Making your content stick: A how to guide

Are you tired of high bounce rates and no thumbs up on your hard-earned content marketing? Don’t worry, you’re not alone, most marketers are.

In this blog post, I’m going to share some tips and tricks for creating content that’s as tempting as a triple chocolate cheesecake. That is unless you’re lactose intolerant. By following these tips, you’ll improve the chances that you catch your audience’s eye and guide them towards taking those oh-so-desirable actions. So, here we go…

Stand out from the crowd

A super important word to start with is uniqueness. While generic titles like “10 Tips” or “10 Mistakes” blend into the noise (don’t worry, we’re guilty of doing this as well), a quirky title grabs attention and sets you apart. Don’t be afraid to be different! We’ve all seen the pseudo-professional content out there and it’s ultimately not memorable.

Choose topics, titles, a tone, and a writing style that people will associate with your business. For example, just because you’re big and established in the B2B space doesn’t mean you can’t adopt a playful and humorous tone. Obviously, I wouldn’t recommend doing this as a funeral director, but you get what I mean.

Harness the power of storytelling

Research shows that storytelling triggers emotions like dopamine and oxytocin, keeping readers hooked. Storytelling captivates attention like nothing else. The hardest part about this is taking something that’s typically quite dry and converting it into a story. That’s probably for another time. But, as humans, we inherently love a story. So, approaching your content with a beginning, middle, and end, helps people to get their head around your content and keeps them reading.

Master copywriting formulas

Formulas like AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action) and PAS (Problem, Agitation, Solution) provide a structure for persuasive copywriting. By incorporating storytelling and strong hooks, you can make your message more compelling without being pushy.

It all boils down to telling people what you do, why you do it, how you do it, and why your customers can benefit from buying from you.

Be precise

Being specific makes your message clearer and more actionable. Avoid abstract language and focus on concrete details that resonate with your audience. Pick a lane with each piece of content and stick to it. I myself am guilty of putting too many messages into my content. All this will do is distract from the core message that you’re trying to get across.

Pictures paint a thousand words

Use descriptive language to engage your readers’ imaginations and keep them invested. Failing this, use visual assets. Again, I’m guilty of not doing this, A LOT. Adding diagrams and images to your content helps to break it up and provide valuable visual cues and summaries of your content.

Hook and reel them in

Hooks are opening lines that immediately draw readers in. Whether it’s a captivating story, a surprising fact, or a vivid description, hooks set the tone for addictive content. Use popular frameworks like the problem-solution and FOMO hooks to immediately grab your reader’s attention.

Start a controversy

Let’s face facts, nowadays, attention is scarce, and storytelling is the key to standing out amidst the noise. After all, who wants to read bland content when you can serve up something irresistible? By creating controversial content, you not only create captivating hooks but also engagement.

Now, we’re not telling you to go out there and pull the likes of Andrew Tate or the myriad of other individuals creating daily controversy. However, there are some lessons that can be learned from them. By adopting a controversial mindset within your industry of field, you can dramatically encourage engagement and participation from your readers.

Going against the grain can be a fantastic tool for standing out from the crowd WHEN used responsibly.

There you have it

There are several considerations you can make around your content marketing in order to make it appeal to and be more memorable than the swathes of boring white noise out there. Some of these things will take time to implement and get rolling, but, over time, if you adopt some of the above methods, you’ll likely start to see some improvements in those vanity metrics like bounce rate, but also overall engagement with your content.