How to avoid writing fluffy content

evie-s-505136-unsplash — Photo by Evie S. on Unsplash

I got asked recently how you avoid writing fluffy content.

You know the sort of thing, a piece full of padding and little value.

I’m an advocate of quality over quantity so my instinct would be if you don’t have something interesting or of value to share then don’t waste your time.

Pressure to produce

But there is so much pressure on businesses to produce content now, particularly as regular content is good for SEO, so there may be occasions when you just have to produce something.

My first tip is to take a different approach. Is there a human story that could add weight, an experience to share or how someone felt?

People love people but think beyond merely being ‘delighted’ with something and avoid too many superlatives as readers will see through it.

Context and background

Think about context and background. Small stories can be bolstered if grouped with other similar stories.

What does it mean or what are the implications, could you add value that way?

Is there related content you could refer (and link) to?

But my best tip would be to avoid the situation in the first place by having a concrete content strategy which gives you a range of different topics, themes and content types to draw on.