The internet is incredibly packed. There are millions of blog pages and content marketing sites and literally billions, if not trillions, of web pages total.
Among that sea of words, it can be difficult to create content that consistently draws new viewers and inspires them to return regularly.
Part of the reason this is so difficult is because nearly everyone is trying to stand out, which means that many of the same strategies are being used by others that you might use. The following content creation tools and strategies will help your content marketing stand out, even in the chum filled waters of the internet.
1. Don’t Rely on Trending News
On February 27th, 2015, Leonard Nimoy died. It was the news of the day and every single news agency, blog, and social media user was talking about it. If you had posted your list of “Top 10 Leonard Nimoy Roles Other Than Spock,” your post would have gotten lost among the millions of similar posts that were all created that same day.
That is fine if your blog has a loyal following and the post was simply a one-off to honor Nimoy. But, if every post on your blog is following the trending news, your blog will rarely ever get new visitors.
2. Find Your Niche and Double Down on it
If you want your content to stand out in the crowd, you need to find a specific niche that receives very little attention from other writers. Then, you need to not only write about it, but become a scholar on the topic. Since you have intentionally chosen a topic that has very little coverage on the internet, this means you will have to do research and study offline.
Mastering your topic may require any of the following:
- Taking a course in the subject
- Research at a library
- Engaging in active practice of the topic (ex: carpentry, playing video games, etc.)
- Traveling to locations where you can observe your topic
This approach effectively requires a leap of faith, because this type of study takes a lot of time and until you start writing authoritatively about the subject, you can’t be certain your writing will draw an audience.
But, assuming you truly gain mastery of the subject, it is a safe bet that there are people who are searching the internet for information on that topic.
3. Focus on Solutions
Of all the ways to make your content stand out in the crowd, one of the most successful ways is to focus on solutions. Readers that are searching the internet for information about a problem, usually aren’t looking for a discussion of the problem as much as they want a simple, straightforward solution to that problem.
There is nothing more frustrating to a reader than searching for information about a problem and discovering that lots of people have encountered the problem, but finding no meaningful solutions for it. The following are some good examples of blog topics that directly solve a problem:
- Removing Superfish malware from Lenovo computers
- Choosing the right knitting material to prevent itching
- Advice for convincing your boss to give you a raise
If your content always provides a solution to all problems that it discusses, you will definitely stand out and readers will return to your website confident that it is a valuable source of good information.
