Many people are keen when brands are directly offering their products and services. While people do not generally like hard selling, consumers are searching for things they specifically look for online.

In a Pew Research Center survey, 81% of adults are online daily. This includes the 28% who said they are constantly online. People are more inclined to read content that actually matters to them.

• Content that answers their queries
• Content that addresses their pain points
• Content that keeps them updated on their industry 
• Content that engages the through effective storytelling

How can you create content that your audience would want to consume? Here are some effective ways to create the most valuable content for your audience.

Be Authoritative 

Establish your company as an expert in the industry to gain authority. This does not mean you are demanding authority from your audience by hook or by crook. Authority, in this sense, is the concrete display of your credibility as an industry expert.

How do you gain authority? Being authoritative in content means you know what you do and you show it. By creating content that is valuable, useful, and relevant, you are gaining authority in the industry.

In terms of search, Google measures authority by its E-A-T standards: Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. Google has developed its algorithm to gauge the quality and accuracy of search results.

How to improve E-A-T?

1. Use what you know – Establish your authority through exemplifying your years of experience. Create examples that expound the points or concepts you’re trying to explain. Avoid jargons as much as possible. Always consider the audience of your content.
2. Display your work – Mention relevant content pieces you have published on the topics that expand the subjects you’re writing. 
3. Use relevant research and data – Include relevant research and data about your own research. Make sure that you are attributing proper sources when you use their data and you link back to the native source of information.
4. Include and update author bios on your site – The bios should be included in your website about the authors who write on your website to establish credibility.

Be Informative

People most likely view your content because they want their questions answered. They search online when they have a pressing query that needs answers. Make sure you provide what they are looking for.

How to be more informative in your content?

1. Know the questions your readers are asking – Conduct keyword research to know what your readers are searching for. Your audience will make you understand their common concerns and issues. Then, you can craft your content according to their inquiries.
2. Narrow your content focus – While it is good to continuously generate content, you should narrow your topic. In every piece of content that you do, you can explore a key area of your specific content and can go in-depth in the topic.
3. Outline the purpose of every content you create – Decide what content piece you will do for your audience and what for. You need to figure out why you will make that specific content in the first place. Is it to promote your products? Is it to share your company’s story? 

Shorter content might not be as informative as a long form content. Generally, marketers and search engine optimisation (SEO) professionals prefer lengthier blog posts (around 1,500 words and up). Studies and white papers are preferable too since it generates more backlinks.

However, in defense of shorter content, it depends on the brevity and complexity of the blog post topic. Since you have to consider the attention span of the general population is getting shorter, capturing interests on long-form content can be difficult. 

Other forms of content can be photos, infographics, videos, podcasts, and many visual content.

Be Readable

Any content you do should catch the attention of your audience. How can you capture their interest in reading your blog posts when your articles are verbose? 

Your content should be readable. Readability is  beyond the grammar and punctuation. It’s also the storytelling technique, sentence clarity, and coherence.

You have to write to the level of understanding of your audience. The medium where your words will appear is also important since there are different screen sizes. You also have to consider the hierarchy, white space, contrast, and consistency of your content.

Provide a Perspective

There is no specific way to discuss things with your audience. You can apply various perspectives on the topic you’re writing for. If your content does not give something new to the audience, it will only become noise in the sea of content in your industry.

To stand out, you need to set yourself from the rest. 

• Provide a new or fresh perspective on a tired topic to give additional insight to usually talked about topics.
• Create a unique spin or angle to how you tell the story of your article. 
• Infuse your content with personality. This makes your content more convincing and interesting.

Satisfy Your Audience

Valuable content = Satisfying content. When you provide new knowledge to your audience, they will feel fulfilled. Satisfaction happens in various ways. 

For one, it could be when you have excellently explained a difficult topic to your reader using  understandable, layman’s terms. It could also be when you’re provided an analysis on your topics. It can also be when you cover a topic comprehensively. Lastly,satisfaction happens when you have a clear conclusion or takeaways that sums up the content.

In looking for ways to create the most valuable content to your customers, you must remember that you need to focus on efforts that add value to your audience.

You have to be authoritative, informative, and readable. At the same time, you also need to provide a fresh perspective, and at the end, you have to satisfy your audience.