The Most Provocative Question Regarding Your Content

For the last several years, you have worked extremely hard at writing and sharing top-quality content that will benefit not only you and your business but other people as well (in many cases, the other person’s needs are more important than your own). You know that people read your content but you need to ask yourself one extremely important question: would they miss your content if it didn’t exist anymore?

That is a question for the ages

At the heart of that question is the concept of having an understanding of what other people think about your brand and your business. You express what you represent and what you believe in through your content. Each week, you publish more and more great-quality content. You write on all sorts of topics that other people want and need to read about and your content helps other people with problems that they have been struggling with. In short, you are providing a value-added service to other people online. That is all very wonderful and it is a goal at which you have succeeded. 

If you never posted another word, would other people feel the loss?

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The fact is that you have already established your reputation online. Other people have come to expect the kind of top-quality content that you have shared with them up to this point. Of course, that is an assumption that is being made here. On the other hand, if the answer to the question is that your online connections would not miss your content, you have some work to do to change that situation.

Your goal is to get people excited (even passionate) about your content and about your ideas. In fact, you want them so excited that they can’t wait for you to post the next article for them to read. What you are doing (hopefully) is not only getting people to read what you are sharing but to become loyal target audience members (eventually to lead to their becoming loyal clients).

Anticipation is the key

When it comes to people reading your content, although you want to concentrate on quality over quantity, you still want to have a healthy list of followers at the same time. You actually want to advance to the next step, which means that you want those people to become loyal to you and to your business. Of course, there is a whole bunch of stuff that you will do in order to cause that to happen.

You will need to make people fully aware of your brand and your offerings. In many cases, people don’t connect with you simply because they are not aware of what you can do for them. It is just that simple. If you continue to supply them with top-quality content, the chances are very good that they are going to stick with you. You want people to excitedly wait with anticipation for your next posting (over and over again). 

Anticipation builds loyalty

If you are able to get your content to the point where other people wait excitedly for the next installment, you have accomplished something extraordinary for your business. Of course, if you build that sort of solid following, ultimately, you will increase revenue and become more successful in your business.

Loyal followers are extremely valuable to you because they are not only drawn to your content and your offerings, not to mention, your brand, but they are also generally delighted to tell other people about you as well. In fact, they are the only ones who can do that. You certainly cannot do that. It would not be appropriate. Well, perhaps, the big question on your mind is how you are going to create content that has that effect on other people online. If you examine it from the other side, you will see that if your content falls into a certain category, you will not get where you want to go. Of course, don’t despair, you can turn it around.

Your content:

• Doesn’t answer questions or offer solutions
• Doesn’t address specific topics in any detail
• Is not driven by the WIIFM? (What’s In It For Me?) concept
• It lacks excitement
• It is not user-friendly
• It reeks of “hard sell”

If any of those are true of your content, you have some work to do to change the situation. It may be extremely helpful to look closely at the content of other successful content writing and see if you can identify what is working for them. Ask yourself the following questions:

• Is the tone of their writing appealing?
• Do their headlines draw readers?
• Do they have a pleasant rhythm to their writing?
• Are their articles an appropriate length?
• Is the structure of their writing attractive?
• Do they make the writing compelling?

Of course, it goes without saying that you should not copy the exact words of the other person. That is called plagiarism and that is a big no-no! However, there is nothing wrong with taking concepts that resonate with you and using your own words to express them. You can identify what the other authors have written that touches you emotionally in some way. That is an excellent place to start. You can just go on from there.

Conclusion

If you ask the question about whether anyone would miss your content if it disappeared and the answer is no, you need to change that. On the other hand, if the answer is yes, just keep on doing what you have been doing up to now. However, remember to continually make improvements to your content along the way. If you have chosen your target audience appropriately, your content will be received positively on a very regular basis. If you do it right, your content will fulfill many different needs, including emotional, psychological, and intellectual.

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