Tangible tips to improve your daily content
47 seconds. That’s how long you have to capture the attention of someone and encourage them to keep reading.
From newsletters, to emails, to social media posts – here are a few tangible tips to help you write content from your brand’s perspective that will capture your audience’s interest, and hold it.
Your content creation checklist
Following this basic framework will help you engage your audience:
What are you saying?
Who are you saying it to? (Industry, job title, segment?)
Why might they care?
What’s in it for them?
Inspire with good story telling
Good stories inspire your audience to take action – and they help them know what action you want them to take without feeling pushed, but instead, inspired.
Better stories compel people to – change:
The way they feel.
The way they think.
The way they act.
Take for example the Ice Bucket Challenge. What was it about the Ice Bucket Challenge that made it so successful? Was it that we wanted to support the cause? Or did we want to engage in a viral movement?
Either way, we took action and the campaign raised $220 million around the world.
It’s our job as content creators to explain to our audience:
How they can get involved.
Why their “action” is important.
How they will know if they’ve made a change!
Engage with solutions
Instead of focusing on the what, focus on the why. From a consumer’s perspective, we’re drawn to content that is written “for” us. It’s targeted and tailored to meet a specific need. The marketer has researched and knows our problem – and is offering us a solution.
If it’s delivered to us in a way that doesn’t make sense, we just scroll on by. That’s why it’s especially important to:
Know your audience.
Who’s reading your content?
Why are they reading it?
Why might they care?
Keep your sentences short and sweet.
Be clear.
Be simple.
Be concise.
Avoid overused words
Try replacing buzzwords with synonyms.
The word ‘robust’ could be ‘strong’; ‘ground-breaking’ could be ‘radical’; ‘innovative’ could be ‘new’.
Connect with great headlines
Engaging, impactful headlines make use of the following tactics:
Front loaded ‘important’ words
What’s in it for them?
Keywords
Specifics
Impact statements
Relevant information
For example, compare the following headlines:
A) “Employee town hall this Tuesday” vs B) “New corporate direction unveiled at company town hall this Tuesday”
C) “Understanding how data helps your business” vs D) “7 ways data will boost your profits this year”
Which headline makes you want to take action? I’m betting on B and D.
Build better captions
If you’re writing for social media, you need to remember that people are exposed to insane amounts of social media captions and content each day. It’s important to remember that social media is about ‘conversation with friends’.
Be approachable.
Use “we” and “you” language.
Evoke appropriate emotion.
Be consistent.
When you have multiple people writing across a team, it can be easy to lose the voice of an organization.
What words are you trying to avoid collectively?
What’s the tone?
Work with your team to review preferred phrasing, word choice, Style Guides, etc.
Keep it casual, but professional.
How would you explain a project you’re working on over beer with friends?
How would you explain it to Aunt Sue?
Don’t get stuck in the nitty gritty. Go back and focus on having a conversation about something that is going to solve my problem.
Move away from the sales pitch and into the conversation space.
Avoid duplication.
Does your caption use the same words that are on your graphic? It’s easy to slip into the habit of duplicating content from your caption to your graphic and vice versa. Try not to slip into that habit. If the details of the webinar or event are outlined on the graphic, focus the caption on the why:
Why should you attend?
What am I getting out of it?
Use ‘calls to action’. Often CTAs can be long and wordy. To make them better:
Shorten the list
Lay it out in an actual list form
Break up the text with some spacing
How to self-edit
Ideally, we have someone to edit our content — a second set of eyes will almost always catch something you missed. You might not always have that option, but even if you do, self-edit first
Write it
Edit it
Walk away!
Go back and edit again
THEN share with your reviewer
Read it out loud. Does it connect? Is it easy to follow?
If you’re looking for help with your day-to-day content and leveraging your brand’s profile without breaking the bank, reach out today to see how our skilled writing team can take your concept and goal and translate it into effective content that makes an impact.
Whether you need captivating web copy or ongoing blog content to spread your message, MLC can put words to your vision.