Thrill to the intrepid explorer Iowa Jobs as he seeks the true Wise One who can lead him to the ancient treasure! And stay to learn about the treasure of uniqueness for your content development.
In this episode of our popular Here’s Why digital marketing video series, Perficient Digital’s Mark Traphagen explains why uniqueness is an essential element of your content marketing, and how to create unique content that stands out from the crowd.
Don’t miss a single episode of Here’s Why. Click the subscribe button below to be notified via email each time a new video is published. Viewed over half-a-million times!
Resources
- The Three Marks of Great Content
- I See Content Everywhere (the Topical Mashup Technique)
- Buzzsumo (social engagement analytics tool)
- See all of our Here’s Why Videos | Subscribe to our YouTube Channel
Transcript
Eric: Mark, in other recent “Here’s Why” episodes, we’ve covered two of your three marks of high-quality content. Today, let’s talk about the third mark, and that is that great content is unique. What exactly do you mean by that?
Mark: Eric, let’s start by talking about why your content needs to be unique. And even though marketers like you have been preaching the importance of content for SEO, for brand reputation, and for lead generation for a long time, it’s only in maybe the past three years that the message took hold with most brands. And boy, did it take hold. We’re witnessing a content explosion where the volume of content being shared and promoted far outstrips the amount of available attention from content consumers.
Eric: But people haven’t stopped consuming content, right?
Mark: Far from it. I mean, but they’re not viewing more content than they used to. Probably they’re viewing just as much, but the amount of content available means that most content is seen by few people.
Eric: We know how valuable content can be, so we can’t just quit producing it.
Mark: Of course not, but it means that our content needs to stand out from the crowd to get noticed and read, viewed, or listened to.
Eric: How can we create content that’s unique enough that people will actually pay attention to it?
Mark: First of all, unique doesn’t necessarily mean one-of-a-kind. I mean, if we thought every content piece had to be entirely about things never discussed before, our ability to produce content would just grind to a halt, right?
But you don’t have to be entirely unique, just unique enough. By that, I mean that you can write about topics that have been discussed before, but you should always have a unique take on the topic. Some angle or approach that hasn’t been done before.
Now, second, do your homework. Make sure you’ve researched what has already been said about the topic and any content that actually got wide attention. BuzzSumo is a great tool for that research. Third, work at developing a unique voice. Have an approach, a way of expressing your content, that doesn’t sound generic. I don’t mean to get weird unless that suits your target audience, but be natural. Be yourself. And finally, use my mashup technique to find ways to develop new approaches to your topics. You can learn about that in my Moz “Whiteboard Friday” video linked here.
Eric: Thanks, Mark. Viewers can learn about your three marks approach to creating high-quality content in your post on our blog here.
Don’t miss a single episode of Here’s Why. Click the subscribe button below to be notified via email each time a new video is published.
See all of our Here’s Why Videos | Subscribe to our YouTube Channel
