How to Write Content People Want to Follow?
It seems like everyone’s got a blog, but what separates the popular from those that fail? It’s understanding how to write content that people want to follow.
Photo by Jakob Owens on Unsplash
Writing high-quality content has become an incredibly valuable skill in a time when content is dominating the online world. This is why more and more professionals – even those not closely related to content marketing – have been improving their writing skills. So how can you start writing content that people will want to follow? Here are ten tips that will help you.
#1 Know Your Audience
You’ve probably heard this a million times before, but knowing your target audience is an absolute must. If you don’t know who your readers are, you can’t write content that they will be interested in. Moreover, you can’t create content that will be truly valuable and relevant to them.
Knowing your readers doesn’t simply mean knowing where they come from and how much they earn. It also means understanding their likes, dislikes, interests, worries, and pain points. You should be able to put yourself in their shoes and understand their perspective – only then can you create the kind of content that will truly resonate with them.
#2 Focus on Your Topic
When writing a piece of content, you should always focus on the topic you chose for this specific text. If you start straying away from your main subject matter, you could end up talking about everything and anything except for what you actually wanted to talk about.
Always define your topic beforehand and decide which points about it you want to cover in your content. If it is a broad topic, you can’t cover everything and may need to create a series of texts. If it is something very specific, you could end up having a shorter piece than you expected. That’s why planning is key (more on this later).
#3 Live Up to Expectations
One more thing you should always keep in mind when creating content is that you should live up to the expectations of your readers. If you set certain expectations, they should be met by the time your audience finishes reading your content.
For instance, if your title says that you will give five actionable tips on how to solve a particular problem, then that’s exactly what your post should be about. If you give fewer tips or tips that aren’t actually doable, then you won’t satisfy your readers who may, in turn, decide to look for useful content elsewhere.
#4 Research and Plan Well
To make sure that you don’t stray away from your topic or forget anything important, you need to research your topic and plan your content well. Even if you are an expert with years of experience in your industry, you may still be lacking critical knowledge about your subject matter which is why you should always perform research during the preparatory stage.
After collecting all the information you will need for your content, you should organize it in an outline that will help you structure your text. You will then use this outline to write your content in a coherent and logical manner.
#5 Be Simple, Clear, and Concise
After the preparatory stage, you can actually start writing your content. Always aim to be simple, clear, and concise in all your writing. Your audience needs to be able to understand your text easily and read it in a reasonable amount of time.
If you can’t write simply, clearly, and concisely at first, you can hire professional writers to help you. Check different websites to write essays or writing agencies to find good writers that can help you get started and show you how to write high-quality content.
#6 Find Reliable Sources
It’s a good idea to use statistics or other research findings in your content if they are relevant to your topic and to the points you are trying to make. However, what you should always be aware of is the quality of sources you are using for these statistics and facts.
Make sure that you are using reliable sources (e.g. peer-reviewed articles). If you are talking about an event and its coverage in the news, find a respectable media outlet that you can trust to publish online true information on the matter.
#7 Appeal to Emotions
In addition to using statistics and facts, you can also appeal to emotions. Balancing rationality and feelings is a good way to connect both with logical and emotional readers which is necessary if you want to have a bigger audience.
You can use different emotional arguments or points when trying to support your opinion on something. On the other hand, appealing to emotions can also be done through humor or storytelling depending on the kind of content you are writing.
#8 Learn from Past Mistakes
As a writer, you should always look for opportunities to grow and make your content better as you learn to write better. That’s why you should regularly look back at your past works and learn from the mistakes you made before.
For instance, if you noticed that a lot of readers were complaining about your formatting in the past, then you should format all your new content in a different way and ask for more feedback to improve.
#9 Add Supporting Visuals
After you finish writing your content, don’t forget to add supporting visuals. These will help you demonstrate or illustrate the points you were making in your text. Moreover, they can also grab the attention of potential readers who simply see the title and the supporting image of your article or blog post.
If the content you are writing is meant for primarily visual platforms like Instagram, then visuals play an even more important role. Don’t forget that you have a very wide range of formats to choose from, including images, videos, GIFs, infographics, pie charts, and more.
#10 Proofread and Edit
Last but not least, always proofread and edit your content before publishing it online. You can’t post the first version of your text – it is simply unpolished and likely has at least several mistakes that you made accidentally while writing.
First, read your text to see if there are any factual mistakes and check that all the sources you included are correct and the links to them work. Second, add any details such as creative CTAs at the end of your content (or remove redundant sentences). Third, proofread your content to correct any linguistic mistakes.
Final Words
To sum up, writing great content that people will want to follow is definitely something you can start doing after some practice and dedication. Use the tips in this article to help you get started with your content writing and develop your skills over time.
