The Importance of Specificity in Content Marketing

“Many writers rely on generalities rather than absolutes as they craft an article; this is both a cheat and disrespectful to the reader, who is left without the kinds of supporting details that can turn a good article into a great one,” Don Vaughan advises in a recent issue of Writer’s Digest.”There’s a meaningful difference between ‘a couple of centuries’ and ‘215 years’.”

Asked where writers might go to find those supporting details (other than a simple Google search), Vaughan suggests checking:

• government agencies
• military agencies
• universities
• data resources, both U.S. and overseas,

but also just talking to as many people as you can, expressing curiosity about their knowledge and opinions on the topic.

“Specificity can be your weapon of mass effectiveness,” Jason Cohen once wrote in “A Smart Bear”. Whether for marketing copy, blogging, a sales pitch, be specific. “Generic words are a sure sign of lazy writing.”

In content marketing, we’ve learned at Say it For You, the more specific you are in describing the shortcuts and solutions, the more engaging that content will be. Web searchers are on a fact-finding mission, looking for information that relates to what you do, what you sell, and what you know about.  The more specific the key words and phrases in the title and in the body of the blog post, the greater the chance search engines will direct those searchers to your blog. Then, the more specific the examples you provide and the terminology you use, the more impact you’re likely to have on readers of your content.

As “ghost writers’ for our clients, (our Say It For You contract guarantees that we will not write content for their competitors), we often find ourselves creating content on topics in which we have no prior experience or training. Don Vaughn’s advice about finding supporting details from agencies, universities, and specialty magazines is very apropos. “You don’t have to be a subject matter expert to write on specialty topics,” he says – “all you need is an innovative idea specific to the topic”  – and the willingness to delve into:

• aspects of the topic’s history
• profiles of prominent people who’ve benefitted from the product or service
• news about developments in the industry
• different opinions on the topic
• human interest stories.

In content marketing, specificity can turn out to be a weapon of  creative effectiveness.