Why Bother With Consistent Content?

Why Bother With Consistent Content?:

In today’s world of marketing and consumerism, few things are more iconic than seeing well-known brands or logos such as the golden arches of McDonalds or a white apple (minus a nibble) superimposed on a black background. When we see these logos, we’re instantly aware of the products they represent. We see them on television, in magazines and on the Internet. Creating this kind of market consistency through the use of logos has long been mastered by advertisers and marketers. When we transfer the same concept of consistency and continuity to the world of web content and content marketing, suddenly we’re left in the dark.

Many Voices, Many Styles If you’ve had the fortune of being able to work with one content writer to develop your brand, your website and your content, then you’re lucky. Chances are, however, that you’ve had a team of writers creating your content. Each writer has their own voice which translates across their work. One writer’s article can be vastly different in tone, language, and voice than another’s. This does not create the kind of content consistency that is becoming increasingly more important.

Groupon-Speak Consider Groupon; their style of writing has become so easily identified that it is now being given its own adjective, “groupon-style”. Love it or hate it, when you hear the words “groupon-style”, you are immediately aware of that style of writing. Groupon has managed to create continuity throughout their content despite having a huge team of writers creating different content.

Content Baselines Creating content consistency doesn’t mean you need to instruct your writers in a new language, or that you need to have a unique style of writing that pertains to your product. It can be as simple as determining if your content is written in an active or passive voice, if you allow familiar terms such as “you”, or if you want the level of writing aimed at a particular demographic. This can be achieved by creating a content baseline.

Content baselines can be developed to capture the key features that you want writers to adhere to when creating your content. Professional writers are already familiar with following guidelines set by clients, but rarely does a client ask for stylistic nuances that will help their content be consistent in tone and style.

Consistent Content Is Important The ever mysterious Google and their constantly changing algorithms have made one thing clear: quality content will be rewarded. Having quality written content, however, is no longer the only standard that you should look for when hiring writers. By maintaining a consistent tone, voice or style in your content, your readers, customers, clients and networks become familiar with your brand no matter on which platform they read about it. Facebook, blogs, articles and other forms of social media can all carry your message using the same tone or style.

There’s more to the world of content marketing than just uploading a steady stream of articles or blogs to your site. Work with a small, select team of web content writers to truly capture a voice for your brand and you will set your brand apart from all the others.

Jennifer A is a freelance writer available on WriterAccess, a marketplace where clients and expert writers connect for assignments. WriterAccess is powered by ideaLaunch.