Creating the best content in your industry
-
Im currently working with a new client and their goal is to create the absolute best content in their industry.
I've seen alot of articles on WHY to create the best content but not a lot on HOW to create the best content.
Can anyone recommend a article they recall which talked more about the HOW. I'm looking for a process on how to create awesome content, how to go about it.
Any suggestions?
-
I agree with Mike Davis.
I ranted on about the need to hire professional writers in a post earlier this week..
Many of my clients are themselves subject matter experts and professional writers. I just point them in the right direction and do some editing as we come up with an editorial calendar. It's not unlike what I did as a magazine editor.
And, yes, it's important to be accurate. That shouldn't have to be said -- but it does. You'll never know how much business you lost because a prospect concluded you don't know what you're talking about.
Getting people to commit to producing content? I agree it's very difficult. Here's a radical suggestion on how to succeed: pay them. I know, I know -- this is deeply shocking....especially if we are talking about non-writers already on staff at a company. Of course, you need high level support to make this happen. But a $1,000 or $2,000 one-time writing bonus can work really well.
-
I know that the whole concept of thought leadership is overused and slightly annoying but to truly create great content that people will consume and share you must be in the right place at the right time. If your client knows of a new governmental initiative or possibly a new emerging technology that is not widely known about but is about to "blow up", positioning themselves for success by creating great content that is well written by an expert is a fantastic way to gain exposure and to set themselves up as a thought leader for that specific subject.
There are a couple little snags about developing the "best content in the industry" not least of which is that it costs a ton of money. Not only will the piece need to be created by an expert in the field, there will also be a need for professional editing (whether video or literary). Another piece of bad news is that a single piece of content is not enough. Your clients need to be pumping out content that is relevant and most importantly, current. Pure and simple, content is freaking expensive!
Another thing to watch out for is the desire to hurry and push out content without properly vetting sources or editing the piece. I don't know how many times I have read the latest and greatest white paper about a very important subject only to find glaring grammatical errors. Even worse, sometimes the content is just plain wrong. Tell your client to treat any piece of content they pushes out as if they were going to submit it for peer review in a scholarly journal. It needs to be well written and accurate.
I am very fortunate to have a full to writer on my staff and a massive pool of experts to draw on, but even still it is difficult to get people to commit to producing the content in a timely manner. Everyone loves to tell you about how they can create wonderful White Papers, but getting them to produce them sometime in the next decade is hard. You really have to set up deadlines and have people commit to keeping those deadlines.
Good Luck!
-
Daniel Tan has a great article out on how to write amazing press releases. I suggest you look for that as well. To me it's the best on the net right now and I personally use the same methods.
Have a great night and a happy holiday.
MB
-
Hi monster99,
Definitely check out http://www.distilled.net/linkbait-guide/ which my favourite content producing article I've found so far.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Hi, on SEO article submissions, do I only include the link to the page I am trying to promote or is it best practice to also include a link to home page or parent page?
Good day. I am writing articles for submission, I would just like some help with the page structure. Do I only include the link for the page that I would like to promote or is it advisable to include other page links, such as home page or the parent category too? Any help would be appreciated
Content Development | | thebedguy0 -
Community Discussion - Pitches from content marketers versus publicists: any difference?
Howdy, Moz community! Hope you're all having a fine Friday so far! Tuesday on the blog we featured Samuel Scott's superpowered "Advanced Guide to Online Publicity Campaigns." One interesting tidbit stood out to me as I was reading; the author states: On online marketing websites and blogs, I see pitching often being discussed by "content marketers" as a way to gain shares of and links to one thing or another. They should stop. I receive e-mailed pitches from PR executives and "content marketers" all the time — and I can tell within three seconds which one I'm getting. How? Here is the difference between the two. "Content marketers" pitch me: 1.) To share or link to some random article, and they do so often when
Content Development | | FeliciaCrawford
2.) I have no connection to or interest in the topic at all Publicists pitch me: 1.) To write about an idea because
2.) They already know that I have a connection to or interest in that topic I ignore or delete the pitches from "content marketers." Following the pitches from publishers, I may choose to include their source, study, or idea in some future piece in the publications to which I contribute. Most "link earning" methods are poor imitations of traditional publicity practices. Pitch in a way that will genuinely interest the people who you are contacting. Do not pitch thinly-veiled attempts to get links and shares for you or your clients. I definitely get these emails fairly regularly, but I've never given thought to just what it is that makes me respond positively to some and decline others. So here's my discussion question for the week: What's the distinction for you? Have you noticed that, in your own pitches, you've had a better reception to a certain strategy? Does the "publicist" angle work better in your experience, or have you had plenty of luck with the "content marketer"-type pitch? What do you actually find yourself responding to, in these situations?9 -
Duplicate Content- Archives
Our site is showing duplicate content for about 20 pages, they are all on the site as regular pages and in the "Archive" section. So the URL is different by one word but all the content is the same, is there a way to fix this and make it to where Google doesn't see it as duplicate content? Thanks!
Content Development | | legallaw0 -
Need to know about content marketing strategy
Hi, Can anybody guide me to a document or a presentation that elaborates how the content for overall Internet marketing strategy should be developed? And how do people beyond marketing department contribute to its success? Regards
Content Development | | IM_Learner0 -
Best way to get my Blog traffic
I've recently began blogging on my site. The content is all unique and useful and written properly without keyword stuffing... My question is, how do i go about getting people to see the blog (getting traffic to it) so that it can get linked to. I've created content that i believe people will naturally link to, the only problem is they're not finding my blog. Any advice on how to get my blog out into the world?! thanks
Content Development | | Prime850 -
Duplicate content problems, so why does WordPress post onto Tumblr?
Hi Everyone, Basically I know that if you have duplicate content your ranking is effected! This I understand, so why is it that WordPress has the option to post your blog entry straight onto your paired Tumblr account? Surely if this can be done, I can have the same content on the company website but also on WP and Tumblr? Or is there some sort of method to how it works specifically for those 2 websites? Thanks in advance.
Content Development | | MariusFermi0 -
Can un-unique content damage my rankings?
Hi there, I run a blog @ http://ablemagazine.co.uk We produce our own editorial content for our print magazine. Which means I have a great bank of uniquely written content. I can usually afford to post 1-2 completely 100% unique articles a day. I've also been copy/pasting 2-3 articles from the BBC or The Guardian a day to keep up activity. Should I continue doing what I'm doing? Should I post exclusively unique articles? Thanks
Content Development | | craven220 -
Is this Duplicate Content?
I searched a snippet of one of our Articles (in quotes) and got two results back in Google, one for the article on our site and one for our development/staging site. Does that mean that our development site is getting indexed by Google, even thought we "Disallow:/" in the robots.txt file? Is this a big duplicate content issue? Thanks
Content Development | | poolguy0