What are The Key Tenets of a Compelling Piece of Content?
Ever wondered why your blog or website is not getting designed traffic despite boundless efforts? Maybe, the answer is that the content you are delivering to your audience is not strong enough to engage or compel them.
The famous quote goes on “Content is king”. Great content keeps the audience hooked and makes the visitors come back to a website again and again. Creating engaging content requires research and skills. Follow the following tips to ensure that your content is engaging and meaningful:
1) EMPATHIZE
Keep in mind the reading requirements and likes/dislikes of the potential audience, and write per their taste. Leverage the principles of design to keep your content deep, yet minimalistic.
2) STICK TO ONLY ONE THEME/TOPIC PER BLOG
Always follow the ‘Rule of one.’ Work on one concept or idea, at a time. Each story, example, statement, each argument must reinforce that singular idea only.
3) STRONG INTRODUCTION
Your few opening lines of the writing must be catchy and interesting, encouraging the reader is forced to read the entire material. If your introduction is not strong enough, the readers may skip your content.
4) BREVITY IS A MUST
Learn to say maximum in minimum words. Nobody wants to read a long post of 2000 words until it is required. Keep your content short, brief and to the point.
5) WRITE IN UNDERSTANDABLE LANGUAGE
Use language that is audience-friendly. Your reader should comprehend your message, so write in simple words. Don’t overly use acronyms or jargons and if you are using, explain their meaning properly.
6) USE GRAPHICS WHEREVER POSSIBLE
‘A picture says a thousand words.’ Use pictures and infographics to support your text. Only text will create boredom for your reader. Visuals make your blog post appealing to read.
7) USE PROPER FORMATTING
Use bullet points/numbers: This will make it much easier for the reader to follow what you’re saying.
Bold important keywords: Bolden important points in your article. It will be easy for the reader to find the most relevant topics from your post.
Spaces between paragraphs: Don’t write your article in a single, long paragraph. Divide your article into many paragraphs. No paragraph should have more than 300 words. And, don’t forget to give a double space after each paragraph.
Use sub-headings: Use headings and sub-headings in your article. Headings help the reader to identify the main points of each section in the article. An article looks organized.
8) CALL TO ACTION:
Call to Action is the most important tool and it will tell whether your audience got engaged with your content or not. Call to action is a direction to that action which you want your audience to take, preferably in the end like a comment on the article, like it, share it, subscribe to the newsletter, or buy one of your products. You need to convince your audience to take some action. If your readers do not take the desired action, then you have probably failed to engage them.
Follow these basic rules to create compelling content and make sure the traffic moves in. Good luck.