Your content has a tough job. It has to build trust and rapport with your audiences, so they come to you when they need your product or service. It has to address their goals and what’s important to them. It has to solve their problems. It has to outline the benefits of your brand or product. And it has to deepen customer loyalty. Phew!
To achieve those many goals, average content just won’t cut it: you must have excellent superhero content. Read on and see how you can help your content leap over tall buildings in a single bound.
Making great content happen:
#1 – Simple copy
The first secret really isn’t so secret: keep it simple so that your audience gets what you’re saying. Start by using the Hemingway principles: short sentences, short paragraphs, active words and a positive focus. Then, take care to avoid using excessive jargon or buzzwords. You know what I mean. Readers tend to tune out tired expressions such as optimize, strategize, leverage, deliverables, drill down, empower, lots of moving parts, scalable, buy-in, moving the needle, outside the box, learnings or synergy.
What’s the best way to define “particle physics”?
“Particle physics is a branch of physics that studies the elementary constituents of matter and radiation, and the interactions between them. It is also called ‘high energy physics,’ because many elementary particles do not occur under normal circumstances in nature, but can be created and detected during energetic collisions of other particles, as is done in particle accelerators.”
“Where I work, we slam together small things to break them into even smaller things until we have the smallest things possible. This is how we know what matter is made of.”
#2 – Powerful emotions
Take a page from scientific research on what makes something go viral – and inject emotional appeal into your content to make it great. An article by Fast Company says “Articles, posts, or videos that evoke positive emotions have greater viral potential than something that evokes negative feelings, but both do a better job recruiting clicks than neutral content.” And Wharton behavioral scholar Jonah Berger, who is an expert on why things become popular, outlines six “STEPPS” for helping content go viral:
- Social currency: We share things that make us look good.
- Triggers: We share things that are easy to remember.
- Emotion: When we care, we share.
- Public: Built to show, built to grow.
- Practical value: The “news people can use.”
- Stories: People are inherent storytellers, and the great brands are known for telling stories.
#3 – Human-based marketing
When sitting down to create content, consider these classic content marketing best practices, which work because they align to basic human behavior and preference.
| Practice to try | Why? |
|---|---|
| How-to articles, tips and practical advice | Because we love to learn how to do it better, faster and more efficiently |
| Content that’s tied to current events | Because we’re already talking about the news and it helps keep our attention. |
| Multimedia – use copy, graphics, sound and video | Because we like to receive and absorb information in different ways |
#4 – Professional writing
Just as not everyone who cooks is a chef, not everyone who expresses themselves with the written word is a writer. Great writing is more important than ever – and can make the real superhero difference in your content. Whether you want an outside talent to bring a fresh perspective or don’t have the time or resources to do the writing yourself, it pays to use a professional writer to craft your basic ideas into standout content that leaves a meaningful impression.
