Image by Ed Yourdon via Flickr
The creation of content for marketing online can be a tricky task. After targeting your audience, finding their motivations, knowing their likes and dislikes and what they want, you have to strike the right balance between doing a sales pitch and providing insightful, interesting content that they will want to read.
It is a fine art of getting somebody to engage and take action in the same measure; so how do you really go about doing this? Firstly, as I have mentioned before, ensure that the subject matter you are trying to engage them with is something which is a very positive benefit for them. You can have all the other aspects of the blog post, video or infographic exactly right but if there is no tangible substance which the reader can get his/her teeth into, you have wasted your chance to really get the reader hooked.
Secondly, engagement has to go beyond the original subject matter. You have discovered a great talking about (e.g a new smartphone app if you are in a technology niche), which will really help you readers, but you need to be able to talk on their level. Speaking the right language is actually equally as important as the content itself. Being on the right wavelength with readers makes the article, video or infographic a lot easier for them to read and understand. Even if you are an expert on a particular subject, the bulk of the audience within your niche may have far less knowledge, and it is up to you to speak on their terms. This doesn’t mean you have to oversimplify things because you may have the exact information they are looking for, but make things as easy to digest as you can.
After researching your market, you will also have the understanding as to what particular issues and problems the readers of the articles have. Maybe offer a step by step guide, a list of solutions, but always make sure you are pushing them towards an action you want them to do such as signing up for a free ebook or something of that nature. Content creation is all about utilizing the content to both engender trust and help people find their way on their own to the solution you have implied.
Use attention grabbing headlines, show that you know what the reader’s problem is, carefully construct content with good, informative, easy information and imply an action subtley but also obviously enough so they know what to do next. Content creation isn’t easy but when it is done right, it becomes a highly effective marketing tool.
Follow me on Google+ here: +David Tully
Read more about David and content creation
David has also written lots of articles for Best Website Builder HQ.
Watch our New Video
Discover why SEO is Dead and Learn the Smart New Strategy for generating Traffic in our free video.
3 Basic Principles To Becoming A “Thought Leader” In Your Market
Reconciling content marketing with your audience and brand
Content Creation Part 3 – What do you talk about?
Your first steps into social media and what it means for content
