Subscribe now and get the latest podcast releases 🌊delivered s🅰traight to your inbox.
The word “quality” is pretty subjective.
It cou🧸ld mean having a long list of traits that can be touched or seen, or it could be a warm and fuzzy feeling you can🍃’t really describe.
In the case of content marketing, quality really comes down to two definitions:
- To Google (and most search engines), quality content gives the searcher what they’re looking for. It delivers the 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:value that someone intends to find when they enter their query.
- For businesses, quality content drives traffic and, ultimately, sales.
But here’s the good news for marketers: 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:Our experience and that the content that truly valuable and helpful (what buyers, is the sa💃me content that sell꧂s (what businesses want).
In other words, they are no different. Quali🌄ty content gives audiences the value t🃏hey want and need to make a confident, informed decisions and buy.
Build trust by offering value
You see, it’s all about building trust.
Modern buyers don’t want to be sold to. They want to know they are spending their money wisely and making good decisions, not being bamboozled by a business that oꦍnly cares about the sale.
They want to buy from (and stay loyal to) organizations✅ that they trust will deliver on theirꩲ promises.
When your content delivers true value — gives a buyer what they want rather than selling to them — they begin toඣ v♈iew you as a helpful guide.
They begin to see that you want to help them make an educated buying decision, even if that decision doesn’t lead to a sale on your end. This trust is what ultimately makes people more inclined and comfortable buying from a business, and it's one of the biggest 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:benefits of content marketing.
So, what kind of content is valuable to buyers?
Value is another thin𝓀g that can be annoyingly vague. What is considered valuable varies depending on your audience and even its environment.
For example, during the initial rise of the COVID-19 pandemic, that “co🦩nsumers across the global value[d] services, products, people, and institutions that: reduce anxiety, reduce risks, provide some sense of safety and belonging."
Under the circumstances, most people were looking for a very specific value at the time. Today, however, with vaccines available and life returning to a degree of normalcy in many parღtꦐs of the world, that may no longer be the case.
These factors aside, value – when it comes to content marketing – usually comes in either the form of education or entertainment.
Thinking about 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:the goal of content marketing, this makes sense.
Content marketing was birthed in an effort to share pro𝕴duct information in a way that didn't 💫feel like a sales pitch.
With buyers ig꧒noring traditional marketing methods such as billboards and print ads, wrapping your messages in an educational or entertaining package is much more likely to reach your audience — without coming off as disingenuou𒈔s.
How to create quality content
(think product placements or much of the content on social media) is more of a long-term play to selling. It helps build awareness naturally and keeps your audience engaged while educational content is more of a direct business play.
For this artic♐le, we'll focus primarily on the latter.
Quality educational content is hyper-focused on addressing people's questions, thought🧸s, and objections. For businesses, this usually means questions that come up when making a purchase and hopefully eliminating them. (Think using the content in 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:assignment selling during the sales process.)
Educational content is about answering questions honestly and thoroughly to build trust with their audiences, because ultimately, people only want to buy from brands ꧙they know they can trust to deliver.
Below, I’ll share eight tips for creating high-quality 🏅content that does thisꩵ.
While these can be applied to entertaining or educational content, they are especially ef✱fective for creating educational content that will help aid sales more immediately.
1. Answer buyer questions
This is the big one. Valuable educational content is rooted in answering the questions buyers have 🍸about your product, servic🦹e, or industry.
If you can address the concerns in your buyer's head (especially 🌳those your competitors avoid addressing), yo🌠u stand out as a trustworthy resource.
has foundꩲ that consumers are a whopping 131% more likely to buy from a brand ꧂immediately after they consume early-stage, educational content.
But what questions are people asking exactly? What should you be answering with your quality content?
The best way to find out is by talking to your salespeople and front-line team members to learn what buyers are asking about. But like discussing price, product co🧸mparisons, or product reviews.
IMPACT ✅client InTek provides a great example of educational content in action. and resources are full o🦹f :
2. Be clear
I’m a writer and a marketer, so believe me when I say love wordplay.
But even with all my adoration, I know when it comes to creating quality educational content, clear trumps clever. (澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:T꧃hough I still aim for a happy balance.)
To effectively educate your audience and have them fully grasp your messages, they need to be able to understand ꦯthem. So, drop the jargon and SAT words.
Whenever possible, make sure to write in the simples🔯t terms so that anyoওne can understand what you’re trying to say.
As Donald Miller explains in Building a StoryBrand, you don’t want your audience to burn too many calories 🍨trying to figure out what you’re trying to tell them.
Not only will any confusion leave a sour taste in a potential buyer’s mouth, but it may even make them bounce off the website and to a competitor. (And high bounce rates certainly 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:don’t sit well with Google.)
3. Use formatting to make content easy to read
On a related note, make sure your content is ea༒sy to read as well.
Long paragr🥂aphs — or as I like to call them, not-so-great walls of text 💛— can be intimidating and difficult to digest, especially on mobile devices. Use formatting and hierarchy to improve your user experience and make content easier to skim.
This can also make your content easier for search engine𓂃s to understᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚand what your page offers.
Here are some guidelines:
- Break up your content with headers. Not only l does this make it easier for the reader to find the information they need, but it also helps Google better understand the information on the page.
- Use bolding, italics, and underlining to emphasize important information. These help key points stand out.
- Keep paragraphs short. At IMPACT, we try not to exceed three visual lines, even if this ends up being just one sentence.
- Add visuals. Videos, images, charts, and other visual elements can help drive home your messages and also offer a visual break from the text for readers. Plus, and are more likely to remember the information shared in them.
- Use numbered or bulleted lists (such as this one) to organize and draw eyes to key information.
Messaging app company Slack does a great job of using formatting and visuals to make i🍨ts content e𝓰asier to read:
4. Be thorough
Qua🐽lity content doesn’t just scratch the surface, it goes in-depth to address all of the obvious questions someone may have about a topic.
This doesn’t necessarily mean it directly shares every detail of a topic or 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:has to be 5,000 words long, but it does offer substantial insight or guidance via a liꦇnk or additio🐓nal resource.
Again, the point here is to offer value. Quality content anticipates a user’s needs and intentions and makes sure it delivers that value෴.
One question I always ask myself when writing or reviewing content is "did this address all of my obvious questions?"
If the answer is yes🐼, then iꦅt's done its job.
5. Make it actionable
When someone lands on your content💮, they are looking to solve a problem o💎r learn more about something.
Often they are looking for a solution that they can implement or insights they can take action on immediately. 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:Where many blogs fail is in creating content that isn’t aꦜctionable right away.
Quality content gives your audience something they can do as soon as they are finished)🤡. You don't have to provide life-changing advice in every post. Simply sharing a resource or providing step-by-step in♓structions is enough to keep the journey going.
Even if the next step is to ﷽download your free guide, the action they should take to get closer to their goal is clear.
When you offer valuable, tactical advice, you build trust with your reader. You want them to remember that when they landed on your article, they discovered something useful that🐼 benefited them that same day. The next time they want more i⛦nformation, your name and site will be top-of-mind.
6. Be relevant
Contrary to what Field of Dreams (and more importantly, Wayne’s World 2) said, just because you built it, doesn't mean people will come. In othe▨r words, just because you publish content doesn't mean anyone's going to read it.
Your piece could be perfectly format𒀰ted and writtꦦen, but if it’s not something your audience actually cares about, it won’t be appreciated.
That being said, more than anything, quality content is content that is relevant. It speaks to your audience’s actual wants and needs, r⭕ather than simply communicating something you felt like talking about. (Though there are rare instances when that is OK.)
7. Support your claims
Marketers get a bad rap. Many consumers 𝐆not familiar with the field or its nuances think we're just out to manipulate or trick people, but the🦂 best modern marketers know tricking a buyer hurts their organization in the long run.
That's why quality content supports everything it claims with accurate data, evidence,🌳 or ex💝amples from reliable sources.
No matter how established you may be, don't mindlessly shout hyperbole or insights without being able to explain where it's cꦗoming fro♏m.
Being able to prove everything you say once again builds trust and reinforces that you ha♍ve your buyer's best interest🌃s in mind.
8. Be helpful
All in all, quality content helps your audience get where they want to go 𒁏and know what they want to know. It helps them get the answers they're looking🥀 for regarding a purchase, even if that purchase isn't ultimately from you.
It is unbias🀅ed and gives the consumer all of the information they need to make the best decision for themselves.
Even Google recently released what it called the "helpful ℱcontent update," urging c𓃲reators to once again, focus on people-fir🦋st content.
It explains:
"People-first content creators focus first on creatingܫ satisfying content, whi𒊎le also utilizing SEO best practices to bring searchers additional value.Answering yes to the questions below means you're 🍌꧃probably on the right track with a people-first approach:
- Do you have an existing or intended audience for your business or site that would find the content useful if they came directly to you?
- Does your content clearly demonstrate first-hand expertise and a depth of knowledge (for example, expertise that comes from having actually used a product or service, or visiting a place)?
- Does your site have a primary purpose or focus?
- After reading your content, will someone leave feeling they've learned enough about a topic to help achieve their goal?
- Will someone reading your content leave feeling like they've had a satisfying experience?
So, not only will creating hౠelpful content rewar♓d you in the eyes of buyers, but in the algorithms of Google as well.
Quality content makes money
At the end of the day, all of these tips are working toward the same goal: buildin༺g trust to make money. Quality marketing content helps drive traffic, build trust, generate leads, and in the end, helps your organization close business.
You could have the greatest 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:content marketing tools in the world, but if they'𝐆re not being used 🅰to accomplish one of these goals, then they're not doing their job.
Want to dive deeper into the specifics of creating quality content? Check out our course,


Order Your ꧟Copy of Marc🌱us Sheridan's New Book — Endless Customers!