It would be great to make an impression on your blog with every single piece of content you post. Give your readers a compelling, thrilling and exciting post every week and they will keep coming back for more.
This is a fact; your content must always excite the audience. Even if you write for a bank, or other formal niche, being ‘professional’ doesn’t mean being boring. But how can you write winning content after winning content every week?
According to Brendan Wilde Marketing Manager at Umbrellar, the first step is knowing who you are writing for. “We host a number of content production sites on our network. When planning goals for scaling their website, the managers always include a thorough profiling of the average web visitor in their plan. Every copywriter should borrow a page from this practice,” he says.
This is true, because when you know your audience, you can customise content that appeals to them. But that’s not all. Once you master the following proven tips, your content will never be the same again.
- Use a story
By nature, humans are drawn to storytelling. There is a science to this, as part of our brains, the mirror neurons, are piqued when we hear a story. The narrative composition of a beginning, middle and end will always be more exciting than some monotonous article. It is easy to make a story out of any topic once you understand the creative conception.
For example, If you are writing a seeming arduous piece on how auto gears work, start by telling a story about Henry Ford’s famous escapades while inventing the car. This should get their processing gears in tune. The key is to have a main character, a journey towards a goal and tribulations they encounter along the way.
- Write personally
Here’s a secret, contrary to what you might think, using technical jargon throughout your content doesn’t make it any more important-sounding. It may even put away some inexperienced readers. On the other hand, there are experts who appreciate terminologies associated with the subject. For this set of readers, you can use them sparingly without making the article sound ambiguous.
The idea is to tread that balance of simplicity and expert writing carefully. Use words you would normally use in a conversation. It is okay to insert the occasional joke. But if you are writing for a conservative brand, it is advisable to stick to the terms of the brief provided.
- Create urgency with your headline
When writing content for the web, most of the time, your headline will determine whether the article will be opened or not. It is important to give people a reason to be curious. This does not mean being overly sensational or misleading with your title. Write an exciting, compelling headline that tells your audience there’s something worth reading behind it.
One of the ways to make your headline click-worthy is to create a sense of urgency. For example, using words like “now” or “today” give the impression of an immediately important advice. Some headlines also use words like “must” or “you can’t do without” to imply absolute necessity.
- Write a killer introduction
After your headline has accomplished its task and led the reader to your page, there is still a chance that they might leave if the intro is dismal. It is up to you to make it work. Excite readers through the reading journey by making the piece meatier with each line. Instead of starting with some boring history, add some wonder and curiosity in the introduction.
One way to plunge your readers into the main body is to end the intro with something like, “Once you master the following proven tips, your content will never be the same again.” This is from this article, but you can come up with other creative teasers.
Implement these strategies in your content writing and watch the difference it makes. Of course, it is important to measure what addition or execution was responsible for a particular change. This is good for attribution so you can employ similar strategies in future. It is not easy for a writer in any niche to make every published content exciting, but if you concentrate on picking the right topic, it will be a lot less difficult.
