Companies are always struggling to maintain and create compelling content for their customers to consume. In today’s world, while the saying is incomprehensibly corny, it’s true: content IS king. It helps drive traffic to your site, positions you as an expert and powers the overall output of your online marketing efforts.

But how does it happen? Or more specifically; what are some of the things you can do to make your content more interesting, relevant and well… compelling? Today’s post tackles that issue and provides you with seven rock-solid steps you can take towards creating incredible content.

Always create 100% original content that speaks human.

At this point, almost everything has been shared on the web, but please use your own words. Provide a different angle, a different thought, something of value. Readers know when ideas have been ‘borrowed’ and so do search engines. In fact, if you’re copy and pasting – Search Engines penalize you, which makes posting someone else’s content not only bush league, but self-defeating.

And also – use human words. Don’t write in the third person. You’re trying to create a connection, not conduct a lecture.

Narrow focus, more readers

Among the many bad habits you can develop as a content writer – being too much of a generalist is one of the worst. We suggest that you develop your skills, choose topics that are relevant to you, your audience and your overall purpose and create content SPECIFICALLY geared towards them. Most readers are looking for specialists these days, so don’t be afraid to be that. The more narrow an audience you lock in on, the more likely you are to develop a bigger audience.

Content must be executed

People scan on the Internet more than they read. Make sure every piece is scannable and that the reader can get right to the topic and relevant information as quickly and easily as possible. Long story, short – your job is to present ideas and get out of the way.

Gain credibility by sharing

This spins off the whole not stealing content thing we talked about earlier. Share content. Quote it. Talk about it. Doing this will get you lots of readers and position you as a credible SOURCE of information. SOURCE is the important word. For most readers, if YOU’RE the one who can find the cool, interesting and relevant stories to talk about, then THEY don’t have to. If you go the extra mile and provide them a space where THEY can talk about it? That’s like a two-for-one to them. Share content, discuss it and engage with it.

Become what you read

We always tell people that if you have the time, you’ll instantly become a better writer if you read, read and read more. Over time, you’ll become what you read. Ideas will flow seamlessly and writing becomes more fun and easier. You’ll become more knowledgeable on your topic du jour and at the very least – you’ll be able to sell your services that much easier. Part of being a great content creator, is being a veracious content consumer.

Post regularly

Don’t disappear for months at a time and wonder why no one is reading your blog. Meaningful web content is always relevant and updated regularly. Your consistency demonstrates competency, ability and most importantly – dependability. And dependability folks, is the foundation of credibility. If you have no credibility, you have no readers.

Turn questions into content

As a business owner, you get asked questions every day. Try keeping track of them and source the ones you get the most. When you start recognizing a trend, turn your answer into a blog post. At that point, you KNOW the question is relevant, you KNOW people are asking for it and the chances are – there are OTHER people working with OTHER companies who probably have the same questions as your customers. Perhaps answering them in a formal way can help you win their business. Always take those questions and turn them into content.