Whether you’re looking to do some consistent content marketing or you just want to create a one-off piece of content – creating amazing content is definitely not easy.
There are so many people producing content at the moment and the bar has been raised. What might have been great content, 5 years ago, is now just ‘meh’ content.
People are also less patient and content needs to grab their attention right away, if you’re to have any hopes of developing any engagement.
Some research even suggests that people forget 90% of the content that they come across. So, it can seem like you’ve lost the battle, before you’ve even begun.
But, there is hope.
In fact, because the bar has been raised so high, it’s actually easier, in a sense, to stand out.
After all, how many people do you think can be bothered to create something incredible?
The truth is that there aren’t many people who are willing to put in the work to create compelling content that will be remembered and referred to for any period of time.
In this article, we’re going to take a look at how you develop the skill to create content that people will remember and bookmark, allowing you to split from the mass of content creators.
We’ll dive into what makes content memorable and what factors you are in control of, should you want to create content that is going to leave a lasting impact.
By the end of this post, you’ll understand how to stand out and build a name for yourself, as a compelling content creator.
Let’s begin.
Making everyone happy is not your goal
If you really want to create content that is going to be remembered, you have to create something that it is going to create ‘impact.’
Impact means that after consuming your content, an individual is left changed, in some way or another – ideally for the better.
While it is possible to do this on a wide scale, you first need to focus on a specific group of people you want to impact. This is especially true if you’re new to content marketing.
Though paraphrased, the saying generally says that, “If you try to please everyone, you’ll please no one and end up in a middle ground where no one likes you.”
This, of course, is very bad, if you want to create content that will be remembered.
One of the easiest ways to fix this is by defining, ahead of time, exactly who you want to create content for.
You’ll want to create a ‘Buyer Persona,’ based on those you want consuming your content, so that you know who your audience is.
If you’re in the B2B world, you probably know that there are many ways that B2B marketers go about researching their target audience.
If you want to get a really good understanding of your target audience, you’ll want to do all of the things described in the chart above.
In any case, aside from the points that are shown in the above graphic, why is it important to create content for a very specific set of people?
One reason is that you can create a narrative around your content that matches the narrative of the reader.
A lot of the time, when people come across incredible content, people will remember the content, but they’ll also remember the author.
And. that’s often because they identified with the author who shared aspects of their personal story throughout the content.
Just think about some of your own favorite content creators.
There’s a good chance that you like the content produced by those people, because of who the actual creator is.
If you want people to really connect with your content, then sharing stories and vulnerabilities that match what your reader is going through can be incredibly effective.
In addition, when you’re creating content for a specific subset of people, you’re given permission to be ‘nerdy.’
This means that you don’t have to ‘dumb down’ your content.
People who are really into your topic of choice will understand exactly what you’re talking about and will really appreciate the fact that you’re going deep.
Brian Dean’s ecommerce SEO guide, is a great example of this. It clocks in at over 8,000 words.
Your ability to go into depth about a topic, without fear of alienating anyone, will separate you from others who are trying to reach the same audience.
Of course, the caveat here is that you should make sure that you provide a lot of actionable details, when you’re writing your blog posts. Not doing so and just rambling for 5,000 words would be the wrong thing to do.
The points mentioned above illustrate why it’s important to create content based on a topic that you have a lot of interest in.
Sure, you might be able to create good search engine traffic, by creating average ‘high-level’ posts.
But, your content won’t necessarily do well in the social media world, as those that come across it won’t feel any sort of attachment to your content, nor will they feel like they’ve learned anything relevant.
Be unique and be brave
This sounds incredibly cliché – but yes, it’s important that you do all that you can to be unique.
Making your content unique is something that will dramatically improve the odds of it being remembered.
That’s because uniqueness is essential to making your content interesting.
This is incredibly important – because people remember things that they find interesting.
Bear in mind, though, that the goal is not to be unique for the sake of being unique – that will just lead to people distrusting your content and therefore developing a bad impression of you.
Instead, you want to make your content unique, while sticking to the points in the earlier section.
For the most part, being unique is generally about being different.
You therefore need to take a look at the current content landscape in your niche and ask what can you do to be different.
This includes the information that’s included within existing content, as well as existing content formats.
You might look at some of the best practices in your industry and see how you can disprove them.
Are there old outdated methods being used by companies in your industry?
Can you create a piece of content that tackles these outdated beliefs and shows that they’re not true?
When you create content like this, make sure that you don’t just create a ‘fluff piece.’ You need to provide cold hard data on the experiments that you conducted and what you were able to achieve.
Another way that you can create content that’s unique and memorable, is by attempting to do things that people in your industry might have otherwise considered impossible, or at least extremely difficult.
Can you achieve an amazing result in a short time frame?
Can you achieve a result, using means or methods that others would have found too restrictive?
You’ve got to be bold here and put yourself on the line.
If you’re going to do something remarkable, odds are that no one else has done what you’re looking to achieve.
Blendtec did this, when they created their ‘Will it blend’ series.
What better way for a blender company to show off their product and be memorable, than by blending expensive electronics!
At the time this content came out, it was definitely something that caught attention.
And, there’s also research to suggest that this campaign lead to a 700% increase in retail sales.
So, if you’re going to catch the attention of your target market, you need to do something that makes leaves people impressed with what you’ve done/created.
It’s not going to be easy – but that’s why there is so little memorable content and why doing things this way will make you memorable!
You can also create unique content by creating a different content type.
So, if everyone in your industry is creating blog posts, you might want to create videos.
If everyone is creating recorded Q&A sessions, you might want to host live videos, where you provide actionable information.
So, let’s build an example that shows how you can bring all of the above together, into one package.
If you’re runner, you might do a video series where you’re videoing your training regime for the marathon, using methods that aren’t traditional.
Now, for some, that’s enough to make content stand out.
But, this isn’t just any video series – you’re actually providing an insider’s perspective into what your days look like and how you’re progressing physically and emotionally.
So sure, others might be creating marathon training videos, but how many people are creating videos that have a narrative to go with them – where the host speaks with the camera.
You’re doing things that are unconventional and your content is interactive and engaging, allowing people to develop a relationship with the creator.
This, of course, helps the content to be memorable.
You will know, more than anyone else, what unique and brave attempts can be made, in the creation of your own content.
What’s important is that you’re willing to take on the challenge, so that you can separate yourself from the pack.
Remember to make your content high quality
Okay, so we’ve essentially covered some high level ideas that you need to keep in mind, when it comes to creating memorable content.
But, another thing that matters is the actual ‘quality’ of your content.
Content with a good level of production value can definitely help.
What counts as production value can vary and include all of the things that are related to your content, besides its actual intrinsic value.
For example, if you’re writing a blog post, make sure that your content is spelled properly and that it is grammatically correct. Though slightly unrelated, spend a lot of time crafting a brilliant headline, too.
On top of that, make sure that you’re spacing out your content appropriately, so that reading it is not a challenge.
If you’re including pictures with your post, make sure that these pictures are high quality.
Reports suggest that digital media consumption on mobile is up 65% – ensure that your content loads properly on a mobile device.
Double check that there are no issues with pop-ups ruining the user experience.
When it comes to the actual writing, don’t try and make your writing more complex than it needs to be. The easier it is to digest your content, the more people it will be accessible to.
If you’re creating videos, then you again need to pay attention to some aspects of production and general consumption.
Ensure that videos are recorded with a high quality camera. This is easy to do with today’s smartphones. Listen to the sound of your recording and make sure that the volume is loud enough.
Do some basic editing, to keep the content sharp and interesting.
Maybe you’ll even disable ads for your YouTube channel, so that there is very little standing between the content and the consumer. Once you’ve built a following, you can always restart the ads.
You could even have the transcription written up, so that people can watch the video with the sound off.
All in all, there are many things that you can do to improve the production quality of your content.
If you want to (and have the budget) hire a professional to achieve high levels of production quality, then do so.
If you take a look at the InsideQuest YouTube channel, you’ll notice that their high production quality is part of what makes the channel memorable.
The same can be said of some of Gary Vaynerchuk’s videos.
When you’re competing against others to create high quality content, taking care of production quality can be another way to boost how memorable your content is, provided that your content is good in the first place.
Conclusion
With so much content being produced today, you’re probably worried that your content won’t be noticed by the people that you’re making it for.
While it is true that there is a lot of noise out there, a lot of people won’t put in the time to create truly awesome content.
You may think that you’re at a disadvantage. But, you’re actually have an advantage, if you’re willing to put the work in.
There are many things that can help you to create content that is memorable.
For real success, you need to wrap up all of these things into one package, in order to have something that will be attention-grabbing and memorable.
You’ll need to be bold in your approach.
If you do what is required and you succeed, you’ll shortcut the time that it takes to get results from your content.
Do you have any tips to share, when it comes to creating memorable content? Please let me know in the comments below.
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