Are you reading this article on your smartphone?
By 2025, about three-quarters of the world will only access the internet using their smartphones. If you want to create online content that reaches a broad audience, you’ll have to make sure your articles are mobile-friendly.
One of the best ways to keep your mobile readers happy is by using the right type of titles. Long, boring titles, don’t format well on smartphone screens. Whereas short, attention-grabbing titles are easy for mobile audiences to read, and it makes them more likely to impulsively click on your post.
What other tips and tricks can you use to create engaging content? Read on to find out!
- Use a Consistent Brand Voice
Having a strong brand voice is a key aspect of any marketing strategy. To determine what type of brand voice you want to use, ask yourself how you want your company to come across.
Next, whenever you post articles on your blog or social media accounts, you should always use the same brand voice. Before posting, it’s helpful if you read the article out loud to determine if you’re using the right tone.
New research from decibel.com shows that customers enjoy having a consistent consumer experience. If your blog posts are usually playful, and light-hearted, your audience will grow to expect that and you’ll want to make sure you’re delivering!
- Provide Value to Your Audience
In addition to providing consistent online content, you’ll also need to make sure your providing value to your readers. For instance, if you’re writing blog posts, you should focus on writing articles that solve problems your customers have.
To find out what type of things your customers are wondering, it’s helpful to check out blog posts from your competition. Create a list of article topics you see your competitors using, and think of ways to spin the topics to make them your own.
Next, you can review online forums like Redditt or Quora, to see what type of questions and conversations your potential customers are having. For instance, let’s say you run a company that sells camping gear. Go to Redditt or Quora and do a quick search for camping. Next, look at the conversation threads that pop up and click on a thread that received a lot of comments.
Take a moment to scan what the hot topic was that sparked the conversation, and create an article that addresses that topic. For example, you might find a conversation thread titled, “How to survive camping with your kids”. If this conversation thread had a lot of comments, it means campers are interested in knowing the answer to that question.
Now, you can increase traffic to your blog by writing an article about camping with kids. Since you already know family camping is something your customer base is curious about, you’re guaranteed to attract readers.
- Stop Using Passive Voice
Moving on, you’ll want to avoid using passive voice in your blogs and social media posts. Instead, focus on using an engaging active voice. When you’re using active voice, the subject acts on the verb. Whereas passive voice means that the subject receives an action from the verb.
For instance, the sentence, “A dog is going to be bought by our family today”, is an example of a passive voice. Passive voice sentences come across as awkward and difficult to read, and they’re also boring.
If you put the same sentence in the active voice it’ll read, “Our family’s going to buy a dog today”. Doesn’t that sound better?
By using active voice, the words flow and are easy to read. You can use the Hemingway App to check your article for any instances of passive voice before you post to your site.
- Don’t Be Fluffy
What scares away readers? Fluff! Fluff happens whenever you write things that don’t provide value to your reader. One of the best ways to avoid writing fluff is to read and re-read your content before posting it.
Do you notice any instances where you say the same things twice? Do you take forever to get to the point?
Remember, your readers are busy people, so your articles need to be direct and helpful. If a reader has to hunt around for the answers they need, or you never get to the point, it’s not likely they’re going to read another one of your articles.
- Have a Strong Beginning and End
Next, creating successful digital content for your blog means having a strong beginning and ending for your articles. The first sentence of your blog should be something that grabs the reader’s attention.
A great way to do this is by stating a fact or statistic that introduces the topic of the blog post. In addition to being attention-grabbing, you’ll also want to make sure your introduction is short.
Finally, the last paragraph of your article needs to have a strong call to action or CTA. The CTA should inspire the reader to visit another part of your website, buy your product, or contact your company.
For instance, if your article was about camping as a family, the last paragraph could urge the reader to check out the camping gear you offer. Be sure to include an internal link to your company’s product page to make things easy for the reader.
Start Creating Effective Online Content
Remember before you start generating online content, you’ll first have to establish a clear brand voice. Go ahead and evaluate your company’s current brand voice, and determine if there are any changes you want to make moving forward. Finally, using the tips in this article, write a 500-word blog post and read it out loud to yourself.
Does it sound like the article has the right tone and uses the voice of your company? Great, now post it and start attracting readers! For more ways to help your startup take off, read another one of our articles.
