Are you writing content that gets a lot of sharing and comments on social media, attracts qualified traffic to your blog and generates qualified leads for your sales department?
According to WordPress, over 70 million articles are published via their platform (the world's most used CMS) every single month. This is a lot of content and noise you have to compete with.
Unfortunately, the reality is that much of this content will never be read, which also applies to your company if you do not understand what constitutes good content.
You know that good content is important for meeting buyers early in the buying process, but you have no good writing process.
Fortunately, you do not need to have a journalism education to write articles that produce results.
All you need is an understanding of what factors make up a good article, what edits you need to make, and a set process you can follow each time.
Let's start.
What is good content?
The 9 triggers you must include in your content are the following:
- Trigger # 1: The content is detailed and positions you as an expert
- Trigger # 2: The content is valuable and clear
- Trigger # 3: The content uses middle titles to tell a story
- Trigger # 4: Content builds trust with external sources
- Trigger # 5: Content applies the principle of reciprocity
- Trigger # 6: Content fuels our curiosity
- Trigger # 7: Content is something the reader agrees or disagrees with
- Trigger # 8: Content reflects the reader's language
- Trigger # 9: Content Contains Personal Stories and Metaphors
Writing better content than your competitors is not as difficult as you think. According to a study by Buzzsumo, "weak content" is characterized by the following:
- Short (500 to 900 words)
- No value, structure or format
- A wall of text with few or no pictures
Using the triggers I describe in this article you will easily could include all these elements in your content to do far better than your competitors.
You will be able to write longer and more detailed articles as more readers, you will get more links to your content, and far more will engage with your content in social media.
Trigger # 1: Content is detailed and positions you as an expert in the subject
You may never have written a longer article (about 1500 to 3000+ words) because you are not aware of all the benefits longer content can give your company.
According to Ahrefs longer content gets more links and more traffic from organic searches, and a survey by BuzzSumo shows that long content also gets more shares on social media.
A 1500 to 3000-word article is easy to get if you write in detail about a process you have in your company or about a particular topic that buyers have many questions about.
Potential customers who visit your website do not do what you do every day, and what is simple and obvious to you can be difficult and complex for them.
Visitors do not want to read a short article of 400-600 words with vague and general advice. They want an in-depth guide that gives them a detailed answer and solution to their problem.
Therefore, provide detailed answers to questions, even if it seems simple and obvious to you. Failure to do so will cause questions and distractions to cause readers to leave your site.
Let's use a recipe for chocolate as an example.
A weak article would only provide you with basic and superficial information such as the ingredients and some simple steps on how to proceed.
A good and detailed article, on the other hand, would describe every step of the process:
Step # 1: What Ingredients for the Cake, Glaze, and Kitchenware You Need
Step # 2: How Many Degrees the Oven Should Be and Why
Step # 3: How to Mix the Sugar, butter, wheat flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt
Step # 4: How and for how long to cook the cake
Step # 5: How to cool the cake and how long
Step # 6: How to melt the chocolate bowl in a microwave
Step # 7: How to mix butter, sugar, and cocoa powder with melted chocolate
Step # 8: How to put together the cake and icing to make it look good
Giving the reader an in-depth answer will help you to be considered an expert in your industry, the sales process will go faster, and you will meet the buyer earlier in their buying process.
By showing that you have a good understanding of the buyer's problem, you will then be able to better position yourself as one of the potential suppliers the buyer should go for.
All the questions and objections you get in a sales process can be turned into either an article or video that provides an in-depth answer and makes your business visible in organic search.
Trigger # 2: The Content is Valuable and Clear
You probably hear often that you have to add value to the recipient. The question then is what specific steps can you take to make your content valuable to your readers?
Visitors to your site get a variety of "mini-impressions" when they read an article on your business blog, and this will determine whether or not they read your content.
This means that it is not enough that the message itself is useful and valuable, it must also be perceived as valuable before visitors have started reading the main part at all.
Visitors will look at the headline, middle titles, formatting, readability, and image usage before investing their time in reading your particular content rather than looking further.
If the content doesn't look good, they are likely to leave your site to find an alternative source, which means that all the work you put in is in vain.
Therefore, here are some steps you can take to avoid this and make your content perceived as valuable by your readers:
A) Use images to break up the text, add details and remove ambiguity
Content must be easy to read. If the reader is greeted by a wall of text, chances are no one will take the time to read. This means you have to break up the text.
You can do this by using pictures and videos where something is unclear to the reader. A picture between every 3 to 5 paragraphs is a good starting point, as this breaks up the text and makes it readable.
Also, keep in mind that visitors coming to your site have a problem they want to solve, and you must make sure the reader never sees the information in your content as unclear.
If something is unclear or difficult to understand, the reader is pulled out of the content. The consequence is that many people stop reading and then leave your site.
Pictures a very effective storytelling tool you can use to make your content easy to understand and can replace many paragraphs with text.
Therefore, skim through your text to find places where you can post images in the form of illustrations, relevant statistics, quotes, or animations where appropriate.
B) Make the introduction narrow and short
Unfortunately, many view reading an article as a job, and it is easy to lose them if you do not start talking about the reader's desired results early in your article.
Those who land on one of your articles will ask themselves if it's worth taking the time to read, and if the preamble is too long and uninteresting, many will leave your article.
In addition to having the text itself well written, you can also take advantage of some simple design changes that will make your article appear shorter and easier to read for visitors.
Many corporate blogs are too broad, making it difficult for the eyes to stick to the text. By reducing the width of the article, this will make the article more readable.
Then you can make the preamble even narrower. This way, your article will look even easier to read right from the start, which will draw readers down your article.
C) Remove the jargon and use a simple language
Unfortunately, many are writing for their ego and not for their readers. People want to look good and get recognition in the media, but often this results in bad text.
Examples of this are using long sentences, academic language and expressions, and "business jargon" to try to look smarter than it is.
The reader, on the other hand, wants concrete solutions in the simplest possible way, and it is usually best to say something less.
Note that those who are considered the foremost experts in their fields are often the ones who are best at simplifying complicated topics.
We do not want the reader to stop and think about what something means. When you write easily, your content will be more accessible, your content will flow better, and more will understand you.
Therefore, use short sentences, avoid difficult words, and remove repetitive sentences. If the sentence has many commas, it can usually be shortened.
D) Write as you speak and write to a person
You want the reader to be able to relate to what you write while avoiding using a rigid and academic language you have learned at school or in business.
Don't write to "everyone". Instead, write to a specific person you want to help so that the text becomes far more engaging and personal.
That is why I recommend you first create an outline with an introduction, main section, middle title, and conclusion with detailed bulleted lists for each section.
Then take a sound recording of yourself explaining the topic just as you would to a friend or colleague who doesn't like you.
You can then transcribe the audio recording, which will result in you simply writing the way you speak, writing to a person, and the text will be perceived as more friendly and personal.
A bonus is that your content gets a hard copy that makes you stand out in the amount of impersonal content.
E) The content has a consistent tone and appearance
You have a writing style that attracts customers. Therefore, it may be appropriate to have a style guide for your content that ensures consistent style throughout your content.
Many people know what they want to communicate and how they want to be perceived. Still, there can be a great distance between what they want to communicate and how they are perceived.
Here, a content style guide can help you. Such a style guide contains guidelines for:
- Voice: How do you want your brand to be perceived?
- Tone: How is content delivered? Are you serious and professional, or are you casual and relaxed in the way you write?
- Style: What does the content look like? How is it formatted? How strict are you on grammar? What are the line height and font sizes?
Only you and your colleagues can define who can create this, and you must make sure that the content always meets these criteria at all times. This way, you ensure that your content is always personal and unique.
Trigger # 3: Content uses sub-headlines to tell a story
A good story captures our attention and draws us into a text. The challenge is that most people scour your content to determine if it's worth the time.
The reader wants to find information from someone who understands the issues they have, and here you can use middle titles to capture their interest as they scare.
Trigger # 4: Content Builds Trust with External Sources
Before you can sell something to a buyer, you need their trust. Once you have built trust and a relationship with a person, selling your solutions is far easier.
The question is how do you build trust with your content?
You have to make it easy to trust yourself and your content, which you can easily do by referring to external sources such as research and experts to substantiate your claims.
Therefore, use statistics. Support research from external sources. Use quotes from those who are considered experts in your industry. Link to credible sources.
This helps your content to be perceived as more reliable and readers see that you have a high level of expertise in your field.
Trigger # 5: Content Applies to the Principle of Reciprocity
You may have heard of the book "Influence" by Professor Robert Cialdini. In the book, Cialdini describes six principles that help marketers get their ideas through.
One of these principles is the principle of reciprocity. This principle is an important part of human psychology, and means that we feel that we have to give something back if we have received something.
When you share helpful content, the reader is more likely to perform a desired action such as a download, sign up for a breakfast seminar, or contact.
Trigger # 6: Content Spurs Our Curiosity
How do you get visitors to read your entire article? Here are some simple steps to get more people involved with the article and read everything you've written.
It is difficult to resist reading further if you have hinted that you have a solution to a problem the reader has.
A) You have a headline that catches attention
According to legendary creator David Ogilvy, only 8 out of 10 people read the headline, but only 2 out of 10 will read the rest of the content.
The title is perhaps the most important factor for your article's success. If it doesn't catch the reader's attention, all the improvements you make at other points in this list are in vain.
Let's say you have an article with a weak title. 1000 people see this in your newsletter, on Google, or in a post on social media.
Only 50 clicks.
The same article with a stronger title, on the other hand, can get you 500 clicks, which means more visits, cheaper advertising costs, and more leads you can send to the sales department.
B) Intermediate titles that pull the reader down the article
Everyone has experienced reading a good headline just to come to an article with zero substance. That is perhaps why most of us scary content to see if it is worth reading.
Imagine reading the newspaper. Then you only read the headlines that interest you and you skip the rest. Good middle titles catch the attention of the "scary readers". In addition, they help break up the text and make it easier to read.
C) Transitions that hint at a solution later in the article
You probably have a favorite series that has ended a season with a "cliffhanger". To all people's great frustration, we are set so that we want to end what we have started.
This is a grip marketers can use to tie articles together, hint at a solution later in the article, and make sure many more are read from start to finish.
The reality is that most of the content produced today is never read, but you can use this measure to keep the interest of your readers even if it is a long article.
For example, you can hint at a solution before a middle title or image, and then redeem it later in the article.
Trigger # 7: Content is something the reader agrees or disagrees with
Log in to Facebook and LinkedIn and look at some of the content being shared. Would you like to read one of the many articles with vague and general advice that gives you zero insight?
One way to make your content far better is to write content that takes a stand and which the readers either agree or disagree with. This makes you seem more reliable and authentic.
Your readers have their perspectives, but you can use your experience and mindset to challenge them to think completely new through your content and teach them something new about your company.
Instead of giving general advice, rather use your content to teach a unique perspective, or make the reader aware of a problem or opportunity that you are in a unique position to solve.
Let your content challenge the reader's existing mindset and the way they do things today. Make them aware of shortcomings in your company and present a better solution.
Although some readers may disagree with what you write, they will still respect that you take a stand rather than giving vague and general advice as everyone else does.
Remember, we don't need more content, but more insight that makes readers think in new ways and gives them an "aha moment".
Trigger # 8: Content reflects the reader's language
We instinctively associate ourselves more closely with people who speak and behave similarly to ourselves. This is an innate trait all people have and that builds stronger bonds between us.
Of course, buyers want to work with people they can relate to and who understand them, something you can convey by mirroring the language of the reader in your content.
Content that reflects the reader's language is therefore an effective way to bridge the way the buyer formulates their problems and the solution you can offer them.
Mirroring the reader's language means that you write about the questions and problems with the words the readers use, not the words you use to describe your solutions.
Using the reader's language will also build a lot of trust in you and your company, removing opportunities for misunderstandings, and a potential customer will be less defensive against you.
Trigger # 9: Content Contains Personal Stories and Metaphors
One of the consequences of an increasing number of companies working on content production is that companies produce much of the same content and are perceived as noise.
When the content appears very similar, much of it is also forgotten. Remember that it is not technical specifications and facts that people remember best, but personal stories and metaphors.
Everyone loves a good story. Being a good storyteller can make the reader happy, provoked, inspired, or can make us buy something.
Conclusion
If your content does not give you the results you want, you are unlikely to include these triggers when writing content for your business.
You don't have to be the best in the world of writing to create content that attracts more traffic and generates more leads. All you need to do is follow this process:
- Write an outline with headline, introduction, middle titles and conclusion
- Write bulleted lists for each section that briefly describes what you want to cover
- Take a sound recording of yourself and talk over the text as if explaining the theme to a friend or colleague over a coffee
- Review the audio recording and transcribe it into a text document
- Read through the transcript and straight up typos
- Make a round of editing for each trigger
This way you will be able to write articles regularly that attracts more customers through digital channels.
SOURCES
https://annhandley.com/basecamp-barking-long-tree-distance/
https://styleguide.mailchimp.com/voice-and-tone/
https://www.articulatemarketing.com/blog/human-copywriting -in-tech
https://www.webfx.com/blog/web-design/5-reasons-why-metaphors-can-improve-the-user-experience/
https://smartblogger.com/metaphor-examples/
https://www.jeffbullas.com/viral-power- storytelling-content-marketing /
https://www.copyblogger.com/scientific-copywriting/
https://www.thinkific.com/blog/tell-better-stories-content-marketing/
https://ahrefs.com/ blog / content-creation /
https://okdork.com/why-content-goes-viral-what-analyzing-100-millions-articles-taught-us/