In the current scenario, in five minutes, the reader can skim through business content, tips on good writing, texts on gastronomy, health, among other topics. You can also look for specific information by reading several articles on the same topic as yours.
Well, it’s hard to blame them. The large flow of information on social networks and the internet in general has been transforming content consumption. More and more tools are being developed for the production of ephemeral content, such as Snapchat and Instagram Stories.
The emergence and success of such applications demonstrate the interest of users in content with an agile perception, in addition to its dynamic nature. However, the success of these tools does not even remotely represent the decline of blogs or the inability of bloggers to attract and conquer readers.
This post comes to show you that it is possible to capture and hold the attention of readers. Follow!
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TIPS FOR GRABBING THE READER’S ATTENTION
Firstly, social networks are not enemies of blogs and did not appear with the intention of extinguishing them. Today, more than ever, maintaining a blog is more important than ever for anyone who wants to produce quality content and gain visibility.
The variety of sources of content production represent, in fact, the readers’ own search for news. Thus, it is the content producer’s task to draw the reader’s attention through relevant and engaging posts. For this, this article will give you some tips.
1) KNOW YOUR PERSONA
Knowing who you are writing for is always the first step for any writer in any field. The creation of a brand persona occurs during the planning of the Content Marketing strategy . Once the personas are defined, determining the themes and how they will be covered in the content becomes easier.
The definition of personas really opens the doors to the reader’s involvement with your text. By the way, from the study of them it is very easy to provoke the feeling of identification in the reader. This, however, does not guarantee that he will continue reading until the end, but it leaves him halfway there.
2) TRIGGER THE READER’S CURIOSITY
Also made possible by defining the brand’s Personas, the copywriter is able to more effectively identify what would possibly arouse the reader’s interest. This shouldn’t be a difficult task, as humans are naturally curious.
This can be done by asking questions directly to the reader, who will feel engaged in the reading and will probably respond mentally. Of course, this is not just any question. This should be an intriguing question to your Persona and how it relates to the theme.
In this way, you awaken the reader’s interest in knowing the answer to that question, which will be given later in the text. This technique is especially valid when the question posed to the reader is aligned with the solution he is looking for. Here again is the importance of knowing who you write to.
3) INFORM THE BENEFITS OF READING AND PRESENT SOLUTIONS
With so much content available on the Internet, and with so little time to read them all, the reader will always question whether it is even worth dedicating himself to reading your text. Thus, the answer to how to hook the reader is to make it clear, from the introductory paragraph, the advantages that he will have when consuming your content.
Subsequently, you must fulfill all that was promised to him at the beginning. The strategy, undeniably, increases the chances of retention of that reader, who accessed your content for a specific reason. Then, with the promise of helping him with a problem, he’ll read on to find the solution.
4) REFER TO THEMES CLOSE TO YOUR PERSONA
During the construction of your personas, in marketing planning, you define, based on analysis, certain characteristics of your audience. What age range? What is the position on certain social issues? You can use this information to generate empathy.
Obviously, the reference or a quote must be relevant not only to your reader but also to the content. If there is this consonance, you can use your cultural repertoire to get closer to your readers.
However, whether it’s a novel, a film or poetry, even if it makes perfect sense to you and the content, only refer to it if it is popularly known and fits the social context of your audience. If you make a mistake in this strategy, it may end up being interpreted as pretentious.
5) STORYTELLING
As with alluding to cultural products, storytelling can be extremely engaging or terribly pedantic. Primarily, a good story must convince the reader that it is an integral part of the content.
As a strong trend in copywriting , copywriters often abuse this technique. However, for the story to be really good, not only the reader but you must feel part of it. Storytelling should be a narrative that unites you and your persona, not just a fancy engagement invention.
For a good construction, there are fundamental elements, such as the composition of the characters, the evolution of the plot and the conclusion, with a strong call to action. This method is quite effective, but requires a lot of training for a satisfactory result for the reader.
6) WORK ON THE SCANNABILITY OF YOUR TEXT
Scanning is an important SEO technique, whose objective is simple: to improve the reading experience, making it fluid, so that the reader can easily identify the topics covered.
Well, just by that definition, scannability already demonstrates its importance in reader retention. Internet users, in their vast majority, are not interested in large blocks of texts that become immobilized and, many times, make them get lost in their reading.
Thus, it is essential to work on content optimization techniques and provide a dynamic reading. For this, you can rely on heading tags, lists, images or the use of bold. Whatever your strategies, the important thing is to make your blog reader’s experience easier. Oh, and always use short paragraphs!
7) USE OTHER FORMATS
The internet offers so many possibilities that right after choosing the theme, you can start thinking about which languages you will convey your message. Today information flows in all formats. Text, audio, image or video. An infinity of approaches to the theme for an infinity of ways to present them.
As mentioned at the beginning of the article, social networks have revolutionized the consumption of content, and blogs can only benefit from this. An effective way to gain readers’ attention is by producing content that mixes media.
Offering a text version in audio, for example, can be useful for several occasions. A text accompanying a video is also often useful, especially in journalistic materials, for example.
The quality of the images is also extremely important, so that, eventually, a shallow text can gain visibility because they are accompanied by a beautiful look. In addition, infographics and arts are good options to win over readers.
All of this, of course, must work together. The production of content aimed at your brand’s persona should be clear, yet engaging and of quality. It should also explore different media formats and offer a solution to your reader’s problem.