Yesterday I received an email from someone I’ve been following for a while.  Two paragraphs into the message, I stopped reading and deleted the message.  My next step will be to unsubscribe from her content.  Why?  Because her content is not landing with me.  With limited time and competing messages, I have to be selective about who and what gets my attention.

On the contrary, there is another woman that I follow that gets 100% of my attention.  I read and absorb every email, watch every video, and even respond to what she sends.  I am engaged with her content and she is moving me closer and closer to wanting to do business with her.  What makes her different?  Her content is relevant, intelligent, and innovative.  Her style and her teaching appeal to me and I enjoy learning from her.

Today’s business world is highly driven by online communications, and if you aren’t capitalizing on this platform, you are missing a significant opportunity to increase your reach, build brand awareness, attract leads and convert them to customers.  But with oodles of information online, how do you stand out and get someone to pay attention?

Here are five ways I have found that work to create killer online content.

BE CONSISTENT

The number one challenge every busy entrepreneur has with producing online content is time.  They don’t have time to write blogs, produce videos, create slide shares, send emails, or post social media graphics.  It’s just one more thing to do.  As a matter of fact, I am writing this blog post on a Saturday morning. 

However, consistency is critical to the success of any content marketing strategy.  Gaining a following takes time.  Repetitive action is the key to building an audience.  When I am evaluating a company, one of the first things I do is visit their blog.  If their content is not current, I immediately leave their website.  I want fresh and consistent content I can learn from.

Build some type of consistency into your online content strategy.  Pick a schedule that works for you.  One of my clients sends out daily social media tips, writes a blog once per month, and sends out a monthly newsletter.  She is consistent month after month.  There are ways to design a strategy that works for your schedule and there are people who can help you get your content out into the world.

BE AUTHENTIC

My spouse told me in the beginning stages of dating “I’m not for everybody, but there is somebody out there for me.”  The same mindset applies to business and your tribe.  Not everyone will relate to you, but there will be a group of people that love you and what you have to share.  They will follow you all the way into a business relationship because they like you.

Don’t be anyone but YOU.  Don’t try to fit into what others tell you to be, especially the experts. There are a million experts out there, all with different messages.  Listen to yourself.  Follow your inner wisdom and expertise and trust that your message will land with the “right” people.

There is one girl on LinkedIn that posts a social media graphic every morning.  Sometimes they are serious and other times they are funny as hell.  One thing I can say for sure is she’s bold; she’s vibrant and she speaks from her heart.  I have never met this girl and I love her.  Her authenticity shines through and her social media engagement is strong.

BE AUDIENCE FOCUSED

It’s okay to let your personal voice and stories come through in your online content, but only if it’s relevant to your audience.  People can tell if your content is self-serving or all about serving others.  When preparing your online content, come from a servant’s heart.  Be willing to teach, share valuable tips, and entertain your audience.  Make them laugh.  Make them think.  Challenge them to learn.

Even if you sprinkle in self-promotion, the majority of your content should truly be written to help your audience.  Know your audience and what they want to read or listen to.  Do your research and help them solve their most pressing problems.  Connect with your audience – mind, heart, and spirit. 

And always respond to them.  I remember one time I made a comment on someone’s article, thanking them for what they wrote.  The business owner never responded to me, making me feel unheard.  You must engage with your audience if you have any chance of building a relationship.  People do business with people who truly care.

BE CREATIVE

With all the content online, your content needs to be different.  Something about it needs to stand out above the rest.  Play with your content and see what resonates.  Catchy headlines need to grab attention.  Your headline is so important – there is a lot of valuable content online that can teach you all about using words to entice your reader.  Make your graphics eye-catching and branded.  Even if you don’t have a graphic designer, there are plenty of programs like Canva that do a lot of the creative work for you. 

Integrate multiple mediums of online content to keep things fresh.  You can share the same message with a blog post, infographic, slide presentation, video, and a podcast.  Mix it up and have fun with it.    It may be a challenge but try to think of topics that few people write about.  Or introduce a different perspective on a popular topic.  Make online content your creative playground.

BE EFFECTIVE

There is nothing worse than spending time and energy on creating online content, only for it to fall dead and produce no results.  It happens all the time for everyone.  Some content will land, while some will have little to no engagement.  And sometimes it can be hard to know.  That is why it’s so important to test and measure the effectiveness.

There are four measures of content marketing success:

• Consumption Metrics – How many people consumed your content? (page views, attendees, downloads, video views, etc.)
• Sharing Metrics – How often does your content get shared? (re-tweets, shares, likes)
• Lead Generation Metrics – How often does your content views result in email leads?
• Sales Metrics – How often does your content views and leads result in sales conversions?

Have a plan in place to regularly look at all these metrics.  Then adjust your content to increase its effectiveness.

Content marketing, if done right, works.  Plain and simple.  I have received leads and clients from my LinkedIn articles alone.  And it can happen for you too.  Killer content requires you to bring your “A” game – consistency, authenticity, creativity, audience-focused, and effectiveness.