Sometimes, it can be hard to spice up content. There are ways to do it, although many content marketers forget or overlook them.
These six methods show how content can be improved by mixing-it up:
1. Proofread your Content as the Reader
Have you ever hired content writers and been frustrated with the quality? Sometimes, the writers don’t have enough information to master an assignment. Style guides can help, but it’s just material to read and, often, not very influential. There should be support for the idea of proofreading from the reader’s perspective. The content is not just for search engines, but for real readers to see and value.
2. Create Original Images for Content
A website’s unique content should include images, not just text. Using stock photos for graphics is overdone. There’s no reason to use the same image as everyone else. A little customization can go a long way in making that image look new.
Canva.com is one of the go-to graphic editors for web designers. Many find the interface easy to understand, even for a beginner with no real design experience. Read up on how to properly blend text with photos before starting to prevent low-quality results.
3. Demonstrate Stats in your Content
Using stats for content writing is a great way to make it rank and read better. Any data points could work, but for visual data, it’s best to target the newest points. This increases the chance that the content gets shared and linked from other websites.
Many sites make creating images of stats easy; check out 14 of the best data visualization tools to get an idea of the available options. There are also WordPress plugins that help with creating data visuals. But be careful when choosing one due to the risk of incompatibility with other plugins and the potential of unnecessarily bloating the site.
4. Use Social Media Quotes in your Online Content
Many websites already have content that fits this approach, but it’s something that’s mostly seen on corporate blogs. Any type of content can benefit from quotations, and social media is an interesting source that fits most niches. It’s easy to find relevant social media influencers and celebrities who are vocal on Twitter. This is the perfect source for quotes because each tweet is approximately one or two sentences long.
5. Avoid Redundancies and Confusing Sentences
This tip should be writing 101, yet far too much content on the web seems to fail at the proofreading stage. Reader-friendly content requires a punctuated writing style. This doesn’t always mean making five-word sentences that are easy to digest. It’s more about keeping the legibility of the message in each of those sentences, even if it takes a whole paragraph to get the point across.
There are two major ways to make proofreading better:
- Use the premium version of Grammarly to catch grammar errors, get synonym suggestions and scan for duplicate content across the web.
- Do a scan on HemingwayApp.com to catch any hard-to-read sentences and passive voice instances.
6. Create a Screening Panel or Do A/B Testing
How important is the content? If it’s high-priority, set up a panel of 5–10 people to read the content. Ask a set of questions to gather information. For example, ask what the call to action seems to be, how enticed the reader felt, where things get confusing, what could be written better. For any copy-based content, A/B testing is the way to go. Sites with high traffic can even tailor text based on a visitor’s geographic location to further improve reader-friendliness.
With these six easy tips, marketers can make content more visual, engaging, user-friendly and relevant.
Have fun with your content, don’t be afraid to mix it up. The result, your readers will be pleasantly surprised and engaged.