With the dramatic rise of all things digital, the nature of content writing has changed. Gone are the days when companies had the luxury of communicating via long, explanatory paragraphs. With people being bombarded from every direction with brands trying to nudge their way through to the forefront, a business has between 2-5 seconds to pique the interest of its target audience.… yes, you read that correctly, just 2-5 seconds. Here are some pointers that might help if you are trying to grab your audience’s attention through your writing.
- Know your audience… That’s content 101 as far as I am concerned. Only then will you know how to tailor the tone of your writing and the content of your writing. For example, if your target market consists of teenagers, your writing style will differ from that of a target group of young mothers or accountants. Make sure you conduct detailed research on who is going to be buying your products or services.
- Your audience must connect with your headline…With only 2-5 seconds to grab someone’s attention, your headline must stand out. Try and write a headline that teases your audience into believing that your product or service will be solution they have been looking for. If you are able to do that, you’ve got them interested to click on or read about the details of your offering.
- Remember that your writing will be read by another person not an organisation or a robot. Even if your product is a B2B product, ultimately, it’s a person who will be reading about it and making the decision. Make it a conversation; write as if you are talking to someone. It comes across as much warmer and more authentic.
- Use keywords naturally… if you have done a keyword search (as you should for SEO purposes), and you want to use them on your website or blog, make sure they fit into the text naturally. If they look out of place in a sentence or are overused, Google will penalise you and deem your SEO strategy as black hat with keyword stuffing. Black hat SEO strategies are disapproved practises to increase a page’s ranking in search engines.
- Don’t ignore basic grammar. Whilst there is some flexibility in the rigidity of the rules of English Grammar in terms of starting sentences with ‘and’ and ‘but,’ there is absolutely no leeway when it comes to incorrect sentence construction, poor use of punctuation or awkward tenses. Make sure you get someone with a good command of the language to proof-read your work.
Communicating your brand’s message is whether it’s via online media or through offline marketing material is key to capturing the interest of your target audience. Content and copy are the primary ingredients in the communication package. Make sure they do what you want them to do.
If yours is a new business that needs to define its brand or an existing business that needs to step up your content strategy, give us a call on 020 7112 9068 or email us at [email protected]. We’ll be more than happy to help.
