Is it really still worth creating content?

Now is a time of unprecedented world change.

 

Nothing is exempt. The rules are being rewritten. We are all negotiating a new normal.

 

So in this strange new landscape, is it really still worth creating content?

 

Why bother creating content?

 

A good question. It’s estimated that there are at least 500 million blogs in the world, with upward of 2 million blog posts daily. With so much content out there, why should anyone want to read yours?

 

Well, it seems that people actually do. Evidence suggests that those marketers and digital marketing agencies that use blogs get as many as 67% more leads than those that do not. 

 

So, at least 53% of marketers view blogging as their top content marketing priority. There are few areas of marketing activity that are not able to benefit from blogging; and it is a relatively low cost activity when compared with the potential benefits it is likely to bring. 

 

How to create content worth creating

 

So there are benefits of blogging. But 52% of bloggers report that because of the competition, it’s getting increasingly difficult to engage readers with their content. So how can you be sure that your content is actually worth creating?

 

There are ten things that you need to do:

 

• Publish often

 

Recent research shows that the more regularly you post, the more results you will see. Up to a point. There is also a law of diminishing returns that kicks in, particularly if your quality is not up to scratch. The more content you produce – either in length or frequency – the more likely you are to see strong results. But, within that framework, prioritise quality over quantity. 

 

As a guideline, businesses that publish 16 or more blog posts per month are likely to see around 4.5 times more leads than those that publish between 0 – 4 monthly posts. 

 

The highest percentage of bloggers seem to publish several times per month. However, it’s up to you to determine the frequency of posting that works for you. Your followers will adapt to your posting habits. But be aware that if you rarely post new content, they may get fed up and stop checking your website regularly.

 

• Write longer content

 

We have just referred to the length of posts and, interestingly, these are now getting longer and are taking longer to write. The average blog post is now over 1200 words long, with around 20% now averaging 2000 words or more.

 

This long-form content is achieving good results, both in terms of greater engagement and higher rankings.

 

However, the consequence of this is that the average blog post is now taking between three and four hours to write, with the top 20% of bloggers spending over six hours writing one blog post.

 

• Grab their attention

 

Despite blog posts getting longer, the median average time spent reading one is only 37 seconds. Which means that to keep the reader on the page and get them to finish the whole post you need to grab their attention in the first couple of paragraphs and give them a good reason for staying there to keep reading.

 

Even when they do stay and read, 43% of readers are likely just to skim blog posts. So, you need to pack them full of engaging and useful information in order to retain their interest and slow down their reading.

 

Also bear in mind that yours will not be the only blog that the reader is clicking on. So you need to check out what your competitors are publishing and see how your content compares. Even if you are covering similar topics, you need to develop a writing style and format that will persuade people to prefer your blog over your competitors.

 

• Know your audience

 

To be able to grab attention, you need to have a clear idea of who it is that you are speaking to. Know your audience. Know what is occupying their hearts and minds, and speak to that. 

 

You can use various tools to do this. There are high-tech solutions such as Google Analytics, Buzzsomo, Reddit and Quora. But also use every means at your disposal to interact and connect with your audience across all platforms. For example, responding to comments and reviews, conducting surveys and polls, using live chat etc. 

 

Get to know your prospective audience as you would a new friend, then work hard to keep that relationship going strong.

 

• Know your goals

 

Following on from the above, it is essential that every single article or blog post has a specific goal. Otherwise why write it? If you are just producing random content for the sake of publishing something, then you are wasting your time.

 

The most successful blogs tend to be those that include practical how-to content and original research, rather than either news or opinion. But that how-to content and research also needs to support a specific goal. 

 

For example, your blog may have the goal of generating leads, building your brand, gaining authority and trust, or directing readers to other pages of your site. But unless it has a goal, it is just filling space.

 

• Collaborate

 

Sometimes you will need an amount of collaboration to achieve the goal of your blog. If you are writing about a specialist topic, you may need input from a subject matter expert. You will need to make contact and interview them in order to produce a sufficient amount and level of authority content for your blog.

 

You can also use this opportunity to link your blog to your subject expert and other high-authority sites, and ask them to link back to you. This can help to establish your reputation as an authority in the subject and to have your site effectively endorsed by other reputable sources; whose followers may then also start to browse your content and your site.

 

• Get the titles right

 

Thinking of the best headline title for your blog is not as easy as it sounds. Whether you prefer to fix the title first and work from that, or to create a suitable title for a finished article, it’s really important to get it right. The title is the first thing that potential readers will see, so the wrong title could break your content strategy in an instant.

Headline titles of between 6-13 words consistently achieve the most traffic and hits. Also pay attention to subtitles and bullet points throughout the article, as these are critical in keeping the reader with you.

 

Make sure that titles are clear and rational, so that readers will understand what to expect in the following text. It is also effective to include specific numbers and data in your headline title, to tap into a known demand and promise answers to topical questions.

 

• Use visuals

 

When creating content, be aware that there is a clear correlation between the visual content of an article and its chance of success. The more images you add to a blog, the more successful it is likely to be. For example, around 3% of bloggers add more than ten images to their articles. But these articles are more than twice as likely to achieve good results.

 

So, even if your content is heavily text-biassed, bear in mind that if you add in more visual elements, it is more likely to succeed.

 

• Optimise for voice search

 

As well as the power of visuals, always be aware of the growing influence of voice search. Ensure that your content includes questions that people are likely to ask, followed by the answers they are looking for. When people use voice search they are likely to use full questions rather than just keywords, and by doing this in your content you are more likely to have it picked up by Google for voice search results.

 

Also make sure you include snippets in your content, that Google can use in its featured snippets section on the search results page. The best way to do this is to structure your content, and put subtitles and bullet points into H2 and H3 format, also including keywords in them. 

 

Keep your keywords under constant review. Long-tail keywords are more likely to help direct quality traffic to your site. So be specific and use keywords that are going to hit the traffic that you want to see coming your way.

 

• Measure success

 

Last but not least, always measure the success of your content. Of particular relevance to the above points are bounce rate and scroll depth. 

 

If you have a high bounce rate – ie if people don’t read your content and also leave your site without clicking through to any other pages – you need to look at your content to work out why.

 

Similarly, scroll depth can show you if people do not read your content all the way through. You can see how far they got before leaving the page. This will enable you to see what is and is not working, and to tweak your content accordingly.

 

So, to conclude, despite everything else that is going on around us right now, creating content is still worthwhile. It could even be the very thing that saves your business and helps you to move forward in the future.