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B2B content creators can use the same techniques as other content creators to transform boring and static content into more exciting content with engaging videos, web pages, social media posts, and more. Keep reading to learn some tips on how to make your B2B content more engaging!
1. Be Relevant
The first step of creating engaging content is to produce content that is relevant to your audience. It needs to be useful to the reader and provide valuable information to them. Some ways to guarantee this are by:
- Creating personas
- Personalizing content for each market segment
- Ensuring that content themes focus on solving your audiences’ problems
- Addressing your audiences’ aspirations and also their obstacles
- Understanding what stage of the buying cycle they are at and delivering the content accordingly
- Confirming content is timely and applicable to relevant events
2. Be HUman
If your content is not personable and relatable your audience will not be engaged, and the content will not be as effective. By providing content that has a human-like feel to it users will have a more pleasurable experience reading and interacting with the content. Additionally, your audience will feel more understood and will have more trust in the accuracy of the content as well as the credibility of your business.
3. Tell a Compelling Story
The next step is to tell a story that will interest and capture the attention of your audience. Stories allow the reader to imagine and feel like they are directly involved, making your content more relatable to them. They will also get a better understanding of the purpose of your content through storytelling.
4. make your content easy to read and digest
All content must be easy to read and absorb. If the audience struggles to understand what the content is explaining, they will most likely get frustrated or confused and stop reading. Reading your content should not feel like a challenge, but should be an enjoyable and easy experience.
Here are some tips on how to make sure your content is easy to read and digest!
- Use short sentences and paragraphs
- Make it easy to scan by including headings, sub-headings, and bullet points/ lists
- Bold important concepts
- Avoid capitalization, as it can appear like you are shouting at your audience
- Use fonts that are easy to read
- Include relevant images to break up the text
- Don’t include too many links, only useful ones
- Make good use of white space
- Test content on different devices
- Avoid pop-ups or content that distracts from the messaging and design
5. Get the structure right
The organization of your content is key! It should be structured with purpose so that it flows well and keeps your audience’s attention. Starting with a hook to interest them is a good idea. Asking a question, presenting a statistic, or relating the content to a current event are ways to spark interest and get the reader thinking, which will make them want to read more.
After the hook, you should then provide a summary of what the reader can expect and what they can gain from reading it. Once the reader is intrigued and wants to know more, then comes the main body text. Here, it is especially important to make it easy to read! You should stick to one theme or idea for each paragraph to keep the structure well organized. Try not to be repetitive or scramble your ideas all over the place, as this will get confusing to the reader.
Once you get to the end of the content, you do not want to lose your reader, so include a call to action persuading them to learn more, contact you, download more content, subscribe to newsletters, or lead them to other content they might like. You can also direct them to your website and move them along in the sales process.
6. include plenty of white space in your page design
Another way to organize and design your content effectively is to make sure you leave enough white space on your pages. If the page is filled with text, it will feel cluttered and overwhelming to the readers, and they might be tempted to leave the site. Leaving white space not only creates balance on the page but also enhances the reader’s ability to comprehend the content. Another important aspect of including plenty of white space is that it helps separate different topics and ideas, and can emphasize the most important elements of the content.
7. use relevant visuals
The use of visuals helps break up your text and can provide explanations and examples to the readers. Visuals also make your content more pleasing to the reader. Especially if the content is not too exciting, visuals will help give it a little more life.
Infographics, for example, are much more likely to engage the readers and get the message across to them than large descriptions and text are. The same goes for demonstrations. Instead of step-by-step instructions, maybe provide a video or images showing how to use the product and what it is capable of.
It is also recommended to place your most important information directly after visuals, as studies show that people are naturally attracted to images on web pages. If they are skimming the page and stop at the image, they will be likely to start reading right after the image, so make sure the content in these locations is relevant and important.
8. use visuals or text cues to keep people engaged and moving to the next section
Short attention spans and the numerous amount of distractions cause many readers to lose interest. You can use visuals and text cues to keep them engaged and on track throughout their reading.
Using visuals, such as a theme of images that are continuous throughout the content, that gradually reveal a story relating to your content is one way to make sure the reader keeps going. Another way is through text cues, such as asking questions. To know the answer, the reader will need to keep going and move along to another section.
9. experiment with other formats
Many B2B content marketers utilize similar strategies, making it difficult to have unique strategies. However, switching up your content formats can help your business stand out from your competitors. As long as your content remains accessible and useable, it is okay to try something different and be more creative with the way you format it!
You can use a format that allows you to include engaging media such as visuals, videos, quizzes or tests, or interactive ebooks too! Timelines, assessment tools, and calculators are also tools you can use to allow your audience to engage with and explore your content.
To make sure that the format you chose is working and reaching your content marketing goals, keep track of your engagement rates and analytics as well.
10. Make it responsive
All of your business’s content must be responsive and suitable for all devices that your customers might use. It needs to be accessible on not only desktops but also mobile devices. In addition, the layout needs to work on all devices as well. Sometimes a website only works on desktops and when it is visited through a mobile device, the format does not work and the user cannot obtain the information.
Some ways to make sure that your content is fit for all devices are to:
- Have concise and catchy titles
- Make sure all links are easy to click on
- Utilize simple designs instead of complex ones that small screens cannot comprehend
- Include plenty of white space
- Test your content on devices with different size screens
- Monitor your analytics to find disengagement on specific devices
11. learn from your data
Similar to all of the content you produce, it is necessary to keep an eye on your engagement analytics to guarantee that the content is performing well and to discover if any areas need to be addressed.
This will provide insights into your audience’s preferences and behaviors and tell you what you need to know to improve your content. It will also provide insights on what themes people respond to most, how long they spend on different pages, and any struggles they may have with accessing your content. It will also tell you if your call to action is successful or not.
and finally...
Your content marketing strategies will continue to change and evolve as you learn about your audience and understand their wants and needs, and as your products and services change as well. Focus on how you can provide value to your audience and what they are coming to you for. Focus on what your business does well and what differentiates your business from others. Finally, if you focus on your performance and make improvements when needed, you will reach B2B content marketing success.
Sources: Foleon.com
