Content marketing is one of the most cost-efficient and all-around best marketing strategies to drive leads and sales. But the key to content marketing is to understand that your results are directly tied to the quality of your content. 

Creating well-written and shareable content can sometimes seem an overwhelming task but as challenging as it can feel at times, the results are well worth the effort especially when you know that the content you are putting out there is helping you to build your business. Here are five easy-to-follow tips for producing great content.

1.Keep It Clear, Concise And Focused
The most important thing that you can do for your content is to keep it on point. Your potential customer found this content for a reason whether through a search engine or spotting a link that caught their attention. Their goal is to learn more about the subject you have headlines for, and you owe it to them to provide it. To do this, your content needs to be as focused on the subject as possible don’t just glaze over the topic over the other concepts that are not essential to your main point.

It is important to keep it clean and concise. One way to do this is to remember to keep your paragraphs short for easy scanning. Humans are built to embrace success it is the same reason video games are designed with lots of achievements given at the very start, it creates an addiction. Your content is the same way with each paragraph the reader gains a subconscious feeling of victory driving them to the finish. Lastly, forget what you have learned in school. A lot of rules although grammatically correct do nothing but make modern speech sound pretentious and cumbersome.

If your customer needs to pull out a thesaurus, you are working too hard. Speak with your natural voice if you want to reach out and capture their focus. Technical jargon will only throw it off. Your readers will understand your content and not get choked up in the fancy talk.

2.Edit, Edit, And Edit
Hammering out a 2000 word article and hitting a submit just shouldn't happen even Hemingway was well-known for disliking his initial drafts. Break up your editing into phases. For the first step simply read through the piece of content did you get all points across that you wanted to, and you need to beef up some areas with more facts and statistics. Identify the issue and fix them from the top down also ensure that the length matches the depth of your content.

If you find your content getting fluffy, you may need to cut some sections. In the end, this will make your writing stronger throughout. Next, read the text out loud and see where it gets too wordy, most people sub-vocalize meaning they are reading the words aloud in their heads which makes breaks in the flow of the text obvious. Lastly, always double-check your grammar and voice. Save this one for the last since you will be editing most of the text and the other steps, and you don’t want to miss out on something.

Keep the tone in the article consistent. If you find that you have a lot of changes to make with every piece of content try writing in a long hand the old-fashioned way with a pen and paper for your very first draft. Since most people handwrite slower than they type, it forces your brain to slow down and put more thought into the text which may be a key for turning out higher quality material. 

3.Make The Content Actionable
Talking about your success is fine but what your customer will want to know is how they can do it too by creating actionable content you are giving your audience things they can try. Immediately this will keep them coming back for more and more information which will get them interacting more with your content. A good way to do this is to create a list or highlight key tasks in your content to help readers accurately identify what they need to do. This also gives them a reason to return to your articles.

They are also one of the simplest ways to get more people to subscribe to your newsletter or purchase any informational products. It builds trust because you have given them a task they can try for themselves to experience immediate results and nothing sells like positive results.

4. Add Images
Images can take a decent post and make it great. The key to shareable content is to find relatable graphics. Using stock photos for the sole purpose of using images may look better than a complete text-based piece of content, but it is pointless if it doesn’t benefit the reader. For example, don’t use a picture of a blank screen computer when writing about technological issues instead you could try using a shot of a man pulling his hair out. When you find images that have emotional appeal your customers who are likely in the same position will be better able to relate to your content.

5. Provide Answers
No one wants to finish an article with more questions than they arrived with. Again people are consuming your content for a reason, remember with the headline you have promised to answer their questions. You need to be sure that your content provides the answers they are looking for. If you are having trouble knowing whether you have sufficiently responded to the question or not try reading your content from a potential customer's perspective and think of all the questions they might ask. It can be difficult to explain to a beginner a topic you are well versed in, but by putting yourself in their shoes, you can eliminate a lot of the issues.

Final Thoughts
These tips are simple, writing great content is not only reserved for the Shakespeare and Tolstoy of our generation. It is attainable to anyone who focuses on the basics and can get to paper or hand to keyboard.