How to Make Your Website Content Stand Out from the Competition

Good and engaging content can be informative and can also be a source for maximum reach. However, creating effective marketing content requires effort wherein it requires consideration of audience interests, multi platform accessibility and ease of navigation.

The following are 14 members of Forbes Agency Council who have weighed in their best content creation ideas:

1. 1. UTILIZE SEARCH DATA TO DIFFERENTIATE
   Closely look at the specific questions that people are asking and ensure that you have right content to answer their questions. This can lead to driving new visitors to your website and will ultimately build trust within a consumer base.
   
   
2. 2. LISTEN, LISTEN, LISTEN
   When we talk about good content it starts with active listening. With the help of listening tools, you can monitor customer conversations about your brand and your competitors, at scale.
   
   
3. 3. ADOPT THE END USER'S POINT OF VIEW
   You need to make sure that your media speaks to your market in such a way that it will make them emotionally driven.Try and illustrate the product from the end-user point of view so that they can relate and buy in.
   
   
4. 4. ASK AND COMPARE
   Ask your customers regarding what new content or influencers interest them the most. This can be done either informally or via incentivized polls.
   
   
5. 5. SPEND TIME WITH SALES
   Most of the best content ideas tend to come from sales. Sales can help to identify vertical trends that translate into public relations and marketing campaigns.
   
   
6. 6. THINK LIKE YOUR CUSTOMERS
   Businesses mainly focus on what they want to sell. However, you need to focus on the needs and pain points of their customers. By using interactive content such as quizzes and calculators for entertaining and providing value to website visitors you can stand out from the competitors.
   
   
7. 7. RUN FOCUSED SURVEYS
   You need to send a newsletter every four to six weeks including questions asking what's on everyone's mind, problem child or exciting subjects, fears, successes and so forth.
   
   
8. 8. BE AUTHENTIC
   Great content should be inspired by your brand and should be authentic to your brand. There are various places from where you can generate content ideas which includes a number of places like sales or networking conversations, industry news etc.
   
   
9. 9. USE ONLINE TOOLS
   You need to find out what business owners are talking about. Some of the online tools include SEMrush's "Topic Research" Tool, BuzzSumo and Answer the Public which can help to uncover hot topics in your industry.
   
   
10. 10. MAKE DOCUMENTATION PART OF THE CREATIVE PROCESS
    One piece of content that only your company can create which your competition cannot is - the content of you. When you document your process and make it public you not only create content that cannot be duplicated but also build credibility bu showing your abilities.
    
    
11. 11.HOOK THEM WITH STORIES
    Stories tend to be an easy way to learn from the experiences of others without having to go through the pain of forced change ourselves. Try and incorporate short and compelling stories regarding your product or services into your brand building in order to book your customers' interest.
    
    
12. 12. DO IT THREE TIMES BETTER
    Firstly, you need to know the audience for whom you want to create content for and then speak directly to them. Also dig around your competitors sites and see what they are doing, offering and using in order to "wow" their audience.
    
    
13. 13. FIND AND FILL THE GAP
    The first thing is that you need to think about the market sectors that your business is competing with. You should then look on to innovate and fill the gap with services and or products.
    
    
14. 14. ADDRESS THEIR PAIN POINTS
    Customers usually search out for solutions to their problems and not the products to buy. Ask them their problems if you are not familiar with the problems your customers were trying to solve. Try and tell regarding each issue in a way that people will be able to connect with and also that new customers will find you.