With the massive avalanche of content that’s about to descend upon the internet thanks to AI, does your brand still have a chance of getting noticed?
Yes! After all, before artificial intelligence tools were widely accessible, the internet was already overloaded with content. There’s no reason to quit being a content marketer now.
But, be prepared to modify your mindset and approach to content marketing. If you’re thinking that you’ll churn out a bunch of search-optimized articles and boom, Bob’s your uncle, then stop that attitude right now.
That may work in the short term. However, it’s not a plan for the long term.
To combat mediocrity, you’ll need to create “authority content.” This is content that displays your experience, expertise, personality, and goes beyond the stereotypical SEO informative post or video that used to work. It builds trust and positions your brand at the top of the pecking order.
Most content in your industry probably addresses similar topics to take advantage of search engine algorithms and attract the right leads. You’re busy blending in, which is easy to do when competing on the same search phrases as so many others.
But now’s the time to reveal your genius. Take risks with your content. And, abandon the blah blah and the caca.
What separates you from everybody else is YOU – Your Original Uniqueness. And what better way to communicate YOU than through authority content?
So, without further ado, let’s explore the key elements of authority content for business owners, content creators, consultants, service providers, and even marketing teams. These tips that will help your brand not be buried under the content avalanche!
What is Authority Content?
Authority content refers to content that positions you as a subject matter expert in a particular industry and builds trust and credibility in your brand by showcasing your experience, skill, results, perspective, and personality. I also call this Clout Content.
In a world where it’s easy to “fake it til you make it,” authority content leverages your expertise and unique point of view to address topics in a way that no one else can. Doing so helps your brand establish a reputation as an industry expert. Plus, you’re able to come across as a reliable, trustworthy business.
Authority content connects your business to an audience by solving common pain points and being relatable. You can transform your business from a cold, impersonal logo into a personable, understanding advisor that can guide others to a place of less difficulty or struggle.
Ideally, this content is housed in an Authority Hub, which is where your most important, authoritative content lives online.
Discover how authority content leverages your expertise and experience to establish your reputation and build trust in your business.Click To Tweet5 Elements of Awesome Authority Content
What characteristics define Authority Content? It is not as simple as just providing generic information on a topic.
There are key elements that go into making an article authoritative. Together, these attributes help your prospects see you as a trusted leader and guide who can help them.
1) Communicates Knowledge and Insight
To create authority content, you need a deep understanding of the specific topic at hand. This knowledge comes from education, training, data collection, research, analysis, and real-life, in-the-trenches experience.
There’s no substitute or replacement for your extensive wisdom! However, it’s up to you to communicate that wisdom. Authority content is perfect for sharing your insight to prove your genius and elevate your brand.
This doesn’t mean there isn’t value in gathering information and communicating it to others. However, this type of content is everywhere online. So, you’re competing with many others.
To stand out, consider creating content that goes the extra mile. Collect new data in your own research. Or, assess and analyze data from others and combine it with your real-life experience to offer new insights and to develop different methodologies or solutions.
The difference is between following the pack or leading the pack!
2) Focuses on the Customer
Another element of authority content is that it addresses your target audience’s needs or pain points. When you’ve been helping customers for a while, you are able to hone in on what content topics they want and need. You know their questions, concerns, fears, goals, and dreams. That’s why your content talks directly to them as if you know them personally.
Don’t focus on yourself. Of course, you’ll want to mention some of your personal stories now and then. However, make your customers the hero of the story. Talk about past customers, their struggles, and how their challenges were resolved through your solution.
By focusing on the customer, your content will be more relatable and helpful. And, it will be better at targeting the right audience.
What you write about determines the leads you attract. The more of the right content topics you focus on, the more qualified your leads will be, and the more conversions you’ll get.
Plus, customer-focused content that people find valuable and useful is more likely to be shared and engage your readers.
3) Makes the Topic Easier to Understand
While it’s essential to provide comprehensive information on any given topic, authority content should be presented in an easy-to-understand manner using:
- clear, straightforward language;
- concise sentences;
- bullet points/lists;
- subheadings for better readability, and,
- visuals for better comprehension.
If your target audience can’t understand your content, then it will be a waste of time to some degree. So, make an effort to simplify complex concepts. Remember that often you suffer from the curse of knowledge. Your prospects need your help because they don’t know what you know. It’s your role to communicate in a manner that doesn’t talk down to prospects but clarifies and informs.
The more digestible your content, the more it will support your marketing.
4) Boosts Your Credibility
The goal of authority content is to build trust and position you or your business as capable and qualified. As such, one critical element of it is to bolster your credibility.
Credibility is powerful! It can influence both the logical and emotional part of a person’s brain when it comes to purchase decisions. In the end, prospects want to believe that you’re trustworthy and reliable. They don’t want to waste money or time, and they don’t want to look foolish.
That’s why your content should include things that prove you’re a person of integrity who is reputable and dependable. To accomplish this, include some of these in your content:
- case studies from real-life examples
- testimonials from satisfied customers
- real-life stories from customers, colleagues, and your experiences
- statistics, studies, research supporting your assertions
- author bio at the end of each blog post
- logos or icons on your site that back up expertise (ie professional certificate) or display social proof (ie “as featured in”)
- links to and from reputable brands, people, websites
All of these suggestions will help convey prestige and clout. This is why I call authoritative content “Clout Content.” The term “clout” refers to influence and power. And, that’s what authority content offers: influence or leverage to grow your business, impact more people positively, and stand out in the crowd.
Anything that signals credibility and clout helps to bust the objections people have during the buying process!
5) Reveals Your Personality and ‘Heart’
Finally, I believe that authority content needs ‘heart.’ In other words, your content will be much more effective as a trust-builder and sales generator if you inject personality and emotion into it.
This concept can be described using an example from the movie The Replacements. The movie is a fictional story about the Washington Sentinels football team made up of unlikely replacement players who are tasked with taking the team to victory while the pro players are on strike.
In the movie, Coach McGinty tells a reporter that for his football team to get back in the game and have a shot at winning, they’re going to need “miles and miles of heart.” In other words, the team needs the special emotional connection that their beloved replacement quarterback Shane Falco brings to the game.
Much like the Washington Sentinels, your content marketing is going to need heart. Without it, you’ll have a harder time reaching your prospects. As AI floods the internet with more content, people will be starving for personality and human connection. They need you to be their Shane Falco.
Your Original Uniqueness Y.O.U. will attract those who are meant to be in your community and repel those who aren’t. Your brand personality is one of the most effective yet overlooked marketing tactics you have.
Admittedly, rejection is painful. But, rejection is a natural part of business just as it is with making friends or choosing your fashion style. You’re attracted to what you like and value. The same goes for your prospects.
So, give your audience the chance to experience your personality and your emotions to see if you’re a fit for them. Your expertise combined with your personality are the one-two punch in your arsenal for beating out the competition.
5 Reasons Why Authority Content is Effective
Although I’ve already mentioned some of the benefits of authority content, let’s talk about what makes it so powerful for your business. Here are five ways it supports lead generation and conversion.
1. Establishes Trust
As we just discussed, when you create authority content, you’re:
- demonstrating real world experience and expertise in your field;
- collecting, researching, and analyzing data to discover industry insights;
- sharing customer stories and testimonials; and,
- weaving years of knowledge into pieces of content to help your audience
Why does this type of content work so well to build trust? Because it is an effective way to “show, not tell.” Simply stating that you can do something isn’t nearly as convincing as doing it. Or, as the saying goes, actions speak louder than words!
According to PwC’s 2023 Trust Survey, trust is a critical part of a business so much so that a lack of trust can erode brand value and hurt financial performance.
- 91% of business executives agree that their ability to earn and maintain trust improves the bottom line.
- 63% of consumers ended the relationship with the company by no longer purchasing its products or services after a trust-damaging event.
- Consumers are most likely to consider 1) data security and 2) high-quality customer service, products, and services as most important when it comes to trusting a company.
Trust is one of the reasons that content marketing is important for B2Bs. Your content builds trust in your business, which generates leads and sales.
2. Attracts Backlinks
Authority content is more likely to attract reputable websites that link to your website. This is called a “backlink.”
Backlinks are an important part of improving your ranking in search engines. They signal to search engine algorithms and website users that your website is credible and trustworthy. Since these reputable websites have high domain or topical authority, some of their authority rubs off on you when they link to you.
If you’re publishing high-quality content like we’ve discussed, you’ll naturally acquire more backlinks. This is even more likely if you publish new or unique data, research, or insight. Mediocre content won’t attract as many links, which won’t help your SEO as much.
While backlinks from authoritative websites are good for helping you appear higher on search engine results pages, they also drive referral traffic directly from those referring domains. And, that’s another source of potential customers.
3. Targets Your Ideal Customer
Everyone is not your ideal customer, which is another reason authority content is so effective: it focuses on topics your target market cares about, so it’s good at generating qualified leads.
One of the wonderful perks of content marketing is that you get to choose your topics. I don’t think most businesses understand the value of simply selecting more strategic content topics.
What topics you put out into the atmosphere determine who you’re attracting. This is where I see so many businesses go wrong. Choosing the wrong content topics can create an audience of people who aren’t really your ideal target market.
However, carefully mapping out the customer journey and analyzing what a prospect 1) searches for to find you and 2) needs to know before buying from you can improve your conversion rate.
Let’s use a simple example of a chiropractor who runs a local business and wants to attract new customers. Which topic do you think will be most effective at getting someone with a backache to schedule an appointment?
- 5 Ways to Alleviate Back Pain
- Choose This Over Surgery to Stop Your Back Pain
- Why Choose Chiropractic to Relieve Your Lower Back Pain Faster than Yoga
The third option targets someone who has lower back pain and already knows about chiropractic care and yoga but isn’t sure what to do next (aka which service provider to choose). That person is much closer to making a buying decision than someone who is still researching all the different ways to improve back pain.
Now apply that insight to your authority content topics so that you get even better at attracting the most qualified leads. You have the power!
4. Positions You as Leader or Expert
Since authority content focuses on your experiences, expertise, and insight, it offers a new or different perspective. Your audience gets the chance to see what you think about a specific topic and your approach to it.
Becoming an authority figure in your industry positions you as a thought leader or an expert. As someone who is perceived as at the forefront of an industry, you’ll be seen as a go-to resource by customers and peers.
Also, by consistently producing content that showcases your expertise on various topics within your niche, you’ll open doors to new opportunities, such as interviews, affiliate deals, partnerships, speaking engagements, and guest posting invitations from other respected brands.
As an authority by way of your content, you’ll enjoy advantages that boost your brand, increase your visibility, extend your reach, and generate more leads and sales.
5. Empowers Your Audience
When you share ideas, concepts, mindsets, solutions, wins and losses, you will empower your audience to learn new things and potentially solve some of their struggles. That’s another reason that authority content is so powerful.
If you help your audience and they find value in your content, they will feel positively about you and your brand. They’ll appreciate you for sharing details that assisted them in making progress.
Empowering prospects to take action or make a decision also shows them that you understand them and know what they need. As a helpful guide, your audience will see that they can rely on you. And that will make it more likely for them to consume more content or hire you in the future.
As Hubspot points out, “when businesses help people make smarter choices, they develop a stronger bond with their customer base. In fact, studies show that customers are happier with a brand experience when the company makes efforts to empower them. And, this rapport leads to improvements in customer retention as well as opportunities to encourage customer advocacy.”
A person doesn’t need to be a customer to feel more loyalty toward you, though. When you empower prospects, you’re giving them a taste of your abilities and skills. You’re proving that you have what it takes to help and that they can trust you.
3 Examples of Authority Content
Sometimes it’s easier to see examples of concepts to better understand them. So, here are a few examples of people or organizations that publish authority content. When you get a moment, check them out!
Mark Schaefer
Mark Schaefer is one of my favorite business writers, although he’s much more than that! He’s a keynote speaker, educator, business consultant, and author. It’s no surprise that his blog {grow} is one of the top marketing blogs in the world.
He oozes authority in the way he writes, the topics he chooses, and his dedication to content publishing.
Key takeaway from Mark’s content: Break the content rules.
Mark writes to express himself and connect with this audience. His blog content isn’t an example of how to get page one through SEO secrets and tactics. It is, however, an example of writing from the heart and from experience. And, I think we need this style of content marketing more than ever!
Neil Patel
Neil Patel is one of my favorite digital marketing experts because he shares his vast experience and knowledge in his content and does it in a way that is straightforward and no nonsense. He’s a great example of a marketer that meets all five elements of awesome authority content.
His content is chock full of data. He has the receipts! Whether it be research from other companies or his own data, Neil pulls back the kimono (as they say) and shares what’s working and what’s not in digital marketing.
Key takeaway from Neil’s content: Don’t be afraid to share with your community.
Neil gives away a lot of free information and doesn’t shy away from sharing his expertise. He’s not worried that divulging digital marketing guidance will stop him from getting clients. In fact, my guess is that his authority content likely increases his business since it highlights his expertise and clout.
Julia McCoy
Julia McCoy is a seasoned content marketer who exited the content marketing agency she founded, prolific author, and President of Content at Scale, an AI tool that assists in producing human-like long-form content and blog posts.
As another example of a writer who is fire 🔥when it comes to authority content, Julia’s personality, talent, and expertise come through in everything she writes.
As a side note: her personal story proves there really are no excuses to making your dream a reality! I encourage you to read it.
Key takeaway from Julia’s content: use AI writing tools to supplement your content creation, not replace it.
Rather than reject AI, Julia has embraced AI technology to help with content production. And that’s so smart since you’ll fall behind and not be able to compete in content marketing if you don’t start learning AI tools.
In her authority content, can you tell what AI has written versus what she’s written? No! Because she’s a pro at writing and at humanizing AI content. So, be sure to read her blog posts to see a master at work!
For more content marketers to follow, see Buzzsumo’s list and Semrush’s list (psst, I’m on both lists, and a big shout out to both companies, thank you!)
Do You Need Authority Content?
Competing online is getting tougher, but one effective way to get noticed is to publish authority content. However, authority content isn’t for everyone.
You may be new and just starting out, so you don’t have the experience quite yet. Or, you may not have a team to support your marketing efforts.
Although content marketing for small business can be challenging, there are ways to manage it. Definitely consider outsourcing!
If you think you’d like to explore publishing authority content, follow these tips:
- Create exceptional content that surpasses competitors’ efforts so that you establish your business as an industry authority.
- Develop a content strategy to improve your chances of success with content marketing.
- Commit to consistent publishing to keep readers engaged and signal search engines that your site is active with relevant information.
- Focus on content that your target audience would love—even if it’s not optimal for SEO! Just be sure to promote the heck out of it. 🔊
I’m here to help! Contact me for a free consultation if you’re interested in a strategy and content calendar to make your next steps in content marketing easier.