How To Make Content Your Customers Will Be Excited To Read

  • By Brian Lewis
  • 14 Aug, 2018

Featured image courtesy of MicrobeFormulas.com

Knowing how to make good content is an art form. To make good content, you first have to understand who your audience is, what kind of content they like, and on which social media platforms they consume content.

It’s not enough to have a good idea. Converting that idea into interesting content and giving it to your dedicated audience is what’s important. While a lot of work must be invested into the process of creating good content, all of that work will be wasted unless you make an effort to spread and share that content. You can learn how to make content your customers will be excited to read and how to spread it on different platforms so it will be enjoyed. Keeping reading to find out how.

Know Who You’re Talking To: Be Relevant

Speaking to the right audience is important. This is also more complicated than it seems.

Begin by asking yourself what your audience actually wants. What are the pain points, the needs, the wants of your target audience? How do your services or products solve a specific problem that your audience has? When you can thoroughly answer questions like these, you can develop a message that resonates with your audience. You won’t be selling yourself out, but you will be building a content process that’s designed to connect with real people and the needs or interests they have. Using webchats or other online platforms to communicate with customers or even potential customers is crucial to your success. It is part of being relevant and establishing credibility.

From there, it is important to collect actual data on your audience. Nail down the finer details of the demographics you serve, particularly their online habits--which platforms they like best, for example

Use Structure To Support Your Ideas

After defining your audience and the message you want to send to them, it's time to actually sit down and write.

Begin with a structured outline. Structure allows you to create content that people are naturally drawn to. We know that online readers often skim documents to better find what they need or to see if the page is what they’re looking for. This is where structure comes in. The structure of your content should follow a simple outline each time. This outline will look something like this:


Title: The title is where you grab your reader’s attention. You do so with a headline that says everything your article is about, how it relates to the reader, and what they’re likely to get by reading it. This may sound daunting at first glance, but you can master it in time. You’re given a split second to provide readers with this information. Titles must tantalize a reader's curiosity by teasing the answer to a question they have.

The Introduction: The introduction brings the promises of the headline to the forefront of the article. This is where you tell readers that they’ve found what they’re looking for, how the article will help, and what’s to be expected. Be clear and concise. Give them what they need. Any keywords you have should also be included here.

Subheadings: Subheadings are headlines that you can have scattered throughout the body of your post. Each section helps the reader to look for the exact information that they need. Other roles that subheadings play include keyword variations for the search engines. They confirm to readers that they’ve found the content they’ll need to answer the questions they have.

A Bulleted List: A bulleted list allows you to convey a great amount of data in the simplest form. You add these lists in order to open up your text. Readers can be discouraged from reading when your writing is congested. You can break up the flow of your content by adding a simple bulleted list.

The Conclusion: The conclusion is important because it revisits the key points that were covered within your content. You can also add a call to action as long as you retouch important points and work with the reader to achieve their goals.

Find Supporting Facts

As much as we love to speak without being held accountable, you won’t create intriguing content if all you do is share your opinions and ideas. You need to support those ideas with real, tangible facts. We all love information. Don’t hold back when sharing case studies, infographics, and exciting research.

The more of this you provide, the better, yet use that data to support your claims. This happens as often as your writing space can afford it. Simply support what you say by providing your credentials or using a link to show readers the broader perspective in your message. But don’t just regurgitate data. Be sure to connect with real people in the end.

Visual Appeals

Visuals are crucial to grabbing attention and to communicating information. Not to mention, you will win a few brownie points with Google by providing images and video content. Video content is highly shareable. Consider a few of these visual inputs that you can use to boost your presence and content online:

Infographics: Infographics provide readers with in-depth data that they often can’t find elsewhere. The power of infographics is in how they display data in a visual manner, showing relationships between data points that otherwise would be difficult to explain in words. You can create these displays with the same structure as you do your content.

Images: Images are a great feature, but they have to match the content you’re creating in subject matter and in the tone. Using bad-quality images with your content is sure to lower your credibility with readers.

Layout: The design of your website and the layout of your content is very important. Don't crowd or clutter the page. Remember to spread your text out, and sprinkle images or videos in between so that your content to breathe. Space everything in a logical order, so that the reader can easily find the content they are looking for. Ensure that there are no restrictions in navigating your posts.


Master the Art Form, and You Master Your Audience

It takes a great deal of detail to master the art of great content. The rewards are all worth it. Take the steps above, and continue to learn more about your audience. Give them the content they need. Don't forget to monitor the response you get from your audience on social media. It's important to always track the progress of your posts in order to refine your content and your ideas to your audience's needs and tastes. This will peak your conversions and excel your online brand.


References:

4 Rules For Creating Awesome Content Your Audience Will Love | CoSchedule Blog

Why Your Blog Posts Need Structure – and How to Get it Right | Writers in Charge

7 Ways to Add Visual Interest to Blogs & Books | Published and Profitable

Webchat - Turn Website Clicks Into Customers | Podium
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