14 Jul If You Build It… They Still Won’t Come

It used to be that if you started a blog the best and most honest way to build an audience was by publishing great and helpful content. Educate your readers and they will flock to you for the information.

Jon Morrow wrote a great post on why that’s no longer true for the 2014 audience. For years, top bloggers defined “great content” is educational: teach your readers something, and they’ll come back for more.

Because everyone has jumped onto that bandwagon, educational content isn’t as effective as it used to be for driving traffic.

Morrow says that the great content of yesterday is the mediocre content of today. If you want to succeed, you have to evolve. I absolutely agree.

In 2007 great content meant short, journal-like entries that were witty and insightful. 2009 was the year of the “How To” articles, breaking huge topics into bite-sized chunks that helped readers digest them more easily. Even last year’s infographics are starting to lose their traction, because everyone is publishing them!

What are the article’s suggestions for building an audience today? Here are things that get responses and engagement in today’s content marketing landscape.

Be a Drama Llama

This may seem like the exact thing you do NOT want to attract on your blog, but when you help people fully experience information they truly understand it. It all goes back to storytelling.

Morrow suggests that instead of focusing on a topic, target an emotion for your blog post. That might mean writing an article that directly deals with anger. That doesn’t mean you have license to go on a meaningless rant, but if there’s a topic in your industry that fuels people’s anger you may just want to write about it. When you step out on a limb with your expertise and infuse it with emotions, people comment and share. A lot.

Offer Unique Data

Don’t just grab the latest numbers in your industry. That’s what Google is for. How about doing a survey for your readers? Don’t be afraid to dig in and ask some unique questions. Then, summarize that data and offer your expert opinion about it.  Give suggestions.

How about you? What types of content increases and engages your audience today? Share by commenting below!

You can read Jon Morrow’s original article here.