By Dan Pecchia

Emerging, low-cost technology enables almost anyone to create content these days. But even though it’s easier to make videos, build websites, distribute email or host webinars, it’s not easy ─ and never will be ─ to develop and distribute good content.  

That’s because compelling, effective, sustainable content isn’t about the technology. It’s about the skill, insight and care needed to craft and polish it.

Here are three hallmarks of good content that enables organizations to keep and grow customer relationships.

Good content reflects genuine expertise

People like to do business with those they believe can answer their questions, give them guidance and solve their problems. The best content exudes substance and confidence that make it clear the author is knowledgeable and can be helpful.

As many of our clients work in advisory-oriented roles, we encourage them to leverage their expertise into blogs, videos, seminars and other content whenever time and opportunity allow.

We also like to guide away from inferior substitutes for genuine expertise, and one of those is sales-y language. Some of the content we see has grotesquely promotional words and phrases. There may be a place for that in advertising, but it’s annoying in most other contexts. It’s often a marker for a lack of expertise.

Another common substitute for expertise is reporting information without any analysis or recommendations. An expert knows the questions or challenges his or her audience would have in the wake of new information and speaks to those — not just to new info that’s already been reported.

A critical skill in crafting content that reflects expertise is zeroing in on the practical questions a reader would have and answering those, at least in part.

Here’s a good way to tell if you’re providing genuine expertise: Read your handiwork with the mindset of a client and ask yourself honestly whether valuable knowledge is being conveyed.

Good content is easy and enjoyable to consume

Well-written prose enables the reader to glide through quickly and pick up guidance along the way. Such writing requires creativity, brevity, variety and mastery of grammar and usage.

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Development of good content is significantly influenced by the fact that it will have to fight hard for eyeballs and sustained interest in a busy world flooded with content.

Even a blog packed with genius advice will get ignored if it’s full of long sentences, clunky grammar and/or annoying jargon.

Good content keeps coming

It can take a while to establish genuine expertise by sharing content, and would-be content marketers should know this up front. The “It’s-a-marathon-not-a-sprint” cliché doesn’t even work here because positioning oneself as an expert requires much more commitment than prepping for one long-distance event. Being an expert is more like a lifestyle than a season.

But that shouldn’t be daunting for genuine experts, as their day-to-day work frequently includes situations that require them to share their knowledge. That should make content opportunities plentiful.

One of the many benefits of regularly publishing good content is the discipline of frequently identifying ways you’re delivering expertise. This exercise can make you not only a more effective content developer but a more client-conscious advisor.  

Dan Pecchia is a Youngstown public relations consultant and president of Pecchia Communications. He helps organizations develop and sustain flows of premium content that engage and motivate customers. Email him here.