It’s not a secret that original content is necessary if you want your marketing strategy to succeed. A report from the Content Marketing Institute shows that 73% of B2B marketers and 70% of B2C marketers use content marketing as part of their strategy. Originality is a key factor for thriving content, although developing something 100% original is sometimes challenging. But if your texts sound the same as everything else online or they keep repeating topics people have heard numerous times before, it will be hard to convince potential readers to click on your article.
Why is originality so important for the success of your content, and how can you achieve that originality? Here’s all you need to know.
Content Originality – Why Is It That Important?
People want content that they’ve never read before, something that brings them new information or is interesting, memorable, and relatable, not to mention fun to read. Content like this is what keeps your audience engaged, encouraging them to click on more posts from you. But if your posts are repetitive, bring nothing new to the table, or don’t even help the clients in any way, you cannot expect a lot of people to be interested.
Coming up with something completely unheard of in terms of written content is not easy today, especially when billions of pieces are posted online daily. Many ideas have already been explored, and keeping people captivated is challenging unless you have a new approach to them or can add something new. This is why you need to make your content stand out among the crowd, convincing potential readers to check out your posts instead of those posted by your competitors.
Content originality will affect your marketing strategy a lot. It’s what determines if your content is worth people’s time or not. Here are a few reasons why content originality is so essential for a successful marketing strategy:
- It Makes You More Credible
Convincing readers to trust you takes time. When your content is old, unoriginal, and uninteresting, people will see you like nothing but an uninterested business that is trying to make money, not as someone who wants to help the general crowd solve their problems or have a good time. But when you post original content, you’ll be seen as an expert in the field. Real content creators and leaders don’t need to copy ideas – they have enough expertise to post their own unique creations.
For this reason, the audience will be more inclined to trust you if your content is original.
- It’s Good for Your SEO
Good SEO helps you get a high ranking on Google and brings you more readers. Statistics show that less than 1% of people go to the 2nd page of Google search results. Therefore, in order to convince more people to visit your website and content, your pieces must be original. Unique content that is also optimized properly will be rewarded by Google and thus help make your site more visible.
- It Convinces People to Share
Original content spreads around more quickly than something that has already been done or said by someone else. The more original your posts are, the larger the number of people who will pass them on. Not only will this be noticed by the search engine algorithm and rewarded, but it will also help spread your content around, reaching more people and helping your company in the process.
How to Make Sure Your Content Is Original
Are you new to content creation and you’re not sure how to make it more unique? Fear not – here are a few techniques you can use to make your posts stand out:
- Verify Real Data
Researching and collecting data is necessary if you want your texts to sound more original. You need to know what keywords are used the most for that particular topic or in your niche. However, you also need to know what your target audience is looking for and the most popular topics in your field at the moment. This is what will help you organize your texts and release content that impacts your readers.
- Tell Real Stories
People may not be there to read about your personal life, but that doesn’t mean you cannot sprinkle an experience of yours here and there as long as it’s relevant to the topic and adds value to your post. It will basically bring a unique point of view and show people things from your perspective. It may even help convince them of something being true or untrue more easily if you know how to approach the scenario.
- Try Different Formats but Don’t Change Too Much
You should try your luck with different content types when you’re first getting started. Publish different formats and see what works for you. This also helps keep your content new at all times. However, you shouldn’t stress about novelty at all times. Stick to a few content types that bring you good results and focus on them. You will not regret it.
- Check Out Your Competitors
Aside from getting to know your target audience, you also need to know who your competitors are and what they post. See what the competition does to make the content attractive. Then, use this information to make your content better and more original. If you do this right, you may even end up at the top of the search results – and statistics show that the first organic result on the first page has a 27.6% average click-through rate.
Final Thoughts
New and original content helps bring you more readers and improves your SEO, not to mention that it also convinces your audience to spread the content around. If you want to post unique content, don’t shy away from speaking from experience, researching real data like keywords and popular topics, experimenting with different content formats, and researching your competitors. It will help you come up with the right ideas and stand out among your competitors.