How to write effective online content

This is a guest post by Peter Brill, content specialists. It’s said that content is king. With the rise of social media, the pressures of search engine optimisation (SEO) and the sheer volume of global communication, content has a lot of work to do. We asked Peter for some tips on writing compelling online content.

The pressure for your online content to cut through the millions of posts and uploads hitting the web on an hourly basis is only increasing.

Organisations are spending larger amounts of marketing budget on creating dynamic content for websites, newsletters, and social media in an effort to push their way to the top of the organic Google rankings. So, they want to ensure the maximum bang for their buck.

‘Citizen journalists’, ‘power bloggers’ and social mediarites have also increased the volume of, what PR academics term, ‘toxic communications‘. Basically, there is plenty of content and general ‘stuff’ standing in the way of your finely honed and crafted words of wisdom. Much of it, like this blog, will have been bagged, tagged and keyworded to the nearest pixel width.

The question is: will it get noticed by the audiences that really matter to you?

In my opinion, quality still outweighs quantity if you want target audiences to read what you have to say and interact with it. Interaction doesn’t necessarily mean they go out and buy the latest widget you are selling; it can simply be sitting and reflecting on what you have said in a way that might change their behaviour or attitude.

So how do you get noticed and cut through the toxicity? Here are five tips:

Find the story – story-telling has been around since the cave dwellers. It’s no different today, except for the way stories are transmitted. So work out the story you are trying to tell. A human angle always helps.
Tell the story – the most interesting fire the imagination, paint a visual picture and get the reader, viewer or listener excited. If you want website visitors to read your content rather than your competitors’, make it compelling and engaging.
Make it relevant – this applies to all audiences. Put yourself in their shoes. Is your story relevant to them, their values, needs or experiences? If it means writing the story in more than one way, do it. This is particularly true for the media. Why would a journalist writing for a financial publication be interested in, for example, fire detection systems? If it is relevant to their readers. So, how do these systems produce bottom line benefits for Financial Directors through savings in insurance, risk management or business continuity?
Timing is everything – the Twitter aggregators have ‘trending topics’ and #tag lists. Why? Because people are curious about what’s happening now. Plan ahead where you can or watch the trends and think where your story can fit into the latest conversation.
Small is big – some of the best viral campaigns have had small beginnings. They have been produced for a very specific, targeted audience, but that audience has been so impressed with the content that they have spread the word beyond their own ‘community’. SEO helps but, again, it’s the content that counts.

SEO may have the positive effect of highlighting you words on the web for eternity but, if the content doesn’t grab your visitors, you’re talking to yourself.

Peter Brill is owner of Net.Mentor, a Bristol-based provider of written content for web, print and multimedia. They provide this key support service for publishers, media and public relations suppliers. They also run specialist skills training in writing and content creation.