How to Write and Promote Content People Actually Want to Click On
Good content rarely happens by accident. It’s usually the result of creating and executing a solid content strategy.
Whether you’re not getting the traffic you’d hoped for or have reached a creative roadblock, there’s a surefire formula to create and share content people will want to read.
Don’t Just Write for Yourself
The benefit of creating the kind of content you’d want to read means you’re guaranteed at least one regular reader— yourself.
The downside is that your content probably isn’t going to be all that interesting to other people. You need to shift your perspective to think about what your audience would want to read.
“There’s always a different angle to explore.”
Would your customers be interested in the topic of your blog post? If the answer is yes, great! Get writing. If not, either try to pivot the topic to make it relevant to your audience or save it for your personal blog.
Have a Plan
Let’s say you own a business that sells dog leashes, but you want to promote your new range of harnesses. You know that you need to generate interest in this particular product, educate your customers on why they need them, and make it easy for the reader to make a purchase.
To achieve these goals, you would do the following:
- Regularly write and publish blog posts about dog harnesses to generate interest in the product
- Convince the reader that they need a dog harness through what you write about them
- Add internal links to your own dog harnesses in each blog post to make it easy for customers to view the product and make a purchase
Follow this formula and you’ll never write without direction again.
Offer Something New
Creating unique content is challenging. Instead, try to focus on simply adding something to the conversation.
For example, let’s say there are lots of blog posts comparing different kinds of dog harnesses. Rather than creating yet another listicle on the same topic, you could write a post weighing up the pros and cons of harnesses made from different kinds of materials.
If that’s already been covered, niche down even more. There’s always a different angle to explore.
Create Compelling Headlines
No matter how amazing your blog post may be, it’s useless if no one actually clicks on it.
You need to catch the reader’s attention and convince them that what lies behind it is so intriguing that they can’t not click through to see more.
This is done by highlighting your post’s point of difference with powerful language.
“Good content rarely happens by accident. It’s usually the result of creating and executing a solid content strategy.”
However, don’t resort to clickbait. Clickbait is the frowned-upon practice of using a misleading and attention-grabbing headline to lead the reader to an article that has almost nothing to do with the headline.
“You won’t believe the shocking truth that dog harness manufacturers don’t want you to know” is clickbait. You’re not uncovering the dirt on some grand dog harness conspiracy.
“Leather, acrylic or fabric? Everything you need to know about different dog harnesses before you purchase” isn’t clickbait. It’s a compelling headline that uses powerful words like “everything”, “need” and “before you purchase” to create intrigue and a sense of necessity and urgency.
Harness the Power of Promotion
When it comes to promoting your content, organic can only get you so far. Unless you already have a huge following, that method isn’t going to work.
Some of the ways you can effectively promote your content include:
- Social media. Use social advertising, or boosted organic posts to bring new readers to your content.
- Platform advertising. With platforms like Taboola, you can use creative content to target people when and where they’re most receptive.
- SEO. Clever use of keywords and formatting can help your content rank on search, driving new organic traffic to your blog.