The Building Blocks of Great Online Content

By Anthony Carter

Creating effective online content is not as easy as it first appears. It takes some knowledge and a fair bit of skill to accomplish. And unless you are a trained professional, you will probably be lacking in some of the skills required to succeed in the content creation arena. Nevertheless, you can change this with the help of this book.

The Building Blocks of Great Online Content has been written with the non-professional firmly in mind. Within its pages are valuable information intended to help website owners, business professionals, and budding content writers create effective content – content that actually achieves results. By reading, studying, and digesting the information found within the pages, these individuals can gain a better understanding of what it means to produce written content – from writing SEO-friendly content to creating content that will help convert casual visitors into paying customers.

This book has been divided into seven separate modules, each covering a different topic in depth. The modules are further broken down into individual chapters that include topic information as well as practice exercises to help the reader apply what has been learned in each section. Completing each module and its practice exercises will help propel the reader toward creating the kind of content that gets results in today’s overcrowded and over-competitive online world.

Expect to learn, among other things, about the different kinds of content writing utilised today (think blog posts, white papers, case studies, guest posts, etc.), general writing skills, mastering website content, SEO strategies, and social media content. All have been presented in an easy-to-digest format that should make learning the principles contained within as easy and as straightforward as possible.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Anthony Carter
• Release date: Apr 12, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005991135

Anthony Carter

Anthony Carter is the owner and managing director of Connotations - Content Creation Specialists based in the UK. Over the course of his career, he has written millions of words, citing a love of wordcraft as his main inspiration. He has produced countless ebooks, white papers, articles, blog posts, and more. Among his other professional attributes, Anthony has built and maintained many websites and blogs over the years. On a personal level, Anthony currently resides in Fife, Scotland with his wife Lisa. Together they have three children and (currently) two grandchildren. His journey to the Kingdom of Fife came via Ireland (wife), Cyprus (mother), and England (born), and he has enjoyed experiencing and living in the different cultures these countries have provided. He has travelled to some far-flung locations around the world, with India and Mauritius being particular favourites (although the Dominican Republic and Cape Verde are not far behind).

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

An Office for National Statistics special statistical bulletin¹ released in 2020 stated that 96% of British households have internet access. The number was 93% a year earlier and just 57% in 2006. Of these, upwards of 87% of British adults bought goods or services online in 2020².

These statistics should mean something to business. If nothing else, they prove businesses need to be active online if they are to compete. I assume that your desire to take my online course is evidence that your business has an internet presence. The question is, what do you do with it?

There is a saying in the world of online content creation that says, 'content is king'. By that we mean that the content on any website, yours included, determines the effectiveness of that site in reaching customers. It doesn't matter whether you're talking about a company's homepage, a social media site, or even a site that curates news and information from other sources. Content ultimately determines whether internet users have use for a particular website or not. That brings us to you and why you might have chosen to take this course.

This course has been designed for content marketers, website owners, business owners, and entrepreneurs who wish for high-quality content but have neither the budget nor the desire to work with third-party content creators. I get that. I know there are those who prefer to handle content creation by themselves. This course has been designed to teach them how to do just that.

Course Structure

In preparing this course, I have endeavoured to present concepts and ideas in plain, easy-to-understand English. I have avoided industry jargon so as not to confuse readers. Nonetheless, there may be ideas presented throughout this course that are unfamiliar to you. I encourage you not to be discouraged by those things to the point of giving up and not finishing. I am confident that all your questions will be answered if you complete this course in its totality.

The course is a 7-module course with different numbers of chapters in each module. Some of the modules are relatively short while others are rather more extensive. At the end of each module (and some longer chapters, too) you will have an opportunity to practice what you've learned. The practice exercises serve as an evaluation of sorts and are intended to help you gauge whether you have fully understood the information presented.

What You Will Learn

I have designed this course around the building block concept of progressively building one new principal on top of the previous one learned. As you progress from one module and chapter to the next, you will learn:

• how internet users read web pages

• how to identify and think like your target audience

• how to design and develop effective content for different kinds of users

• how to create reusable information that addresses audience needs, regardless of access

• how to write effective copy for online reading

• how to build a logical structure for all written content

• how to use the latest search engine optimisation (SEO) techniques

• tips for avoiding the most common traps of content creation

• tips for writing in a plain English style to effectively communicate your message.

Please note that while the course briefly discusses many different kinds of content, most of what you will learn relates specifically to written content. Written content, in all its forms, is the most prevalent kind of content used for marketing purposes.

As you embark on your journey to becoming a better content creator, note that the principles you learn in this course will be invaluable for generating all sorts of written content, ranging from blog posts to printed materials. If you can master the concepts presented here, you should be able to effectively reach your target audience with messaging that both meets their needs and keeps them engaged with your organisation.

MODULE 1 – KNOW AND UNDERSTAND THE AUDIENCE

How do you most often communicate with those around you? If you are like most of us, it is through speech. Simple talking is the way we communicate thoughts, ideas, and emotions. And even when we do write, the words we put on paper simply represent an expression of those words we would otherwise speak. In light of that, language is very important.

If you were to give a presentation to a group of people who spoke an entirely different language to your own, you would have several choices. First, you could speak in your own language and rely on an interpreter to get your message across to the audience. Second, you could take the time to learn the language of your audience so that you could speak to them directly. Third, you could speak in whatever language makes you comfortable and hope for the best.

When it comes to online marketing, it is quite common for business owners to choose the third option. They create content in whatever way seems normal and natural and then hope it will effectively reach the target audience. This is the wrong way to go. Creating effective content means producing content in the language of the audience. And in order to know what that language is, you need to know who your target audience is.

In summary, the first step in creating effective content is identifying your audience and the online (not literal) language they speak. Only then can you begin to understand how to create content to reach them.

Chapter 1 – The Online Audience

Prior to the introduction of the internet as a commercial entity in the 1990s, people consumed information in much different ways. Your parents and grandparents likely read the daily newspaper to stay abreast of what was happening locally and nationally. The adults of that day also read periodicals, including weekly and monthly magazines. And of course, books were extremely popular as well.

News was also consumed via television and radio formats. Families would gather together to hear local and national broadcasts before turning to entertainment options. Advertisements that aired during prime TV and radio times bombarded consumers with all kinds of messages. Nothing was done online because online access simply did not exist.

Step back and think about the implications of all that. How did people understand the information they consumed prior to the internet? It was remarkably different. For example, there was no such thing as an emoticon 30 years ago. Writers, whether composing articles for newspapers or writing letters to relatives across town, did not use shorthand phrases like ROFL and IMHO. Written language was a lot more formal and structured.

A Totally Different Environment

Consumers in the twenty-first century have largely abandoned old guard media. Print newspapers and magazines are dying quickly; traditional television is being replaced by streaming services and on-demand content; the vast majority of people under the age of 50 now get and consume most of their information online. It is clear to see how important quality content is.

The way we consume information has changed dramatically. Subsequently, the way we write and use language has also changed. Online content must be created with those changes in mind if it is to be effective.

How People Read Online Content

Internet users like to consume content in multiple ways. They read, watch videos, listen to audio streams, and participate in surveys and polls. The key to creating effective content is to not make assumptions. Do not assume that just because a piece of content you created meets your standards of quality that everyone who runs across it will actually take the time to consume it.

Since we are focusing on written content, it is incumbent for us to ask just how people read. Well, a 2008 study³ that back then presented people with written content in various forms and then measured their responses revealed some interesting things. The study tracked eye movement as well as things like how web browsers are used and how the size of a screen affects consumption of online content.

The most important take away from that study – even though it is a relatively old study now – can be encapsulated in a single word: scan. Whereas individuals who are given a book or magazine to read will make the effort to go through each sentence word by word, online content consumers are more apt to scan first. They will scan a piece of content, briefly looking at things like titles, subtitles, and bulleted lists before determining whether a piece is actually worth reading or not.

This suggests that you could write an excellent 1,000-word piece that details your chosen topic with precision and an artistic nuance, only to find that no one actually reads the piece all the way through. How is this possible? It happens all the time when content creators don't create scannable content.

I will discuss what scannable content looks like later on in this course. For now, it's enough to know that internet users are looking for information in short, bite-sized chunks that they can consume and digest quickly. They are not looking for content that requires a lot of mental work.

The Need for Speed

The 2008 study also revealed that people prefer speed when it comes to consuming online content. Interestingly enough, the human brain of the twenty-first century has developed its own reading pattern⁴ that is perfectly adapted to the online age. The pattern is based on three components:

• Horizontal Movement – The reading begins with horizontal movement across the upper part of the page. This allows the brain to take in the title, any associated images at the top of the page, and any introduction that may have been offered.

• Second Horizontal Movement – The pattern follows with a second horizontal movement with the eyes focused about one-third down the visible screen area. With this movement, the brain is looking for relevant information that might be contained in subheadings or bulleted lists.

• Vertical Movement – The third movement in the pattern has the eyes scanning from top to bottom on the left side (for languages that move from left to right). This movement is looking for line breaks to determine how long paragraphs are.

This reading pattern has been named the 'F' pattern because the two horizontal movements followed by the single vertical movement essentially forms the letter 'F'. Fortunately, associating the pattern with the letter makes it easy to understand and remember.

The point of all this is to underscore the fact that it does not take long for the eyes and brain to complete this brief pattern of scanning. The mind of the internet user can determine very quickly, without ever scrolling, whether a piece of content is worth the effort to fully consume. Experts say the entire process takes 15 seconds or less⁵.

That's right, you have about 15 seconds to grab the attention of website visitors before they move on to the next page. If you do not create scannable content capable of doing that, it will not matter how well-written your piece is.

Now that you know how people read online content, it's time to learn how to exploit their natural tendencies in order to increase the chances that they will consume your content to its fullest. Before moving on to the next chapter, please take the time to go through the following practice exercise:

WEBSITE SCANNING

Choose five of the websites you most frequently visit other than your own. For each site, choose one or two pages on which you can consciously practice the F pattern of reading. As you read, quickly write down any pertinent information you can learn in about 15 seconds. Once you get through all your chosen sites, go back and evaluate each one, asking yourself the following questions:

• Was there anything on that site/page worth reading?

• If not, what is my overall impression of the site/page? If so, what did I read that caught my attention?

This exercise should give you a better idea of how people read online. Visitors will have the same reactions to your content that you had to the content you read, whether for good or bad.

Chapter 2 – Identifying Your Audience

Knowing how your target audience is likely to consume online content is just the beginning. You need to know who your audience is as well. Otherwise, how can you craft a message to reach them?

I like to think of identifying the audience as similar to identifying and teaching pupils in a school. The school's principal does not simply assume all the children in attendance are the same age and with identical abilities. Rather, the school collects information on the children before the new term starts, for the purposes of dividing them into groups that can be taught at the appropriate level.

This way of looking at things instructs us, as content creators, that not every internet user will be interested in what we have to say. For instance, my company, Connotations, is one that specialises in online content creation. Our message will only be of interest to those looking for our services. Thus, we tailor our content to those specific internet users.

Understand Your Organisation

What exactly is your organisation? Are you running a business, a non-profit, or something else entirely? Furthermore, what is it that your organisation is trying to accomplish? The answers to these three questions form the foundation for identifying your target audience.

For the purposes of this chapter, I will talk about a fictional company known as the Acme Widget Company. They are a for-profit organisation specialising in plastic widgets with sharp blades that are used to scrape windows. Now we know what the organisation is and the fact that it is a profit generating venture. Next, we need to know what it is that they are trying to accomplish.

In short, their primary goal is to sell widgets. Great. Now we can begin to zero in on their primary audience. This begins by understanding what the Acme Widget Company offers that the competition does not. For example, Acme might be unique in several ways:

• They hand-make their widgets rather than importing them from China

• All their widgets come with a 30-day, money-back guarantee

• They offer free, same day shipping in the UK; one-day shipping elsewhere.

By asking and answering a few basic questions, we now have a fairly good profile of the Acme Widget Company from a marketing standpoint. We know what the organisation is; we know it is a for-profit organisation; we know what the organisation is trying to accomplish; we know what they offer that the competition does not. Now it's time to apply the information to identifying the target audience.

Understanding Who Benefits

An organisation's target audience is those groups of people who would most benefit from the products or services offered. So, what kinds of people would most benefit from an Acme widget? Professional painters are one group that immediately comes to mind.

Painters use widgets to scrape paint off windows after a completed job. They might also use the widgets to remove old caulking so that new caulking can be applied. Painters would be part of our target audience.

Widgets also act as fairly efficient box cutters, too. They are small, they easily fit in a pocket, and they are less expensive than utility knives. So who uses box cutters? People that come to mind include shipping and receiving clerks, warehouse employees, retail store stockers, delivery people, and the like.

We could continue exploring different groups of people, but you get the point. There are certain kinds of people who would find handmade widgets from Acme helpful. They are the ones we want to target with our content.

Understanding How They Think

One last thing to consider about identifying the target audience is understanding how they think. This is a critical aspect of content creation that is often overlooked. Unfortunately, far too many content creators simply assume that everyone in the world thinks like them. This is just not true.

Let's say you receive a package in the mail. You are so excited that you probably don't care how you get the box open. You are probably not concerned about whether your efforts damage the box so badly that it cannot be used again. You just want what's inside. Do not assume every shipping and receiving clerk you hope to sell widgets to opens packages the same way. In fact, it is quite likely that shipping clerks do things quite differently.

A shipping clerk is not going to want to damage a box in any way. Why? Because that same box can be used to ship goods out of the warehouse. There's no point in the company investing in its own stock of boxes if recycling those they receive can be used instead. In light of that, the shipping and receiving clerk is going to be a lot more careful. They are going to want to cut the packing tape cleanly without damaging the box.

You can generate content that speaks to that shipping and receiving clerk. The content does not even have to address Acme widgets directly. It can be something as benign as a discussion about how to best recycle boxes. You could mention the widgets in passing and still effectively get the message across.

Put Yourself in Their Shoes

There are lots of different ways SEO experts have come up with to help content creators identify and think like their target audiences. One of them, creating audience profiles (personas), will be discussed in the next chapter. Perhaps the easiest way to do it, though, is to simply put yourself in the shoes of someone who might buy your products or services.

Let's say you run a window cleaning company. Put yourself in the shoes of your customers. What do you think you would expect from a contractor?

Maybe your highest priority is to get the best possible price without sacrificing a good job. Perhaps you need someone with the capacity to wash windows that are three stories up. Maybe you have a rather large conservatory surrounded by an exquisitely landscaped garden and you want a window cleaner who can get the job done while protecting your flowers and shrubs.

You will undoubtedly be looking for whatever is most important to you as you browse online for window washers. Well, guess what? If your search for contractors leads you to an article talking about the safest and most effective way to clean conservatory windows, don't you think you'd be likely to follow that link? Wouldn't you at least scan that piece of content? Absolutely you would because clean conservatory windows with no garden damage are a priority of yours.

Listen to Their Questions

Another good technique for learning to think the way your customers think is to listen closely to the questions they ask. You might even make a point of writing down those questions for a month or two. What customers ask reveals exactly what they are thinking.

Take a minute right now and just think about the most frequently asked questions you hear. If you can understand the intent behind those questions, you will get a good idea of what kinds of thoughts are running through the minds of your customers. And by the way, you can use those questions to create your own FAQ page. FAQ pages are exceptionally popular as online content for driving traffic.

Along with customer questions, consider how you answer them. This is important because it tells you what your customers are thinking. If you provide an answer that the customer is satisfied with, you obviously understood what they wanted to know. If your answer is unsatisfactory, you missed it somewhere. This will prompt another question, which will give you another opportunity to answer. The back-and-forth will help you better understand customers if you pay attention.

Chapter 3 – Audience Profiles

Audience profiles are something that marketing experts and software developers use all the time. Marketing experts are interested in audience profiles because such profiles tell them how to market using various forms of content. Software developers use the profiles, for example, to direct how smartphone apps are designed in terms of function and user interface.

The idea behind audience profiles is to go beyond mere messaging to get to the core of what we are all after: conversion. What is conversion? In the simplest possible terms, conversion is encouraging a website visitor or app user to take positive action. Conversion on a retail website would be convincing customers to buy something. Conversion for a non-profit organisation might be convincing someone to get involved by joining and helping the organisation.

Creating audience profiles can help you become a better content creator by supplying you with a framework around which you can create your pieces. For purposes of illustration, let us return to the fictional Acme Widget Company. Let us also assume that market research has demonstrated Acme's two biggest customer groups are professional painters and commercial shipping and receiving departments.

Creating Audience Profiles

A clever way to look at audience profiles is to consider them a form of demographics. The first target group for Acme is professional painters, so we can build a demographic group around them simply by doing a little market research. Our research shows that:

• Painters make an average £26,000 annually

• Annual pay for painters has increased 7.4% over the last year

• The majority of painters are younger and middle-aged males

• Most painters work in the trade and construction industry

• The top three markets for painters are the South East, London, and the South West.

From just this little bit of data, we can begin to form an image in our mind of what the average professional painter in Great Britain is like. We know his approximate age range, his average annual salary, and where he is most likely to find work. Now we can start to tailor messages that will appeal to painters. For what purpose? To convince them to buy their widgets from the Acme Widget Company.

Though our fictional company and audience profiles are rather crude, they drive home the point sufficiently enough. What we did for painters could also be done for commercial shipping and receiving departments, with the only difference being that shipping and receiving departments would be profiled as business entities rather than individual persons. The messaging would be B2B (business-to-business) rather than B2C (business-to-consumer).

Don't Assume – Ask Instead

As helpful as it is to create audience profiles, the one massive mistake far too many content creators make is to create those profiles based on assumptions. This goes back to the idea of mistakenly assuming that everyone thinks like you do. Assumptions are not the right way to go.

It is appropriate to do market research using online sources to get a solid start on audience profiles. But if market research does not turn up enough data to create an adequate profile, do not just assume to fill in the holes. Instead, ask. The Acme Widget Company should be asking its customers things like:

• How often do you buy our widgets?

• How do you most often use our widgets?

• Why do you prefer our widgets over competing products?

• How could we make our widgets better?

• Do you recommend Acme to others? Why or why not?

Nothing can substitute for the actual thoughts of customers when building audience profiles. Such thoughts are key to helping content creators truly understand their target audiences, thereby giving them a direction for content creation.

Their Need, Your Solution

Remember that the point of using audience profiles is to increase conversion rates. In other words, you want your content and the outlets used to promote it to encourage people to utilise your products or services. It's great to drive traffic to your website, but traffic alone is not going to pay the bills. You need that traffic to ultimately generate revenue.

When you look at content creation from a revenue generation standpoint, one principle becomes crystal clear: your target audience has a need, and you have the solution for that need. Looked at in this light, audience profiles become even more important.

Since the Acme Widget Company knows its products are in high demand among professional painters, they can craft content specifically focused at those painters in order to convince them that Acme widgets are their best option. Painters need widgets; the Acme Widget Company manufactures and sells widgets. It is a marriage made in heaven. However, it is a marriage that will