it.

  • If your audience doesn’t relate - why don’t they?
  • Are you drowning them in content? - step back a little
  • Are you not posting regularly enough? - get back in the convo
  • Are they hearing about it in the first place? - find out where they are looking and get your content in front of them (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest)
  • Is your content higgledy piggledy? - make it consistent

Don’t waste your time creating average content. Make it great and stand out from the white noise - you’ll be doing yourself a huge favour.

Ben Maden

Read more posts by Ben

2 comments on “Make Your Online Content Stand Out from the White Noise”

  1. Ruth, I think you are dead on when you talk about high quality content. As you stated in your article it needs to address current trends and be relevant. There are no short cuts to success online. There is lots of software out there to stay plugged into the latest buzz. Social Mention is a good tool to use to find out what is trending. There is a lot of noise out there and you need to create not compete otherwise you will blend in not stand out.Enjoyed your article and great insights.

  2. Hi David, thanks for your comment. I'm glad you enjoyed the article and I think you make some really good points yourself. Social Mention is a great tool - I also find Topsy, Pinterest and Google Trends helpful for keeping track of popular topics.

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