How to Engage Your Audience with WOW Content

In today’s digital world, people can find any piece of information in a matter of seconds. If you want to make your online project successful, you need to compete with many other providers. Content is the ultimate weapon that can drive you to victory.

No marketing campaign can achieve success without promoting content of high quality. It’s the tool that attracts and engages the target audience, boosts the awareness for your brand, and brings you to more leads and sales.

This Is How Awesome Content Is

According to the 2016 survey conducted by Content Marketing Institute, the percentage of B2B marketers who consider their content marketing campaigns to be effective is only 30% (that’s 8% lower when compared to last year’s results). 44% of the marketers meet daily or weekly with the purpose to discuss the progress of their content marketing programs.

Here’s the most important data that shows how crucial content marketing is: 88% of all B2B respondents to the same survey said they were using content marketing as “a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience.”

Granted, that’s a survey focused on B2B marketing, but we can safely state that all businesses benefit from content promotion. The communication channels are more diverse than ever, so there are no limits to the number of visits, likes, shares, and comments that a single piece of content can achieve.

Not All Content Is Awesome, Though

The main purpose of content marketing is reaching out to the target audience by offering value and uniqueness. It seems like there’s a rule: it doesn’t matter what business you’re into; you have to be a publisher if you want to be competitive.

Successful content must be unique, focused, and well-written, but it also needs to be optimized for the search engines. Most of all, it has to be engaging. How exactly do you achieve such level of quality? There are proven techniques that will guide you there.

Engaging Your Audience with WOW Content: Tips and Tricks

Content marketing is more than writing posts on random topics related to your niche. You need to invest more effort in research and development if you want it to result with success. Now that we clarified how important content marketing was, let’s get to the tips that will help you turn it to your advantage.

1. Make the Headline Worthy of a WOW

Think about it: what’s the first thing that grabs your attention when you see articles shared on social media? Exactly; it’s the headline! It’s the factor that attracts people towards a website, and it’s often the only thing the visitors read before liking or sharing.

Here are few things to keep in mind when you’re trying to think of a great headline:

• Make it specific

Headlines like How to Live Your Life don’t work, since they are too generic. How to Live Your Life without Romance, on the other hand, is a potential trigger of visits, comments, and shares. Your headline needs to offer enough information for the reader to understand what the post is about.

• Don’t mislead your audience

Click baits work for websites that feature tons of ads on their pages. People click the sensational titles only to find content that has nothing to do with the implications those statements made. This strategy results with income from the ads, but it also gets you a frustrated audience. It’s completely the opposite of what great content marketing is about. The title needs to be relevant to the post, so don’t even think about misleading the readers.

• Make it unique

What theme do you have in mind? Search Google and check out the most popular posts. You don’t want to offer something too similar. Your headline and the entire post should be unique, so the readers will get value with the time they spend on it.

• Make it useful

Offer articles that solve the readers’ problems, suggest tips on lifestyle improvements, or simply improve their knowledge on a matter. The headline should convey that usefulness in a simple statement, such as 10 Tips that Make Spring Cleaning a Breeze.

2. Write informative, detailed content

There are two types of content marketers: those who frequently publish brief articles within the 250-500 word count range, and those who spend more time developing high-quality content that provides greater value.

According to the data provided by the Capsicum Mediaworks Blog, the posts with at least 1500 words achieved better results in Google search when compared to short posts.

You may wonder why most blogs and websites are full of brief 400-word posts, then? Because they are cheap and simple. Longer content does take more effort, since it mustn’t be repetitive and it takes more work for you to make it engaging. However, that effort definitely pays off in terms of audience engagement.

3. Find the influencers. Use them to your advantage

No matter how awesome your content is, you need to rely on influencers when it comes to its promotion. Identify extremely popular users on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, and other networks. Then, contact them with a request to feature their opinion in your article. Ask strategic questions, and then infuse their comments within the post you’re writing.

There are two main benefits you’ll gain by featuring an influencer’s opinion in your article:

• You’ll make it more relevant and authoritative.
• You’ll get free promotion. The influencer will share that article with their social media followers, so you’ll get plenty of visits to your website.
  

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4. Turn Your Posts into Tutorials

People use the Internet for various reasons, but there’s something they all have in common: learning. It doesn’t matter what your niche is; you can always think of a way to educate your audience through the content you write. That’s a smart way for promoting websites, products, and services.

This tip is straightforward: think of different themes that teach your audience how to do something related to the things you promote. If, for example, you’re promoting a site that sells makeup, you won’t focus the campaign solely on reviews and recommendations. You will also post textual and visual tutorials that teach people how to apply that makeup.

If you’re promoting a website from the niche of technology, you can post tutorials that teach the target audience how to setup a particular TV set.

5. Use the right tools

Content marketing is a complex category. You need to pay attention to multiple factors, such as timing, calls to action, choice of headline, communicating with the audience, social media activity, and much more. When you have the right tools at hand, everything becomes easier. Here are few you can try:

• Mention

This tool will help you locate the influencers in your niche. Your dashboard will list possible advocates ranked by influencer score. You can easily reach out to them and discuss the way you’ll use their authority for the sake of your campaign.

• NinjaEssays

Sometimes it’s hard to be a website owner, marketer, and content writer at the same time. If you don’t have enough space for all responsibilities, the simple solution is to outsource. The writers and editors from this team will listen to your instructions and deliver the work you need.

• Plagtracker

Plagiarism can be detrimental to the success of your content marketing efforts. That’s why you need to make sure each piece you publish is absolutely unique. This plagiarism detection software will keep you safe.

• GatherContent

A platform that lets you plan, organize, and produce content through collaboration.

Now, are you ready to start wowing your audience through great content? You’ll be on your way if you follow the tips above. Try them and share your achievements with us.

Julie Petersen is a freelance writer and a content marketing specialist. She is a founder of AskPetersen.com writing blog, where she regularly creates helpful guides, articles and writing services reviews for students. You may contact Julie via Linkedin.