Have you ever looked with envy at those blog posts that get hundreds of re-tweets and Facebook “shares”? Did you ever wonder how the writers do it? There are several components to creating “sticky” website content that will travel—and stay the course, getting retweets months later. Here are a few marketing tricks to create stickier content marketing.

• Outbound links. Some companies fear outbound links, thinking that they don’t want to risk sending prospects away from their website. But outbound links draw new audiences to your site. And if your content is worth reading, those visitors who left will come back.
• Keep it short. Short, scannable, fun. Your readers should know, within the first few sentences, the message your content is sharing. They should be able to scan the rest and leave with a nugget of truth they can apply to their life immediately.
• Pass the “Wow” test. When I write personal essays, I make sure the topic passes the “Wow” test. I tell the story to a few friends and family members. If they respond with an enthusiastic, “Wow!” or “Really?!” I know the story will make a good essay. Your stickiest content should make people say, “Really?! I didn’t know that.” Then they’ll want to tell a friend—or ten. And that’s how really sticky content, well—sticks.

Dawn Allcot is a freelance writer available on WriterAccess, a marketplace where clients and expert writers connect for assignments. WriterAccess is powered by ideaLaunch, a full service content marketing agency serving hundreds of clients and thousands of writers since 2000.

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Tags: content marketing

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 12th, 2010 at 11:00 pm and is filed under Content Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.