9 Critical Elements to Create Quality Content
Impossible or I’m possible – all it matters how you perceive.
You must have heard people saying that everything is possible. And it’s true. The only hiccup is how we face difficult times. Our attitude towards our problems matters a lot. For me, writing was my hiccup.
Being a content writer, I always foresee to refine my writing. I always keep on asking – how could I write an engaging and create quality content. So I started reading some top bloggers. And after days of researching, I finally found my answer.
In my research, I found that every top content has some common elements in them. And digging deeper helped me found the elements to create quality content.
If you too want to write an engaging content, you must follow these elements of content writing.
1-Create a Catchy Headline
Headlines have always been the key content which catches your sight. While researching, I too felt inclined towards the blogs having something for me. I jumped on those blogs which were offering something to me.
David Ogilvy, also known as the father of advertising, once said;
The headlines which work best are those that promise the reader a benefit.
Now some say to start your writing with a headline first, I would suggest writing the headline once your content is ready to publish. This would give you an insight of what your content talks about. It would then be easy for you to come up with a catchy headline;
- Write down all the headlines you come up;
- Shorten the length of your headlines;
- Select the most catchy and informative headline;
2-Create an Inviting First Few Lines
Just after an impressive headline, comes your content. But what if it slams the door for the reader? Starting has always been the hardest task. It takes courage to speak the first word but once you’ve started, it won’t be easy to stop you.
While I extracted the elements to create quality content from different blogs novels and stories were also the part of my research. Just like the headline, the starting few lines also have their own importance. However, unlike headlines the starting lines are always very difficult.
So, for this I have few pieces of advice to make:
- What your content is about?
- What is the purpose of your content?
- Who is your target audience?
- What tone you’re planning to use?
Take time and find your starting pitch. To get an idea, you could read some blogs or stories.
3-Blogging is About Your Words and Tone
It’s always said to know your audience before even start writing. When you don’t know who’s going to read your content, how could you build an engaging content?
I was once writing a homepage content for a client. He provided me the basic information. I did a little research and produced a homepage content. The client rejected it. He then explained that I haven’t targeted my audience. He gave some samples and told me who the targeted audience was. I reproduced the content and sent it again. This time, the client accepted it.
Your words and tone do take a huge part of your writing. Use some persuasive words, with no grammar mistakes, and tone which best inclines with your readers.
4-Say the Right Things
Is it easy to understand your course books or the novels you read? Definitely, it’s easy to understand AND read novels. But why? They create an imagery, the tone is friendly, and the best part – they are not a study material. Though blogs should be informative especially when they are written to sell something, the tone should incorporate a friendliness.
Another thing to add up – don’t use long sentences.
5-Use Bullets to Keep Short
Long sentences are never recommended. Readers will lose their interest and your content wouldn’t gain enough popularity. To avoid this, you can use bullets.
You can also use bullets when you want to share information without say a lot. Bullets concise the information and keep the content readable.
6-Use Sharp Subheads
Long paragraphs are uninteresting for readers. Paragraphs should be divided equally throughout the content.
Also, use exquisite subheads. Like headlines, subheads will tell the reader what that content is about. If readers find it interesting they’ll read through it or will skip to the next subhead.
7-Images Tell a Detailed Story
To put more value to your content, add images. Images are more detail-oriented than text.
Like the tone of your writing, images also have a tone. Both the text and images must have the same tone.
Where you can find free images on the internet, it’s highly recommended to create your own images. If you can’t create an image, you can edit a free-to-use image or can provide a link to the image provider.
Like images, videos also have an impact. In fact, videos are more compelling than images and text. But videos can’t be used too frequently like images, as they would slow down the load process. You can add one video per content.
8-Follow a Style
Your content should follow one style alone. If it’s talking about iPhone 7, iPhone 7 must be the focused topic. If it’s about new smartphones, you can then add Samsung Note 7 and others as well.
From start till the end, use one topic as the main course to interact with your audience. Also, the tone you’ve selected must go along. Talking of different things with different styles isn’t liked by readers.
9-Be Who You Are
Lastly, you can’t be a superhero but you can be a hero. Be authentic and use your own selling tone. Do read different writers as this will polish your writing skills and also helps you find your own style, but don’t try to copy others to sell more.
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Digital marketing enthusiast and industry professional in Digital technologies, Technology News, Mobile phones, software, gadgets with vast experience in the tech industry, I have a keen interest in technology, News breaking.
