Have you ever wondered how certain brands dominate the search results, business listings, or paid ads?With so many businesses in any given niche, there’s definitely a strategy to coming out on top.Although there are multiple marketing strategies involved, it all starts with irresistible, authoritative content.When your business dominates the online spaces, like ads and search results, you’ll get more traffic to your website and therefore, more sales and conversions.For instance, you’ll get more email or webinar signups, more video plays, and more social media follows.In this article, you’ll learn what makes content authoritative and how to start creating the kind of content visitors can’t resist.

Authoritative content is king

Dominating your niche puts you in a better position to outperform your competitors and to do that, you need irresistible, authoritative content.Users need a reason to browse your website when they first find it, and that reason will be your content.Bad content makes visitors bounce.On the other hand, if your content is amazing, visitors will stay, and you’ll generate return visitors.Return visitors will help you gain a loyal customer base that continues to buy from your business and recommends your brand to others.The good news is you can dominate your niche online even if you can’t dominate your niche in the physical world. In fact, that’s how some businesses gain an advantage over competitors they can’t outperform otherwise.

What does it mean to dominate your niche online?

Dominating your niche online has several components, the most important being dominating the search engines for searches related to your niche. Instead of dominating the physical foot traffic, you dominate the virtual traffic in the online world.For instance, say you run a small gift shop in a busy downtown area. In the physical world, you’re not as well-known as several other local gift shops so you don’t exactly get the lion’s share of business. With a solid marketing strategy that includes SEO, link building, and content marketing, you can dominate your local gift shop niche.Here’s what dominating your niche online looks like:

• Your Google Business listing will come up on first-page search results for keywords related to your niche.
• Pages from your website will come up in search results for local visitors looking for your services.
• You’ll generate a large number of calls, email signups, or sales from your website.
• Your PPC ad campaigns will drive targeted traffic to your website where your landing pages will convert them to sales or signups. Many businesses that reach the top are known to generate an 11% conversion rate.
• You might even be able to generate more business online that in person, depending on your niche.
• People will start to recognize your business after seeing your website pop up in searches so frequently.

You won’t dominate your niche overnight, and content takes time to produce, publish, and rank. However, when you incorporate the following elements into your marketing campaign, you’ll start building the momentum necessary to outperform your competitors.

1. Create interesting, authoritative content

The first step is creating content that appeals to visitors and intrigues them at the same time. This requires understanding what your market wants and what kind of information catches their attention.Interesting content contains the following elements:

• Timely information in your niche. For instance, if you own a law firm, you might want to keep people updated regarding high-profile or high-settlement cases in your practice areas. If you’re selling coffee online, you might publish news related to the coffee industry like fair trade agreements and other news.
• New information. New information related to your industry is often interesting to visitors. For instance, there might be several things you know that aren’t usually discussed by your competitors. For example, if you’re in marketing, you might know about some amazing marketing tools that will support businesses. In that case, you can write blogs about those tools, including how to use them and where to get them.
• Entertainment and humor. People love to be entertained and they love to laugh. Try adding some humor to your website where it’s appropriate.

Authoritative content contains several elements:

• Facts, figures, and statistics. Nothing makes content appear authoritative than statistics and facts. When you write your content, include reliable statistics wherever possible. If you choose to include controversial facts, make sure to back them up with sources; it will help boost the authority of your overall content.
• Studies, case studies, and scientific references. Often used as sources, studies and scientific references will add power and substance to your content. If it’s appropriate for your industry, nothing is more authoritative than scientific references.

Case studies are also helpful because they show where your product or service has already generated success in your market.

• Expert opinion. Experts are seen as authorities in our world, and for good reason. Over time, they’ve gained experience, knowledge, and wisdom in their industry and are in a position to share it with others.

Quoting experts helps make your content more authoritative, especially when those quotes directly support the point you’re making. Although, remember that not everyone agrees on what constitutes an ‘expert,’ so be sure to choose your experts wisely.

2. Hire professional content writers

If you’re not keen on writing your own content, hire a writer. You can find writers just about anywhere, but it’s best to work with a digital content marketing agency. Hiring random writers can end up a nightmare. For instance, they might give you plagiarized content or poorly written articles.When you hire writers through a professional agency, you’re going to get high-quality content. Professional writers will create unique content just for your website and you’ll get to review it to make sure it matches your brand. You’ll also be able to request revisions.

3. See what your competitors are doing

If you’re not sure what to write about, look at your competitors’ websites to get ideas. You might get a heads up about some current events in your industry, or some other interesting industry news.However, remember that even on a high-ranking website, not all content will be popular. Use their content as a guide, but also use your judgment to write for your audience.

4. Find and fill the gaps

Every industry has topics that aren’t being discussed or explored thoroughly. However, many of those topics are important to people and should be expressed.To get an edge on your competition, look for opportunities to address topics that your competitors aren’t discussing. The more unique and interesting you make your content, the more return visitors you’ll get.Don’t be afraid to take a stand one way or another on controversial topics. You’ll maintain a larger, general audience by remaining neutral, but you’ll generate fierce loyalty by taking a definite stand for something. Customers want the brands they follow to stand for something they believe in, so when you take a stand, you’ll attract more of the right customers.It’s okay to take a stand on an issue that puts some people off. Having a smaller group of fiercely loyal customers is actually more beneficial than a large audience just casually interested in your brand. Trying to sell to everyone is a recipe for failure. Narrow markets are easier to sell to, and they are more likely to become repeat customers.

5. Define a micro-niche as your target

Technically, you can dominate any niche, but if your niche is overly general, you’ll want to target a micro-niche. With a micro-niche, your target market will be more specific, and you can focus on meeting the needs of a smaller market. Specialty markets tend to not have their needs met by general businesses.For example, say you run a local smoothie shop and you sell a variety of flavors, but there’s nothing that makes you stand out. You’ll struggle to compete with the big smoothie chains in your area and you’ll be unlikely to dominate the smoothie world.However, if you create a micro-niche – like catering to vegan customers – you’ll have a chance at dominating the market for vegan smoothies.Translated to content, say you run a blog about smoothies on your website. If all you do is write about general topics, there’s not much you can do to stand out. When you’re running a vegan smoothie shop, however, you can write all kinds of blogs about your new vegan recipes, vegan ingredients, and you can even talk about the vegan lifestyle.In essence, having a micro-niche gives you more content to write about, which in turn helps you dominate your niche on the internet.

6. Get your own credentials

Are there certifications you can get in your niche that would make people perceive you as more of a true expert? If so, start pursuing those credentials. Certifications support the perception of your expertise. For example, if you’ve created a CRM for marketers, do you have any marketing credentials? You might struggle to dominate if you’ve created a piece of software, but don’t have any marketing experience.Don’t have any certifications? You don’t want to advertise the fact that you don’t have any official credentials in your niche. However, it’s worth getting certified wherever you can so that you can display those certifications proudly.

7. Get an irresistible, authoritative website design

In addition to writing irresistible content, make sure your website design is also irresistible and looks authoritative. If you’ve created a website on a free platform, consider hiring a professional developer to get a custom layout designed for your business. Custom layouts generally look better and perform better than free templates.

Do you need authoritative content? We can help!

Whether you need landing pages, blog posts, video scripts, or anything else, we can help you create your content. Our team of experts will review your current content and see where there’s room for improvement. Next, our writers will come up with new content to help you start ranking higher in the search engines so you can gain an advantage over your competitors.In addition to creating content, we can also redesign your website. Is your website lacking conversions? It might be because of your design, especially if you used a free template.Content and design go hand-in-hand. You need both to dominate your niche, and that requires becoming an authority. Contact us today to learn how you can get an irresistible and authoritative web presence.