How do you create addictive content that people will not only read, but link back to again and again? We asked over 140 different experts to share their top tactics. Here is what some of them had to say.
Research what all of your competitors are creating and one up them. Make your content more detailed, more actionable, and wrap it up with a pretty design.
– Neil Patel, Founder of NeilPatel.com @neilpatel
Our top strategy at jeffbullas.com is to create 1,000+ word blog posts that add value to our readers and to become such a great resource that we get inbound links from other websites and blogs.
– Jeff Bullas, CEO of JeffBullas.com @jeffbullas
Create highly relevant, useful, visual, informative and entertaining content that’s easily shareable and entertaining content that’s easily shareable and answers the kinds of questions people have relevant to your company, products or services.
– Lee Odden, CEO of TopRank @leeodden
Post good shit and let Google find it, That’s my entire approach!
– Guy Kawasaki, Author & Speaker at GuyKawasaki.com @GuyKawasaki
The key to creating addictive content is through a compelling story.
– Chester Branch, Transmedia Architect at MediaShift @storynotes
Don’t create content just for the sake of content. It’s better to write one amazing blog post a week than ten that no one will care about.
– Michael Keshen, Content Marketer at Hover @MichaelKeshen
The secret to creating content people actually want to read and share is to make it really valuable and irresistible. What problems can you solve for your audience?
– Susan Payton, President of Egg Marketing PR @eggmarketing
i always ask myself, will this content be relevant in 1 years? How about in 10 years? This is the test of longevity and relevance.
– Eugene Woo, Chief Data Scientist and Co-Founder of Venngage
The new SEO (Social EngineOptimizzation) is my priority. Good content is content that provides value to your audience.
– Andrew Davis, Author of Brandscaping @TPLDrew
Put together an editorial calendar, a quarter at a time, that provides a variety of content types that will keep you top-of-mind as useful resource for your audience.
– Erika Heald, VP & Head of Content at Highwire PR @SFerika
My formula’s a two-parter. One, make content that solves a real problem you know potential customers grapple with. And two, make the experience of consuming that content fun.
– Barry Feldman, Founder of FeldmanCreative @FeldmanCreative
We are counting on organic traffic. So create content people are searching for, optimize it, keep creating it and be patient.
– Arnie Kuenn, CEO of Vertical Measures @ArnieK
My top strategy for creating good content is to focus on the customer and what content they need to be educated or inspired about before they even know it.
– Neal schaffer, Social Media Keynote Speaker at Maximize Your Social @NealSchaffer
Many customers in many industries don’t spend time sharing content. Flip it around and start creating content for those that do share and you have an opportunity to get it out there through those influencers.
– Marketing Leader / Enterpreneur at ChrisKubbernus.com @ChrisKubbernus
Use websites like Alltop or Buzzsumo to find influencers in your niche.
– James Reynolds, CEO of SEO Sherpa @FollowJames
I like to say the best content is conversation, and empowering that to happen requires being in touch with results, listening, and allowing your team to adjust accordingly.
– Ted Rubin, Social Marketing Strategist & Speaker at TedRubin.com @TedRubin
Start by using question-based keywords, bundled into groups by similar user intent, and prioritised by search volume.
– Steve Wiideman, SEO Expert at SEOSteve.com @seosteve
The quality of presentation matters. If you’re going to do text content make sure it’s not just a block of text, but make it scannable and attractive.
– Jen Van Iderstyne, Senior Strategist at Overit @Vanetcetera
I’ve found that paid social media advertizing on Facebook and Twitter is more scalable and easier than doing link outreach by email or leveraging expensive PR firms.
– Larry Kim, Founder of WordStream @larrykim
Diversify your efforts outside of traditional SEO. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in particular are already massively disrupting traditional SEO.
– Danny Dover, SEO Consultant at Intriguing Ideas @DannyDover
One tactic that has stood the test of time for me is “Link Building Outreach”. By providing the right content to the right authoritative sites, it is great for exposure, a back link and is a win-win for you, the blog and readers.
– Shane Barker, Digital Marketing Consultant / SEO Specialist at ShaneBarker.com @shane_barker
By getting your content featured on the top sites covering your space, you are sending clear signals to users (and Google) that you are one of the top authorities in your space.
– Eric Enge, CEO of Stone Temple Consulting Corporation @stonetemple
Whenever possible, present your readers with data, case studies, real examples, and step-by-step instructions to achieve something so that when they finish reading, they have an action plan.
– Siddarth Bharath, Content Marketing Consultant at Thinkific @siddharth87
Map the questions a prospect would have at each stage of the buying process. Give them the content that maps to the stage they are at.
– Brenda Stoltz, Founder of Ariad Partners @BSStoltz
Reuse, reuse, reuse – turn content into an ebook, infographic, webinar, guest blog post on sites with similar followers, Medium, Slideshare, podcast, speaking topic.
– Oli Gardner, Co-Founder of Unbounce @oligardner
Be unique. There is nothing worse than regurgitated listicles and how to articles.
– Brad Hess, Senior Digital Marketing Manager at Ceros @fresholdidea
People get more engaged with video, imagery and interactive content than text so you need to have a mix.
– Ian Cleary, Founder of RazorSocial @IanCleary
The best way to create engaging content is to get your customers involved in the content creation process.
– Cassandra Jowett, Content Marketing Manager at Influitive @cassandrajowett
Be authentic. Say what others aren’t saying. Add value to the conversation.
– Ryan Hoover, Founder of ProductHunt @rrhoover
A top strategy for creating valuable content is to tell stories. They’re more memorable and let your target audience get to know one of the company’s most important assets: its people.
– Meryl K. Evans, Content Maven at Meryl.net @merylkevans
Make sure your content is something people are actually searching for. Type a couple keywords into the Google search bar to see what auto-populates.
– Alina Brandford, Contributing Writer at CNET and Tech Writer for MTV @alinabradford
We tell stories and we share emotions. We relate to things. Creating content is sometimes about finding the stories that tell customer experiences, and also employee stories.
– Scott Stratten, Unmarketer at Unmarketing @unmarketing
Identify and answer your customers’ top questions and address their biggest challenges. If you provide the best answer consistently, then you will rank for the search terms your customers are using.
－ Michael Brenner, CEO of Marketing Insider Group & Head of Strategy at NewsCred @BrennerMichael
Creating good content is about educating your users on subjects they actually care about, rather than always trying to sell them something.
– Lauren Moon, Content Manager at Trello @elmoonio
Repurpose your content because what may start out as an ‘ok’ ebook may end up doing better for lead-gen as a SlideShare, blog post, or webinar.
– Christine White, Co-Marketing Manager at HubSpot @christinenew603
Every single piece of content is the only one that matters. We give it all of our attention.
– Leo Widrich, Co-Founder / COO at Buffer @LeoWid
Perform your own searches, read the top posts and identify the holes in their content. You’d be surprised how much great content can be created simply by seeing where the top-ranking posts are falling short.
– Evan Lepage, Content Marketer at Hootsuite @EvanLePage
Most people look for content that offers Practical value, is Entertaining, is Awe-inspiring, and is Credible P.E.A.C. content is good content that people actually want to read.
– Nadya Khoja, Director of Marketing at Venngage @NadyaKhoja
Even if I focus on the topics that are not fresh, I share some tips/ideas/strategies, which are very new and in general would help users to think from a different perspective.
– Pratik Dholakiya is the founder of Growfusely @DholakiyaPratik
At Brick Wall, we customize our definition of ‘good content’ for every client, for the simple reason that ‘good content’ is different for every market, product and audience. Good content for one of our clients isn’t good for another.
– Melissa Lafsky Wall, Co-Founder and President of Brick Wall Media @Lafsky
My hunch is that when things are actionable – when people leave with something new to try – there’s likely a lot of positive emotion that comes with that, which will end up leading to shares, traffic, promotion, etc.
– Kevan Lee, Content Crafter at Buffer @kevanlee
One approach we take in our process is to test all our infographics on Imgur before we ever publish them on our clients site. We get valuable feedback from a large audience that we can then use to improve our content and design.
– Danny Ashton, CEO of NeoMam Studios @dannyashton
Bottom line: relevance. Great content comes down to truly understanding your audience and creating content that they care about.
– Hana Abaza, VP of marketing at Uberflip @HanaAbaza
Back up your points with concrete examples in the form of images, links to articles, and case studies. This classic writing rule rings true: show, don’t tell.
– Creative Content Specialist at Venngage @sara_mcguire
My definition of high-quality content is basically the content that you, the creator, the publisher or the content that you, the creator, the publisher or the content marketer, find good enough to share on your own Facebook wall.
– Ann Smarty, Founder of MyBlogU.com @seosmarty
The truth is that the web is full of good content, so your content needs to be better. It needs to be more detailed, more usable, more engaging and readability needs to be a high priority.
– Adam Connell, Founder of BloggingWizard @adamjayc
How to Create More Shareable Web Content: Keep It Short.
One of the most powerful hacks to create highly-shareable web content is to make it short. Whether it’s text-based blog posts, images, or explainer videos, make the web content as straightforward and skimmable as possible. Concise content will help audiences digest what is it all about in a matter of seconds, and consequently, they’ll feel so light-hearted to pass it on all over the internet.
– Andre Oentoro, Founder of Breadnbeyond @breadnbeyond