Content has become increasingly important over the last few years as more and more of our marketing is done online. However nowadays, we have become inundated with content. Every business, brand and budding entrepreneur is vying for our attention. So, how do you get your voice heard above all the noise? Below, I share advice on how to get your audience engaged with your blogs and articles.

Writing for an online audience can be very different to those reading printed content. Readers online are often looking for quick, easy-to-access information. If they do not find what they are looking for within a few seconds, they will go elsewhere. A report revealed that an amazing 55% spent fewer than 15 seconds actively on a page before moving on.

You need to grab your readers’ attention and fast!

Below are some points that can help you achieve that:

Spend time of creating your title.

It is probably the most important line in your whole article. An eye- catching title gives the reader a reason to click on your content.

Get your important information down first.

Remember those 15 seconds! Those first few lines are crucial for deciding if your reader stays or goes.

Layout for easy reading

Take time to format your article and make it easy for the reader to read on a screen.

Think about spacing, bullet points and lists. A big, hefty paragraph in tiny font is not easy to read on a screen!

Mobile responsive page

Many readers will access blogs and articles whilst on the go, via their mobile device. Make sure your page is mobile responsive. If they have to fiddle around with the accessing the content, they will probably leave!

Images to engage

Include images to convey your message further to your audience and encourage them to read on.

Be succinct

Save long, complicated sentences for your essay writing. When writing content online, be short and to the point, making your blog easy to access.

Avoid jargon or complex vocabulary (for most blogs!)

This may depend on the audience or industry sector that you are writing for. If your target market is the general public, then avoid jargon or complex vocabulary. Of course, if you are writing a medical blog for health professionals for example, then a different approach is necessary.

Know your audience

Leading on from the point above, know who you are writing for.

Gain an understanding of your audience, so that you can write in a style and manner that is appropriate for them.

Be original

This may seem tricky, as there is so much content out there today, but it is necessary to gain a following.

You may be writing on a similar topic to your competitors, but try to offer something different in your article. Share your opinion and create a style of writing that identifies you.

Have a goal

You need to write for a reason. This might be to share useful information on a topic or entertain your reader.

Decide on the goal of your content before you start creating it. Make sure your reader knows what it is too within the first few sentences!

Write for humans, not machines

We are all aware of the importance of keywords for our search engine optimisation, but don’t pack your content with keywords and make it poor quality. Google are started to penalise people who do this too much anyway.

Think about the keywords you want to include, but then write a good article for your readers, not the trawlers.

No silly errors

Proof reading is essential. Simple spelling and grammar mistakes will make your work look unprofessional.

Write your content, leave it for an hour or two and then go back to it again and read it with a fresh mind. Better still get a colleague to read it.

Successful content writing does not have to be a tricky task, once we understand what our audience is looking for. After all, we, ourselves, spend a lot of time reading content for our research, so we should be able to put ourselves into our readers’ position. Once we have this understanding, content writing should be a relatively straightforward process.

If you need help with your content writing, just get in touch. I would love to discuss your project with you.