The Building Blocks of Creating Engaging Content

In today’s internet, tap-you-on-the-shoulder content doesn’t win anymore. To expect real content engagement, you need to have slap-you-in-the-face content that over delivers on all fronts. Visitor fatigue plays a much bigger role in the average surfer nowadays, so it’s harder than ever to make a first impression.

So how can we as marketers create engaging content that fulfills our visitors needs, and doesn’t get dismissed under the “just another website” assumption?

Value

Making your content valuable should be a given. This is the single most important part of content engagement-and content in general for that matter. By creating  quality engaging content, your visitors can come to view you as a commodity and even feel proud to be a part of your community.

However, this is much easier said than done. For your visitors to want to be engaged, your content has to offer something more exciting than your competitors. Using storytelling, polls, infographics, charts, are all ways that you can use your content to engage visitors. A more recent approach is to share special offers using a QR Code with an effective CTA, encouraging users to scan it and interact with your content.

Woot.com is a good example. By simply leveraging the power of words in their quirky product anecdotes, they’re able to draw you in and make you a happier visitor. This, in turn, makes for a much more engaged user and eventually customer.

Anyone can write an article and fill white space, but an article that is creatively written and beneficial will provide returns in the form of more links, more opt ins, social mentions, better rankings, etc.

Medium

Engagement from your visitors in certain mediums is like being the popular kid in class. You’re cool, so others want to be your friend and talk about you. But just because you’re the most popular kid in band, doesn’t mean you’re going to have the same meteoric rise as a football player.

The content that you publish needs to be given to your visitors in the medium that will yield the most amount of engagement. Yes, blogs are the most common medium for content delivery, but there are many instances that information served via podcasts, video, or social-specific avenues would do a better job of engaging your visitors.

If you’re a golfer, you might use the information on Golflink’s Youtube channel to help improve your back swing or learn how to get out of those sand traps easier. This type of instructional content has much more value delivered as a video instead of a how-to blog post.

Instructional video content doesn’t stop there either. Plenty of companies have taken to explainer videos to help with conversion rates and even increase engagement rates on specific pages. This is especially true of pages that are focused on selling products or higher-priced services. The best characteristics of explainer videos can be explored and copied to replicate successes of those companies.

Tone

The first step to having a great tone in your content is knowing who your visitors are in the first place. Are they the technical in nature? Local? Old, or young? Male or female? Each market has a general demographic, once you establish who your target market is, you can better determine what voice you should be using.

As long as your jokes don’t fall flat, entertaining and humorous tones usually aren’t a problem with general audiences. Humor has the most effectiveness when it’s short, and in line with your brand, but be sure not to cross into the realm of controversial with your humor. Humorous religious, political, and big brand comments can backfire if used carelessly.

Unlike content that takes advantage of comedic relief, controversial content can have disastrous consequences if used improperly. No matter what you’re going to make someone unhappy, so be sure to ask yourself if it’s worth publishing.

Reaction

How do you know what your visitors want if you don’t constantly evaluate their wants and needs? Remember, engagement is not one-sided. Visitors that recognize that they have a voice and presence are much more likely to be engaging.

On a regular basis, ask visitors for their input with a survey, poll, or in your newsletter. Educational institutes, retail giants, and software companies all use these methods to help connect with their visitors and make improvements. Listening and responding to visitors needs will help establish a genuine relationship with them.

Some companies that are large enough even create forums dedicated to solving problems and posting updates. Some forums such as Mozilla Thunderbird, consist mainly of volunteer users and can be just as beneficial for the company as for the consumer.

There’s plenty of software that you can use to create surveys, polls, etc, or you could simplify things with a form from Google Docs.

Be In It For The Long Haul

Whether your goal is to sell products, services, teach, or increase brand awareness,  your first step needs to be creating engaging content for your visitors. Since there are so many businesses that still insist on “taking the easy way out” by populating their site with poor content, imagine how far you will be in the long run by giving your visitors quality content.

Jared Carrizales
Jared Carrizales

Jared leads the Heroic Search link building campaigns, and oversees account management for the company. In his downtime, he enjoys playing tennis and a good cup of coffee.

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