Brands
The 3 Ways to Engage Consumers with Content [INFOGRAPHIC]
Marketers can measure the success of a content campaign by audience engagement. Inbound and content marketing efforts do not focus on sales as the direct return on investment. Engagement is the goal.
To capture an engaged audience, content marketers must first figure out how to get them interested in what they have to say.
The three “secret” steps for engaging an audience are:
- making content eye-catching
- making content useful
- making sure content is properly promoted
Headlines are king
Engaging an audience starts with interesting, informative content, according to a new infographic by BlueGlass. The most important part of the content, the company argues, is the headline. It points to research that found that “80 percent of people will read your headline,” while “20 percent of people will read the whole post.”
Headlines that work include:
- “What Everybody Out to Know About…,”
- “Little Known Ways to…,”
- “Get Rid of…[problem] Once and for All.”
The actual content should include:
- bulleted lists,
- line breaks,
- compelling subheads.
Social media is not the end
Although social media is seen as an end all be all by some companies, it is just the start for smart content marketers. BlueGlass says Twitter, Facebook and similar sites should be used to leverage new blog visitors, to “stroke people’s egos” by retweeting followers, posting comments on content, sharing links to other blogs and mentioning the names of authors.
“In doing all of this, your social relationships and connections will grow,” it says.
To increase the size of an audience, marketers can ask for subscribers, write guest posts on related blogs, and offer free content for followers such as ebooks, e-courses, audio series, and reports.
Following these three steps has the potential to expose the brand, showcase its content, grow its audience, and, eventually, result in more sales.
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