3 Proven Steps You Can Take Today to Improve Your Content
If you want your content to stand out, then you need to make it memorable.
Creating content that resonates involves being deliberate in your approach and delivery. You need to have a strategy that won’t just provide value but connects with your audience.
When your content connects, your audience is more likely to consume it. And they begin to trust you. And once they trust you, the sky’s the limit.
In this blog, we’re going to look at three easy steps you can take immediately to improve your content. Let’s dig in.
Leverage storytelling
In addition to working in marketing and sales, I’ve also worked for several years in higher education. When I jumped back into marketing, I had a hard time adjusting my content.
In higher education, everything is very formal, academic and data-driven. I’d been doing it for so long, it became a habit.
I could coach someone all day long about how to incorporate personality into their content, but when it came to doing it for myself, I was a robot. And I wasn’t connecting. (Plus I’m very introverted and talking about myself and sharing my stories isn’t something that comes naturally.)
One of the first things I began asking myself was “What kind of story can I include with this piece of content?”
I had to be very intentional about incorporating storytelling into my content.
When I started doing it more consistently, I noticed people were more receptive to my content. My page views and engagement increased, as did the average engagement time on the Aynsli + Company website.
To be honest, it’s still something I’m working on. I don’t do it as much as I’d like but I’m trying. It takes practice and time but, like most everything else, it gets easier the more you do it.
Storytelling is a powerful tool to make your content resonate with your audience.
It humanizes your content and helps in building connection, making complex information relatable and, often, more memorable.
You can insert stories in multiple ways in your content. You can share personal experiences, case studies or client success stories that tie back to the points you are making.
So, if you aren’t consistently incorporating stories into your content, consider this my challenge to you. And if you are currently sharing stories, I encourage you to audit your content and see if there are other ways you can incorporate stories even more.
Some quick tips to implement storytelling in your content:
Begin your piece with a compelling story that hooks your audience
Use narratives to illustrate and explain abstract or complex concepts or data
Wrap up with a story that reinforces the main message of your content or offers inspiration
Enhance with visuals
Visuals are key to breaking up text, illustrating complex ideas and adding engaging elements to your video.
This can include images, infographics, charts and a myriad of other items.
When you integrate visuals, it allows you to cater to visual learners and enhances the overall experience, making it easier for your audience to digest and remember your content.
If you are blogging, you can incorporate visuals to break up the text.
When creating video, including graphics and visuals keep your viewer’s attention.
If you have a podcast and keep your show notes on your website, include visuals to demonstrate what you were speaking about.
Often, people have the volume off when engaging with social media. For example, if you are making a Reel, Including text overlays helps viewers understand what your content is about.
Some quick tips to implement visuals in your content:
Use high-quality, relevant images to complement your text
Create or include infographics that summarize key points
Embed videos or gifs that add depth to your content or provide examples
Optimize for skim readers
This one applies to written content.
Whether it’s your blog, show notes or captions, optimizing your content for skimmers ensures key points are easily accessible, even to those who are just scanning through.
According to Hubspot, 43% of people admit to skimming through blog posts.
I am guilty of this myself and would guess that the majority of you are as well. If I find an article or blog that looks interesting to me, I’ll usually scan down the page quickly to determine if I really want to invest the time to fully read it.
The good news is that making your content skimmable is probably the easiest of the three strategies we’re talking about.
Some quick tips to implement in your content:
Structure your content with clear, descriptive headings
Use bullet points or numbered lists to outline key points, steps or tips
Highlight critical information or statistics in bold or italics
So there you have it, three easy steps you can start taking today to improve your content.
Incorporating one or all of these strategies – leveraging storytelling, incorporating visuals and optimizing for skimmers -- will not only make your content more appealing and engaging but also ensure it’s more accessible to a broader audience.
Each of these steps works toward creating a richer, more interactive and enjoyable experience for your audience.
For more ideas to improve your content, be sure to download your FREE Content Creation Kit.