Did you know that, according to TechCrunch and Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, “every two days, we create as much information as we did from the dawn of man through 2003”! The physics of content marketing tells us that the amount of information being produced is dramatically increasing, but our brain’s ability to process information is still the same. With so much content marketing out there, how do you get your own content seen, read and shared? Mark W. Schaefer, who recently presented at the Content Success Summit said, “you’ve got to make your content R-I-T-E.”

Relevant– According to a recent study by Junta42 and MarketingProfs, creating relevant content is the No. 1 challenge amongst content marketers by a wide margin. Don’t know what your audience needs? Ask them! What do they care about? What obstacles do they face? What is their single biggest challenge? Too often we create content in a vacuum and then question why it doesn’t resonate. Be proactive in finding out what your audience needs and wants and write about that. In fact, we’ve got 17 questions to ask yourself to make this task a breeze.

Interesting – How much of the content that you read sounds like corporate-shmorporate robot speak? Did a real person even read this before the automated blog post went out? Real people write real content that speaks to other real people. Jon Morrow, Associate Editor of Copyblogger recently penned a post called, How to Fix Your Writing When It’s Lifeless, Tedious, or Even Downright Stupid. Jon’s writing is like a great movie in that it can make you laugh, cry and get angry all in one blog post! Even Jon admits, “This shit is hard, people. If you want to make your writing interesting, you have to embrace the mess. You have to find the courage to look inside yourself and discover what you really think. You also have to feel, not just little blips of emotion, but buckets of it, drowning you in their intensity and power.”

Timely – If you’re posting moldy-oldy content that everyone read 3 days ago, forget about it. If you want to stay on top of trends, you’ve gotta keep up with them. Subscribe to Google Alerts around topics related to your business. For example, we get daily emails related to email marketing, content marketing, social media, etc. You can also sign up for and read popular blogs, or subscribe to RSS feeds related to your industry. And, search trending topics on Twitter and join LinkedIn Groups. That should keep you and your content current.

Entertaining – Similarly to making your content interesting, you’ve got to make the effort to make it entertaining. Remember, you want real people to read, like and share it. Copyblogger cites some great ideas to provide content that’s not just valuable, but entertaining too. We particularly like this idea: Take two unrelated ideas and mash them up. For instance, What Batman Can teach You About Blogging. Or an example from Jon Morrow; The Tony Soprano School of Leadership. You can use superheros, celebrities, real-life stories, whatever it takes to provide value, but also take your reader on a short and entertaining journey. That’s what’ll keep ’em coming back for more, and that’s the content that will get liked, shared and read.

How will you use these tips to make your content marketing RITE? Let us know!

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