Free Assessment: How does your inbound marketing measure up?

Get Started
Close

Free Assessment:

How does your inbound marketing measure up?
Take this free, 5-minute assessment and learn what you can start doing today to boost traffic, leads, and sales.
Get Started
inbound-marketing-strategy-playbook-cover

Free Assessment:

How To Give Your Marketing Content A Quick Quality Makeover

By Desiree Baughman

How To Give Your Marketing Content A Quick Quality Makeover

Simply put, your marketing content is what fuels the engine of your marketing campaign.

The dramatic shift towards the quality of your marketing content started a few years ago, but only grows stronger each year as the way we consume content continues to evolve.

Collectively, our attention span for solicited content has dropped significantly. As a society, we take to Google to answer our problems and find solutions (much like the Yellow Pages.)

Therefore, it's simply not good enough to simply feature optimized content for the search engines. It needs to be high quality. Search engines like Google even value consistent, quality content over anything else now. So if you don't think your website or marketing content is acting as a resource to your ideal prospects, you're falling behind right now.

It's time to revamp your approach to your marketing content.

If you're interested in learning more about revamping your marketing content, be sure to check out our free ebook, "How to Be the King of Content Marketing."

How to Give Your Marketing Content a Makeover

Back Up Your Points With Facts & Data

Having inaccurate facts in your blogs or articles can be unnerving and destroy your reputation as being an industry expert and thought leader in your niche.  You want the information that you present to be reliable, otherwise you’ll lose readership - fast.

Whenever you include any factual information in your content, make sure that you check and then double check that info just to make sure that it’s true.  This is particularly important if you are creating curated content or newsjacking.  While both of these are time sensitive and you want to get your content out ASAP, it’s still important to take that extra minute or two to run a couple of Google searches and reconfirm your content.

If at all possible, include data that will further support the accuracy of your content and help back up your points.  For example, if you’re taking a particular stance on a topic, you’ll be creating a far higher quality article that includes your opinion backed by data and facts than one that’s simply an opinion piece based on… well, no one knows what, exactly.  When people see that you’re getting perspective and information from credible sources, then you turn into a credible source too.

Incorporate Facts From Industry Leaders

Backing up your content with quotes from those who are an expert on a particular subject matter will go a long way in further helping you prove your point and improve the quality of your content.  You can either reach out to these people yourself, or you can do some digging online and snag some great quotes from industry leaders.

Use Examples

To help put what you’re saying into perspective, make sure that you use examples to further clarify and drive your point home. These examples don’t have to necessarily be “real life” examples; hypothetical situations work almost just as well.  Many marketers make the mistake of assuming that their readership will understand what they’re saying, but the fat of the matter is that while it may seem obvious to you, it very well may not to your readers.

Kick Jargon To The Curb

While we’re on the topic of making sure that your readership understands what you’re trying to say, make sure that you get rid of any jargon that can complicate your content and make it difficult to understand.  It doesn’t matter what level of lead or customer that content is supposed to be created for.  If you create quality content that’s straightforward and understandable, then everyone will be able to enjoy it.

What we also find particularly useful is if you designate certain skill-levels to your content.  For example, if you visit our free ebook and white paper download page, you’ll find the eBook “Small Business Marketing Made Simple” labelled as “beginner”, while our eBook “What It Takes To Run A Successful Business Blog” is labelled as “advanced”.  This allows us to adjust both the subject matter and the language to suit the needs and skill level of those readers.

Add In Quality Visuals

Visuals are best when they come from an expert graphic designer, but you may be able to get away with using some tools that you may already have at your disposal.  You can use tools like Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint to create graphs, charts, and other illustrations that will help you drive home your point.

People learn in different ways.  Some do just fine reading content and can get everything that they need from that. But for those who may be more visual learners, including high quality visuals that will help you illustrate points are a huge benefit to your content.

As the old adage goes, “A picture’s worth a thousand words”, and pictures are also potentially worth a thousand leads. But to attract GOOD leads, you've got to use some high grade content -- no fillers. Apply your 'makeup' wrong and your website won't be any better than those YouTube videos called 'My Boyfriend Did My Makeup.'

Free Assessment:

How does your inbound marketing measure up?
Take this free, 5-minute assessment and learn what you can start doing today to boost traffic, leads, and sales.

Topics:

Content Marketing
Published on February 4, 2013

Recent Articles

Top 10 Must-Have Qualities To Look For in a Content Manager
April 20, 2023 • 4 min read
Why You Need a Content Manager (and How to Hire the Right One)
April 13, 2023 • 6 min read
Your Content Initiative Can't Succeed Without Help From The Sales Team
March 22, 2023 • 5 min read
How to Ghostwrite Content for a Subject Matter Expert
March 20, 2023 • 4 min read
5 Smart Ways to Combat Common Buyer Questions With Content
February 27, 2023 • 7 min read
How To Skillfully Write About Competitors On Your Blog
February 20, 2023 • 8 min read
4 Ways Marketing Can Help Buyers 'Sell' Themselves
February 9, 2023 • 7 min read
6 Signs You're Being Neglected by Your Marketing Agency
February 1, 2023 • 5 min read
Never Chase Trends At the Expense of Your Brand
January 12, 2023 • 5 min read
Insourcing vs. Outsourcing Content: Which is Better for Your Business?
January 9, 2023 • 10 min read
Content Marketing in 2023: Principles, Platforms, and Content Distribution
January 4, 2023 • 5 min read
7 Content Marketing Trends You Can’t Ignore in 2023
January 2, 2023 • 8 min read
How To Set Content Marketing Goals for Growth
December 29, 2022 • 6 min read
What is Quality Content? (Updated for 2023)
December 15, 2022 • 7 min read
Outsourcing Is Broken: Rethinking the Relationship Between Client and Agency
December 14, 2022 • 5 min read
7 Big Reasons Your Content Marketing Is Failing (And How To Fix Them)
November 3, 2022 • 8 min read
The Epidemic of Half-hearted Content Marketing
November 2, 2022 • 4 min read
22 Best Content Marketing Tools and Apps for 2023
October 29, 2022 • 14 min read
7 Inbound Marketing Strategy Mistakes that Will Cost You in 2023
October 19, 2022 • 8 min read
The Big 5: 3 Simple Steps for Creating Great “Problems” Content (+ Examples)
September 1, 2022 • 6 min read
The Big 5: Best Business Blog Topics to Drive Traffic, Leads, and Sales
August 29, 2022 • 10 min read
What is a Content Strategy? (Definition + Templates)
August 25, 2022 • 12 min read
Content Marketing for Small Business (Tips for Growing Your Business Online)
August 22, 2022 • 13 min read
How To Create Sales Enablement Content Your Sales Team Will Love
August 15, 2022 • 8 min read
4 Content Marketing Frameworks To Add Structure to Your Strategy
August 8, 2022 • 6 min read