Tag Archives: Engaging Content

What are the key elements of creating high-quality and engaging content?

Key elements of high-quality and engaging content

Key elements of high-quality and engaging content.

Once you know the key elements of creating high-quality and engaging content, and then write content accordingly, you can

  • Attract new customers and clients with greater frequency.
  • Increase brand awareness.
  • Improve your search engine rankings.
  • Generate more leads and sales.
  • Build sustainable relationships with your audience.
  • Increase social media shares and engagement.
  • Come across more opportunities for collaboration and partnership.
  • Increase the chances of your content going viral and gaining widespread attention.
  • Position yourself as an authority figure in your field.

Why is it important to know the key elements of creating high-quality and engaging content?

The importance of knowing about the key elements of high-quality and engaging content

The importance of knowing about the key elements of high-quality and engaging content.

What is engaging content? Here are its attributes:

  • Relevance: Engaging content should be relevant to the target audience’s interests, needs, and preferences.
  • Originality: Key elements of engaging content include uniqueness and originality. It should provide fresh and valuable information or perspectives.
  • Value: High quality content is valuable to readers by offering practical advice, insights, or entertainment. It should provide a clear benefit or solve a problem.
  • Clarity: Engaging content is easy to understand and digest. It should be written in a clear and concise manner, avoiding jargon or complex language.
  • Visual Appeal: Including visually appealing elements such as images, infographics, or videos can enhance engagement. These visuals should be relevant and complement the written content.
  • Emotional Connection: Engaging content evokes emotions and resonates with the audience. It could be through storytelling, relatable examples, or addressing common pain points.
  • Authenticity: High quality content is authentic and genuine, establishing trust with the audience. It should reflect the brand’s values and voice consistently.
  • Interactivity: Engaging content encourages interaction and participation. This can be achieved through surveys, quizzes, contests, or inviting comments and discussions.
  • Variety: Providing diverse content formats and styles keeps the audience engaged. This includes articles, videos, podcasts, interviews, or case studies.
  • Call-to-Action: Including a clear call-to-action guides readers on the next steps and encourages them to engage further with the content or the brand.

There may be a slight difference between engaging and high-quality content so I’m listing the attributes of high-quality content separately.

Attributes of Superior Content:

Attributes of superior content

Attributes of superior content.

  • Relevance: High-quality content is relevant to the target audience’s interests, needs, and preferences.
  • Originality: Key elements of great content include uniqueness and originality, providing fresh and valuable information or perspectives.
  • Value: Outstanding content offers practical advice, insights, or entertainment, providing a clear benefit or solving a problem for the audience.
  • Accuracy: Superb content is factually accurate, supported by reliable sources and research.
  • Clarity: High-quality content is written in a clear and concise manner, avoiding jargon or complex language that may confuse the audience.
  • Depth: High-quality content delves deeper into the topic, providing comprehensive information and going beyond surface level coverage.
  • Authority: Exceptional content establishes the author’s expertise and credibility, supported by qualifications, experience, or evidence of thought leadership.
  • Readability: First rate content is easy to read and digest, with proper formatting, headings, and paragraphs that enhance readability.
  • Structure: Top notch content has a logical flow and structure, making it easy for readers to follow along and understand the information presented.
  • Engagement: Superior content engages the audience through storytelling, examples, and relatable experiences, capturing their attention and interest.
  • Visual Appeal: High-quality content incorporates visually appealing elements such as images, infographics, or videos to enhance engagement and comprehension.
  • Variety: Great content provides a variety of content formats and styles to cater to different preferences and learning styles of the audience.
  • Actionable: Premium content provides actionable steps or recommendations that the audience can implement to achieve desired outcomes.
  • Evergreen: Exceptional content has lasting value and remains relevant over time, not being limited to trends or specific timeframes.
  • Shareability: High-quality content is shareable, compelling readers to share it on social media platforms or with their networks, increasing its reach and impact.
  • User Feedback: First-rate content encourages user feedback, comments, and discussions, fostering engagement and creating a sense of community around the content.

The key elements of high-quality and engaging content

Key elements of high-quality and engaging content-second

Key elements of high-quality and engaging content-second.

1. Compelling Headline:

  • A captivating headline grabs the audience’s attention and entices them to click and read the full content.
  • It should be clear, concise, and highlight the main benefit or value the content offers.

2. Relevant and WellResearched Information:

  • High-quality content provides accurate and reliable information that is relevant to the target audience.
  • It demonstrates thorough research and incorporates data, facts, and examples to support the main points.

3. Unique Perspective or Angle:

  • Engaging content presents a unique perspective or angle on a topic, offering fresh insights or a different approach.
  • It adds value by providing a new viewpoint that hasn’t been extensively covered before.

4. Clear and Concise Writing:

  • High-quality content uses clear and concise language, avoiding unnecessary jargon or complex terms that may confuse the audience.
  • Short sentences and paragraphs improve readability and make the content more accessible.

5. Visual Elements:

  • Engaging content incorporates visually appealing elements such as images, infographics, charts, or videos to enhance understanding and engagement.
  • Visuals should be relevant, high-quality, and support the main message of the content.

6. Storytelling:

  • Incorporating storytelling techniques in content makes it more engaging and relatable.
  • It helps create an emotional connection with the audience and makes the content more memorable.

7. Use of Examples and Case Studies:

  • High-quality content includes relevant examples and case studies to illustrate concepts or demonstrate real-world applications.
  • This adds credibility and practicality to the content.

8. Personalization:

  • Engaging content speaks directly to the audience, addressing their specific needs, challenges, or aspirations.
  • It uses language that resonates with the target audience and makes them feel understood.

9. Variety of Content Formats:

  • High-quality content offers a variety of content formats, such as articles, videos, podcasts, or interactive quizzes.
  • This caters to different learning preferences and keeps the audience engaged.

10. Easy-to-read Formatting:

  • Engaging content utilizes proper formatting techniques, such as subheadings, bullet points, and numbered lists, to improve readability.
  • It breaks down complex information into digestible chunks and makes it easier to scan and understand.

11. Actionable Tips and Takeaways:

  • High-quality content provides actionable tips, steps, or takeaways that the audience can implement immediately.
  • This empowers the audience and adds value by helping them achieve specific outcomes.

12. Emotional Appeal:

  • Engaging content evokes emotions, whether through storytelling, relatable examples, or addressing pain points and aspirations.
  • Emotional appeal captures the audience’s attention and creates a deeper connection with the content.

13. Audience Interaction and Participation:

  • High-quality content encourages audience interaction and participation through comments, surveys, or social media discussions.
  • This fosters engagement, builds a sense of community, and encourages sharing.

14. Credible Sources and References:

  • Engaging content includes credible sources and references to support the information presented.
  • It strengthens the content’s authority and builds trust with the audience.

15. Mobile-Friendly and Responsive Design:

  • Premium content is optimized for mobile devices, ensuring a seamless reading experience across different screen sizes.
  • Responsive design allows the content to adapt and display correctly on various devices.

16. Engaging Introductions:

  • Engaging content starts with a strong introduction that captures the audience’s attention and sets the tone for the rest of the piece.
  • It may include intriguing statistics, compelling questions, or intriguing statements.

17. Well-structured Organization:

  • Exceptional content follows a logical and well-organized structure, leading the audience from one point to the next smoothly.
  • It includes clear transitions between sections to maintain flow.

18. Engaging and Relevant Subheadings:

  • Engaging content uses subheadings that are not only informative but also capture the audience’s interest.
  • These subheadings break down the content into smaller sections, making it easier to navigate.

19. Inclusion of Quotes and Expert Insights:

  • High-quality content incorporates quotes from industry experts or thought leaders to add credibility and provide diverse perspectives.
  • Expert insights contribute to the overall authority and quality of the content.

20. Call-to-Action:

  • Engaging content includes a clear call-to-action that guides the audience on the next steps to take.
  • It can be a request to subscribe, share the content, or explore related resources.

21. Authenticity and Transparency:

  • Outstanding content reflects the author’s authenticity and transparency, presenting information in an honest and genuine manner.
  • It establishes trust with the audience and strengthens the content’s credibility.

22. Voice and Tone Consistency:

  • Engaging content maintains a consistent voice and tone throughout, aligning with the brand’s personality and values.
  • This creates a cohesive reading experience and reinforces the brand’s identity.

23. Regular Updates and Freshness:

  • Valuable content is regularly updated to reflect current information and trends.
  • This ensures that the content remains relevant and provides the most uptodate insights.

24. SEO Optimization:

  • Engaging content incorporates relevant keywords naturally throughout the content to improve search engine visibility.
  • It also optimizes meta tags, headers, and descriptions for better indexing and ranking.

25. User-First Approach:

  • High-quality content prioritizes the needs and interests of the audience, focusing on providing value and a positive user experience.
  • This includes considering accessibility, page load speed, and overall usability.

To create prime and engaging content, include compelling headlines, well-researched information, unique perspectives, clear writing, visuals, storytelling, personalization, varied content formats, easy-to-read formatting, actionable tips, emotional appeal, audience interaction, credible sources, mobile-friendliness, engaging introductions, well-structured organization, relevant subheadings, quotes and expert insights, clear calls-to-action, authenticity, consistent voice and tone, regular updates, SEO optimization, and a user-first approach. Incorporating these elements will help you produce valuable and captivating content that engages your target audience.

The impact of high-quality and engaging content on your SEO: 15 Key Benefits

The SEO impact of high quality and engaging content

The SEO impact of high quality and engaging content.

When it comes to search engine optimization (SEO), superb and engaging content plays a crucial role in improving your website’s visibility, attracting organic traffic, and driving meaningful engagement.

Let’s explore 15 ways top-of-the-range and engaging content can positively impact your SEO efforts.

1. Enhanced User Experience:

  • High-quality content improves user experience by providing valuable and relevant information to your audience.
  • Engaging content captivates users, increases time spent on your website, and reduces bounce rates, signaling positive signals to search engines.

2. Increased Organic Traffic:

  • Producing high-quality content that aligns with user search intent attracts organic traffic to your website.
  • Engaging content encourages users to visit, explore, and share your content, leading to increased visibility in search engine results.

3. Lower Bounce Rates:

  • Engaging content reduces bounce rates as it holds users’ attention and encourages them to explore other pages on your website.
  • Lower bounce rates indicate to search engines that your content is relevant and valuable, which can positively impact your rankings.

4. Improved Dwell Time:

  • High-quality and engaging content increases dwell time, the duration users spend on your website.
  • Longer dwell times signal to search engines that your content is valuable and satisfies user search queries, potentially boosting your rankings.

5. Increased Social Signals:

  • Engaging content is more likely to be shared on social media platforms, generating social signals.
  • Social signals, such as likes, shares, and comments, can indirectly influence SEO by increasing brand visibility, driving referral traffic, and attracting backlinks.

6. Higher Clickthrough Rates (CTRs):

  • Compelling headlines, meta descriptions, and featured snippets can significantly impact CTRs.
  • Engaging content with enticing titles and wellcrafted meta descriptions can attract more clicks from search engine result pages (SERPs), leading to increased organic traffic.

7. Lower Bounce Rates:

  • Engaging content reduces bounce rates as it holds users’ attention and encourages them to explore other pages on your website.
  • Lower bounce rates indicate to search engines that your content is relevant and valuable, which can positively impact your rankings.

8. Improved Keyword Relevance:

  • High-quality content naturally incorporates relevant keywords and phrases that align with user search queries.
  • Engaging content that effectively uses keywords can improve your website’s visibility in search results and increase organic traffic.

9. Increased Backlinks:

  • High-quality content that provides unique and valuable insights is more likely to attract backlinks from other websites.
  • Engaging content that is cited and linked by authoritative sources can significantly boost your website’s domain authority and improve your rankings.

10. Improved Page Authority:

  • Engaging content that attracts high-quality backlinks can improve the page authority of your content pages.
  • Higher page authority increases the likelihood of ranking higher in search results and gaining visibility for relevant keywords.

11. Higher Time on Page:

  • Engaging content that holds users’ attention leads to longer time spent on your webpages.
  • Increased time on page signals to search engines that your content is valuable, potentially boosting your rankings.

12. Reduced Duplicate Content Issues:

  • High-quality and original content reduces the risk of duplicate content issues, which can negatively impact your SEO efforts.
  • Engaging content that is unique and provides fresh perspectives helps search engines understand the value your content offers.

13. Improved Crawlability and Indexing:

  • High-quality content with clear structure and formatting is more easily crawled and indexed by search engine bots.
  • Engaging content that is well-organized and utilizes appropriate HTML tags can improve the visibility and accessibility of your content to search engines.

14. Enhanced Semantic Relevance:

  • High-quality content that incorporates semantically related terms and concepts can improve search engine understanding.
  • Engaging content that provides comprehensive coverage of a topic signals expertise and relevance, positively impacting your SEO efforts.

15. Higher SERP Visibility:

  • High-quality and engaging content that satisfies user search intent is more likely to rank prominently in search engine result pages (SERPs).
  • Improved rankings and visibility in SERPs increase the likelihood of attracting organic traffic and establishing your brand as an authority in your industry.

How do key elements of high-quality and engaging content improve conversion rate?

High quality and engaging content improves your conversion rate

High quality and engaging content improves your conversion rate.

High-quality and engaging content plays a crucial role in improving conversion rates for businesses. Let’s see how the key elements of high-quality and engaging content contribute to higher conversion rates.

Relevant and Targeted Messaging

High-quality content begins with understanding your target audience and crafting messaging that resonates with them.

By addressing their needs, pain points, and aspirations, you can create content that speaks directly to their interests.

This targeted approach captures their attention, keeping them engaged and increasing the likelihood of conversion.

Compelling Headlines

The headline is the first thing users see, and it needs to grab their attention instantly.

A compelling headline communicates the value proposition of your product or service and entices the reader to explore further.

By piquing their curiosity and generating interest, a strong headline encourages users to stay on your page and increases the chances of conversion.

Clear and Concise Writing

High-quality content avoids jargon and complex language. Instead, it utilizes clear and concise writing that is easy to understand.

Short sentences make the content more digestible and engaging for readers.

By presenting information in a straightforward manner, you can effectively communicate your message and capture the attention of your audience, leading to higher conversion rates.

Visual Appeal

Engaging content goes beyond text.

It incorporates visually appealing elements such as images, videos, infographics, and charts.

Visuals help break up the text and make the content more visually stimulating.

They can effectively convey information, evoke emotions, and enhance the overall user experience.

By incorporating relevant visuals, you can engage users on multiple levels and increase the likelihood of conversion.

Compelling Call-to-Action (CTA)

A high-quality and engaging content piece is incomplete without a compelling call-to-action.

A CTA directs users to take the desired action, such as making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or requesting more information. It should be clear, persuasive, and prominently displayed.

By guiding users towards the next step and creating a sense of urgency or value, a strong CTA encourages conversions.

Social Proof

People are more likely to trust and engage with content that is supported by social proof.

Including testimonials, case studies, reviews, and social media mentions in your content provides credibility and builds trust.

Social proof showcases the positive experiences of others, reinforcing the quality and value of your offerings.

By incorporating social proof, you increase the trustworthiness of your content, thereby boosting conversion rates.

Personalization

High-quality content is tailored to the individual needs and preferences of the target audience.

Personalization can be achieved by segmenting your audience and creating content that specifically addresses their unique requirements.

By delivering personalized content, you demonstrate that you understand and value your audience, which in turn leads to higher engagement and conversion rates.

Storytelling

Humans are wired to respond to stories. Engaging content often weaves storytelling elements to captivate readers and create an emotional connection.

By sharing relatable narratives, anecdotes, or case studies, you can evoke emotions and make your content more memorable.

Storytelling helps in building a connection with your audience, which increases their engagement and the likelihood of conversion.

Consistency and Frequency

To maintain engagement and build trust, high-quality content should be consistently delivered to your audience.

Regularly publishing fresh and relevant content keeps your audience coming back for more.

By offering consistent value, you establish yourself as an authority in your industry, enhancing credibility and increasing the chances of conversion.

Optimized for SEO

A crucial aspect of high-quality and engaging content is its search engine optimization (SEO).

By incorporating relevant keywords, meta tags, and optimizing headings, you increase the visibility of your content in search engine results.

When your content ranks higher in search engine listings, it attracts more organic traffic, resulting in increased conversions.

High-quality and engaging content is characterized by relevant and targeted messaging, compelling headlines, clear and concise writing, visual appeal, compelling call-to-action (CTA), social proof, personalization, storytelling, consistency, and SEO optimization.

By incorporating these elements, businesses can create content that captures the attention of their audience, builds trust, and increases the likelihood of conversions. It is essential to offer value, resonate with the audience, and guide them towards taking the desired action.

5 Tips for Writing Engaging Blog Posts

5 Tips for Writing Engaging Blog Posts.

5 Tips for Writing Engaging Blog Posts.

Writing an engaging blog post isn’t very easy.

Online readers have really short attention spans. Grabbing their attention, and holding on to it throughout the post is very difficult.

In this post, we are going to be looking at 5 tips that you can keep in mind when writing a blog post to make sure that it is interesting and engaging.

5 Tips for Writing Engaging Blog Posts

1.    Do Proper Research

You can’t attract readers if you don’t know what you are talking about.

Take an example.

If someone was to say:

“The world probably has a lot of countries. There may be more than 180 but I’m not sure.”

It would sound horrible. No one would trust it. No one would rely on it and no one would quote it.

On the other hand, if someone was to say:

The world has 197 countries. From these, 193 are members of the UN.

It would sound way better. Even if it’s not true, it sounds like it because it’s said with determination and confidence.

And if you want to sound confident and determined, you have to have a proper command on the subject matter. You need to be so learned in your topic that you should be able to state facts and figures related to it without any hesitation.

When you want to write on something, take some time out beforehand and dedicate a session solely to research. Look at reliable articles, research papers and books on your topic.

Always remember to mention statistics and figures, and to link them back to their original source.

2.    Focus on Making the Beginning Engaging

In writing, the old adage ‘First impression is the last impression’ holds a very accurate application.

If you manage to create an engaging and interesting introduction, you will be able to hook your readers and get them to read till the end of the post.

This will mean that if you’ve placed any links or sponsored elements in your blog, they will be more likely to appear in front of your readers.

Similarly, you will also increase the chances of your readers to click on any internal links that you may have left in between your content.

Here are some points that you can keep in mind to come up with an engaging introduction:

  • Discuss the main concept or topic of your content
  • Don’t dillydally. Get to the point without putting in a lot of fluff
  • Start with a relatable question
  • Keep it short and sweet

3.    Break Your Content Down in Headings and Sub-Headings

By breaking your content down in headings and sub-headings, you will be able to make it easier to navigate and skip through.

If there is a reader who wants to just read a particular part of your post and not the whole of it, they can easily skip to their desired part and then leave. But, if you don’t add headings and sub-headings, your reader will get annoyed scanning through the content.

Other than that, headings and sub-headings can make your content appear less like a wall of text. And here is something you should know about walls of text.

If someone has written some highly interesting and information content, but without dividing and splitting it properly, it will appear boring to the readers.

But on the other hand, if the content itself is not very informative, but it is properly split up in headings, sub-headings, sections and bullet points, it will look interesting to the readers.

4.    Make Sure Your Content is Unique

Plagiarized and copied content is, to be a little dramatic, the bane of reader-engagement. This problem can occur with writers who just take all their information from a single popular source on the internet without diversifying their research.

Plagiarized content, especially if it is taken from a popular source, can stick out to the readers, and it can easily be spotted.

However, there can be a lot of writers who don’t intentionally copy stuff from other sources. But even these types of writers can have trouble with plagiarism by committing it accidentally.

To make sure that there is no plagiarism, of any kind whatsoever, in your content, you should use a plagiarism checker.

Plagiarism checkers usually work by scanning the given text against online sources to see if there are any matches between them. This can help you easily see if there is any accidental duplication in your content from other sources on the internet.

5.    Add Visuals and Graphics

There are few things that make written content more engaging than some visuals and graphics.

The logic behind adding visuals and graphics is the same as we discussed in the heading dealing with headings and sub-headings: they stop your content from looking like a giant wall of text.

But, here’s the thing.

While it is commendable and good for your content’s engagement to have images in it, some writers can go a little over-board.  They can either start adding images at every other point in the blog post, which can make it impossible to peruse.

Or they can start adding images that have nothing to do with the content at hand.

This sort of excess or irrelevancy in the added visuals can, far from making the content engaging, take away whatever little engagement it may have previously had.

Conclusion

If you are writing for an online audience, you should understand well that your readers will not bother entertaining a dull and boring blog post.

In this post, we looked at some tips and steps that you can follow to make your content look interesting and gripping to your readers.

To sum it up, you should take care to do proper research before sitting down to write your blog post. Having thorough command and knowledge over your subject can make you sound authoritative.

Then, you should work on creating the beginning of the post interesting in order to hook the attention of your readers. You should also break your content up in headings and sub-headings so that it is easier for users to navigate through it.

Uniqueness is also necessary for making your content engaging, so you should be sure to check your final draft for duplication using a plagiarism checker.

And last but not least, you should take care to add visuals and graphics in your content.

What is engaging content writing?

Engaging content writing

Engaging content writing

You read about engagement a lot these days? How can you engage your target audience and how can you use content writing to achieve that?

The entire purpose of content marketing (and hence, content writing) is to elicit an active response from your audience/readers.

You want them to do something constructive that leads to them becoming your paying customers and clients.

Why is engagement important?

We live in a world full of distractions.

Even when we are doing something very important, something that requires our full attention, something that we cannot afford to ignore, we are being distracted.

We receive phone calls. We receive text messages. There are zillions of notifications from mobile apps. Your friends and followers want you to respond on Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter and Instagram. You are bombarded with pop-ups when you visit websites. There are hyperlinks everywhere.

Then there are distractions in the non-digital world (physical world).

You want people to pay attention to your content writing. If they don’t pay attention, they are not going to understand your message, and if they don’t understand your message, then what is the use of writing and publishing content on your website?

They are not going to pay attention just because you want them to.

You need to engage them.

When you engage them, they automatically pay attention to your content.

Even Google takes engagement seriously.

For Google, engagement means how people interact with your content when they find your content in the search results.

Do they immediately leave your website?

Do they explore other web pages and blog posts of your website?

Do they come back to Google and carry on the same search that help them find your link? This means they didn’t get what they were looking for and this further means, your content is not relevant to the search term being used and hence, doesn’t deserve to be ranked at the place it is currently ranking for that search term.

What makes your content writing engaging?

Engaging content writing is easier to read.

It means writing shorter, relevant sentences that people can quickly read and understand.

They shouldn’t have to figure things out in order to be able to engage with you.

Most importantly, engaging content writing delivers what it promises in the heading or the title or the email subject.

Your visitors want to go on reading when you write engaging content because they are deriving something out of it.

Remember that what you want to say isn’t important – what they want to read is.

Sometimes, content writers use headlines as if they are offering readers what the readers want to read, but eventually, they end up writing what they want to write, which is not a right practice and is counter-intuitive to the concept of engaging content writing.

Your content writing is engaging when people respond to it.

Your writing prompts people to contact you.

People want to share your blog post or web page or article with their friends, family members and colleagues using their social media and social networking profiles.

They leave comments.

They create their own blog posts and articles using the ideas and opinions seeded by your writing.

Are you writing engaging content?

 

How to create engaging content [infographic]

How-to-write-engaging-content-shorter

Creating infographic is a great way of communicating your message convincingly and visually.

In this post I am publishing an infographic sent to me by good folks at MyTasker, an office support company based out of Kolkata. In near future I too am planning to hire such a service so I’m going to save the link.

The person who sent me the infographic has also sent me some textual background information that is to be published along with the infographic. Since I need to work on another blog post I’m going to copy/paste the description as it is. So please excuse in case there are some typos, or if you want to be a good Samaritan, let me know in case I need to correct something.

But the infographic is good.

Here is the textual background information on the infographic:

Why do you think people don’t just seem to care about your Content?

With your field of expertise, you have targeted the right niche community.

You have done your research on keywords and have chosen the interesting ones.

You have shared your content with the right communities.

But still:

Only a few views and a couple of comments.

WHY?

There is absolutely no need to bang your head against the wall for the answer.

Your Content is Boring, and people do not find your writing style interesting.

It hurts, right?

Well, it must.

Because:

You are probably doing everything right in this situation except, writing a Compelling Content that truly Engages with your readers.

Remember this thing:

Trends may come and go but Quality Content is the King of the Viral Kingdom.

There is no rocket science that you need to know to create Engaging Content.

You just need to know a few ingredients that can make any dull content look exciting.

And knowing these ingredients will help you stimulate your readers in a way that they will pay attention to each and every word you write.

And:

If your Readers are paying attention to you, it means you have engaged them to a point where a bond has developed between you two and they will eagerly wait for your next post and the next one.

So, to help you make your content interesting and engaging, the Writing Team at MyTasker has created a visually appealing Infographic where all the essential components of an Engaging Content have been looked into from an average reader’s point of view.

Incorporating some of the components (ideally all) will pleasantly surprise you to see how the quality of your content increases overtime and your readers finally start engaging with you.

Just go through the Infographic and be a Master at creating Engaging Content.

Here is the infographic:

10 ways to write highly engaging content

write engaging content for your websiteThe success of your content marketing pretty much depends on how engaging your content is. This is why it is very important to know how to write highly engaging content.

First, what is “engaging content”? Although I have explained this multiple time on my blog and my website, it’s always nice to quickly visit the topic before proceeding, in every individual post.

Writing and publishing engaging content means involving your readers and visitors. Content consumption on your website or blog should be a two-way process. It should be a dialogue instead of a monologue. You have to hit the right spots. You have to provide the right information, ask the right questions and express the right doubts, at the right time, to give your readers the “aha!” moment.

Here are 10 ways to write highly engaging content

  1. Tell a story your visitors can relate to
  2. Try to know and understand what your readers are really looking for – what moves them?
  3. Write content from your reader’s perspective
  4. Get your readers emotionally involved with your content
  5. Ask questions and up their stakes
  6. Develop a unique voice
  7. Back your claims and opinions with verifiable facts
  8. Provide a social interface to your readers and visitors
  9. Curate useful, interesting information from other sources
  10. Understand how your particular audience prefers content – format as well as length

1. Tell a story your visitors can relate to

Stories are always interesting and they are more interesting if people can relate to them. So, you can make your content engaging by telling people stories of how your product or service solved problems and made life easier for people who use them. Simply saying that your product or service is great doesn’t cut it. Use real-world examples. Use real-world names. Use real-world situations and then provide believable narratives.

Your stories don’t have to be dull and drab. You can make them funny. You can sprinkle them with suspense. You can even introduce melodrama. The basic idea is to make it as interesting and engaging as possible.

2. Know and understand what your readers are looking for – what moves them?

Frankly, this is the most difficult thing to achieve through your content. Most of the content marketing campaigns fail because people responsible for the campaign cannot really write or create content keeping in mind what their visitors are looking for. Web analytics tools like Google’s Webmasters tools can help you in this regard. If you closely study your visitor statistics you will know how people land on your website. If they are coming to your website using the wrong search words it means you’re drawing wrong sort of people through your content which means you are creating wrong content.

3. Write content from your readers’ perspective

The thing is, people read your content not because YOU are writing it, they read it because they derive something out of it, whether it is information, entertainment, or empathy. Write what they would like to read, not what you would like to write.

Having said that, it doesn’t mean your writing always has to cater to the whims of your readers…you can play around with your own ideas. But when you are writing for a business website or for a business blog, remember that ultimately, the purpose of your writing is to convince your visitors into doing business with you.

4. Get your readers emotionally involved with your content

If your readers remain passive about your content, you cannot move them much into doing something constructive. They will read your content and just move on.

But if you make an emotional connection through your content, they don’t just stay longer, they also remember what they read.

How do you make an emotional connection? By addressing their problems as if they are your own problems. By providing them the needed solutions. By assuring them that the resolution of their problems is your primary concern.

For example, if you are looking for well-written content for your website or blog you obviously want to improve your business: you want to get more traffic, you want to engage your audience, you want to increase your social media visibility, and consequently, increase your sales. I should be able to convey to you that I totally understand this pressing need of yours and will do my best to provide the right content marketing and content writing services.

5. Ask questions and up their stake

You can also engage your readers by asking them timely questions. Don’t always provide them all the answers. If you provide them all the answers they’ll get bored. Instead, engage them by asking them questions.

For example, if you are looking for good content for your website, I should ask you why your website needs good content instead of telling you why your website needs good content.

Or, if I come across an example of extremely terrible content written on another website or blog I can ask my visitors what’s the problem with that content and how that content can be improved. They will feel that you value their opinion.

6. Develop a unique voice

If everybody is publishing content on his or her website how do people distinguish? Let’s be frank, whether they know how to do it or not, everybody seems to be using content marketing these days. It means lots of content is being published and distributed on daily basis. There is so much noise coming from all directions that it turns into an indecipherable buzz. The only way you can distinguish yourself from the rest of the crowd is to develop a unique voice.

Develop your own style. Even if it means using unconventional language, as long as you don’t offend anyone and inadvertently offend your customers or clients, go for it.

7. Back up your claims and opinions with verifiable facts

I’m not a big fan of overwhelming my readers with lots of statistics and facts, but whenever you mention facts that are not well-known but are important, try to include the original source that is credible. These days there is lots of talk about fake news. So, while linking to the original source, be mindful of the fact that it is original information and not fake information otherwise the entire purpose of backing up your claims and opinions is defeated.

What I mean is, if I say that if your link appears at the first position on Google search results, it may enjoy 31.35% clickthrough rate (31.35 people out of 100 will click your link) and if I back this bit of information with a credible link like this Hubspot link you will not only believe me you will also appreciate the fact that I do research before making claims.

8. Provide a social interface to your readers and visitors

Engagement these days also means that the visitors on your website or blog should be able to socially re-purpose and share your content. There are lots of tools available that allow people to, for example, tweet some of your best quotes from your website, one of the reasons why recently I recommended using Medium for content marketing. Even a simple commenting facility keeps your visitors engaged as they exchange their views and opinions with you and among themselves.

9. Curate useful, interesting information from other sources

You don’t need to continuously create original content in order to engage your readers. There is lots of interesting stuff on the Internet that you can curate and present it to your readers and visitors. People will really appreciate if they don’t have to scour the Internet in order to find what they’re looking for. Although you shouldn’t base your entire content marketing strategy on curated content (in some cases it may actually work) now and then you can create lists of subject-specific blog posts and articles and compile them into a single URL.

10. Understand how your audience prefers content – format as well as length

Different audiences have different preferences. A network security website may have a different audience than a beauty products website. You will need to understand your audience and write and publish content accordingly. Your audience may also prefer different formats: they won’t necessarily like streams of text. Maybe they prefer images. Maybe videos. Maybe they don’t even like to come to your website and they mostly use Instagram.

These days there is a tendency among content marketers to use very long blog posts – stretching over 2000-2500 words or even more. But if you visit Seth Godin’s blog, almost all of his posts are not more than 150-200 words, and still, his blog is more popular than the blogs of many renowned content marketers and SEO experts. His blog posts are very small, and very insightful. Another thing that I have heard about him is that he posts everyday, even on Christmas.

So, these are some ways you can write highly engaging content for your website or blog. Remember that when it comes to web content the technology that you use on your website to enable people to re-purpose, reuse and share your content is as important as the quality of your writing. Don’t clutter your website with lots of buttons and bells and whistles, but do provide necessary means to make your content socially shareable.

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