7 simple ways to write killer content that gets read

Tell them your story written on blackboard

So many people are now writing content as part of their job function but of course, just like anything else in life, not everyone is equally good at it.

Everyone (well everyone who is attempting to write content at least) can physically write and produce a page full of content. But not everyone can write content that people will actually read. There’s quite a difference right?

But still, it doesn’t take a genius to write powerful and engaging content. It just involves understanding that writing content is not just an art but a science too!

Here are 7 simple ways in which you can write content that engages, resonates, and yields real results for your business:

1. Know your audience

Sounds so ridiculously simple and yet one of the big problems that people in general have when they write is that they write for themselves, without any regard for their audience.

The fact is it is simply impossible to write good content without first knowing who your target audience is. Content writing is no different to any other form of marketing – it needs to be targeted or else it’s simply not worth doing.

So instead of sitting down and writing furiously, take some time first to discover who exactly you want to read the content that you produce. Conduct some market research, create some buyer personas and you will quickly learn what tone & style to adopt and what type of information to impart.

2. Decide on what type of content is best for your audience

Not every audience reads in the same way so as well as identifying who your audience is precisely, you also need to find out what way they like to consume information:

Where longer form blog articles that packed with facts and statistics might appeal to one particular customer type, another might prefer listicles (“The Top 5 XYZ”), whilst another still might react much better to information provided in purely visual form (infographics etc)

So, it’s one thing knowing your audience, it’s another thing entirely understanding them in order to ensure that you’re not giving them the right content but in the wrong form.
3. Use the right tone (Hint: content is storytelling)

Tone is huge when it comes to any content and it all stems from points 1 and 2 above. If you know your audience and the style / form of content they like, the tone should flow very easily.

And here’s why. When you know your audience you know what key “triggers” they will react to. And once you know what they will react to, you simply tell them a story using a tone that will appeal to them, their values, and their lifestyle preferences.

Your choice of words, sentence structure style, use of grammar, formatting style, and personality injection (humorous or serious, for example) all feed into the overall tone of your content. And only when you know and understand your audience can you develop the pitch perfect tone that is guaranteed to engage them.

4. Use shorter sentences and paragraphs

Generally speaking people have a tendency to take the long way around to make a point. Don’t bother. Writing more isn’t writing better. It’s probably the exact opposite in fact.

Short sentences are much punchier than long ones. They make the reader stop.

Same goes for paragraphs. Most people will scan an article before choosing whether to read it in its entirety.

It’s psychological.

Often the reader, based purely on how an article looks will decide if it’s readable or not. Long paragraphs will look much intimidating than short ones and will therefore be a major barrier. Give your content a chance – convince the reader that it’s an easy-peasy read that won’t overly tax them.

5. It’s all about them!

Whatever you write, you write for your particular audience. If you don’t then what exactly is the point of writing content at all?

Good content always makes the reader feel that the article is written for them – to help them, inform them, give them something that makes them feel important.

That’s why you should always write in the 2^nd person. You, you, and more you.

6. Use power words, catchy headings and dare to be different!

With so much content out there, it’s physically impossible for your audience to read everything that comes into their social timelines.

That’s why you simply have to come up with quirky, catchy, headlines and introductory paragraph one liners, just to hook the reader in.

Because remember, with thousands of articles similar to yours already available online, your audience has no option but to filter what they choose to read or ignore. Only the content that immediately grabs them will ever be read so do whatever you have to do to write a headline that stands out.

With regard to “power words” these are your tool kit when it comes to tapping into the mindset of your readers.

Power words are incredibly powerful action words which are the triggers that subconsciously tell your audience what action they need to take right:

FREE, SAVE, YOUR, MONEYBACK, NOW, GUARANTEED, AMAZING…..

7. Use data – But Visually

Often your reader just needs some concrete facts, data or statistics to convince them to act on what they are reading.

Infographics can be an incredible way of injecting data into a content piece. Why? Because just reading facts in regular text format can be boring and not very impactful.

But reading facts within a beautifully designed and stylised infographic makes the same data more interesting and helps the reader to absorb the data almost subconsciously.