Bill Gates had one of his many visionary moments when he used the short but powerful title “Content is King” for his famous 1996 essay published on Microsoft’s website.
In the following sentence, he foretold the relevance of creating high-value content to power the conversion process.
“Content is where I expect much of the real money will be made on the internet, just as it was in broadcasting”
Consistently creating high-value content can effectively lead to credibility gains with your target audience, increased traffic, more customers, more sales, and a higher return on investment (ROI).
It’s no wonder that revealed that 91 percent of respondents said they use content marketing as part of their promotional efforts, while .
In this article, we’ll unravel proven tips for creating high-value content that converts to leads, sales, and a high ROI.
It’s All About Your Audience
No. It’s not about you. It’s about your target audience, and once you realize they keep you in business, you’ll do everything you can to make them happy, including creating content geared to their needs.
Make sure you cover three fundamentals whenever you create content:
Choose topics relevant to your target audience
A good way to find relevant subjects is to research the most googled questions in your industry and your target audience’s pain points.
You must also ask yourself these relevant questions to determine what to write:
Make sure your chosen topic is something your target audience wants to learn more about and that your content answers their questions.
Choose a tone of voice suited to your target audience and your topic
The tone of your content conveys your emotions and attitude towards your target audience and the topic you’re tackling. It “reflects your brand personality, helps you connect with your audience, and makes you different from the rest." ()
Your tone of voice can be formal, informal, sassy, humorous, optimistic, pessimistic, or sarcastic.
Determine a tone of voice that will resonate with your target audience and is appropriate for the topic, and use it consistently throughout any particular content.
Make sure your message is clear
The aim of creating content is to drive home one particular message. It’s important that your readers understand this message clearly.
To achieve this, make sure to stick to your central message; avoid adding unimportant details or sounding vague.
Get Your Readers Invested From Start to Finish
Your headline is the first thing that jumps out at a reader and their first impression of your content. If it doesn’t immediately grab their attention and push them to move on to the body, then it has failed.
David Ogilvy beautifully sums up the importance of crafting a great headline:
“On average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.”
Spend time crafting a headline that captures the readers’ attention and piques their curiosity.
It’s also important to ensure that your headline is SEO-friendly. For example, Capitalize My Title’s Headline Analyzer recommends using 5-7 word headlines for a better SEO experience.
Research Thoroughly
It's important to carry out extensive research from trusted sources on your topic to gain credibility with your target audience.
Use the following searches to find reliable resources on Google and get expert opinions:
Create a Comprehensive Outline
Drawing up an outline makes your writing process run a lot smoother.
An outline helps you determine the direction your content will take and the points you'll focus on. After you've drawn up your outline, it's simply about filling in the blanks.
A well-prepared outline should consist of your headline(s), all the points you want to cover, links to sources you'll refer to and how you want everything arranged.
Overall, an outline helps you organize everything you'll need for your content in one place, which makes your work easier.
Find a Unique Angle
Over five million blog posts are published every day (). That’s a lot of content competing for attention.
How can you get your content noticed?
Find a unique angle.
You could do this by addressing points that haven't received enough attention.
Go through the top content on page one of Google and study each piece to determine the unique angle to create your content in.
For instance, our blog post on marketing campaigns gave a comprehensive explanation of campaigns, their importance, and the steps to create one. But it also went a step further by providing real-world examples of well-executed campaigns and explaining why they were so successful.
Taking a unique angle will distinguish your content from other articles on your topic.
Write in a Conversational Tone
We mentioned choosing an appropriate writing voice in our first tip, but regardless of what tone you choose, make sure it comes across like you’re talking to a friend.
Writing in a conversational tone helps your readers connect with your content and, by extension, your brand. It elicits the right feelings and thought process.
Lay down your message in a tone that you would use with a friend. This gives your readers the feeling of having a personal conversation with someone they can trust and makes your content more relatable. Consequently, you capture their attention and willingness to read your content.
A conversational tone is also generally clearer and simpler than a more formal tone, which ensures that your content is easier to understand by readers of all ages and educational backgrounds.
Improve Your Visibility Through Backlinks
You can improve visibility and traffic to your site by linking to relevant content published elsewhere online, linking to relevant content published within your website, and having other sites link to yours.
Linking to quality further reading sources from other websites eases the burden on your readers to carry out the search for reliable resources on their own. It also ensures that they are equipped with all the information they need. Most importantly, it ensures that they do not leave your site completely while trying to find more information on their own.
Internal backlinking helps build your authority in your niche. This is why it’s important to know your target audiences’ pain points and create content on different topics that address them, then link it all together so it’s easy to find.
Internal links are SEO powerhouses. For one, they help Google find and index all the pages on your site. Also, the more quality internal links your site has, the higher its PageRank. These ultimately translate to increased traffic to your site.
There are three ways to have other websites link to your content:
You earn backlinks organically when others link to your page. To earn backlinks, you need to create content good enough for people to want to link to it.
You create backlinks by linking to your site from other webpages. For example, providing answers in your niche on Quora, Facebook groups, Reddit and others, and leave insightful comments on social media posts. This will get you recognized, build your credibility, and register you as an authority in your niche.
You can build backlinks by guest posting on other sites. This gets you recognized by their audience, which translates to more traffic on your site.
Support Your Content with Statistics, Charts, and Infographics
Charts and Infographics present facts and figures concisely. They are also easier to remember and share because they are visually pleasing.
Statistics can be a powerful way to drive home your point and make your readers take the desired action.
For instance, we mentioned that over five million blog posts are published every day and we bet that number made you sit up and pay attention!
Come Up with a Great Call to Action
What action do you want your readers to take after reading your content? Make sure it is beneficial to them and provide reasons why you think it is.
This is where you're allowed to put on your sales hat, so sell your brand value by linking to that extra content, template, email subscription, service, or even your website.
Let your readers know what else you have in store for them or remind them of a related service you provide and make it easy for them to access it.
Ensure Your Content is SEO Friendly
Getting your content ranking on page one of Google is something you should aim for because most people won’t go beyond page one when they search for information. This is where SEO comes into play.
SEO is a very important part of content marketing. It’s that extra push your content needs after you’ve taken care of every other aspect.
The more SEO-friendly your content is, the higher it will rank on Google.
To rank higher on Google's search engine, follow these SEO guidelines:
SEO is a complex subject and the rules change frequently. Ultimately, creating great content (by following the tips in this article) and ensuring that you’re aware of current SEO guidelines automatically makes it more searchable.
Carefully Edit Your Content
Nobody likes to read content riddled with errors. It's a huge turn-off and you risk losing your credibility.
Take your time to edit your content and ensure that it's clear and error-free, that it flows naturally, and that your language, tone of voice, and style are consistent.
Your best bet would be to employ the services of a professional editor to take care of this stage. If you’re unable to do this, then you can always self-edit.
Pro Tip: One way to easily catch errors and inconsistencies is to read your content out loud.
In a Nutshell
Creating high-value content is a sure way to gain credibility, increase your traffic, make more sales, and generate high ROI.
Follow the tips below to create high-value content that converts:
Keep your target audience central to the entire writing process
Get your readers invested with an attention-grabbing headline
Research thoroughly
Create a comprehensive outline
Deliver your content from a unique angle
Write in a conversational tone
Improve your visibility through backlinks
Support your content with statistics, charts, and infographics
Have a great call to action
Ensure your content is SEO friendly
Carefully edit your content
Do you want to skyrocket your business traffic, sales, and ROI?
We’ll help you make it happen with high-value content!
Our team of experienced marketers has helped grow businesses from the ground up with well-written, SEO-friendly content that converts.
Click here to begin your high-conversion journey with us now!