How does your audience respond to your content? Is it compelling, or boring? How can you make sure they engage with your content?
Content marketing has become essential for businesses looking to reach their target audiences. In order to create compelling content, you need to understand your audience and its preferences.
In fact, content marketing has become a crucial part of any successful brand strategy. In today’s competitive landscape, businesses need to create compelling content to attract new customers and retain existing ones.
You should always start from the point of view of your audience. If you want them to read your content, then you need to write something that resonates with them. This means understanding who they are and what motivates them. Once you know that, you can craft your message accordingly.
Purpose-Driven Is the Watchword for Compelling Content
You know what makes great content compelling? Purpose.
The idea behind it is simple: If you’re trying to sell something, why are you telling your reader about it? Why are they reading this? What do they get out of it?
If you want people to read your blog post, read your book, watch your video, listen to your podcast, or buy your product, make sure that it serves a specific purpose. Your audience doesn’t care how good you think your writing skills are, unless they serve a purpose to them.
As a writer, it’s important to ask yourself questions like:
- What problem does my content solve?
- How does it help someone else?
- Why should anyone care?
When you can answer these questions with clarity and specificity, then you’ve got the makings of great content.
This kind of content is not only more likely to be shared by others, but also to have an impact on them. It’ll stick in their minds because it was helpful. They’ll remember it because it made sense.
It’s not just about getting attention for the sake of attention. It’s about being useful.
So if you want to create compelling content, start asking yourself questions like:
- Who is my target audience?
- What problems do they face?
- What would I say to them if I were speaking directly to them?
- What would I tell myself if I were going through this situation?
- What would I recommend to them?
Once you’ve answered those questions, you’ll be able to craft content that will resonate with your readers.
And after you’ve done that, you’ll find that you don’t need to worry so much about whether or not people share your content. You’ll be sharing content that matters.
Relevancy Is a Key Component of Compelling Content
Content is no longer just about writing something people want to read; it is now about creating content that provides value to buyers. This shift in focus requires marketers to understand their customers better. In fact, according to Marketing Charts, six in ten marketers say they use customer data the majority of the time when making decisions. So how do you go about doing that? By understanding what drives buying behavior.
The best way to learn this information is by asking questions. For example, you could ask yourself whether there are certain things that frustrate your customers. If so, why does that happen? What are they trying to solve? Once you discover those answers, you can start considering ways to address their problems.
This process is called “content discovery,” and it involves identifying the problems your target market faces and providing solutions for those issues. You can do this by conducting research and analyzing existing content.
For instance, let’s say you’re selling pet food online. You might conduct a survey to find out what kinds of products potential customers like most. Then, you can look up related blogs and articles to see what topics are being discussed. From there, you can craft a product description based on what you’ve learned.
You’ll also want to think about what types of content resonate well with your audience. For example, if you sell dog toys, you might include photos of dogs playing with different toys. Or, if you sell clothing, you might feature images of cute kids wearing your clothes.
Once you’ve done some initial discovery work, it’s time to figure out what type of content resonates best with your audience. One way to do this is by looking at the performance of similar pieces of content.
If you notice that a particular piece of content performs well, you can replicate that same concept for your own brand. However, don’t copy and paste someone else’s success story without testing it first. There’s nothing worse than wasting money on content that doesn’t perform well.
Exclusivity Is Another Key Component of Compelling Content
The days of copying and pasting are over. You might think it’s easy to come up with unique content. But it takes work to write compelling content that people actually want to read. Plagiarism isn’t an option. And neither is reusing someone else’s words without giving credit where it’s due.
You know what happens when you copy and paste? People notice. They see that you didn’t put much effort into writing your post. Or worse, they find out about it and take action against you. Your audience won’t appreciate that.
In fact, according to Copyblogger, “the average person reads somewhere around 200 words per minute.” So even if you’re reading at 100 wpm, you’ll still miss 50 percent of what’s being written.
If you want to become a great writer, you’ve got to learn how to write like no one else does. The good news is that there are many ways to do that. In fact, we’ve developed our own proprietary process called the Exclusivity Formula. We don’t just teach you how to write, we teach you how to write well.
What makes us different? For starters, we use real world examples and stories to illustrate our points. Our writers aren’t afraid to show you how they approach certain topics. They’ll tell you exactly why they wrote the way they did. They’ll explain why they chose specific words and phrases.
We also help you develop your voice. How you choose to express yourself is important. When you write, you have to make sure that you’re speaking directly to your reader. Otherwise, you risk coming across as generic.
And finally, we challenge you to think differently. We encourage you to break away from old habits. Don’t just follow the crowd. Instead, look for opportunities to stand out. To do that, you’ll need to push yourself to come up with ideas that haven’t been done before.
Creating Content That’s Compelling Requires Style
There are many ways to write good content, but one characteristic that unites most high-quality pieces is that they’re well written. They’re easy to understand and quickly digest. They’re interesting enough that readers want to keep reading. And they’re often funny.
The best way to write something like this is to use language that’s appropriate for the topic. For example, if you’re writing about fashion, don’t start off talking about “the weather,” because no one cares about the weather. Instead, talk about what people wear, why they wear certain things, what trends are popular now, etc. This style of writing is called stylistic appropriateness, and it’s important to remember that, while it sounds fancy, it’s actually pretty simple.
You’ve probably heard the saying “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” but maybe you haven’t thought much about what it means in relation to content creation. Let me explain. When we think about our favorite brands, products, and companies, we tend to assume that everything they offer works exactly the same way as it did yesterday. We think that the same amount of money goes into making those items today as went into making them yesterday. But that’s not true. Companies change constantly, and sometimes they change drastically. Sometimes they go bankrupt. Sometimes they merge with other companies. Sometimes they simply decide that they’re tired of doing things the old way.
In fact, every day, some big companies announce changes to their businesses that completely alter the way they operate. These changes can affect almost anything, including the way they market themselves, design their products, sell their goods, interact with customers, and so on. So if you’re thinking about starting up your own brand, product, or company, here’s our advice: Don’t try to imitate someone else’s success unless you’re willing to follow their lead. You might end up copying them, but chances are good that you won’t copy them perfectly. Instead, take a look around at what’s working for others and adapt that to fit your needs.
Create a Compelling Headline to Set Your Stage
Your headline is your first possible opportunity to gain or lose the attention of a potential reader. You’re competing against thousands of others who are trying to grab his/her attention too. So what makes one headline stand above the rest?
In our experience, there are three things that make headlines effective:
- Headlines must be brief. They don’t have to be long; however, it’s best to keep them under 15 words. Anything longer than that is just asking for trouble.
- Headlines must include keywords. This is where most writers go wrong. If you want to rank well, you’ll need to ensure that your keyword(s) appears somewhere in your headline.
- Headlines should be unique. In fact, uniqueness is probably the single most important factor in determining whether or not someone reads your headline.
If you follow those guidelines, you’ll find yourself writing some pretty compelling headlines.
Being One-Dimensional is a Boring Proposition
A recent study found that people prefer listening to stories over monologues. Researchers say it’s because we’re naturally drawn to narratives. We want to know what happens next. In fact, our brains seem to crave a lot of information. But when presented with too much information, we tend to tune out.
This makes sense, since we’re social animals. We learn best by observing others. And we’re hardwired to connect with those around us. So we seek out narratives that tell us how things work, why they happen, and what happens next.
But sometimes, lecturing isn’t enough. Sometimes, you have to talk about yourself. But don’t do it alone. Make sure you give listeners something to latch onto. Give them a story. A narrative. Something that gives them insight into you.
Ensure That Your Own Authenticity Shines Through
You may think that being authentic is the opposite of selling. After all, when you’re selling, you’re telling people what you want from them. When you’re authentic, you’re telling them what you really want from them.
But this doesn’t mean that you have to lie. It does mean that you have to be honest. Authentic marketing is based on honesty. People will trust you more if you’re honest. And when you’re honest, you build relationships. Relationships are the foundation of any successful business.
So if you want to start building relationships, then you need to be honest. Tell people what you’re doing. What you’re planning. How you’re going to help them. And why they should care.
Create Compelling Writing to Stay Immersive
Sometimes we read a blog post and feel like we are reading something that doesn’t make sense.
We know what we want to say, but there are parts that just aren’t connecting together. There’s no flow.
The author starts out strong, but then loses us somewhere along the way.
If you’ve ever had this happen, you’re probably wondering why it happened.
You tried to write the best piece possible, but maybe you didn’t structure it correctly.
Maybe you didn’t edit enough. Maybe you didn’t spend enough time planning ahead.
Whatever the reason, this happens because we sometimes forget about one thing: immersion.
Immersion is a term used to describe how readers respond to stories.
In short, people love stories. They love being immersed in another world. They love feeling like they understand someone else’s perspective.
They love getting lost in the story.
But here’s where things get tricky.
The most compelling content is the one that has a clear, concise message and provides value to your audience. It’s also the kind of content that people want to share with their friends and colleagues.
If you can create this type of content consistently, it will help you build an engaged community around your brand. This in turn will lead to more sales, leads, and customers.
Creating a Story, or Creating an Article?
When most people think of an “article”, they think of a newspaper or magazine article—a neutral look at a particular topic. This is not what blog posts are about. Blog posts are subjective pieces that tell stories. They’re written to entertain, inform, inspire, and persuade. And they do all those things because they’re written by someone who cares about the subject matter.
You don’t have to be a professional writer to make great content. In fact, some of my best work has been done while sitting in traffic jams, waiting for doctors’ appointments, or just chatting with friends over coffee. Writing doesn’t have to take hours and hours of research and editing either; sometimes all it takes is knowing something well enough to explain it clearly and succinctly.
The key to making compelling content is understanding how to craft a good story. Stories are inherently interesting because we connect emotionally with them. We empathize with the main character(s), root for them to succeed, and hope they overcome obstacles. We feel pleasure at their triumphs and pain during their misfortunes. A good story makes us care about the characters, whether they’re real people or fictional ones.
A good story isn’t always easy to come up with. Sometimes you’ll find yourself stuck wondering why you’ve never thought of doing something like this before. Don’t worry. There are plenty of ways to start writing a story. Here are four simple steps to help you get started:
- Start With What You Know
- Ask Questions
- Write Down Your Ideas
- Get Feedback
Don’t just stick to the often biased narrative that articles are all you need to do. Have fun with it. Go beyond normal. Be unique. And be authoritative. Your audience will thank you.
Compelling Content Also Has an End Goal
Creating compelling content begins with having an idea of what you want to achieve. This could be a specific goal like increasing sales, improving customer experience or building brand awareness. Or it could be something broader like generating leads, growing traffic, or boosting conversions. Whatever your aim is, every single piece of content you create must have a purpose. If you don’t know why you are writing the content, how do you know whether it’s working?
Your content strategy needs to be based around one thing – your purpose. You need to understand what you want to achieve and then work out how each piece of content you publish helps you towards that end. For example, if you want to increase sales, you might write blog posts about product features, price points and benefits. These pieces of content will help customers make purchasing decisions. On the other hand, if you want to improve customer experience, you might write reviews of products and services. They will give existing customers confidence in your brand and encourage them to buy again.
The great news is that once you have defined your purpose, you can use that knowledge to guide everything else you do online. So start thinking about the type of content you need to create to support your goals and objectives. What does that content look like? How much of it do you need? And where will it live?
Compelling Content Also Has a Conversational Tone
Humans are social animals. We want to connect with each other. And when we do, we often prefer to converse rather than read about what someone else wrote. This is true whether we’re talking face to face or over email. But how do you write in a way that makes people want to talk to you?
Well, one thing that works well is being conversational. People naturally assume that when someone writes something to them, they know exactly what they mean. If you use words like “we,” “you,” “I,” and “me,” you’re likely to come across as friendly and approachable. You might even start getting some positive feedback.
But don’t stop there. Use phrases like “let me explain…” or “to clarify.” These are conversational ways to open up a conversation without coming off as condescending. They show that you care about understanding the reader and that you respect their opinion.
And if you really want to take things further, try adding a few jokes here and there. Humor helps to soften the blow of a harsh statement. A good rule of thumb is to keep the ratio of humor to information around 3:1.
So now let’s put everything together. When you write, think about the tone of voice you’d use if you were speaking to someone. Then, add the same amount of conversational elements to your sentences. Finally, mix it up with a little humor.
Don’t Forget to Include Relevant and Compelling References Where It Makes Sense
If you want to ensure that people know you understand what makes them tick, don’t hesitate to use humor. If someone shares something funny about themselves, it’s likely they’ll open up to you too. In fact, according to Medium.com, “humor is one of the most effective ways of connecting with others.”
Humorous references can be used to show how much you care about your customers, whether it’s a joke about a favorite food or drink, or a reference to a movie or TV show they’re passionate about. This type of connection is especially powerful because it helps build trust.
To find out what your audience loves, start by asking yourself some questions. What do they read? Watch? Listen to? Play? Do they enjoy eating certain foods? Are there certain movies or TV shows they watch over and over again? Once you’ve got a list of things they love, look for opportunities to incorporate those interests into your posts. For example, if you sell healthy snacks, you could post pictures of your latest batch of granola bars, along with a short explanation of why they’re great for breakfast. You could even write a blog post about your favorite summertime drinks, complete with a recipe.
However, don’t just include references to include references. References should also be compelling and back up your points. It can be a challenge, but this can be done.
Creating Compelling Content Isn’t That Hard; Just Follow a Recipe
There are those who believe that creating compelling content is some sort of mystery. Something that just happens, and something that you need a college degree to excel at.
While the knowledge helps, you don’t need the degree. In fact, you just need some successful recipes, and one additional element: consistency.
By following a few formulas, you can create winning content that converts and drives traffic and rankings.
You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Just create a unique angle that someone might not have thought of before. That is how you can take content that would otherwise be regurgitated fluff into something your readers will enjoy.
Then, just about everything else should fall into place.
When are you going to write your next piece of content?
