How to Attract and Engage Readers

People consume a vast amount of content every day. Depending on the source, experts say we’re consuming content upwards of twelve hours a day. That’s half the day of consuming info from Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, text messages, Netflix, Snapchat, radio, TV, and you get the idea. The more media outlets we create for ourselves, the more we consume. Let’s face it, we’re content consuming machines and it seems to increase every year. In fact, as I’m writing this article at a gymnastics facility waiting for my son’s parkour class to finish, I notice that four out of five parents are busy with their smart phones ravenously consuming information. If you’re wondering about the fifth parent, she’s busy chasing a toddler around the room.

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To compete with all the material out there, we as business owners and marketers need to be savvy and create good quality content that will get people to stop, read (listen or watch), and think! Not an easy task. So how do we do it?

First, we always make the audience the number one priority, remember the section on story telling. Be sure that you create content that identifies their pains, challenges, and goals. Make it educational yet chock full of personality. People like to consume content that feels like it was created solely for them.

Here are a few bullets to help you as you go through the content creation process.

• Create attention-grabbing headlines; 80% read titles, 20% read or watch entire articles or videos
• Tone is relevant to target audience
• Help target audience do something
• Add to the conversation
• Write how people search
• Develop solid structure
• Have one core idea
• Support your brand messaging
• Include relevant call-to-action
• Edit for errors and grammar

Remember to always create content with your ideal target audience (buyer persona) in mind. Sound confident, build credibility and trust with the audience. Never sound conceited or snarky. Write conversationally using the words “you” and “yours.” Sentences should be short, clear, and concise. It’s ok to breakup paragraphs into just a few sentences to create white space. This will make it easier to read.

Since most of the content you’ll create will be written articles, we’ll look at how to write a good blog article in the next section.

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