How to Create Eye-Catching Content

For me, quality over quantity is the most important aspect of creating truly eye-catching content. For marketing purposes the information provided textually must be short, sweet and to the point; assume your readers will only give about 3 to 5 seconds of their attention if not less. If they can't read the marketing infographic quick enough then it's not clear enough.

For social media outlets especially such as Instagram and Snapchat, vibrant colors, a clear image, and positioning of the image in general are all extremely important. When I created marketing materials for the Northern Arizona University (NAU) Graduate College I was required to follow a list of "marketing standards" which included approved colors. This was part of the overall NAU content strategy. It is important that all departments followed this content strategy, as this was the document that connected the NAU brand to the content.

Having a brand or content strategy to reference is important if content is being produced for a company, regardless of its size. When the text is the same font, format, size and the colors all match, then customers, viewers or readers can automatically recognize what brand they're looking at. So if everything is predetermined how can anything be eye-catching?

The importance is in the details. Aspects such as color blocking, images and formatting can really make all the difference when creating content. Following simple photography rules such as the rule of thirds or making sure that the graphic isn't too busy are helpful tools. The image should always look clean and professional with no unnecessary information or off-brand design features.

#marketing #contentcreation #contentstrategy