Consumers don’t have the time or patience to read a product sales pitch. They will make time to read informative content. It’s our default programming. As humans, we love to be informed.
People consume content because they are looking for solutions to their problems. By presenting your product or service as a solution, you are one step closer to converting your audience into paying customers. However, with the increasing number of businesses adopting content marketing, you must know how to be more engaging than the rest.
Here are some critical ways to improve content engagement for your business.
1. Write Eye-catching Headlines
When you write a compelling headline, you’ve already won half the battle for the reader’s attention. A headline is the first thing people see before reading your content. When you write a headline that your audience can relate to, you can ensure those clicks and improve your SEO.
Here are some tips to consider when writing your headlines for content engagement:
- Ask a question, or answer it. Your headline should aim to introduce your audience to a question that your content will answer. For instance, “How to Reach One Million Views on YouTube” answers a common question.
- Use keywords in your titles. That will make it easier for your content to rank on search engines and attract a niche audience familiar with that keyword. For example, “How to Build Backlinks from Authority Websites?” is a high-volume search term on Google.
- Do not oversell your content. Your headline should reflect the content, not exaggerate it. People will leave your website as soon as they realize that they’re not getting the answers they need, which affects your bounce rates.
- Always consider your niche and audience. You’d want to create titles that they will resonate with. For example, if you’re writing for an entrepreneurship niche, use titles such as “How To Get More Visitors to your Website?” instead of “10 KPIs for Successful SEO”, which is better suited to a digital marketing niche.
Follow these tips, and you’ll write headlines with optimal click-through rates. It also follows, of course, that the topic you’re writing about should be something your audience would even engage with in the first place.
If you know your titles are captivating but you aren’t getting your desired engagement, look into how you can change your keyword research strategy. Maybe you’re targeting the wrong keywords, so your content doesn’t appear on search engine results pages.
2. Tap Into Social Sharing
Your engaging content would likely be on your website’s blog section. While this is the ideal place to publish it, you’d be limiting your reach only to those who visit your website regularly.
In other words, you need to share your content on other platforms. Where better to share them than on social media?
Check out the example above. We published that post on Omniscient’s blog then shared it on our LinkedIn page. It takes five seconds to share your blogs’ URLs on social media. If you aren’t sharing your blogs on social media, you’re wasting a lot of potential reach.
Additionally, sharing your blogs on sites like Facebook and LinkedIn may re-engage your leads who follow you on these platforms. That will also drive traffic to your site and ensure healthy content engagement.
3. Send Email Newsletters
Your Facebook and LinkedIn followers aren’t your only engaged audience. Your email list contains subscribers with genuine interest in your brand, expertise, and content. So, give it to them!
Newsletters can come in many forms and serve many purposes. You should first define what purpose would be most beneficial for your audience and your business. Perhaps your focus is on industry news or thought leadership. If educational content would best suite your audience, each time you publish a handful of blogs around a topic, send email newsletters to people who have subscribed to you, notifying them about your newly published content.
Here are other essential newsletter tips:
- Be conversational. A personal tone with your newsletter subject will have a higher click-through rate than one that appears corporate and full of jargon.
- Incorporate visuals in your newsletters. If you’re featuring your blogs in your newsletters, their featured image should be seen in the newsletter.
- Segment your email list by interest. You may send each segment blog topics tailored to them based on what they’ve previously shown interest in.
Just to give you an idea, here’s a sample of my favorite email newsletter from Ann Handley.
Notice that the example ticks all of the boxes above. The language tone is conversational, and the visuals support the content. We can also assume the brand sent this particular newsletter to someone interested in social media in general.
By sending email newsletters to your subscribers, you can drive traffic to your website.
4. Focus on the Comments Section
Content engagement is a two-way communication process. Listen to your audience, and you’ll know their pain points, what they want to know, what content they’re looking for. You may even get inspiration for new content topics.
Here are some things to note:
- If you’re the writer, respond to comments. That way, you’ll make your audience feel valued. The ensuing exchange can even provide you with valuable insights. It can be qualitative data to help you understand your audience better.
- The more non-spam comments on a blog post, the higher the engagement. Therefore, the more likely the blog post will rank in SERPs.
- Be open to comments of all sorts. Don’t attempt to refute your commenters. Instead, take their insights with an open mind. You’ll never know what you may learn from your audience.
Check out this example from Smartblogger, which sells training courses to aspiring writers:
Notice that Kevin Duncan, the article writer and editor-in-chief, even takes the time to promote his podcast interview in his response to a fan’s comment.
5. Create and Stick to a Publishing Frequency
Consistency is vital when you’re publishing content. How would you feel if your regularly-scheduled favorite program doesn’t air on the day it’s expected?
Consistency creates habits, and consumer habits drive content engagement to your blogs. Check out Divvy’s blog. They post almost daily.
Here’s how you can create and stick to a consistent publishing frequency:
- Use a content calendar to plan your content and plot out when every piece will be published. Having a calendar will help you prioritize tasks and topics.
- Create content in bulk and schedule their publication as frequently as one blog a day. The days you create content should also be scheduled, leaving the publication days free for other marketing tasks.
- Don’t suddenly shift your frequency. If you post content once a day, don’t abruptly shift to once a week. If the lack of staffing and resources calls for a downshift in content production, change schedules gradually.
Be consistent with how often you publish content, and your audience will form content consumption habits that will benefit your lead retention and conversion.
6. Add Real Examples and Data
The easiest way to improve your content engagement is by actually making good content. One of the ways you can do that is by making it relevant to your audience. Real examples and data eliminate the ‘on-paper’ factor of your blogs and show your readers that the ideas shown on your content work as advertised.
So, for instance, you can include in your blog post about online videos that 78% of consumers watch online videos every week. Or you can say in your article on web design that if a relevant image is paired with information, people retain 650% more information three days later than if they receive no imagery.
You may even use data from your personal experience, just like what we did with this blog post. That makes your content much more engaging and adds a personal touch.
In Closing
Content engagement is essential to your content marketing. It helps bring traffic to your site and may even improve your SEO when done right.
To create engaging content, write eye-catching headlines to entice your niche without overselling the blog’s content. Share your blog on social media, and notify your email list about the blogs you’ve published. Doing this will increase your traffic outside of those who regularly visit your page.
Read and respond to comments. Doing so will help you understand your audience more, allowing you to create better blogs that will resonate with them. Foster a habit among your readers by maintaining a consistent publishing frequency. Finally, include real examples and data in your blog posts for them to be relevant.
Follow these steps, and your content engagement will go through the roof.
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