Are you having trouble attracting readers to your blog? Or do you consistently draw an audience but get low engagement and retention?
If readers are not clicking, commenting, or taking the conversion action you want to steer them to, what can you do to get people to engage?
The ever-shrinking attention span of web surfers means that you have far less than the traditional 30 seconds of an elevator speech to attract and retain your reader’s attention. If your site analytics are less than stellar, consider these potential roadblocks to having a great blog:
1. Your Headlines Don’t Inspire Curiosity
A catchy headline determines whether your post gets read or skipped.
Your target audience gets exposed to a mountain of content daily. Don’t be tempted to write your post then treat the headline as an afterthought, as long as it contains a keyword or two. If your headline is not interesting and engaging, chances are your potential reader will move on without giving your post much thought.
2. Your Posts Look Too Daunting
If an article looks long and dense, readers may simply decide they don’t have time to process the information. They may tell themselves they’ll get to it later, but chances are they won’t be back. Fortunately this issue is easy to fix. Here are a few tips to include white space and make your blog easy on the eye:
- Break up larger paragraphs into smaller chunks
- Use multiple subheads in a longer article
- Employ bulleted or numbered lists
- For a very long article or report, include a takeaway summary
3. Your Writing Doesn’t Have a Unique Voice
Even if your blog is primarily B2B writing, don’t let that scare you away from the personal touch. If your writing is too formal or contains too much ‘marketese’, you’ll turn off readers. Focusing on topics in which you are genuinely invested is a big part of how to write a good blog.
If you are just trying to churn out what you think your readers want to hear, chances are your posts will seem dull and lifeless. If you can create an engaging, semi-informal writing persona your readers will feel more connected to you.
4. You’re Not Creating Something New
For any business topic you decide to write about, the subject has probably been covered many times before. That’s all right, as long as you can contribute a unique angle or a new take on an old idea. If you are cranking out yet another version of “5 Pro Tips to Attract New Customers,” chances are you’ll get overlooked.
Of course, this converges with the first tip about better headlines, too. If you have a dull headline and scavenged content, you’ll quickly lose reader credibility. Instead of rehashing generic tips, maybe you’ll decide to present a case study of specific actions you took to attract customers. This adds your unique perspective and the credibility of your company’s results.
5. Your Links Are Not Relevant
Internal links are important for guiding readers to the pages you want them to land on and for generating SEO value. Just make sure that what you are linking to makes sense in context to the post and is something you think they’ll appreciate seeing. If you add in an interesting fact but then link it to a non-relevant sales page, you’ll just irritate your readers and may drive them away.
6. Your Posts Lack Interactivity
Adding graphics, data visualizations, video or audio files, or any relevant multimedia content can encourage reader participation with your site. Instead of just presenting static text on a page, give your audience different ways to absorb the information and engage with your content.
Any information you want to communicate is better communicated in the form of an image. It also means that, for an internet user skimming the web (or your website) you’ll be able to communicate more value, quicker. – James Scherer, Wishpond
You only have a few short seconds to convince a potential reader that your post is worth their time. Avoiding these traps will help you produce higher quality content to draw in more active readers.
Have additional tips for getting readers to stick around and engage with your blog? Please share your experiences.
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