Imagine you’re wandering through a summer fair on a sunny Saturday afternoon and come across a cake show.
There are many different types of cakes: layer cakes, plum cake, mousse cake – cakes to suit every taste and fancy.
Your eye is drawn to a smiling chef standing at a corner with a small crowd buzzing around him.
What’s all the fuss about?
He’s talking about the cake that occupies the pride of place at his table – a gorgeous creation.
His love of this cake is palpable in the details: the hours of preparation, the 15 different ingredients that go into it, the intricate steps that demand the greatest attention to detail.
The recipe has been handed down in his family over six generations.
It has graced the weddings of luminaries and celebrities.
The clincher: when his great-grandmother escaped a genocidal war, this recipe was one of the few things she smuggled with her to freedom.
Which is the one cake you want to taste now?
The principle is simple:
Any item that comes with a personal twist, a human touch, and an accompanying story will always attract instant attention and hold interest for much longer than one without.
Photo by Annie Spratt
Same goes for content.
The problem I see with a lot of content is that it’s a tad worse than generic layer cake – it’s more like old layer cake minus frosting and minus any color.
It may be tasty but you don’t feel like having any, so you’ll never know either way.
You don’t want that to happen to your content.
Any item that comes with a personal twist, a human touch, and an accompanying story will always attract instant attention and hold interest for much longer than one without.
Truly one-of-a-kind content stands apart because of three things:
- An intriguing topic
- Solid, transformational solutions
- An element of story, that makes the whole piece come alive
If this sounds like a tall order, relax.
I put together a simple, fail-safe formula to easily help you create one-of-a-kind content, reliably and repeatedly, even if your mind is completely blank.
What Makes Content Unique?
Content that pulses with life stands apart form its boring country cousins because of human factors:
- A distinctive point of view
- Unique experiences that inform this point of view
- Beliefs, especially those that don’t toe the party line
- Expression that’s uniquely you – whether it’s your worldview, your dry sense of humor, or even your heritage
But having only these human elements without substance won’t work: it’s like being given only icing with no cake – it’s stifling and leaves you empty and unsatisfied.
To make the experience truly satisfying, you also need substance.
But not all substance is created equal:
- A boring post on the how, what, why and where that reads like a college lecture won’t cut it
- A commentary that only recites facts without drawing out implications won’t cut it
- Incredibly well-researched posts that explain the how, what and why but don’t offer the promise of a transformational solution at the end also won’t cut it.
For the substance to truly stand out, it needs to not only inform, but also engage and captivate because of compelling relevance and value.
Photo by Jasmin Sessler
Ingredients of One-of-a-kind Content
Which brings us to the ingredients of one-of-a-kind content.
Here are the four elements you need to build this kind of content:
First, start with a universal PROBLEM.
What kind of problems?
The problems that repeatedly confound your target audience, cause them the most pain, or somehow stump them and prevent them from doing the things they badly want to do.
These might be:
- A lack of knowledge
- Ignorance about solutions
- Anxiety caused by having to make choices or decisions
- Inability to take the actual steps they know they need to take
The list is endless – anything that stands between your client and their desired destination that you see repeated over and over qualifies.
Second, pick the ANGLE
Why did you pick this problem now?
Components of one-of a kind content are:
- Did you just see an extraordinary or egregious example of it?
- Is it now more topical or urgent?
- Did you see new data that changed how you view this problem?
- Has the problem suddenly become relevant because of anew law or some other development?
In other words, figure out what gives relevance to this topic right now. And talk about that.
Third, articulate a TRANSFORMATIONAL SOLUTION
The key here is “transformational”.
But transformational doesn’t mean that your readers’ life has become magically problem-free.
All it means is that your content delivers something that provides resolution or closure.
The way to do this is to offer one of three things:
- Provide insight so they can understand their problem or situation better.
- Help them make a decision so they can leave uncertainty behind and get clarity on the path forward. You don’t have to actually make the decision for them – you just need to show them the way to a decision they themselves can take and feel good about.
- Give them a path to action – so they can leave inertia behind and feel the pleasure of having taken control, of having actually done something
Any one of these three things will leave them feeling significantly better off than they were before.
In fact, you should never create content that doesn’t offer a transformational solution of some kind, no matter how small.
Fourth, throw in a PERSONAL TOUCH
What can you add that’s uniquely you that they can’t get anywhere else?
This doesn’t have to be a deep secret about your childhood.
It can be as simple as:
- An incident that happened to you
- Something you observed during the course of the day
- An interaction with someone that triggered a thought, an observation or as an example of what you’re writing about
- A current event, with your comments or perspective on it, or what it reminded you of relating to your work
- A personal pet peeve or passion – for example, the one thing that saddens / gladdens / frustrates you the most about this problem
- Even a joke you enjoyed, or a story that really resonated with you
The only requirement, of course, is that it’s relevant to the topic at hand.
Don’t worry about having to be as funny as a stand-up comedian or as eloquent as an orator.
The only bar, and it’s a low one – is that you show up as yourself and that you have something pertinent to say.
Mix well and voila!
You’ve got all the ingredients you need for one-of-a-kind content.
Photo by 🇨🇠Claudio Schwarz | @purzlbaum
Putting It Into Action
Now that you have the ingredients, let’s jump to the recipe:
Here are the steps to creating engaging content over and over, without having to sweat bullets:
- List all the problems you see your clients running into that exasperate or frustrate you or otherwise get a reaction out of you
- Identify what specific aspect of this problem makes it stick in your mind or gets you frustrated
- Articulate one thing that will reduce or eliminate the problem for your clients – describe it in a way that they can implement right away
- Look about for a story, a feeling, or any other human element you can add that will give the extra emotional wattage to bring the piece to life
Simply pick the one problem that speaks most to you at this moment.
- Talk about why you’re writing about it – with a story, or incident or other background detail
- Talk about why it’s important – paint the picture of what life will be like (not good) if this problem isn’t addressed
- Walk through 1-3 simple solutions that will provide immediate insight, decision guidance or action path
- Explain the answer in more detail if that works
- Invite engagement – either by asking for a response or inviting your readers to take action (sign up for more, get additional help, or to talk to you)
Problem solved!
What burning topic are you going to write about next?