Whether someone is reading one of your free blog articles, or your high ticket information product, you want them to feel like they’re reading a high-quality piece. This is particularly true if they’ve paid for the content, because you want them to feel like they’re getting a really good deal.
So what should you do? You need to add value to your content, and this checklist shows you how to do it! Take a look…
Solve a Specific Problem
Sure, rants and opinion pieces have their place. But if you want to create a high-quality, valuable piece of content, then it needs to solve a specific problem. Even better is if you create content that solves a problem for the experts in your niche.
So before you even sit down and write one word, ask yourself: “What problem am I going to solve? What do I want readers to know how to do by the time they’re finished reading this?” Asking yourselves those questions will sharpen the purpose of your content and make it more valuable.
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Tell People Why Your Content is Valuable
In other words, build credibility. For example, is your content valuable because:
You’re a known expert in the niche?
You have certain skills or background experiences that make you uniquely qualified to share this information?
You’ve won certain awards in your niche?
Let’s suppose you’re sharing content about how to write a bestselling novel. Your content will be more valuable if you can establish that you’ve written your own bestselling novel.
After all, what is more valuable: advice from bestselling novelist Stephen King, or advice from Joe Blow, some guy who’s never hit the bestseller list? Sure, you may not be Stephen King, but your advice is still more valuable if you’ve had bestsellers or won awards, versus the person who doesn’t walk the talk.
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Provide Tools
Another way to boost the value of your content is by offering tools that help people achieve their goals.
Let’s suppose you’re sharing a guide about how to write better sales copy. Below you’ll find an example of various tools with specific examples that you could offer your aspiring copywriters:
Checklists. For example, “The 27 Point Checklist For Creating Cash-Pulling Copy.”
Templates. For example, “The Surefire Sales Letter Template.”
Swipes. For example, “101 Headline Swipes For Every Occasion.”
Worksheets. For example, “The Audience Profiling Worksheet.”
Planners. For example, “How To Write a Sales Letter In Seven Days.”
Cheat sheets. For example, “The High-Response Sales Letter Cheat Sheet.”
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Format For Easy Readability
If you’re sharing text content and your readers have to struggle to read it, the perceived value is going to be very low. So make it easy to read by using these tips:
· Choose a “comfortable” font. Some people think that small fonts or hard-to-read fonts are edgy and polished. They’re not. They’re annoying and hard to read. So choose standard fonts in standard font sizes, such as 12-point Tahoma, Arial or Times New Roman.
· Create short words, sentences and paragraphs. No one wants to read a wall of text, so break up long paragraphs into multiple paragraphs, or even into bulleted lists.
· Proof your content. If its riddled with errors, the perceive value is going to drop faster than a lead balloon.
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Insert Graphics
A picture is worth 1000 words, right? And that’s why adding graphics to your content can help raise the perceived value. This is particularly true if your graphics help explain the concepts you’re describing.
For example, if you’ve created a blog post about how to do five different types of exercises, then share pictures or illustrations of how to do these exercises. These illustrations are much more useful and valuable than text-only descriptions.
Another example: if you’re sharing data-heavy content, then share it via an infographics, which makes the data easier to understand and consume.
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Offer Multimedia
Text generally has the lowest perceived value, followed by audio, video and live events. So if you want to boost the perceived value of a piece of text content, then all you have to do is offer it in an alternative format, such as a video.
TIP: Better yet, offer your content in multiple formats. That way, prospects and customers can choose the format that best suits their learning style. And having multiple formats boosts the overall value of your content.
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Project Confidence
No one wants to get advice from an author who sounds uncertain. That’s why you’ll want to project confidence and authority in all your content.
For example, here’s a weak statement: “You’ll probably want to drink more water when you’re dieting, as it might help you lose weight.”
Now let’s rewrite that statement to sound more confident: “Drink more water – at least eight glasses of day – when you’re dieting. Water not only helps you feel fuller, it also helps your entire body work better – and that includes your fat-burning abilities!”
See the difference? The first sentence sounds uncertain. The second sentence not only sounds more confident, it provides two solid reasons why drinking water is beneficial to weight loss. When you can offer both the “how” (drink more water”) and the “why” of that instruction, your content will become more authoritative.
Simply put, people value content that’s coming from an authoritative voice, so project that confidence whenever you write.
Conclusion
As you just discovered, boosting the perceived value of your content doesn’t need to be difficult. Just use the tips above, and you’ll have satisfied readers who’ll keep coming back to you for their content again and again!