5 easy ways to increase engagement with your content
Whether you are a job seeker, a product marketer, or promoting your brand, you must be a content creator. But creating content alone is just a small part of the process. You also need your audience to consume your content. As I am fond of saying, content that fails to engage is content that FAILS. Period. The number one problem in any content marketing is that the audience deems it irrelevant and boring. Your audience probably has an overwhelming amount of boring content that they are required to consume. Why do you want to give them more? Here are five easy ways you can make your content more exciting and relevant to your audience:
Be concise. Long-form written content should be no longer than 500 words. For video content, take out pauses, filler words, and anything that doesn’t move your viewer forward. Consider using infographics to convey your message quickly.
“Learn from me,” not “Look at me!” Do you post things like, “here’s my product”? Well, that’s inside-out marketing. That is, it’s about you and not your audience. Instead, focus on teaching them about a problem they may not know they even have and how to fix it.
Tell your audience what’s in it for them from the outset. Don’t bury the information—you have about 2 seconds to grab someone’s attention, so let them know what they’re going to get out of your content right off the bat.
Don’t be boring. Make sure your content meets the three key criteria of standing out, educating, and stirring emotions. That last one is super important. Your content can be funny. It can also be serious and foreboding. But if it doesn’t elicit an emotional response from your audience, it’s failing.
Mine your feedback. Go to your comments and direct messages and then create new content to answer some of these questions. This helps you build your credibility—the know, like, and trust factor critical in any content marketing.
Remember, not everything you put out there is going to be a hit, and consistency is critical to any content marketing effort. But with a bit of effort, you can increase your engagement, expand your audience, and build your brand.