When it comes to improving your content marketing, it’s tempting to want to concentrate on generating more content before you focus on generating content that is better.

And that’s a shame, since it’s better content that consistently separates good brands from great ones, like…

• Air New Zealand’s new in-flight safety video;
• Google’s powerful series of Chrome Ads; or
• Massive Health’s We Are What We Eat info graphic.

If you think of content marketing like cooking, taking the tactic of simply producing more is like being one of those big chain restaurants like The Cheescake Factory with fat menus offering something for everyone.

You don’t go to those places to dine. You go there to eat, because it’s a smart bet that they’ll have something to make you satisfied…and maybe even happy.

But that kind of scattershot approach to meeting your customer’s needs isn’t going to cut it on the web where the playing field is crowded with hundreds of thousands of competing brands.

If you want to create great content marketing for the web, you need to think of yourself as a gourmet chef, not a big chain restaurant’s cook.

Cook up something better.

A content chef’s objective should be to create a few distinct and outstanding dishes — with the best ingredients you can find — in a way that will surprise and delight your consumers.

For example, in Pixar’s movie, Ratatouille, “little chef,” Remy finds himself with the challenge of needing to dazzle the harshest food critic in Paris. But, instead of coming up with a new recipe for the critic, or offering him a wide range of dishes to choose from, Remy prepares just one — ratatouille.

As the shocked cook, Colette, who’s assisting him, says, “Ratatouille? It’s a peasant dish!”

[Spoiler alert] But, it’s this peasant dish, cooked exquisitely and prepared with great care and attention, that causes critic Anton Ego to drop his pen in shock. Because, in its simplicity, the dish taps into powerful memories of a time in Ego’s life when he felt comforted, special and loved. It surprises him, entrances him and rocks him to his core.

Better content marketing rocks people to their core, too.

If you approach your content marketing like a gourmet chef, it doesn’t matter if everyone likes what you cook. Because, you’re not cooking it for everyone — just a select group of someones.

It only matters that you put some thought into what you prepare and that you prepare it in a way that shows you really care.

So, take a red pen to your brand’s menu of content offerings, eliminate the tired, the stale or the uninspired and look at what remains with a critical and creative eye.

Then put on your chef’s hat and find a way to cook up something simple, elegant and exquisite with those remaining ingredients and transform your brand from good to great.

Seen any content lately that rocked you to your core? Share your links in the comments.