Speak Human, Write Better Content By Just Being You

“Your business doesn’t need more content, it needs better content,” says Ann Handley, Chief Content Officer at MarketingProfs.  For small businesses, this sounds like really good news. It’s hard enough to come up with what we have much less churn out more.

But I sense a catch here. We may not have to create more content, but she expects us to create better content. To make better use of the content channels that we have. And quite honestly, that’s even more of a challenge.

Because creating content isn’t just about the number of blogs you publish. Nor is it solely the number of emails you send or the volume of social media updates you post.

Sure, that’s content. It’s marketing activity. But it’s not relationship.

In our mad dash to lead the pack in SERP, we’ve all jumped into the deep end of the keyword frenzy, and forgot to put of our life preserver. We’ve traded writing for people for writing for robots. We’ve opted out of organic growth in favor of the lure of paid ads.

And the end result is lifeless content that’s dead in the water.

But there is a life preserver. There’s a way to save your content. And it should come natural to you.

Be human.

You often hear from marketing folks like me to “humanize” your brand. I apologize for the use of yet another buzzword, but the concept behind this one is real.

Sure, you can use Buffer or Hootsuite to schedule your social media posts for the next two weeks. But in all that push, where’s your pull? Where’s the time spent on each platform interacting with the community there and putting a face to your brand.

Yes, you can write blog post after blog post to demonstrate your thought leadership. But through your words, are you having a conversation with your reader or are they reading a text book?

Be human. There’s value in breathing life into your brand. To creating a voice that speaks through every channel, a heartbeat the thuds through each interaction.

Build a culture. Determine the characteristics that you want your brand to have and animate them. Like Frankenstein, grab a little of this, and a little of that, and stitch together an experience that will touch the hearts of many and endear you to them.

And your content? When you figure out who you are as a brand, your content will get better. Because you’re no longer speaking like a business on the hunt for sales. You’re speaking like a human seeking connection. And humans like that.