4 Simple Ways to Make More Engaging Content

You know it's important to create engaging content.

After all, you need to capture your audience's attention if you want them to stick around long enough to learn what you have to offer.

But sometimes it can be tough to come up with new and interesting ways to engage your readers.

So what can you do to make sure your content engages your readers?

Here are five simple tips that will help. Read on to find out.

1. Make a Connection with Your Audience

During an average website visit, users read less than 28% of your content.

To encourage your website visitors to read more of your content, it is crucial to immediately form a connection with them. According to Simon Sinek's Golden Circle Theory, to form that connection as quickly as possible you must begin with your ‘why’ before your ‘how’ and ‘what.’ 

Telling your audience why you’re doing what you’re doing will appeal to their emotions and allow them to relate to your story.

Once you’ve tapped into the emotional side, then you can begin using your story to educate your audience on how your organization will help them and build awareness of what you are offering.

Golden Circle Example

Organization: Local animal rescue
Target Audience: Females between 22 and 28 searching to adopt pets in the Greater Huntsville Area
Their ‘Why’: They want to find forever homes for abandoned animals to prevent them from being euthanized.
Their ‘How’: They rescue animals and provide them with shelter.
Their ‘What’: They offer rescued animals up for adoption to the community.

In this example, the animal rescue might choose to create a series of blog posts promoting their adoptable pets and appeal to their audience’s emotions by describing why their pets should be adopted, then they explain how they accomplish it, and finish with what they offer to their target audience.

2. Use emotional appeal

Emotions heavily play into the decisions we make.

Therefore, you should make it a priority to include them in your story. There are various emotions you can appeal to fear, amusement, empowerment, guilt, etc. Decide which one would be most effective for your target audience and use it to bring your content to life.

Don’t think it’s that big of a deal? In the nonprofit realm, studies show that appealing to positive emotions provides more long-term success than using a sad, guilt-driven appeal. So choosing the right one is important!

3. Keep the content consistent and authentic

Your tone, style, and format for your content should be consistent and accurately represent your organization.

You can determine the right pick for these things by choosing what your buyer persona would be interested in.

For example, if you're in the B2B space, then you may need to create more formal content, like an eBook or whitepaper. However, if you're a nonprofit that relies on individual donors, your content may need to be more casual and uplifting, like some raw video footage of one's donations in action.

Whichever direction you go in, it’s important to keep a consistent voice so that your brand is recognizable.

As far as authenticity goes, don’t exaggerate what your organization does or your successes. Your audience will feel cheated if they discover that you embellished details in your stories, and it could ruin your reputation. To be genuine and interesting, share what makes your organization unique.

4. Create a clear and concise story

It’s good to have a lot to share about your organization, but you don’t want your readers' eyes to glaze over.

Find a way to break it up into sections, or even into separate posts (more content!).

Your priorities should be to clearly communicate the three main parts of a story: character, conflict, and resolution.

Don’t get too caught up in the details that don’t pertain to those three things because you can lose the effectiveness of the story.

Remember, compelling stories make all the difference in your marketing strategy.

They are essential in order to create connections, establish your brand, and promote your services.

By having content that your audience can relate to, you will entice your readers to engage with your organization.

Want to jumpstart creating more engaging content?

We want to help!

We've created a free workbook that guides you through each step of the content creation process.

And this 44-page guide gives you space to fill out your organization-specific details as you follow along.

Download it today!