How To Create Valuable Content With A Strong Voice: Tips From Shopify, BuzzSumo & TWG Tea
Your content looks and sounds like everyone else's. You’re struggling to stand out in a market where everyone and their grandma are producing content.
Sound familiar?
Don’t worry. You’re not alone. Many of the brands I advise face similar content marketing challenges.
So why are some brands better at content marketing than others? The answer is simple. They provide an insane amount of value to their audience and have their own unique voice.
Do you want to give your audience so much valuable content they’ll be begging for more? Want to create a voice so strong it’ll set you apart from the pack?
If yes, then keep on reading as BuzzSumo, Shopify, TWG Tea and some of the world’s best content marketers share their tips for creating valuable content with a strong voice.
Determine what is valuable content
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The word “valuable” is subjective. What is valuable content to your internal stakeholders isn’t always valuable to your audience?
Matt Carter provides a visual of what you need to keep in mind when planning your content.
Content Marketing Venn Diagram Matt Carter
Content Marketing Venn Diagram
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Note that while the top two circles are important from your audience’s point-of-view, you also need to tie your content back to what you sell. At the end of the day, you’re a business, not a non-profit.
So how can you determine what kind of content is valuable to your audience?
Use tools to find out what topics interest your audience
“Do research on questions your audience has and the problems they are having in their industry prior to writing,” says Aaron Agius, Managing Director at Louder.Online. “This way you know they will be eagerly awaiting your content and it takes the guess work out of it.”
Agius recommends two tools to identify the most commonly asked questions your audience may have about a particular topic: Answer The Public and BloomBerry.
Aaron Orendorff, content marketer at Shopify Plus suggests you conduct shallow quantitative research like, “What does Buzzsumo say are the most-shared topics on the sites they already love?” to deep qualitative research like, “What are people loving and hating in their reviews and comments on Amazon and YouTube?” That way, “you can actually crawl inside their heads.”
Speaking of Buzzsumo, their team knows exactly what their audience wants and gives them what they need. I asked Steve Rayson, Director at BuzzSumo to share how they create valuable content.
Rayson says, ask yourself: “Is your content better than anything else on the topic?”
According to Rayson, you need to offer something unique and valuable to ensure your readers benefit from investing time with your content. What will they learn that they didn’t know before or what can they apply?
Rayson suggests you could provide new insights from research or a case study; or curate a comprehensive list or guide. BuzzSumo is notorious for this. An example being their recent blog post: How We Went Viral: Lessons in Promoting Content with Influencers, Ads and PR. Within 24 hours, the article had been shared over 500 times on social media.
Rayson also suggests that you should promote your content by focusing on the benefits for the reader. For example, your headline could refer to new research insights mentioned in your article.
It’s clear that providing value doesn’t stop after you’ve created a piece of content, you need to convey how your audience will benefit during the promotion process.
For other brands, the content creation process is not usually about solving a problem, meeting needs or researching what your audience is looking for, explains Maranda Barnes, Director of Corporate Communications & Business Development, Co-Founder of TWG Tea. “Rather, the goal is to make customers long for something they didn’t even know they wanted. For us, we took a mundane product and made it precious, reaching back into historic traditions while creating content that is modern.”
TWG's Orchid Design Teapot campaign TWG Tea
TWG's Orchid Design Teapot campaign
Now that you know how to fill your audience’s life with value, how do you develop a strong, unique voice?
Give your brand a name and personality
A wise man once told me, if you can replace the logo on your content with someone else’s then you don’t have a strong, distinct voice. And if you don’t have a unique voice, you’re going to drown in the content sea.
So how can you convey a strong voice? Pretend your brand is a person. Give it a name. Let’s say, Jenny. Then ask yourself: “What is Jenny’s personality?” Is she cynical? Is she cheery?
Now that you’ve selected Jenny’s personality, it’s time to write as Jenny would - not a big, faceless brand. By doing so, you’ll instantly set yourself apart from the slew of robotic voices. Because at the end of the day, who is your audience more likely to trust and buy from - Brand X or Jenny?
Then there's the importance of localization and relevance as Venus Hew, senior journalist at Marketing Magazine points out. After you decide where your customers are located and which platforms they use, then you can give your audience simple localized messaging and offers.
Daniel Wallock sums it up from an audience’s perspective: “Be human. Your writing should sound like you’re speaking to us. Be quick. Be entertaining. Don't be afraid to show off your personality and make funny cultural references! We want to know the writer is human so show us! Just including these little references and telling statements about what you like will help build trust and keep us reading!”
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Give your brand a name and personality
Give it a name. Let’s say, Jenny. Then ask yourself: “What is Jenny’s personality?” Is she cynical? Is she cheery?
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