Whether you’re running a blog for the sake of making money, or you’re running an online store with a drop ship model and blogging to get more website hits, you know how important it is for your blog to get noticed. These days, any time a consumer’s considering making a purchase, the first thing they’re going to do is type what they’re looking for into Google. And if the content on your blog is no good–well, that means that you’re going to lose potential, and even possibly loyal, consumers to your competitors.
Luckily, however, there are some tried and true ways to make your blog content good. Not only good but addictive, so that readers are always coming back for more. You’ll get shared, liked, and retweeted. Just make sure you follow these tips:
Develop your own voice
One of the most important ways to get readers addicted is by having a voice that really represents your brand. If there’s a certain personality or feeling that people run into any time they read the content of your blog, you’ll eventually get consumers who are craving that kind of content, and they won’t stop coming back for more.
Whether you choose to make this voice serious, ironic, funny–or even come up with a character–depends on what your ideal consumer is most likely to react positively to. Take a look at Wendy’s twitter feed, for example, they’re so funny that even the media is writing about how hilarious they are.
Use a narrative
Another way to make blog content addictive is by using a narrative. These days, advertising is something that turns off a lot of people–but when it comes to telling stories, people still pay attention. Just imagine this:
You work at an e-cigarette company, like Juul, and as the business owner, you’re looking for a new way to advertise. You go for long walks every night through the city brainstorming, and each night you come back home empty-handed, no ideas or slogans. But one night, outside a bar, you see a guy smoking a cigarette asking out a girl, and she says, “Sorry, I don’t date smokers. The smell of smoke–it’s just gross to me.” You rush home, inspired, write out a quick storyboard, one that ends up with the guy smoking an e-cigarette instead of regular cigarettes, and the girl next to him at the altar, saying, “I’m so glad you smoke Juul e-cigarettes now.”
See what we did there? That’s the power of narrative.
Include images, videos, and lists
Think of the last time you read a blog post. You were probably on your phone, right? And waiting for someone to come get you in a doctor’s office, or stuck between stops on public transit, or on a boring date? But the minute another distraction came your way, you stopped reading and forgot entirely about what you were reading.
This is a common occurrence–with all of life’s distractions, it’s easy to stop reading. But if you make sure you include images and videos to break up your text, it’s more likely that your reader will continue to read what’s in front of them. By splitting up the blog post into lists, you’ll also motivate the reader to keep going–or to take a pause and come back. After all, if there are 7 crazy things exes did, and you’ve already read the first 5, aren’t you dying to find out what the last 2 are?
Get your readers engaged
Finally, you’ll want to make sure that your readers are involved in your blog content. For example, you’ll want to make sure that, at the end of each blog post, you ask them a question. So if you’ve just written a listicle article about the 7 Most Romantic Valentines Day Date Ideas, you can ask at the end, “What about you? What are your most romantic Valentines Day date ideas?” You’ll want to make sure you keep the comments section open so that people can express themselves.
Take this one step further and your posts will get shared more on social media, too. You’ll want to make sure you share your blog posts on your social media platforms, whether those are Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, and make sure you use the right hashtag strategies to get attention from the right people. If you’ve got a Shopify story, then you’ll want to choose the right Shopify templates and match them to your blog posts, too. You might even want to consider giving an influencer some free perks for mentioning your product–and if anyone ever comments on any of your blog posts, make sure you reply.
Even though it takes a bit of extra work, implementing these strategies into the writing of your blog will make a huge difference–and make it super-addictive to all kinds of readers. Make it a new year’s resolution for your business: to revamp your blog and your business, too.
What strategies do you use to make your blog addictive? Which ones are the most effective?