Be unique.
That’s one of the first pieces of advice you’ll receive where content is concerned. Unique, compelling content is how you stand out from the crowd. It’s how you create value for your audience and engage with both new and existing customers.
There’s just one problem – how exactly can you be unique.
At this point, it’s no secret that content marketing has reached a saturation point. There are too many brands – too many people – creating too much content. Consider, for example, that on WordPress alone, users produce approximately 70 million new posts each month.
To call it overwhelming would be something of an understatement. Modern consumers are already drowning in advertisements and marketing messages. Now we also face a veritable tide of blog posts, white papers, and other content.
As you might expect, this means that standing out has never been more difficult. You’re competing with countless other businesses and brands. You’re trying to make your content stand out amidst potentially millions of similar pieces.
Even if your content is of the highest quality possible, there’s no guarantee it’s original. There’s no guarantee it’s unique. There’s no guarantee that someone, somewhere, hasn’t written about similar ideas in the past.
So…what can you do, then? Is trying for originality on the modern web a lost cause? Is it even possible to be entirely unique?
In terms of topic selection, probably not. Given the sheer volume of competitors in your industry, there’s a very good chance that at least one of them has covered anything you choose to write about to some extent. What you can do is put a unique spin on those topics.
- Let your personality shine through. Find your own voice as a writer, and apply your own distinctive life experience to your writing.
- Dive deep. Just because a topic’s been covered extensively, doesn’t mean there aren’t facets of that topic that have yet to be explored.
- Write what you know. While it’s certainly possible to write compelling stuff about unfamiliar subjects, that’s probably not something you’ll want to do for your blog – you’re trying to establish your brand’s thought leadership here, after all.
- Focus on your audience. What purpose does this blog post serve for them? How does it help them? What problem of theirs does it address?
Basically, what we’re saying here is that anyone in your field can write on a topic that’s familiar to them. But none of them can write about that topic from your perspective, based on your experience. Keep that in mind, and you might be surprised at how much better your content becomes.