We at Catch22 Marketing have been on board the content marketing train for a while now, and are building up steam. We’re continually refining our methods and evaluating what works and improving ourselves and our website. It’s the same process we use for our clients, and it’s the same method that has been proven to be effective with one big caveat: it’s downright competitive.

I believe there are three major elements to writing a blog post that will make it successful. You can have a moderately successful blog post if you hit any one of the three, but hitting two will produce better results, and if you can get all three you’ve got the jackpot.

Need

Trapped in the skulls of every single one of us is unique and valuable information that would save time, effort, and research for other people if it were known. Some of this information will never be shared, and in some cases shouldn’t be shared. More and more of it is being shared, however, and this is good news for everyone looking for that specialized information.

How we search for information has changed in the last generation, and this change centers around where we go for information when we need it. More and more, even for highly specialized information, we turn to Google for the answer. Unfortunately, (or maybe fortunately for content creators) there are still large gaps in the online knowledge base. Identifying those points of need can radically improve the reach of your blog posts, by answering the questions other are asking that no-one else has answered.

When a business or an individual realizes they have information that is of value to others, that they need and are searching for, and they choose to share it, everyone wins.

Originality

Unlike need, originality hits upon subjects and information that people didn’t even know they wanted. It is what so many of us wish for, and don’t realize that we have. The problem with originality is that we downplay the value of our own originality, if we see it at all. After all, we understand better how many shoulders we’ve stood upon to get there. But that is what originality is all about: it’s just advancing the conversation to the next logical conclusion.

No human on earth can claim an idea or invention was made outside of the influences of other humans. Invention and originality isn’t so much about having the biggest brain, but having the most persistence.

Want to create original content? Pick up where others have left off. Carry the conversation further, and don’t feel bad for standing on someone else’s shoulders.

“When a business or an individual realizes they have information that is of value to others, that they need and are searching for, and they choose to share it, everyone wins.”

Creativity

One of the negative side-effects of blogging is when you put your heart and sole into a post, only to have another post that took half an hour blow it out of the water. On one side you’re happy, because people are benefitting from your post, and on the other side you’re confused. Is it worth the extra time to write creative blog posts when the simple short post that had no creativity whatsoever, and just happened to fulfill a need, got more attention?

This answer may vary for different people or organizations, because it largely depends upon your goals. The mere increase in traffic doesn’t necessarily mean an increase in conversions of visitors to customers. Content marketing is a long term game plan, and creating a strategy around it means knowing that posts need to be both high-performing and highly goal-aligned.

Being creative for creativity’s sake is not the goal, but generating traffic from your target market is. Everyone seeks creative content, and if you can put your creative content in front of your potential customers, they’ll see you as a go-to resource.

Remember that the only way to get into the content marketing game is to just start. Work from where you are at, and try to improve until you get where you’d like to go. No one goes from 0 to 60 without passing 30. Find a need and answer the call, and if you can do it with a little creativity and originality, you’ll be well on your way to winning the content marketing lottery.