Keeping Content Relevant

Fact: your website content is one of the main reasons why people keep coming back to your site and remain subscribed to your email campaigns. A recent stat from Jupiter Research reported that 51% of people surveyed will unsubscribe if the content is not interesting. It certainly isn’t a stat you want to hear but definitely one you need to hear.

People place a high value on what emails they allow through to their inbox. Added to that, most people have a short attention span and skim through their emails, only stopping to read something further if it grabs them immediately. Keep them entertained and informed from the outset and you stand a good chance of getting your entire email read.

It’s however, not always easy coming up with fresh ideas for each new campaign, and it gets even harder the higher the frequency of your emails. So how do you go about creating content that will rivet your readers? If you think about it, content has to adapt, otherwise, like most things in life, it will become stagnant, irrelevant and boring. Products, services, data and pricing structures can become outdated quickly.

If you spend all your time and energy getting visitors to your site only for their search to end in old information, they won’t give it a second chance. There are, however, a few things you can do to ensure that your content stays relevant and up to date, which will go a long way to ensuring that your visitors become repeat visitors.

Here’s what you need to consider:

1. Is the content the same as what’s stated in the teaser/heading?

When a person clicks on an article titled ‘E-Marketing Basics’, they expect to read about that topic. If they open it and discover it’s about advanced e-marketing strategies they aren’t going to be impressed. Even though the subject is the same, it’s not the information they are after. Follow through and make sure that what you are stating in your header is exactly what people can expect to find in the rest of the article.

2. Keep your content concise and to the point

Avoid a long-winded thesis on any subject matter that requires a university degree to fully comprehend what you have written. People skim read at the best of times and lose interest very quickly if:

• the information isn’t relevant to their search,
• if it doesn’t state clearly and quickly what the information is about and
• if it’s boring.

At the same time you need to keep the content fairly straight forward and simple. The brain can only process so much at any given time, so don’t cram it all in at once.

3. Highlight keywords

You know you only have a very limited time to grab and retain a person’s interest so you need to use it wisely. It can help to highlight certain points in your content, which automatically draws their attention long enough for them to want to read more.

4. Keep it interesting

Yes, it is easier said than done, but try this out. Follow your readers in forums and groups. What are they commenting on? What do they have questions or frustrations about? You can then use the information you gather to create new content for your next campaign, thereby keeping it entirely relevant, up to date and interesting (simply because you are addressing topics that your readers were wondering about).

5. Create links to other relevant content/articles

Any link to information that can reconfirm or even further develop your idea is good for your credibility.

The general rule of thumb is to update your website content annually. This will ensure that everything from programmes, products and services to pricing schedules are kept up to date and therefore relevant for most searches conducted.