The 4 Quality Elements of Great Content

Persuasion is probably the next best thing to magic. It’s a powerful skill that every online marketer should possess. It’s also a fundamental element for copywriting success.

While highly persuasive copywriting is a fundamental component of effective online selling, many marketers find it intimidating. If you are one of those marketers afraid of taking copywriting seriously, you have nothing to be afraid of.

When coming up with marketing copy for your online campaigns, all you need is some insight on the psychology of influencing people and the effective use of the four quality elements of writing highly effective content.

The four quality elements. A lot of marketers take them for granted, but if used effectively they have the potential to convert consumers into regular subscribers and loyal customers.

Newbie marketers will actually find that the four quality elements are not as intimidating as they may sound. For the novice content writer, it could take a while to get used to it. But once the psychology behind these elements is fully understood, it’s like possessing a coveted magic spell.

Understanding the four key elements is key to producing effective copy. The four quality elements of highly effective content are:

1. Understanding the problem
2. Making the audience feel understood (empathy)
3. Exploring the various solutions
4. Helping the audience get what they want with powerful calls to action

Let’s consider each of the four key elements and talk about how you can use them to make your content more compelling.

Understanding the problem

From the very start, you’ve got to clearly lay out the exact problem for which you are offering a solution. If you’re in the business of providing customers with cloud storage services, for example, don’t just tell them about what you are going to sell them. State the problem that you are going to help your consumers solve.

In order to come up with an opening that clearly presents the problem, ask questions like “What are the problems that my cloud storage service is going to solve?” List down all the possible problems that your target customers might be faced with, pick the most pressing one and sew it into your opening paragraph.

An opening line such as “You’re running out of storage, but you don’t want to throw any of the data that you have, and you want to access each one of them anywhere you go. Here’s how we can help expand your data storage” catches your customers’ attention and hooks them to find out more about your solutions.

Making consumers feel understood

Nothing wins customers’ approval and loyalty more effectively than making them feel you’re on their side. A simple yet powerful statement such as “As a company that also relies on huge amounts of data, we understand how frustrating it is to know that our data storage is about to run out” almost immediately warms a customer up, and immediately allows you to establish rapport with them.

This empathetic approach makes readers with very specific problems feel that someone else knows what they are going through who has found a way to solve their predicament.

Exploring the solutions

The third element basically outlines the steps, methodologies or techniques that customers need to take in order to neutralize the problem. These are what will “eliminate their pains or increase their pleasures.”

When you show customers the path to a solution, clearly show them how it’s done or how to obtain the goal, and show case studies or very concrete examples of how your proposed solutions have helped you and other people with the same problem.

Powerful calls to action

Finally, after showing readers the solution, it’s time to go for the kill – by calling them to act immediately. I am reminded of a great salesman who once said that the secret to make people want to buy is to show them what they want and to help them get it.

There’s no other way.

But don’t just show consumers how to acquire your proposed solutions. If possible, make them feel the urgency of acquiring it. Below is a good example of how to effectively close with a great call to action:

“Contact us by filling out the form below. Our reps are available to answer your inquiries Monday to Friday, 8 am to 5 pm. We would love to hear about how we can help you with your data storage problems.”

Next time you write copy, refer to this guide. By using all the four quality elements outlined here, your copy will be more compelling, and you’ll see the magic it can do for your business.

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