The truth is that everybody can create content. Unfortunately.
Platforms such as Wix made everyone a Web Developer, WordPress turned everyone into a blogger and Instagram made everyone an influencer.
With such a high saturation in content marketing, how do you make something that stands out?
How do you beat a million pieces that are published every single day across all sorts of platforms?
With engagement tactics.
So much saturation doesn’t mean you have to do more. It means you have to do better.
Creating something your user spends an hour on is so much better than creating something your user will only briefly look over and then forget about.
And here at topflight, we will teach you the simple ways you make content more engaging.
8 content engagement tactics to boost your results
The CHAT method
Boasting good content wins half of the marketing battle for you. You want the digital equivalent of spoonfeeding a baby – but in this case, the baby is your audience.
By using the CHAT method for content creation, content marketers can confidently release good content on a consistent basis.
It’s actually very simple. CHAT stands for:
– Concise: Why speak many words when few do trick? Cut the fluff. No one wants to read your life story, just deliver what the user wants.
Also, remove the adverbs. To quote Stephen King, “I believe the road to hell is paved with adverbs”.
– Helpful: Are you making content for your audience or for yourself? You need to understand exactly how to help your audience solve a problem if you want content that engages.
– Attention: Is your content something we have seen time and time again? Try to be original. Creativity is rewarded, in content marketing.
Whether it’s an interesting Point Of View or a catchy headline, don’t repeat something everyone else has done. It’s boring and you’ll never engage with your audience this way.
– Transitions: Transition words (like, then, such, etc…) are like stepping stones in a conversation and in text. Just look at this example:
Instead of:
- I went to get ice cream. It was a sunny day. I enjoyed it very much and I played football with my friends.
- I went to get ice cream. It was a sunny day. I enjoyed it very much and I played football with my friends.
You could use:
- I went for ice cream because it was a sunny day, and then I played football with my friends. I enjoyed it so much!
Think about content layout
If your website is built on WordPress, you are probably guilty of using the default editor and default layout for the publication of your articles.
Now your articles look somewhat like this, right?
Well, you need to use a custom theme if you want to engage better with your audience.
The effective use of columns, colours, headings and subheadings allow you to “chop up” your content into bite-sized pieces.
The more your content increases in size, the more you’ll need an effective navigation-centric web layout.
Here are a few suggestions:
– Use HTML tags effectively. Segmenting your content into smaller pieces and labelling said pieces with H2 and H3 tags is the most important change you can make to your content.
For example, this article divides each engagement tactic tip into an H2, so you can read one at the time and move onto the next one when you are ready.
– Use a navigation bar like the one you can see on the top hand side of the screen if you are on desktop. This is useful, but also necessary for long-form content above 2000 words.
– Are you keeping an SEO web design approach? Is your content mobile friendly? Not only will this improve engagement rates by making sure you can work with all phone users, but it’s also a great SEO booster.
And use visual content too in the mix
Visual content is incredibly useful for engagement purposes.
Let’s talk about the DO NOTs of visual content.
Yes, we are not talking about adding a ton of visual clutter for the sake of adding images. I know you did it at least a couple times. It’s fine. You are forgiven.
But here are a few more sins you can avoid to improve content engagement:
I hate ads, for example. There’s nothing as annoying as reading a piece of content and out of nowhere, I get flashed with images of the newest episodes of just another mediocre Netflix series or how I can earn a ton of money if I am over 55 years old.
They are distracting and too much of it will destroy any potential engagement chances before they are even born.
Also, remove auto-playing videos. Chances are, the only engagement you’ll get is when the user closes them. There are a lot of better ways to use videos for content marketing anyway.
Don’t be annoying
In the past few years, I have seen media outlets do this more and more, but this infection has clearly spread to all sorts of content-releasing businesses.
If you request your user to subscribe to your newsletter or create an account before they can read your content, you are wasting the efforts of your content marketing strategy.
Seriously. We create content to help people solve a problem as quickly as possible.
With so much knowledge on the internet, why would the user jump through hoops for a chance to discover yours?
Now, I am not saying that subscription-based content is useless.
Actually, many Content As A Service businesses require users to pay for the content – which is fine, if that is what your business model is.
But if you require a subscription or impose a monthly article limit, or you want the adblocker disabled… You are guaranteeing the user will just leave the page and never engage.
Interaction is key
Unrelated to content marketing, but why do video games work, but when they are adapted into a movie it fails spectacularly?
Because video games allow you to interact with the world in a way movies don’t let you.
Imagine content creation as a videogame instead of a movie. Instead of an experience to watch, try creating an experience you can live.
Introduce interactive content in the mix that can boost user engagement. Interactive videos, quizzes, questionnaires, animated content, things that change on a click…
If it allows the user to do stuff with your content, it’s probably a good idea. It doesn’t need to be anything complicated at first.
Use effective mediums
It’s a good idea to vary your content medium depending on the problem you are trying to solve for your audience.
Account for brand image and tone too – for example, we nowadays expect companies such as GoPro and Red Bull to release video-type content that gets your adrenaline pumping.
And if your content is good enough to make people want to jump off a cliff, I’d call that a huge success.
A catchy headline is everything
Welcome to the realm of copywriting.
Here, five or six words can be the make or break factor in your content marketing success.
Using power words such as “Steal”, “Win”, “Incredible” and anything that invokes a strong emotion is enough to generate a higher content engagement.
There are a few formulas you can steal from us right now.
These are tested, high-performing formulas that regularly beat less interesting headlines.
– With numbers. “10 ways to destroy your opponent in a chess match using science”
– Talk to the reader. “You can win every chess match using science – here’s how”
– Prove them wrong. They said we can’t win at chess. Here’s how we proved them wrong using science.
– Tell a story. How we used science to win every chess match ever.
Use scheduling software
Do you dabble in social media marketing? Then you must use a scheduling software such as Hootsuite to make sure you are posting at peak times – more people means higher engagement rates.
The benefits of posting content at peak times are very clear.
However, one very overlooked benefit of scheduling tools is that it will save you a ton of time and promote collaboration in your business.
Some tools even have built-in analytics trackers, which are absolutely vital if you are as keen about performance as we are.
Conclusion
We believe in performance, here at topflight. Engagement rates are just another way to measure effectiveness of your content.
And just like every metric, using the right strategy is guaranteed to increase those numbers.
You need content that converts if you don’t want your content marketing to go to waste. You can greatly benefit from a top notch content marketing service such as ours.
Enquire today – but hey, don’t be afraid to look at the numbers first by visiting our case studies.
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