Jonathan Kranz says, “I recently had the privilege of being one of many judges reviewing Content Marketing Awards submissions. As I read through the entries (12 each in two categories), I was struck by the sharp contrast between the best work — the top three in each category — and the remaining nine.

I had expected to see a gradient of many shades of gray; instead, there was a black-and-white difference between the losers and the winners. The hard part was selecting a champion among the top three because those three stood out like swans in a murder of crows.

Clear patterns emerged. The contest rules and basic ethics prevent me from citing specific examples. (That absence, by my own standards, prevents this post from being a champion.) I’m forced to summarize the distinctions, but even as abstractions, the following themes may shed some insight on what distinguishes great from grating content.

1. You gotta’ serve somebody — but not yourself

The weakest pieces were clearly self-serving; I could practically hear product managers and PR people whispering in the writers’ ears as they wrote. Product features, “secret sauces,” and obvious political agendas took precedence over audience relevance”.

5 Secrets to Award-Winning Content

Content Marketing Institute

Sharing is caring