The internet is a competitive place. With so much content being shared every minute, you need to produce something engaging enough to not only grab but also sustain your target audience's attention.
Related Blog: Why is Blogging Still Important for Content and Inbound Marketing
But what makes content exciting for it to be consumed and more importantly, shared? Back when the internet was new, blogging used to be all about posting text articles. But that's not enough nowadays. As technology evolved, so has online marketing and along with it, blogging. People gobble up content in all shapes and forms like infographics, short films, interactive apps, etc. Text is still important, but the visual medium with which it is presented is as crucial.
With the why out of the way, let's tackle the how. Practical tips are most helpful, and we've got some for you:
As mentioned, text remains the backbone of content marketing. But instead of going for traditional blogging, opt for more attention-grabbing alternatives like photo galleries or video blogs. Create stories spun by words, but present them as exciting pictures or clips. When you do this, you're not limited to your own site; you can branch out to visual social media sites such as Instagram, Pinterest, and Snapchat. But even if you're not interested in marketing on those sites, you still have to remember that first impressions are formed within seconds. Might as well take advantage of that fact by presenting visual content that leaves an impact after just a glance.
Of course, creating long videos is not feasible for everyone. Production is costly given how a couple of days of shooting will be roughly equivalent to a few seconds of film. If you don't have enough time, resources, and skills for professionally made featurettes, you can compromise by producing video blog introductions instead. They're short enough to be easily made, but long enough to serve as hook for text-based content. A few seconds will often suffice. A helpful video resource is Wistia. Wistia is a video hosting site that allows you to create the kinds of high quality, short video clips that will help capture your reader's' attention.
Don't completely forget about text, though. You'll still need text for the people who don't want to waste their internet data plan on photos and videos, and for the people who prefer to read articles at their own pace. Also, search engine spiders crawl the web for keywords which will determine your site's position in search engine results, so content is important to retain. But if people could get away with keyword stuffing before, Google and other search engines are much stricter now. They're now looking for long articles (around a thousand words) that are written well. Quality trumps quantity here, as it is no longer necessary to publish short fluffy pieces everyday, provided you produce relevant content regularly. To make the content more appealing to readers, divide articles into subheadings or bullet points for easy reading.
Ask and you shall receive, so don't hesitate to directly address your readers and make them do something. A call to action (CTA) is an effective way to let your target audience do what you want them to do, which can be anything from buying your products and services or signing up for a subscription. Place your CTAs at the top and bottom of the page in case visitors decide to skip reading/watching/viewing your blog. But make your CTAs obvious without being obtrusive. The last thing you want to happen is for people to leave your site altogether because of annoying ads or banners they can't close out.
Lastly, grab attention with witty titles and subtitles. If you're familiar with pop culture and news site Buzzfeed, their titles are long and wordy, but intriguing and oftentimes funny. They've been accused of being clickbaits, but people still consume and comment, so that means their tactics work. Experiment with titles when posting content. Blogging doesn't have to be boring with titles that lure people to click.
Content is still king, but you can always present it in a beautiful package. It's like a great gift becoming even better when placed in unique packaging. Online marketing is no different. On the internet, people judge the book by its cover, so make sure to have a good one!