The Importance of Using Original Content
In today’s digitally-charged world, original content is a non-negotiable component to an effective digital marketing campaign. Long story short– it boosts your search engine rankings and online visibility. Having this kind of content also enhances your online reputation and brand’s image by making you a trustworthy source of information in your field.
Your audience is also keen on detecting effort and real creativity. When you offer original content that is relevant to your audience’s interests, they take notice. In fact, 78% of consumers will believe that you’re interested in building a good relationship with them when they see custom content vs. generic information.
What Does ‘Original’ Really Mean?
In content marketing, ‘original’ means something that hasn’t been published online before. After search engine algorithms became more sophisticated and started to value quality content over websites that rigged the system with keyword spamming, original content has taken its rightful place in the digital marketing world. Basically, if it passes a plagiarism check and no duplicate content like it exists online, then it is considered unique.
No longer can a page stuffed with strategic keywords and shady backlinks sneak its way to the top results. These pages used to frustrate users for their lack of quality information and made it difficult to find reliable sources. This is why search engines increased the standards for ranking higher for queries. In fact, if you have duplicate content or blogs that are littered with keyword stuffing, you’ll be penalized and sent further down the list!
Marketers have taken notice and have been helping their clients update their old-fashioned websites to meet today’s sophisticated SEO standards. Replacing stale content with something valuable is a critical part of this strategy.
What is original content?
It’s important to mention that original content doesn’t necessarily have to be new content. Of course, if the story you’re telling is totally new, it will automatically be original. However, giving your (professional) opinion on a certain topic also counts as original content. Your angle to a story could be the thing that makes your content unique and original. Original content could even be an overview of (older) information. Maybe you are able to structure the existing information nicely if that hasn’t been done before.
The main thing to keep in mind is that you want to put valuable information out there. Whether it adds a new take on information that’s already out there or tells a new story. If your content is unique and shows your expertise on a subject, you’re on the right track. You need to make sure that you’re not ‘just writing’ content, but that you’re actually publishing resources for your audience.
Think about your audience
When creating original content, there’s an important factor to keep in mind: your audience. What do you want to tell them? What will be the main message of your article? And what is the purpose? What do you want your audience to do after they’ve read your article? Do you want them to engage, buy your stuff, to read more posts? Thinking about these questions and doing audience research will help give you direction and write original content that you’re audience will want to read.
Another factor to consider is the search intent that someone has when they land on your page or post. You may want them to buy your stuff (or register for a newsletter) right away, but this needs to fit with what they want. If someone is looking for information on a topic and they land on a page where you’re focused on pushing your product, you might lose them. Or when they’re ready to make their purchase and land on a page that doesn’t show any products, you might lose a sale. Think about search intent and you’ll be able to tailor your content to someone’s intent.
How to Create Original Content
Producing “content” might be relatively easy for you. Perhaps, right now, your brain is drowning in content ideas. And may be right this very moment, you are so eager to get them out in the open. But while generating content could be a walk in the park for you and other people, making it original – in every sense of the word – is a totally different thing. You don’t want your post to end up as a copycat version, right?
Use Your Target Audience’s Data
If there’s one person who knows what your target audience’s interests are, it is you. Through analytics tools like Google Analytics, you can easily see what topics or pages attract the most traffic.
Take Advantage of Content Creation Tools
Producing original content may be challenging, but it’s not as difficult as it was 10 years ago. This is primarily due to numerous content creation tools that make life easier for us.
Leverage Your own Experience
For instance, thousands of people visit Paris or Disney Land every year. You might have gone to one of these popular destinations. But it doesn’t mean that you and the other people who went to those places share the same experience.
Share your thoughts or the lessons that you learned from you experiences in life. It’s not only a perfect opportunity to create original content, you can also use it to boost your engagement.
Add Images and Other Visual Elements to Your Content
Much better if you are going to use graphics that you created or add photos and media that you’ve taken personally. Your content will not only look unique, it will also look more interesting and shareable.
Importance of Original Content for Sales and Conversions
After reading the benefits of both types of content, you’re probably wondering, which one really offers more value to a business? Does original content or branded content lead to more sales and conversions?
In general, it seems that producing original content is extremely influential when it comes to generating revenue. Roughly 91 percent of B2B marketers now use content marketing, and 86 percent of B2C marketers think content marketing is a key strategy.
Although branded content can be shared across the web as well, it usually benefits the most from paid media sources. You need to guarantee its “right-place right-time” positioning in front of visitors, which costs money and generally decreases the chances of organic conversions.
Importance of Original Content for Sales and Conversions
After reading the benefits of both types of content, you’re probably wondering, which one really offers more value to a business? Does original content or branded content lead to more sales and conversions?
In general, it seems that producing original content is extremely influential when it comes to generating revenue. Roughly 91 percent of B2B marketers now use content marketing, and 86 percent of B2C marketers think content marketing is a key strategy.
Although branded content can be shared across the web as well, it usually benefits the most from paid media sources. You need to guarantee its “right-place right-time” positioning in front of visitors, which costs money and generally decreases the chances of organic conversions.
Resources:
https://contentwriters.com/blog/the-importance-of-using-original-content/
https://yoast.com/importance-original-content/
https://edgy.app/4-reasons-why-you-should-create-original-content
https://www.e2msolutions.com/blog/branded-content-vs-original-content/
https://www.e2msolutions.com/blog/branded-content-vs-original-content/