Engagement builds consumer loyalty and brand recognition. So your blog post content needs to be engaging. By optimizing existing content for engagement, you may increase conversions or generate more sales qualified leads.
Here’s what you need to know about making your content more engaging, including 7 useful tips to get you started:
What is Engaging Content?
Blog post readers come to content to gain useful insights, information, guidance, and more. Therefore, when the content is “engaging” enough, the reader will find it valuable and might perform an action related to that blog post.
A definition of engaging content, or interactive content, will depend on the industry the blog is written for, the audience, and the purpose of the blog. However, generally, engaging content will combine text with other elements to hook the reader and increase their willingness to read through the article.
Having additional elements like infographics, videos, or an appealing UI and format, will only go so far. Your content must also be something that the reader is looking for and is interested in, something in which they will find value and useful information.
The nuances between non-engaging content and engaging content are very subtle, and sometimes readers don’t even realize that this is happening. It is up to your company and blog writing team to capitalize on these nuances in competitive content marketing.
Why Engaging Content is Important for Your Blog
You may be wondering – so what? You post content to your blog and that brings in organic traffic from a search engine. Your blog is doing what it is supposed to, and whether it is engaging or not doesn’t matter to you.
If you’re wondering this, I invite you to think about the goals of your blog content because blog engagement is crucial to your blog optimization strategy and content marketing strategy. Blogs work hard to bring visitors to your website. The more content you have on your website, the more you increase the number of times your webpage is being crawled by Google, effectively bringing in more searchers with more queries related to your product, service, and/or industry.
If you have leads coming to your website and converting to a lead or sale, then you’re likely okay when it comes to engaging content (although an audit should still be performed). However, if you have leads coming to you and leaving or not taking any action, then you should rethink your content strategy, content quality, and engagement style.
Content engagement is critical to your success in your content marketing efforts because it has the potential to do the following:
- Keep your readers interested in what your business has to say
- Come back for more to continue learning from your blog and/or company
- Encourage buyer confidence with your visitors, giving them more insight into the product and or industry so that they are an informed buyer
- Support the ongoing sales development process so that they better understand your product or service
- And much more
Bottom line, engaging content will improve organic traffic, and it has the potential to generate twice as many conversions as simple content and five times more page views.
10 Proven Tips for Making Your Content More Engaging
88% of marketers admit that engaging content helps them stand out from the crowd. So it’s vital to consider these 10 proven tips for making your content more engaging:
1. Improve Your Writing Quality
One simple reason why your content is not “engaging” enough for your audience is poor writing quality. If you have repeating phrases, poor grammar, or long, run-on sentences, then this could be turning readers away.
Improved writing quality can keep your audience engaged. Keep your sentences short and to the point, but make sure that they are telling readers what they need to know!
Also consider writing in a friendly, informal tone. This does not degrade the writing quality but instead adds a personal touch to gain user sympathy. When you address your readers like you’re addressing a friend, they will feel more connected to your brand.
Consider hiring an editor to proofread your work before it goes live.
2. Find Interesting Stories
Sick of writing about boring topics? Boring, bland content could be turning your audience away. Instead, mix it up with more interesting stories.
Find inspiring stories from your industry, company, or even think up fascinating forms of fiction. Whatever you choose, it needs to be relevant to your blog content and company, engaging the reader in new ways.
We are all natural storytellers. By invoking stories, you are also tapping into an effective content marketing strategy known as empathetic marketing.
3. Focus on Authenticity
Along with storytelling comes authenticity. When a blog is more authentic, you may get your readers’ attention. If a reader sees your brand as a bit more vulnerable or speaking an opinion previously kept close to the chest, they may see your brand in a different light.
Authenticity isn’t about shock and awe, it’s about connecting with your audience on a more emotional and personal level. Your audience will appreciate this and want to come back for more.
There is also the chance that they don’t appreciate it – this is okay. Prepare to take some losses for bigger audience gains.
4. Understand What Your Audience Wants
Sometimes your content may be falling flat because you don’t actually know what your audience wants. If you’re posting content that is relevant to you but not your audience, then you’re missing the point. You may also be posting to target audiences who are more ready to buy compared to others. Be sure to write for every stage of the buyer journey.
If you feel stuck here, reach out to a content marketing strategy team like okwrite to help you get back on track.
Sometimes it takes a different set of eyes to see what your audience wants, the market trends, and interesting topics to write about. Coming up with an interesting blog post idea is difficult and you don’t have to do it on your own.
5. Use Compelling Language in Your Headlines
A compelling headline could make or break a good post. If you have top-notch writing in a blog but it is hidden behind a boring headline, then you’re wasting your time.
Punch up your headlines so that they are more engaging, direct, and actionable. A catchy headline can make all the difference!
6. Mix Up Your Blog Topic
Monotony may be getting to you. If you’re continually writing valuable content about travel budgeting content, for example, you or your writing team may be running out of things to say.
Try to come up with some creative new directions your blog can go within your topic of interest. Or branch out to a new pillar to start expanding your blog.
It may even be as simple as not writing 10 articles on budgeting for travel tips all at once, and instead mixing and matching the topics with other relevant topic ideas.
Diversifying your content is a great first step to keeping your blog posts engaging. Look to your editorial calendar to set yourself up for success.
7. Present the Content in an Appealing Layout
In addition to your writing strategy and audience desires, you need to consider the user experience (UX) and user interactions (UI) of your website and blog.
A good blog post will have the following items:
- More bullet points
- Color blocks to draw out content
- Short sentences and short paragraphs to break up blocks of text
- More H3s and H4s to break up content
- Add a CTA or call to action
- Include quizzes, surveys, polls, checklists, registration forms, or chatbots
If your blog formatting looks unappealing, like with no color blocks to mix it up, no images, or long blocks of content, this could easily turn off a reader. Be sure to present your content in an appealing way.
8. Make Sure the Content Is Always Useful
There’s not much worse in content marketing than publishing great content that is not relevant or useful for your target audience. And, most often than not, not useful information will not convert.
If you’re not sure about what information is useful for your audience, then ask yourself what you would be looking for in your content, blog post, and company.
Ask your customers or leads about the things that they want to do. Or look to Google trends and what people are searching (the rich snippets) relevant to your field.
And finally, perform keyword research about your area so that you know that you are targeting the right keywords, both long-tail and short-tail keywords.
9. Bring in Different Media Types
Your content should not be all words. Mixing in visual content like infographics, images, videos, and other forms of graphic interaction will boost UX and your readability with Google.
Not everyone wants to read a blog; so while the content will help to guide them to your page, provide visual elements and more ways readers can understand your content for different learning types.
10. Consider a Guest Post
Sometimes you get stuck in a rut and can’t seem to create content engaging enough.
Or perhaps you’ve been producing high-quality content for so long that you want to take a break to stay relevant.
Guest posts can help you with content creation. Bring on a guest post who is relevant to your audience, skilled at what they do, and can support your content goals.
Need Help?
No matter where you land, getting help creating engaging content is possible. By outsourcing your content marketing, you will have a team on hand prepared to present engaging topics,
High-quality writing, and engaging formats.
Reach out to the team at okwrite for more information!
