By Kelly Gregorio
The difficulty with content creation lies in the quest to stay credible.
In a sea of (often recycled) information, it can seem nearly impossible to position a client as an industry leader that stands out from the rest.
The good news is that with some thoughtful consideration and tweaks to your content creation routine, PR professionals can guide clients to an even higher level of credibility.
Five Ways to Make Your Content Credible
Make it Useful
One way to make content credible is to make it action-oriented. “How to,” numbered steps, and tip-related content will allow audiences to take your client’s credibility into their own hands.
If you base the content in the reality of real needs and wants, then audiences can test out words of wisdom for themselves.
Make it a Conversation
Credibility tends to stack in numbers. One way to up the cred of your content is to bring in others who have demonstrated success in that content area to comment and report on a specific topic, trend, or issue.
Consider hosting an interview as a way to welcome new voices and insights into your client’s arena. Keep in mind, by encouraging multiple perspectives onto pages, you also encourage interactions, comments, and carried out discussions from members of your audience and community.
Make it Approachable
You can have the best content in the world, but if it isn’t approachable, it is not going to get a chance to gain a following.
Keep pages welcoming and inviting with easy-to-read articles and resources organized in a way that makes logical sense. H1 and H2 tags don’t just make your content pretty. They also help your content rank around industry-specific keywords and phrases.
Subheadings and bold print that finalize points are essential. Go the extra step by including real, relatable examples to increase understanding and use accompanying pictures and videos to increase entertainment value when appropriate.
Make it Open-Minded
When crafting content, it is important to remember you don’t have to find likeminded opinions and support in order to gain credibility.
Simply highlighting and thoughtfully examining opposing opinions really rounds out an argument.
Make an effort to increase your client’s credibility by remaining unbiased within the content at hand; be willing to give equal consideration to other sides, possibilities and varying viewpoints as much as possible. Audiences respond to a well-structured and well-reasoned argument that welcomes debate and discussion.
Make it Relatable
Content creation can be greatly served by an added personal touch.
See if there are appropriate ways in which you can incorporate real-life examples into written work. Anecdotes and personal stories can also help illustrate challenging and dense ideas in a digestible format that resonates with your audiences. Start with common customer questions and answer them as completely as you can.
Not only will credibility grow from a personal experience standpoint, but audiences will also feel closer and more loyal to brands that divulge glimpses into their past, insight into their present, and dreams for their future.
Good tips, kellymriblogger! This post is especially timely as the insatiable content beast continues to get hungrier and hungrier.
jasonkonopinski kellymriblogger Agreed! I’m seeing a number of B2B companies wanting to update their websites and it is an exciting time to educate/lead them to making the right choices. It’s nice to see the communications people getting excited again because the businesses are understanding it’s not about keywords and links.
This is a great post and fits into the conversations regarding making content something more than ‘an additional page of text for the website’. I’m working with a client in a niche industry and a lot of their content is recycling the same sales pitch over and over which doesn’t provide any value to the reader. Articles like this help me explain how to broaden the content so it isn’t the same old thing, redone.
I like the points above, but if we’re talking credibility, where does using authoritative/credible sources play into the equation?
Im thrilled by the idea that many of you seem to be bringing up – the fact that these concepts can not only be used to create killer content but can help others understand the need for stellar efforts. Thank you all for reading and sharing your inspirational insights!
I love how this post takes it back a bit also. We have to remember that not everyone in this space are old hats at the game. Many are just starting out, and it’s always a pleasure to revisit some of the tried and true steps towards success!
All good points, Kelly!
I often stress how important a good, clean layout and design is online. In fact, I cringe when I have to read something on a blog that looks like something a kid in China put together for five U.S. dollars.
Making something relatable is where your company’s true talent will come in play.
kellycashprior Thanks for sharing your insights here. To piggy back off the question posed by ClayMorgan, isn’t credibility also about referencing the best possible sources at your disposal?
ClayMorgan I think most authoritative sites already practice everything Kelly listed. That’s why they rank so well.
jasonkonopinski kellycashprior ClayMorgan I agree, I think your credibility will only increase with the support of other (credible) sources behind you. However, I might argue to incorporate one (or all) of the concepts outlined here, first.
Pointing toward other sources will enhance your credibility game after you’ve made individual attempts to heighten it. Alternatively, I think if you point to sources too soon, you put yourself in a position to potentially weaken your overall argument. I’d say save sources as a secondary (but still necessary) step…what do you think?
I love ‘make it open minded’, not only is this often ignored, but I think many miss the boat but not inviting the discussion and showcasing the different view points clearly. Obviously this is something an organization must be prepared for prior to doing, but it can be a very powerful strategy to extend your typical audience reach
aileenabella http://t.co/gJQpg50Whs
Credibility is important in content creation, and it is not surprising this reality has to be shared in this post. Adding personal touch to useful content backed with proofs or testimonials can go a long way to enhance credibility.
I left this comment in kingged.com where this post was syndicated.
Sunday – kingged.com contributor
http://kingged.com/five-ways-to-make-your-content-credible/
JeffSheehan Timely, topical and relevant. That goes here http://t.co/12xcdxyrJw
CurveComms Hey, hey! Thank you so much! ^lp
Nice suggestions – as a software solution provider, I definitely favor the “How To” approach when we generate our content. As a consumer, and a solution provider, I appreciate the relatable when it comes to success stories and/or anecdotes.
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