Creating content for new startups can be frightening as you might be confused about how to start. The journey of a thousand miles always begins with a step. You have made the right choice going the content marketing strategy direction. With most businesses shifting gear towards building an online business, you do agree that the potentials of your business cannot be short-lived.
Content plays an integral role if you want to reach out to your target audience. About 70.54% of customers that visits a website come through content. They came across such content while searching for a solution for a problem.
More staggering is the fact that among this figure, about 60.2% of these customers take the initiative to make a purchase. The truth remains that content is the missing link between your business and your customer.
However, how do you create such content that is irresistible to your audience? Remember, we live in a fast-paced or jet world where we want things done fast. We want things done within the twinkle of a second.
How do you capture your audience who are so busy but want answers? How do you attract their attention within the first 6 seconds of visiting your website or blog?
When a new visitor or customer visits your website, you have less than four seconds to paint the best impression in their mind. For returning or existing customers an additional twenty seconds to give them reasons why they should stick with you. How do you keep them glued to your content? Here is a template for your blog article that is effective in attracting leads.
Headlines
What will be your thought if the image above was the headline of a content? What will be your reaction? Won’t you want to find out what the content is all about?
Your headline has one primary job – to get the attention of your reader, viewer or listener. It doesn’t have to educate them but grab their attention to consume the content. Your title tells your readers what the content is all about; here, you need to use the keyword in it and ensure it is not vague.
Don’t try to use intriguing titles because it will reduce your click rate; instead, you should save your creativity when promoting your blog on other platforms.
Your title is where you need to capture your audience, whereas the content is a place for sustaining that attention. If your headline doesn’t work, nothing will work. Your headline is one of the quickest but most beneficial things you can do.
Always write your headline first as it will help you stay on point.
First sentence
While your headline grabs their attention, your first sentence is the hook to keep them lurking around. There are a lot of ways to create a hook. You can ask a question; throw up something unusual or unexpected. Depending on the audience, you can give a summary of what the headline entails.
Next Paragraph
Here, you get to the point of the content. Online readers mostly skim through blog post instead of taking a deep dig. Therefore, no need for your lengthy or digressional kind of content. You begin to answer some of the questions in your first sentence or expound on what your headline entails.
Bulleted List
Since the reader tends to skim through content, you can make it easier by using bulleted lists. They are great for blogs because:
- They add structure to your content
- All you to pack lots of content without padding your paragraph
- They feed the hunger of your target audience
Ensure your list doesn’t exceed ten since we are all busy. For instance, 5 motivational hacks to have a productive life or 9 content marketing strategy for new startups. With this, they are conscious of the number of items in the content. Besides this, a shorter list reassures your readers that you value their time.
Images
Use an image to illustrate your point in a professional, funny, stylish or quirky manner as long as it fits your brand. The goal is to make your readers stick around while having a strong visual about your content.
You don’t need to hire a professional designer to create photos as you can get free stock photos online. However, you can also buy these stock photos depending on what works best for you.
Be consistent when using images; ensure they are of the same size or format.
Question or conclusion
Here, you want to engage your audience by creating a stream of dialogue with your brand. You can open the floor for any question or their views about the particular topic. Remember, blogs are unapologetically opinionated, so their ideas and comments do count.
Furthermore, ensure to respond to all comments even though some might seem out of point. The goal is creating engagement as a new startup through your blog. Finally, thank them for taking the time to comment.
