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How To Make Your Content Stand Out

By on September 3, 2016
How To Make Your Content Stand Out - Writer's Life.org

Did you know the millions of pieces of content are published every single day? Yes, you heard right. Millions.

So when you are writing a piece of content, how on earth can you make yours stand out from the crowd? How do you get people to consistently choose what you have written over what somebody else has?

There are a finite number of hours in the day and so much information that we can’t expect people to read even a tiny fraction of the content available to them. Yet, there are many content writers out there that are incredibly successful at what they do. They are confident that each and every time they publish a new piece of writing, it will attract readers, and those readers will go on to, comment, share and engage with their content in every way possible.

Why?

Because they know how to make it stand out.

So how do they do it?

They make sure it is relevant.

People simply won’t read something they have no interest in. Why would they? It would be a waste of their time. So when you are writing content, it is essential that you make it relevant to your target audience. Not just ‘Oh that looks kind of cool, maybe I’ll check it out later’, but like ‘Oh my gosh? What? That is too interesting not to find out about it right this second’. See the difference?

You make sure your content is relevant by getting to know your audience really, really well. You need to be inside their heads; you need to not only know what they are thinking, but accurately predict what they are going to think about next. To know what problems they have, what excites them, what they love and hate, and what makes them react.

This takes a lot of work. But if you put the work in, you’ll put yourself in a strong position. Collaborators, competitors, people with similar hobbies and interests as you - they are all out there, their target audience is the same as yours, and they want their attention just as much as you do, so make sure you keep fighting for your audience.

Ask yourself this question; who are you trying to reach? Writers, mothers, marketers, builders?

Right, now you know, that ask yourself which ones? Who are they, where are they, what hours do they work, when do they like to go online, how do they like to receive their information?

Answering these questions will help you understand what makes your readers tick, and then you can craft a perfectly placed piece of content just for them.

Find out what motivates your audience to act.

Say you are selling a dress. You might ask your target audience ‘ what makes you want to buy a dress?' They might reply ‘ because I need one’.

This is not enough. You must go on to probe further. Ask yourself why they need one? Is it because they have a special occasion coming up? Is the season changing? Do they just love keeping up with fashion? Do they want to feel unique, more attractive, more desirable? If you can find out this, you can tailor your content so it addresses those persons highly specific, and sometimes even unconscious, desires.

Lastly, one of the most important things to remember is that it is your headline that counts. Without a good headline, you are getting nowhere. Your headline is what the success of your piece rests on.

Headline no good? No one will click on your link, and that means, yes you got it, no readers.

Your headline needs to be three things:

Attention grabbing
Succinct
Truthful

Use words that evoke a reaction, be clever, but also be true to your content. Think of all those headlines like ‘Lose 30 pounds in 30 days!’ We’re over them now. Sure people still click on them, but you soon realise it’s no miracle cure for all that cake you’ve been shoving into your face and the crushing disappointment of that makes you not want to click on a link like that ever again! The same works for any headline that misleads your reader, so don't do it.

Making your content stand out is tough, but so much content is not well thought out, it’s not relevant, it’s not catchy, big or clever.

So, if you take your time to write yours properly, there is no reason it shouldn’t do well.

About Ty Cohen