Top Tips for Great Content
Find our top tips for creating content on behalf of Newcastle University.
1. Plan your content
Spend time planning your content before writing it and understand the user need or motivation that your content will address.
Think about how it supports an organisational goal.
2. Focus on the audience
Imagine that you are the audience.
What do they really want? What do they really care about? What excites or interests them? Write the content with them always in mind.
3. Keep it clear and concise
Keep it to the point and keep on top of the word count.
Dense paragraphs or superfluous information increases cognitive load on the reader. This might make them turn away.
4. Make it scannable
Especially when creating digital content, remember that people tend to scan information, not read every word.
Using subheadings and lists makes content easier to scan.
5. Consider your language
In the University we have some words and phrases that we are very familiar with, but they might be unknown to our audience.
Explain with words and phrases that the reader will understand and avoid overuse of acronyms. Read more on tone of voice and check out our style guide.
6. Keep it useful and valuable
Less is definitely more. That extra image might make a page look pretty, but is it really adding any extra value?
Ensure that everything you include is actually adding value to the audience.
7. Don’t leave them hanging
Make sure that your audience knows what to do next with the information that they’ve received from you.
Should they do something now? Where can they ask questions?
8. Make it accessible and inclusive
Meeting accessibility standards is essential, but we want to go further with our content. Avoid using ableist or exclusionary language to ensure that everyone feels understood.
9. Proofread and edit
People expect content from a university to be written to a high standard, with accurate spelling and grammar. Proofread your content and pay attention to accuracy.
10. Don’t forget about it
Your content isn’t 'done' when it’s published. If it continues to exist online, make sure that you keep checking it for accuracy and be ready to remove it when it is no longer needed.