standout content marketing

When it comes to content, nobody wants to be “decent.” Decent is boring. Unremarkable. It doesn’t stand out. When it comes to your content, you want to be much more colorful. You want people to describe the material you write as exciting, unique, amazing, and memorable. But how do you get from Point A to Point B? The answer is simple: When you learn what separates incredible content from decent content, and which tricks you can use to create more of the former, it’s easy to stand out as one of the most skilled content marketers on the web. Here’s your step-by-step guide. The Boring Content Marketing Epidemic There’s an epidemic going around, and few people are talking about it. No, it’s not the bird flu or the dreaded selfie “duck face.” Instead, it’s something much, much more serious. It’s boring content. In a world where more than 2 million blog posts are published daily, it’s safe to say that easily 90% of them are duplicative, boring, and unoriginal. It’s safe to say that most of them are crap. Cloned from other blogs, regurgitated from prominent sources, or modeled on the 30 other blogs already written on a topic, these posts don’t do much but clog up the web and make it harder for truly unique content to stand out. In some ways, this isn’t even the fault of individual writers. Instead, it’s the curse of an entire industry, which sometimes focuses on things that are viral and flashy more than it does on things that are unique and relevant. In other cases, the boring content epidemic is perpetuated by the fact that everyone can be a publisher today, and this leads to the web being flooded with material that’s poorly written, poorly researched, and not worth reading. If you subject to this boring content epidemic, it’ll have a real and dramatic impact on your content marketing. Fortunately, this fate isn’t inevitable. When you commit yourself to avoiding boring content and shooting for something bigger and more lasting, you can succeed in being one of the few content marketers that manages to develop unique content people remember. Why Epically Amazing Content Matters I know what you’re thinking. “Come on – epically amazing content? Isn’t that just showing off? Or unforgettably impossible?” The answer is no. Not by a long shot! Today, it matters more than it ever has mattered for brands to be unique, creative, and standout. Here’s why: today’s consumers don’t just want an earful. They’re not looking for flashy promises, empty content, or regurgitated thoughts. Instead, they want real value. They want originality, and they want excitement. In fact, they base their purchasing decisions on these things. According to a recent NewsCred study, 62% of millennials report that their brand loyalty is directly related to the type and quality of content a brand produces. When you consider that millennials have an annual spending power of about $200 billion annually, this quickly becomes an important statistic. Today, it’s not enough to just churn out boring content so you have something, anything, online. Instead, you’ve got to dedicate yourself and your brand to creating truly EPIC content that supports brand loyalty, builds your reputation, and helps people remember your company the next time they need a good or service. Epic content is the only way to do this, which is why it’s emerged as the content format of the present and the future. What’s more, the role of content is continually growing, and effective digital communication is more essential today than it’s ever been before. Here are a few facts to illustrate my point: [clickToTweet tweet=”78% of CMOs report that content marketing is the future of marketing. @JuliaEMcCoy” quote=”78% of CMOs report that content marketing is the future of marketing. @JuliaEMcCoy”] Today, epic content is the only way to go for brands who truly want to make an impact on the web. Enough of this wishy-washy crud. Enough mediocre articles and blog posts. Enough low-paid, low-researched material that doesn’t do anything but clog up the search results. In an environment where it’s harder than ever to earn attention online, the only way to succeed is by creating superb material that outshines everything else with its levels of quality and relevance. The Benefits of Epic Content The first and most obvious benefit of epic content is that it helps your brand stand out. While few people talk about boring content creators, everyone talks about content marketers who break the mold and do things nobody else is daring to do. Here are a few of the other benefits of truly epic content: It’ll earn you more online shares It provides more actionable, relevant, exciting information for your followers It lasts longer and remains valuable for longer than ordinary content It helps people trust your company It makes you stand out as a thought leader Beyond that, brands that create epic content can rest easy knowing that their content creation efforts are worth something. When you’re not beating yourself against a wall, struggling to come up with boring topic after boring topic, and then being devastated when they don’t produce the results you’d hoped they would, content creation gets much easier and much more satisfying. Unfortunately, creating content that’s consistently memorable can be tough, and many brands struggle to develop a formula for doing it. 5 Tips to Create Epically Awesome Content “Epic” is a high standard, but it’s totally attainable. You just need to know where to start. Here are five steps to get you closer to the goal of unforgettable online material: 1. 10x Your Research One thing that separates the wheat from the chaff when it comes to online content is research. Think about it: writing is easy enough, for a lot of people. Almost anyone can put together an average blog post. Heck, a prolific writer can easily crank out more than 1,000 words an hour, so even long-form material isn’t that hard to create. When you look at … Read more