You’ve spent time, energy, and money to create some of the best content the Internet has ever seen, but there is one major problem – no one is reading it. Or, at least, it doesn’t seem like they are. You have views, but you notice people don’t stay very long and you aren’t seeing any comments or interaction. Why aren’t people reading and interacting? What can you do to keep them reading? This is where things are about to get good. I am going to look at how you can create content that can reach out, convincing people to read, even if they are those pesky serial skimmers who never finishes a blog! Let’s take a look at a great study and just what you can take away from it.
How Many People (Really) Read Your Content?
Creating your content is one thing, but how do you create content people read within out skipping? After seeing article after article detailing how people don’t read Internet content, content marketing can become very disheartening. It can be especially disheartening for those of us who write web content every single day. In order to figure this out, Dejan Marketing did a study to look at how many people read content and why many don’t read the entire piece. Dejan’s aim is to help content marketers figure out excellent ways to create amazing content people will read.
The study finds that one in five people will actually read the entire content piece, which isn’t exactly what content creators want to hear. However, the study went further to see just why the people who don’t read entire pieces will skim and skip. Dejan shows that 56 percent of the people they interviewed would skim because they wanted a quick solution or answer to their problem. In addition, 47 percent of readers found the content to be too long for them to bother reading with 43 percent losing interest.
It is absolutely fascinating to see the reasons why people skim (38 percent even said that they found the text and formatting to be too terrible to convince them to continue). This study can really help show content marketers just how to create content that can capture attention, keeping readers on the site. I want to look at a few things you can do, based off of this study, to make sure your content hits the mark with readers each and every time.
How Can You Keep People Reading: 5 Great Steps
Just what can you do when it comes to creating content that people will actually read instead of skimming or skipping? Let’s take a look!
- Use the Iceberg Method in the Dejan Study. The Dejan study breaks down a few ideas for content marketers to help them create excellent content with one being the iceberg method. The iceberg method is fairly simple and similar to how many news articles are written. The best way to do this is to start out your content with the important information first. This can be facts about a study or answering a common problem with your simple solution. You then follow the important info with specific details on how people can apply your product or service.
For example, I gave you the important information about the Dejan study with the information you are looking for. However, I am following up with some takeaways to make this worthwhile to you. If you follow suit with your content, you will be able to have some excellent content to share with clients.
- Create Excellent Sub-Headers to Break Up the Text. You should always make sure you still provide the ability to skim by breaking up the text. A great way to do this, while still giving clients adequate information, is to break up your content with sub-headers. This helps make your content “scannable” and can convince someone to keep reading, eventually buying your products or services. You might even find that fun sub-headers can convince people to stop skimming and read your entire piece.
- Write a Story People Want to Read. Stories are an amazing way to create captivating content that people won’t want to scan but read all the way through. Tell a story about your business, industry, or products and connect with your readers. A story can help connect with their emotions, which is great when you are aiming to create content that converts and building awesome business-client relationships.
- Always Edit and Proofread Your Content Before You Post. You want to make sure that when you are writing content that you always proofread and edit before hitting the post button. According to Pam Dyer with Business 2 Community, this is an excellent way to ensure people keep reading your content. If you have a lot of mistakes or incorrect facts, people are less likely to stick around or read any of your other content. Consider hiring a copyeditor to make sure each and every little mistake is caught long before publishing.
- Use Images to Draw People in and Keep Them There. According to Neil Patel with HubSpot, another great way to convince people to keep reading your content is to utilize images to draw people in and keep them reading. Find a great image to use as your header and primary blog image and then consider utilizing images throughout your blog post. This will work especially well if your blog is significantly longer. This can work similarly to adding sub-headers by breaking up the text, making it easier to read and scan for visitors and clients. There are a few things you should consider before choosing an image, but once you find them, you can easily choose an amazing photo for your blog.
Just Keep Writing, Writing, Writing
Yes, it is unnerving to realize that, even if you write excellent content, people still might not read it all. Following the above tips can help you create content that will be easier for clients to read by providing excellent, helpful content. When you offer this, you could see great engagement, shares, and revenue. And if you want to go a step further, consider invested in highly trained copywriters that can come up with amazing content for you.