Being a hardcore music fan is full of dilemma. On the one hand, I wish that everyone around would stop listening to generic Top 40 radio to appreciate recent Laneway performers such as Mitski or Courtney Barnett. On the other hand, I kinda wish that those exact same musicians would stay far away from the mainstream so I could lord my superior musical tastes around the general public. It’s stupid I realize, especially when you consider that it’s in the artist’s interests for their music to be consumed by as much people as possible.

Musicians make a living from royalties and selling tickets and/or merchandises during their tour. Filmmakers won’t get work or their project funded if their last film flopped. Writers get by on book deals but they won’t get published if their last book tanked. Even typical businesses now regularly traffic in content because contents are what get people interested. The key element here is how to get people to actually read your content, which comes in the form of content marketing.

Standing out in the sea of content

In the world of television, the last couple of years have been described as the era of ‘peak TV’. The basis behind that thinking is simple, there’s just so many quality shows being aired that it’s quite impossible to keep track of all of them. Dozens of Netflix original series seem to pop up on a regular basis and now that pretty much everyone and their mother is getting into the streaming game, you can bet that it’s just going to get worse in the future.

Then again, I do think it’s a bit of a misnomer to describe this era as ‘peak TV’; it’s more like this is the era of ‘peak content’. Spotify has made almost every piece of recorded music instantly available for people around the world. Podcasts too are slowly but reliably gaining traction, with investigative journalism series Serial leading the charge into the mainstream. And then there’s the world of video games, where global hit Fortnite achieving a level of popularity not seen since the days of Super Mario.

The phrase content creator itself is now no longer limited to companies and brands, with popular accounts from Instagram, Tiktok or YouTube commanding a level of popularity that rivals, or dwarfs in some cases, typical Hollywood celebrities. It is pretty much a hostile place for new content and underlines just how good your content marketing strategy have to be in order for your written contents to land on the eyes of the public. Contrary to popular belief, written contents are still very much in and the following tips can help get you more clicks for your articles.

Decide first the kind of content you’d like to create

Do you want it to be a compilation of lifehacks and tips that can be easily digested in a single sitting like this one or would you go for a more in-depth and longform contents similar to the one you’d find in magazines? You can also do both as long as you maintain separate sections for each. This distinction is important because your preferred format will what the recommended style of writing would look like.

If you’re going for lifehacks and tips, you’d want to make it as short and snappy as possible, like a mobile game that you could enjoy in a short break. On the other hand, magazine-style articles allows you more freedom in your approach, allowing you to go into details of your subject but you still have to ensure that it doesn’t meander aimlessly and finding that balance is a lot harder than it sounds. Know first which direction to go to and the rest of the puzzle will fall into place.

Use the power of social media sharing

I have this group text I share with my college friends that was ostensibly meant to be used as a way for us to stay in touch with each other but for the most part, we use them to share and discuss interesting things we found online. I remember last month we chatted a lot about Amazon’s founder Jeff Bezos’ atrocious sexting abilities. Like, in what universe is ‘alive girl’ supposed to sound sexy? Anyway, I got to read some funny things thanks to this group chat, which underlines just how powerful social media sharing can be.

Make it easy for your content to be shared across social media and also make it a point to actually share your posts from your social media accounts. This one is very simple to do but could potentially bring a sizable benefit for your contents so if you’ve been somewhat hesitant to get on social media, you might want to reconsider that thinking.

Highlight notable lines from your content

The majority of people are scanner first and reader second and by highlighting some of the more notable lines and key points from your content, you could make the transition between the former and the latter easier. Think of it this way, when you want to go see a film, you normally see the trailer first to see if it’s something that would interest you. These highlights serve as that trailer, so you want to make sure that it represents some of the best things your content has to offer.

Include images in between walls of texts

Still related to the issue of people being more of a scanner than a reader, adding relevant images to your content can make your contents much more appealing to scan compared to a simple, unbroken wall of texts. If you don’t have any relevant photos on hand, consider adding simple illustrations to help prove the point you’re trying to make. Adding charts and diagrams could also be helpful if you’re thinking of including statistics in your posts.