Imagine a scenario…
You’re at a buffet, and the table is full of sumptuous dishes. Innumerable items to eat, but you can only eat as much. There is one dish… one that everyone is craving to try. This dish is beautifully presented and has the best description of its ingredients.
So, is it a surprise why this dish attracted more attention than the other ones? No, because when you are inundated with options, you look for a distinctive feature — something that can hook you, something that can compel you to shun others and choose this option.
This analogy fits perfectly well with the digital world. After all, what are we doing on the internet if not consuming content in its variegated forms? But, do we see and read everything that’s there on the web? No! We choose a select few.
And most probably, the content you’re consuming is already making rounds and has reached a wider audience.
In this content buffet, you have to make sure that your content has all the ingredients to get noticed.
But, if it was that easy, won’t each piece of content be going viral? That’s not happening.
You have to appeal to the audience’s preferences to get your content noticed. Customer behavior has changed a lot over the past few years.
People who were once converted through attractive taglines and smart salespeople are now inclined towards testimonials, past buyer experiences, and recommendations from the people they know before paying through their pockets.
Thus if you are into digital marketing by any reference, you must know the importance and need for content that rock.
Development of great content needs time, brainstorming, research, and, most importantly, an audience that interacts with it.
Thinking out-of-the-box is the general rule here. As the trends keep changing, it is better to get yourself updated with the latest trends. This can help you attract more audience if your content is worth reading.
Here are some tips that can instantly grab the audience’s attention and make them share your content.
Videos:
Give me a video, and I’ll click instantly. Give me a 1000-word blog, and I’ll think twice.
According to , “where both video and text are available on the same page, 72% of people would rather use video to learn about a product or service.”
People like to watch more than reading. Also, text-based content is even sometimes ignored due to its length.
What works best here is a video version of that text article; you can attract almost all visitors by adding the video version of the content.
SEOmoz’s Whiteboard Friday is the finest example here.
The video series was started by Rand Fishkin, CEO & Co-Founder of SEOmoz, and since then, it has garnered over a million viewers who learn the basics of SEO through it.
Infographics:
Infographics are usually considered to be a link building tactic, but they are also one of the ideas to grab users’ attention and make them read the worth-reading content you have compiled after the hours of research and brainstorming.
We all have a penchant for visuals, and it is because 90% of the information transmitted to our brain is in the form of visuals.
Infographics instantly uplift the quality of an article or a blog. Many people find it easy to read and share the content within infographics.
The audience prefers an infographic that conveys data in the simplest of forms. So, for an infographic to find traction among the readers, it has to be simple, informative, and visually appealing.
Polls:
People like to share their opinions on anything and everything.
We love to hear someone say, “What are your thoughts on this?” That’s why polls yield such a power when it comes to increasing the reach of your content.
Adding a poll is a great idea to make your content attractive. Polls serve two purposes: 1) they increase the reach of your content. 2) they provide valuable insight into your customers’ behaviors.
You can create polls on social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and engage your audience with them. These polls generate engagement and also spark conversation around the topics and responses.
You can also create polls by using free tools online and embed them in your blog post. It will allow them to give their opinion, and if the poll is easy to share, you will notice wider engagement and participation.
Industry Survey:
Sharing industry trends and news in our content is another good idea that can grab user attention. People love to see what is going on in the industry and what they can expect in the future.
For example, every year, SEOmoz compiles an industry survey to update people with industry trends and forecasts. You can find the latest industry survey here.
Compiling industry surveys can be a tough job, but it is worth it and will surely pay off with a great spike in traffic and social shares from people in the industry.
Words from Influencers:
When your content gets out there, you need someone to spread a word for it. That someone can be that one personality whose words hold sway over thousands of people. In modern lingo, we call them ‘influencers’.
The “holy words” of influencers testify itself, and people look up to them. In the modern world, influencers have more power than celebrities. 70% of teens trust influencers more than traditional celebrities
Compiling words of different influencers over a subject can not only grab user attention and but they will share your content too.
Data:
Numbers, tables, pie charts, bar graphs, etc. might have bored you when you were a student, but they have one distinct quality: they provide a proof of whatever you’re saying.
For example, If I say: “infographics can increase the reach of your blogs,” you may believe it or you may not.
But, if I back my statement with data and say that infographics are one of the top six types of content used by B2B marketers, then you don’t have a reason not to believe me.
This is the power of data.
Analytics (statistics and data) are fundamental in the world of SEO. People tend to believe you more if you provide statistics to prove your point instead of assumptions and past experiences.
Analytical data always win over conjectures and help you receive tons of traffic, links, and social shares to take your content to the next level.
Finding the data is a tough job, which sometimes takes days. But, if you’re collecting data, make sure to collect it from reliable sources online.
After you have gathered and analyzed the data, you can present it in the form of case studies, stats round-ups, and infographics to help readers make sense of it.
Cartoons/Memes/GIFs:
Yes! You heard that right.
Memes, cartoons, and GIFS can seriously grab user attention and help you to engage the visitors and make them spread it happily through social platforms.
Also, they have a global appeal. A meme popular in one part of the world immediately makes its way to the other part. Thus, having memes and GIFs in your content can significantly increase its reach.
For example, if there is a meme making rounds on social media, you can create your own variant of that meme and post in on social media to get your followers buzzing.
Presentations:
Attractive presentations are important to tie the users with the content and make them share it.
Presentations are useful because you can convey your message in fewer words. You can create a presentation and showcase it via sites like SlideShare, Sribd, and SlideBoom. You can also use platforms like Presentain to live stream your slides with polls and videos.
So, why write a blog post when you can tell a visually compelling story in a few slides?
If you present your content in the form of slides, you will not only witness the positive spikes in your Google Analytics, but you will also see the continuous increase of traffic on your website/blog.
These are some of the most common ways that can increase the reach of your content.
The trick here is to hook the audience with compelling content. In this day and age, when the attention span of the public is shorter than a goldfish, you only have a few seconds to grab their attention.
In those seconds, if you convince them that your content different, they’ll consume it from start to end. Not only that, they will share it with their peers too.
Have anything more to add? Tell us in the comments below.
Image Source: https://searchengineland.com/youtube-ranking-factors-getting-ranked-second-largest-search-engine-225533 https://moz.com/blog/accessible-machine-learning-seo https://visual.ly/community/Infographics/how/what-makes-good-infographic https://www.pinterest.com/pin/582442164288753735/ https://www.180fusion.com/blog/content-writing/the-best-seo-memes-of-2015/
Originally published at https://setalks.co on September 30, 2020.