You spend a lot of time writing your business blog to attract new visitors every day – I know I do. There’s nothing sadder than realizing that no one is spending more than a few seconds on that page you spent so much writing and perfecting. If your content is not engaging enough, you’re doomed to failure.
People will often need nothing more than a glancing look to decide whether your business blog is worth their time, regardless of whether the things you wrote in it are actually interesting or not. Nobody is going to dive deeper unless you provide them with some compelling reason to do so. Let’s see what you can do to improve your readers’ engagement then.
1. Use colors and visuals
Colors are linked to emotions, and they’re a powerful yet extremely simple way to catch your readers’ attention… even before they start reading. A long, white page that has neither colors not pictures is much harder to read than one that entices your audience with funny pics and a colorful navigation bar. Also, a page without a proper selection of visuals is barely recognizable.
Visuals are going to be associated with your brand, so you must select them properly. If your business blog talks to women, choose soft pastel tones like pink or turquoise, if your blog is about sports or physical activities, choose something more energetic like a bright red or orange.
2. Choose powerful and captivating headlines
Most people don’t even bother reading an article before talking about it or even sharing it in their socials. A captivating headline is all they need to think they know all there’s inside the article itself. A recent study found that 70% of Facebook users only read an article’s title before commenting below it.
Bottom line, to boost your audience engagement, you need to correctly market your content beforehand. The more your headline is going to be catchy, the higher are the chances it gets shared and, in turn, read. Think about the buzzword “epic” I just used in my headline – was that powerful enough to catch your attention? Use questions that compel people into providing you an answer, or drop some stats and figures into your headline to make it sound more authoritative.
3. Talk to people who are really interested in your content
If you talk about the next NBA match to a group of nerds playing Magic, do you really expect them to listen to you? If you, on the other hand, start talking with them about the latest changes that Blizzard announced on its upcoming World of Warcraft patch, well… I think you got my point. Speaking to an audience who doesn’t care about what you’re saying is, to put it bluntly, a waste of time.
It may happen that you started writing your blog trying to catch the attention of a different public than the one you’re actually talking to right now. How do you know it? Try running an on-page SEO audit to check your actual numbers in place. Which ones are the keywords people look for when they reach your business blog? Are they coming from organic searches or through some specific link? What about their demographics and interests? All this information can provide you with a better insight into what people really want from your website so that you can tailor your strategy accordingly.
4. Engage your audience even outside your business blog
Blogs are, as we already said, a form of personal branding. More than anything else, they talk about you and your opinions. They’re used to advertise your persona, and at the same time, they’re just as strong as your charisma and online presence are. After all, what people want is to interact with someone who they perceive as a celebrity, a charismatic character, a leader, so that’s what you want to be in their eyes.
Talk with your community, be as authentic as you can be. Answer to their comments on your blog, stimulate productive and constructive discussions in your social posts. Thank them for their engagement when they share something or actively contribute to debates. Be quirky, be unique, be interesting. Ultimately, people want to talk with you, not just blankly stare at a wall of text.
In an era where everyone is bombarded by literally thousands of ads and contents every day, establishing a strong relationship with your audience to boost their engagement is a daring feat. Don’t be discouraged by your initial failures though. It’s a long-term goal that requires patience and devotion, as well as a lot of trial and error. There’s no universal recipe because every blog is (and must be) unique enough, so keep trying until you succeed!
