How to Create Relevant Content

Relevancy. Are you relevant? Do you want to be more relevant? It’s a word thats now reached the same point that “disruptive” did, it’s used so much now that it means next to nothing. Just throw it in when your pitch needs that something more.

“Relevant content” what thought leaders on LinkedIn call “magic sauce”, what Donald Trump calls “Fake News” , what Google and Facebook call it when they want to take more of your money.

Importantly, Clients have no idea what it means. Why? Because it’s been sold to them a million times and they’ve never seen any difference. Relevant content is simply one part of the good content puzzle and therefore belongs under the umbrella of just “quality content”.

Remember: “Quality Content Will be Relevant More Than Once”

So what is quality content and how do you make it? Well luckily we’re here to cover some of the most important considerations when it comes to creating some great content.

Placement:

Where is the content going to appear, this is so important. An article written for BuzzFeed would not go well when placed in the Financial Times, consider the context in which people are going to receive your content and what possibilities that gives you. Different mediums let you send different messages.

Ted Baker created campaign around this idea, with an Instagram campaign that featured an image with a hidden message. By applying a particular Instagram filter to the image, the audience could explore the campaign message of “daydreaming”.

Readability/Accessibility:

Create content that is designed to be understood, you can cover difficult to understand topics in accessible way without diluting the topic. Furthermore, cut the jargon because honestly everyone hates it. No made up words either, George Orwell knew a thing or two about writing, you can read his essay on language here, to help understand how to write accessible copy.

We’ll hold our hands up here; agencies are terrible for this. For example, what does the following copy even mean? Why do you have to decipher what they really mean?

Research:

Know what you’re on about. Please.

Refinement:

You could have written the most important commentary in years or have the most amazing stunt on video – if it’s full of grammatical errors or was filmed on a potato, people aren’t going to stay the duration. Similarly, be conscious of the complexity of your writing. Higher levels of complexity do not equate to higher levels of quality. The copy on Apple’s website is always on point, in just 3 words they tell you about the key points of the MacBook.

Hook:

Like a great song, your content needs a hook and this easier said than done. Usually, this comes in the form of a headline. You’ve got to balance it between BuzzFeed/Tabloid style clickbait and Headlines that are more suited to a dissertation.

We really didn’t want to use BuzzFeed here but they’re so good at. The following headline tells you what the article is about, why you want to read the article without ever giving away the best bits of the story or being like a tabloid headline.

So there we are our fundamental tips to creating something great. Stick to them and you’ll have something other people want to see and that, is half the battle.

Until next time.