Season 2. Episode 4. Essential Skills for Great Content

Resources For Creating Great Content

In this episode I cover 5 key skills for great content. Writing, People, video, audio and visual skills.

 

WRITING

 

• The most important part of Content Marketing is that it should be welcoming and relatable.
• It’s important to be CLEAR more than CLEVER; keep it as simple as possible.
• Practice makes perfect.
• Engagement is more important than views

Tools:

• Hemmingway Editor

Training Resources:

• Business Blog Writing to Generate Leads: For Beginners by Daniel Woolfolk *
  
• 10 Commandments of Writing Great Copy

PEOPLE

• Aim is to achieve engagement (comments)
• Always follow up on comments or questions
• Welcome alternative views, avoid being defensive
• Remove or ignore unprofessional or irrelevant comments
• Try to understand what your audience are most interested in

Tools:

• Survey Monkey
• Google Forms

Training Resources:

• People: Double Your Social Skills and Instantly Connect With People by Jimmy Naraine*

• How to Create a Survey to Find Your Target Market by Amy Porterfield

VIDEO

• Anybody can produce decent quality video these days by simply using their smartphone and posting to Youtube.
• Good lighting is more important than a great a camera.
• Sound quality can be improved with a good microphone or digital recorder.

Tools:

• Rode Lavalier microphone
• Zoom H-1
• Screenflow (For Mac Users)
• Camtasia

Training Resources:

• How to shoot videos of yourself with your smartphone by Penny Haslam
• Learn how to shoot better videos by yourself by Caleb Wojcik (the best in the business in my opinion)

AUDIO

• Podcasts can be small mini series or singular episodes
• You can use sites such as Soundcloud or Podbean to upload your audio to (see links below).
• Stand up when recording or at least ensure you have a straight back.
• Microphone technique is an important discipline. Keep a consistent distance from your microphone.
• When using a microphone, use a pop filter (see below)
• Avoid placing your microphone on a hard surface (ideally use a boom arm – link below)

Tools:

• Soundcloud
• Podbean
• Auna MIC-900 (Current Microphone)
• Blue Snowball (Previous Microphone)
• Pop Filter
• Boom Arm

Training Resources:

• Pat Flynn’s-  Step by Step How to start a podcast tutorial
• Podcasting For Beginners

VISUALS

• Some people respond better to visual content.
• Infographics are very popular.
• If this is not your skill set then consider outsourcing via Fiverr (see link below).
• Create images using royalty free photographs with text added using Canva.

Tools:

• You can see my updates infographic here
• The specialist I used to produce my updates infographic
• Canva

Training Resources:

• Professional Infographics Without Previous Experience! by Florin Rosoga*

Please note that the courses marked with a * have been recommended to me but not courses I have personally experienced.

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