Learn more about the importance of original content in marketing.

In today’s world, most brands leverage the power of content in spreading the word to create recognition for their brands. Any forward-thinking marketing professional will tell you that content marketing is the way to build brand awareness and nurture solid and long-lasting connections with your customers. 

But the internet is laden with content, with brands pumping out millions of content pieces almost daily, making it harder for newer businesses to stand out. 

Fortunately, audiences today are smart enough to notice your effort and creativity; thus, offering original content relevant to your audience is a surefire way to pique their interest. 

This guide gives you an in-depth insight into the basics of creating original content and why it must be a part of your content marketing strategy. 

What is Original Content? 

The first question that would naturally cross your mind is, “how do you define original content?” 

Simply put, ‘Original’ means something new and unique that hasn’t been published online. It’s fresh content that you create as opposed to just reposting or curating content from different sources. Content based on unique research and ideas is considered original if it passes a plagiarism check and there’s no identical content online. 

Gone are the days of stuffing blogs with tactical keywords and irrelevant backlinks. Now, the search engines have improved the standards for ranking higher, and if any duplicate content or blogs are jammed with keywords, they’re penalized by pushing them further down the list! 

If your content lacks quality information, it annoys the audience, making your content and brand less credible. Publishing original content is the way to stay relevant if you want your business to thrive in this evolving online marketing world.

But how easy is it to be original?

More often than not, it feels like everything has been already created or said before. But what often distinguishes an idea that feels similar to something already created is the person behind it. 

We are all unique in our way, constantly trying to find our voice that makes an idea stand out and own it. 

Be mindful of the content you create as you put valuable information out there; your audience should be compelled to click and stay on it. You can do it by either adding some significant take on the already available information or something new. 

All you need is to make sure your content is unique and shows your expertise on a subject, and you’re good to go. 

What is the Value of Original Content? 

It’s already proven that good content matters to consumers. If you want your content efforts to prove effective, it needs to be tailored to cater to their individual needs. 

61% of consumers prefer companies that create custom content for their audiences based on their demographics, interests and intent.  

Ideas that are unique to you and stemming from your creativity are far more effective in capturing your followers’ attention. 

Why? It is extremely valuable, contains brand new information, and is more likely to be rewarded across most social media platforms as the internet is already bombarded with generic and unoriginal material – enter, your content tilt. 

People are craving fresh content that can be engaging, inspiring, and informative. Therefore, original content adds reliability, promotes engagement, and makes customers care about the products or services of a particular business. 

Benefits of Creating Original Content 

Showcases Authority and Thought Leadership

Today, people have direct access to everything online, including any information about your brand. Your brand and content are easily discoverable from your company website, blog, review sites, and social media. 

Do you want to be seen as a brand with generic or fluff-filled content? 

Every organization aims to generate high-quality leads and connect meaningfully with customers. This feat can be achieved by creating good quality original content. Your content should highlight expertise and the company’s ability to think outside the box, proving to be an authority within your industry. 

Boosts Engagement

While measuring engagement through vanity metrics is one thing, your emphasis should be to engage meaningfully with your consumers. 

Content with distinct perspectives or a well-researched article with real value to readers is more likely to get noticed across different social media platforms. Here are some tips for creating shareable original content:

• Incorporate Storytelling: Your content should tell a story instead of mindlessly pushing people into buying your products or boasting about your company’s successes. Begin with an intriguing introduction that hooks the reader and makes them want to scroll more. Make the story as relevant and relatable as possible to your audience members. 
• Feature one of your customers: People are likely to share content if it mentions them by name. Publish case studies or other materials highlighting your customers’ problems and how your product or service made their lives easier. 
• Create something controversial: Every industry has that one topic that sparks a heated debate. Choose a side and write a blog or social media post defending your position—people who agree with you will surely share the content. 

Audiences have a plethora of content at their fingertips, but original content will be more enticing for them to engage with, thus building brand recall.  

Improves SEO

With over 1.7 billion websites on the Internet today, ranking on Google SERP and other search engines is no mean feat. Apart from planning a solid SEO strategy, you must ensure that the quality of content you’re creating is informative, engaging, and, most of all – original.

Good SEO is essential in obtaining a high SERP ranking to maintain the visibility of your website. Imagine you have published some of the most unique written content, but if no one knows it’s out there, it won’t do you much good. 

A steady outflow of high-quality original content helps show search engines that you’re doing something valuable.

Originality is the key to filling your backlink catalog with numerous high-value links. 

It’s a well-known fact that most leading websites and prominent bloggers will not link back to just about anything. They want inspiring, engaging, original content that hits all the right notes.

We’ve already established that creating original content is one of the crucial aspects of a successful SEO strategy. Search engines will put you on top when you create something original or have something new to say. 

One of the main features of Google’s rankings is EAT – Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness. EAT applies to your content and implies how your writers have reliable sources of info. 

Moreover, this content can help your business earn more backlinks from recognized online publications.

So, how does one go about this enigma of originality? This next section breaks down the tips and tricks you need to create original content. 

5 Steps to Follow Before Creating Original Content

Before you start creating new content, you must connect with people in your audience and find out what they want you to cover. 

What’s helpful to you may not be beneficial to your audience. If your business is brand new and you still don’t have an established audience, follow these 5 easy steps to find out what kind of content your audience wants.

Perform Keyword Research

Whether you are brand new to content creation or are simply looking for a way to freshen up a blog you already have, it is highly beneficial to do thorough research and data gathering. 

And if you have already published original content out there, crunch the numbers. 

Keep a tab on what’s doing well and what’s not, whether the audience is responding well to your efforts of mixing things up! Ensure that you’re doing frequent keyword research, as well. 

Research popular ongoing topics in your niche and what exactly your target audience is looking for. Once you have that information, you and your team can brainstorm fresh ideas to deliver inspiring content your audience wants to read.  

How do you look for information online? You use particular words and phrases (keywords) related to the topic of interest. Keyword research tools assist you in finding precisely what keywords people use, which makes it easy for you to choose a subject for your next blog post or video.

Once you enter the keyword, the software drops down a list of related keywords entered by search engine users. For example, someone who runs an athleisure company might enter “pant” as the general keyword. In the same instance, the software might suggest that people have been looking for the “best t-shirt for gym wear” or “best track pants for women.”

So, once you understand what search terms people are using, you’ll be able to comprehend the type of information your audience is looking for.

Scroll Through Online Forum Posts

There are many online forums that are a great source of information for someone who’s keen to create original content. These forums permit users to create anonymous accounts to share personal information and discuss important topics. 

So, next time you are short of ideas, visit Reddit or any other platform, enter the subject of your interest onto the search bar, and browse through several relevant posts. This will help you realize the kind of content you should create to offer valuable information.

Leverage Social Media

Many people love to share their opinions and experiences on multiple social networks. If you’re struggling with new content ideas, head to your Twitter or Facebook feed to see what people are discussing. 

Want to go one step further? Try using social listening to uncover insights on target audience interests and competitors. 

Conduct Industry Surveys

Industry surveys are an excellent source of information if you work for B2B businesses. Many surveys ask respondents to gain insight into the problems they’re facing or the tools they require to simplify their jobs. These responses can be utilized to outline articles, e-books, white papers, and other types of content.

Browse Q&A Websites

Q&A websites can also provide valuable insight into the kind of information that people need to improve their lives. The users share a little about their background and then ask relevant questions about their situations. Q&A posts can be used to create content outlines and develop ideas for the FAQ page about the subject matter.

7 Helpful Tips to Create Original Content

You cannot just duplicate content from a competitor’s website or copy their marketing strategy. You can simply browse through their content and determine what’s good for your business and can be improved, but remember that what worked for them might not work for you! 

Here are 7 tips to keep in mind while creating original content for your brand

Give the People What they Want

Creating original content doesn’t just mean witty copywriting and scroll stopping visuals. Pro marketers know that the most important aspect of marketing is giving your audience the value they need. 

They choose to get to know their audience to the core. They step into their audiences’ shoes to understand the questions, concerns, and topics most appealing to them. 

Finally, they go above and beyond to create content addressing these concerns to establish authority and expertise.

So dive in deep to create those buyer personas and ICPs. Once you understand what your audience wants, delivering it should be a cakewalk!

Stay Focused on Original Content

It’s not easy to stay focused while researching so much online. Ensure you don’t get bogged by looking at multiple platforms simultaneously; instead, pick one and stick with it for a while.

You can strategize by experimenting with your content to check what topic interests the audience and gets the most comments, likes, and shares. Try doing split testing to see if one approach is more effective than the other. Once you are satisfied with the results of one platform, move on to the next.

Also read: Understanding content marketing KPIs. 

Collaborate With the Pros

Creating content all the time can sometimes become cumbersome and can be lonely. To avoid that feeling, you can always reach out to the industry experts in your field and suggest co-hosting a webinar, sharing and boosting each other’s content, or contributing to a long article. Collaborating with seasoned professionals is an excellent way to increase your audience.

Speak from experience

Every other day there’s new content popping up providing hordes of information, and there isn’t much that’s not been discussed in detail. Every topic is written about from every possible angle. 

And yet, there’s something that only you can bring to the table, and that’s your unique point of view and experiences only you have had. 

Weaving snippets of your personal life, such as stories or lessons learned, into your content will help present significant information from your angle that hasn’t been used before.

Prioritize Visual Aesthetics 

Your content needs to be visually appealing. Displaying plain, wordy text boxes is mundane and wouldn’t get a second glance. 

People love visuals, so go ahead and add some powerful pictures or videos that relate to your content to make it more expressive and appealing. 

Be careful not to use overused or copyrighted photographs, and ensure that the visuals complement your content. It’s a bonus if you have something of your own to show, such as original photos, videos, or other visual media. But if not, there’s no shortage of pictures and free-use images you can use instead.

Also read: Everything you need to know about using Canva for marketing teams.

Experiment with Different Content Formats

For effective content creation, it is vital to keep track of all your data to stay aware of how your content performs. 

Try to publish different types of content before determining what kind of content your audience responds to strongly. Keep experimenting, as it keeps your content fresh and original.

Ensure that you also have a strategy in mind that works for you. Publish or share your content on different platforms and mix things up with your content when it’s required. 

Your aim should be to hit the spot between what your audience likes and the content that feels like a fit for you.

Don’t change too much 

Yes, your content must be original, but many marketers mistake overstressing the content’s absolute newness. It’s not wrong that they want to bring something new to the table that no one has ever seen. 

But how many consumers are prepared to try something entirely new? It doesn’t mean you should avoid putting out new or unusual ideas when they come to you. 

Just learn the art of striking a balance between new and familiar. Present your ideas in a way that makes them feel like familiar ideas repackaged in fresh and exciting ways. 

Wrapping it Up 

In today’s marketing landscape, content is not only the king but the kingdom itself.  When you truly focus on the needs of your audience, original content can boost your rankings and business too. Plus, it’s the perfect way to prove that you’re an expert in your specific niche and therefore can be trusted. 

If you want to up your content marketing game, creating original content is the way to go!

Not sure where to begin? Drop me a message on LinkedIn!