Let’s be honest. Content is king and you need to know how to take care of its castle. Making web content that is readable is just the beginning.
You have to make content that is shareable.
If people really like something, it spreads like wildfire. Viral potential is at your fingertips if you’re able to master these 10 steps!
1. Write Like You Speak
Nobody wants to read a dense article full of technical terms and gibberish about a simple topic. Get out of your own way and think about the consumer. You are not in a business mindset at this point.
If you’re creating blog content for SEO, you’ll have to include your keywords tactfully.
Let’s look at the following 2 sentences.
Instead of…
Playing the guitar is a good way to release creativity. Try technical lessons from a music store. You will learn scales and chords.
Try…
You’ve always dreamed of being a guitarist, so why not do it!? Learning this rock and roll instrument is not only a great way to spend your time, but it creates happy chemicals in the brain.
2. Remember AIDA Formatting
AIDA is an acronym for
- Attention
- Interest
- Desire
- Action
Each post you write has to have these core items or else you might as well not write the content at all.
Lets break these down:
Attention: Make sure that you’re using bold, attention grabbing phrasing.
Nobody cares about articles that start with phrases like: “Here’s 10 ways to do XYZ,” or “You can be a better writer…here’s how.”
Interest: If your subject isn’t compelling, don’t write about it.
You’ll be wasting your time on something that won’t yield any visibility online. Do your research on keywords before writing and then check out titles.
(We’ll expand on this later).
Desire: Are you passionate about the subject? Are you able to write in a way that makes a “boring” subject seem exciting?
Superior copywriting experiments with tone of voice. Some articles require a witty, playful approach, others a serious, professional voice. Refer to the brand guidelines or industry norms to direct the tone of your copy.
Action: Your articles must have a call to action. Commonly, you’ll find a generic CTA at the end of most articles.
Say you’re writing for a pest control company looking to grab new customers in their area.
A generic call to action would look like this:
Go to our website to find out how to book, see our rates, and for contact information.
Does this compel you to click or give this company your money?
No.
What about a call to action that is embedded inside of the content itself?
When you’re looking at a nasty termite infestation you’ll want to call us. Yes, get on the phone right now if you think your house is being eaten alive by these pesky pests!
See the difference?
AIDA also helps with our next tenant.
3. Sense of Urgency
Why should a customer buy from you now?
This is a question you have to answer fully in your content. If people are not compelled to purchase because of time constraints, limited quantities, or a rara sale…
The customer will not purchase.
Check for these 6 things before you send your content out to the consumer market:
- Limited TIme Offer/Sales: Are you running a sale? Will a coupon expire? Is it Black Friday? Make sure you mention that! It will help you to increase the sense of urgency and increase the chances of a sale.
- Limited Quantities: Is your product only available for a little while? Are you doing a small run? Let the consumer know that they’re being included in something limited and special.
- Scarcity: When people think something isn’t available, they want it even more. Much like limited qualities, establishing scarcity or “rareness” of a product, increases the demand.
It’s rudimentary economics, but essential to marketing copy.
4. Using Numbers
Buzzfeed has popularized the idea of the “Listicle” a list that’s merged with an article to create extremely consumable content for any audience.
With the attention span of the modern internet audience, making sure that content is broken up into smaller paragraphs, bullet points, and numerical sections. Notice how we’re doing all of that in this article?
Instead of this…
The Many Types of Copywriting Styles
Try this…
11 Copywriting Styles That Can Net You A Sale Instantly
See how much more compelling the numerical version is?
It immediately gives the reader the idea that the article is digestible.
5. Strong Emotional Style
Articles need to elicit emotion. They need heart.
Period.
Now, would you read an article that is just merely giving you vague information with no style or substance? No.
You’ll click out of that thing faster than people walk out of a movie theater during a 3-hour art film. It’s not a good look.
Try to embody these familiar emotions in your writing and test your content against your own feelings!
Does it make you feel something?
If yes — great!
If not — reconsider.
Here are a few buzzwords that are commonly used to elicit emotion from readers.
- Frenzied
- Ashamed
- Excitement
- Overwhelming
- Enamoring
- Positive
- Inspirational
- Informative
- Efficient
- Creative
- Organized
Getting your tone and emotion correct will help you make content that wows your client and audience.
6. Mini Stories = Big Success
If you are too long-winded in your content, you’re going to lose readers. As previously mentioned, we definitely recommend that your content includes keywords but also gets straight to the point. Mini stories can help you do that.
Mini stories basically boil down your content into 4 or 5 sentences. When you’re able to write concisely and tell your story with a bit of pizazz you’re in the green.
Too Wordy:
For example, you’re writing an article about how to build a house. You interview a man who has been building houses for years and he goes on for about an hour. He gives you information about everything from the studs, to the wood, to building a foundation, and of course putting on the roof, walls, electric, etc. Doesn’t that sound like a lot to explain? It does, because it is. Here’s how to boil that down.
Mini Story Success:
Contractor Joe Schmo says, “I’ve built homes for 20 years and have owned my own contracting business for 10. There’s so much that goes into building a home, you’re better off finding a professional.”
See how we just encapsulated all of the things that were listed in the messy paragraph above?
7. Crooked Numbers
See how we used 9 ways to become a copywriting pro, instead of 10? That’s because SEO research points to crooked or odd numbers performing better than even numbers. In listicles specifically, people see the number 10 and they view it as “too much content.” The number 9 (like we used in this article) seems a bit more digestible.
For some reason, the attention span of your readers is going down farther and farther every day. It could be the overwhelming amount of information that is being given to us on smartphones, tv, radio, and magazines, but you have to break through that noise to deliver great content.
If you don’t hook the reader immediately you won’t retain them, get to your point of sale,
8. Hook The Reader
All of the things above will help you reach the ultimate goal – hooking your reader. If you’re able to retain the audience through your content you will get page views, more time spent on your site, possible conversions to social media follows, sales, and of course increased brand awareness.
Here’s Your Content Checklist for Success:
- Write like you speak
- Remember AIDA formatting – Attention, Interest, Desire, Action
- Sense of Urgency
- Numbers
- Strong emotional style
- Mini stories
- Crooked numbers
- Great writing with a great hook!
9. Success
Keeping things genuine, having a great lead sentence, making sure that you are using emotion, tone, and grammar correctly goes a long way.
Remember that you are in control of the words you put on the page. Keywords are great and SEO gets your article in front of more eyes, but the mark of content that stands out is the passion and the strategy behind it. Good luck!