Don't Stop The Party…Reading Party That Is — How to Keep Users Reading
You’ve got there attention and they’ve clicked through to read your content. They could do the following things:
A. Keep reading through your entire piece
B. Leave in the quickest way possible
Most of the time many will choose the unfortunate option of letter B and no content generator, writer, or marketer wants that. In a perfect marketing world we’d have a completely enthused audience of 1 million all reading every piece of content all the way through every day. Shares all of the pieces to their equally enthused friends, who then start to visit your blog everyday…tripling your traffic. I die.
If someone lives in that perfect world and can extend that invitation to that world, I’ll gladly accept without question.
Until then, there isn’t an exact formula to keep your audience fully engaged and reading your content all the way through; however, there are several things you can to help drive the readership up.
Headlines catch the skimming eye.
I’ve hear about 30 times a week how someone is busy or they just don’t have time. I probably say it myself over 30 times because sometimes it in fact is true and most of the people that I hear it from have the same time crunch issues. Although your content deserves my undivided attention, sometimes I just need to consume headlines at that moment. On average 8 out 10 readers will read headline copy, but only 2 out of 10 will read the rest. Pretty significant numbers, so it’s essential you make your headlines count. Headlines are extremely important because they tell your reader where to go and flagging the important items in your content. Headlines can be eye-catching enough to function alongside visuals as well.
Did these headlines catch your eye?
People Prefer Pictures
I’ve touched on this several times, but back away from the stock photos because that isn’t going to capture your readers attentions. Readers have increasingly become smarter, more willing to ignore things they don’t like, and skeptical over things they have repeatedly seen. Hence the immediate and quick glance over the overused stock photo.
Remember, visuals are not always stock photos, they can come in the form of data visualizations, graphs, infographics or even your own relatable photographs that you have taken yourself. I, air on the fun side when I chose visuals for content. Granted, our mascot is a corgi, so it hasn’t been difficult to include some light images. However, try incorporating graphs or charts you can easily make on Google Spreadsheets or a cartoon relevant to the idea you are trying to get across.
Statistics or Sources
One of my favorite things about some of the posts that Hubspot churns out are their post entirely dedicated to stats, but it’s not just the stats that grab my attention it’s also the tweetable link they have next to it — “Tweet that Stat.” It’s something that you can easily incorporate into your own posts or just adding statistics or data will generally boost your readership. Did you know that on average marketers spend over a quarter of their budget on content marketing?
So how did that stat engage you? Did it exemplify a little more on how important marketers value content and the inherent value readers place on it? You content are the bones of the piece and the stats, numbers, or sources provide some of the meat and depth to your piece. Ok…maybe it’s the bone marrow then…I’ll stop with the anatomical references. However, your thoughts can be backed up with statistics because they are easy to understand and provide something for your readers to grasp onto. It shows readers that you are providing them with credible sources to back your ideas.
Takeaways
What will the reader gain after reading your piece? Providing the key takeaways in your piece will guide the reader to keep reading because they know that they will learn something that they possibly didn’t already know. Takeaways can be easily provided in the headlines, in a list or bolded throughout the piece while then listed at the bottom. Efficiently providing the reader with something to mark down; hopefully then it will later provide you with some type of credible link, or an interaction on social outlets. Who knows, but as long as you are providing the reader with some benefit they will continue to read your content after they have clicked.
A Problem and Then Your Solution
Sometimes when I’m talking with friends, one will bring up a problem and then it hits me…I have the same exact problem! Whoah…total ESP moment…or is it?
More than likely, the day to day problems you have run into, someone else has too. That’s why if you come across a repeated frustration try to offer a solution in your content. A few readers may have that “AHA” moment and read through the post with the solution you present. You will provide that takeaway and also a source for them to refer their other colleagues who maybe having the same problem.
So yes, writing that title is extremely important, but keeping your readers reading significant as well. Don’t put them to sleep after they’ve clicked.
Churning out the best possible content should be at the foundation in trying to increase several factors and it always gives you a solid standing when you figure out the right formula for you to maintain the herd of corgis… traffic…herd of traffic.
Sabel Harris leads the marketing at TrackMaven. When she's not marketing, she's probably listening to some pop music or drinking too much coffee. (Funny thing, she does this while marketing too). Tweet or email her, unless, she's eating, she'll respond in record timing. See more of Sabel's posts
