Fail-safe Formula for Content Creation

Is there such thing as a fail-safe formula for content creation? Let’s dig deeper. Nowadays, it would be hard to find one person that you know, whose life was not changed by the internet. In 2017, more than half of the whole world is already using the internet. More than half. And there is an internet party going on in Asia.

In all walks of life, the internet has played a major role in communication. And communication in most part requires the creation of content. Business, or otherwise, most people on the internet right now is creating content. There is probably more content being created right now than the people who would actually use these content. And it is safe to say that for more than two decades now, information has gone from rarity to opulence. It is readily available for almost everyone, every time.

So that begs the question, how on this earth will you get people to notice you?

The heart of every content is an idea. I am currently reading Seth Godin’s book, All Marketers are Liars, and he emphasized that it is not the product or the brand that is getting passed on. It is the idea. And those who have the most interesting, valuable and thought-provoking ideas get shared most of the time. So you start with an idea, then what next? You need to get busy finding people to “believe” in your idea. Then let history write itself.

The king of search engines.

Remember AltaVista? (this question just made me feel really old). And Google’s smaller brother, Yahoo? Somehow mankind was able to figure out how to index all the content in the world so that their fellow earthlings can easily search it. It was anybody’s game decades ago. Until Google demolished everyone. Google now sits on the top, and it’s both good news and bad news for internet users. When you search for content, let’s say top 3 ways to build your brand, you end up with an immense amount of blog content mostly saying things that you already knew. The challenge for small business is how do you create content that stands out? How do you make sure that people are actually using your content?

If the first thing that comes to your mind is that you need money to get noticed. You would probably start on the wrong foot. Yes, you need money to distribute your content, but it all boils down to the value that your content brings to your audience.

It takes effort to write content, produce a video or record a podcast. But it would help if you have the right goals in mind:

Entertaining

“The sun is the center of the solar system, moving around it are the planets.” This can be entertaining to daycare students, but if you tell this to your target audience? Meh. How about writing it this way? “The sun is the king of the universe, flat-earthers or not; you need the sun” The point is, try to be entertaining, move away from the cliche, the safe and the usual. The internet is just a bunch of people who wanted to be entertained first and foremost.

Valuable

What are they getting out of your content? What types of business questions are you answering? Everyone on the internet starts with a question and the one who has the right idea that answers this question wins. Build content around something that is valuable to your target audience.

Consistent

Do you only create content, when you have time? When you feel like doing so? Then, my friend, you are on the losing end. Make sure that you are consistent with crafting valuable content for your target audience. When you intend to make a change, show up.

Focused

Narrow down on a specific topic. One that you are confident enough about the value that you are presenting. Focus on it. Imagine writing about the best fishing techniques while flying a drone and baking your favorite cookie in the world ’s most innovative oven? Insane right? Because it is. Focus.

What’s next

The most important part of a fail-safe formula for content creation is the call to action. You might have the most valuable, entertaining, focused and consistent content in the whole wide web but if you don’t tell people what to do next, you are missing a great point.

The carrot and the stick.

Although length does matter in the content you create (time spent in reading, watching, listening), it is always a matter of people getting bored or not. You can write about storytelling in 500 words, in an intelligent and scientific way. If it is just blabber to most people, you won’t get anyone to read it. Meanwhile, your competitor who writes 1,000 words in pure rockstar, laymen, comedic style on the same topic. They still get more readership than you.

What are you going to create?

It can be anything, but the universal rule is to make sure your content is helping people instead of selling to them. The more you sell, the more people will move away from your content. Do you own a bakeshop? Teach home-based moms how they can bake your best-selling pastries in their own kitchen. Are you a photographer? Write content about the correct posture in corporate photography. Are you a magician? Blog about why magic is all about speed of hand and illusion.

Give away value, and the rest as they say – is history.

Follow these practical techniques for using your smartphone to create video content.

Reference for statistics: Internet World Stats