When you give DFY content your voice, your are setting yourself up to get the best results possible with it.
One of the best things you can do when using DFY content is to give it your own voice. This does three things for you:
1. It differentiates your content from others using the same content
2. Depending on how much you change, it can render the DFY content unrecognizable
3. It allows you to shine as the expert.
As someone who has used a lot of DFY content over the years, I’ve experienced this first hand. And being able to create blog posts and products that no one can tell come from DFY content really does make a huge difference in the success of that content.
One of the reasons for that is this:
Popular blogs, courses, and other content have a definite ‘voice’. They are infused with personality and there’s a tone in the content that resonates with their audience.
But how do you get that personality from DFY content when the majority of it is written in generalities and has no personality or voice?
When you consider that the whole purpose of DFY content is to give you a base to start with, the fact that it has no voice is intentional. It’s not going to sound like you or have your energy, because that’s the part the YOU are supposed to bring to the equation.
Here are 6 things you can do to give your DFY content your voice:
1. Insert your own advice and opinions
Your audience is your audience because they are interested in hearing what you have to say. Take your DFY content and add in a mix of your own observations, tips, and opinions. Adding pieces of yourself and your thoughts gives the content your energy.
Keep in mind, though, that you do want to develop a specific voice for your content. It’s got to be 100 percent you, but you can’t jump from voice to voice or you’ll just confuse your audience.
Good DFY content makes it easy to do this because it’s created without a specific tone. I’ve had some PLR that was so infused with the creator’s personality and energy that there wasn’t much you could do with it except start from scratch.
It’s one of the reasons I don’t create a lot of written PLR. I think I have a pretty distinctive way of writing that makes it easy to tell it’s my content from a mile away, and even though I’ve tried to tone it down it’s really hard for me to keep my energy out of anything I write.
2. Add your own personal experiences
Another way to give DFY content your voice is by adding your own personal experiences with the topic of the content. Your audience wants to know that you are walking your talk and that you do know something about what you’re sharing with them.
This helps your audience in a couple of different ways:
1. They’ll learn from your experiences, because everyone tackles issues and topics in different ways;
2. They’ll get to know a little bit more about you through your real-life stories and experiences.
Both of these will help you connect a little more with your ideal audience so it’s a win-win for everyone.
3. Add your actual voice to your content
It’s obvious, but one of the best ways to give DFY content your voice is to add your own voice. Things like podcasts, audio versions of your content, and other items that use your own physical voice really help your audience get to know and like you.
Like adding video content, which we’ll talk about next, the more you can infuse generic DFY content with your own energy and uniqueness, the better it will do for you.
4. Add your voice through video content
In certain niches you can add even more energy and voice to your content through video. There’s a reason why unboxing videos are so popular, and it’s because it tells your audience that you do put your money where your mouth is by purchasing (or being sponsored) the products and actually using them.
If writing your experiences helps your audience get to know you, showing yourself on video builds even more credibility and trust because they can actually see you.
5. Still images and photos also help you share your voice
Photos, memes, quotes and other images also help you define your voice through content.
Using your own photos when you can really helps people get to know you and know what’s important to you.
For example, when I had my dog Annie, I used a lot of photos of her on my blog and in my emails and my readers got to know that she was a big part of my life.
Right now I share a lot of outdoor photos, and especially beach photos because a big reason why I do this business is so that I can buy a beach house and be able to spend time outside near the water.
6. Branding and your voice
Branding is huge for an online business and is an important part of your voice because it’s a visual representation of you. Making sure your logo and/or watermarks are on all of your images and videos is a way to ensure that people know this is your content.
Colour choices for your brand also give people a sense of your voice. For example, if your voice and style is more “down to earth” you may be more likely to use greens, browns and earth tones in your branding.
You’ll notice too that a lot of blogs in the personal coaching space are done in very light, pastel shades, giving them a very peaceful, nurturing voice.
To make the most of your brand colours as an extension of your voice the best combination is colours that work for your niche, but that also speak to you on a deeper level.
Final Thoughts
The biggest thing to remember is that your audience is coming to your blog or subscribing to your newsletter because they want to hear what YOU have to say. Yes, you can definitely use DFY content, but use some of the suggestions I’ve given you here to add your own flare and voice to make it unique to you.
The goal is to give your audience valuable content that informs and entertains, but that also sounds and feels like it’s authentic and it’s coming from you. Anyone can throw up a piece of unchanged DFY content or something written by an AI processor, but you can bet that the person who takes the time to add a little of themselves is going to have a much better result with the same piece of content.