Picture this:
You’re getting ready to send out a piece of content.
It’s amazing. Engaging. Earth-shattering. You feel like it might just rock your niche.
But when you release it to the world, nothing happens.
We’re talking crickets.
Tumbleweeds blowing by. No reads, shares, comments or interest...
And you’re feeling pretty devastated. You worked hard on that content. You really thought it was going shake up the niche and get people talking. But it seems like... your campaign has flopped.
So, nothing but crickets, what’s the problem?
Well, there are a few potential problems.
Let’s walk through the most common of these problems below, and as you create a piece of content, ask yourself these questions:
Does the piece possess a compelling title?
The title is one of the most important parts of your entire article, report, or other piece of content. If your title doesn’t grab your reader by the shirt collar and get their rapt attention, then you might as well not even bother writing the rest of the piece because no one will read it.
Your title should:
TIP: If you find these tips on how to craft a solid campaign without it flopping interesting, then you might like to read our post "The 12-Point Email Checklist To Use Before You Hit Send" (opens in a new tab).
Does the piece include a gripping opener?
The first few words and sentences are the next most important part (right after the title), because these are the words that are going to decide whether the reader is going to stick around or not. That’s why these need to pull your reader in and hold their attention.
Here are a few ways to do this:
- Ask a relevant question. E.G., “Have you ever lost weight, gained it back and then lost it again?”
- Show readers you understand their problem. E.G., “Not very many people understand what it feels like to have such high anxiety that the mere thought of attending a party sends your heart racing.”
- Tell a story. E.G., “John looked at his inbox for sales notifications and his face fell. He felt like he had been punched in the gut. He had sunk an entire paycheck from his day job into paid advertising, and he’d only made two sales worth fifty bucks…”
- Share a startling fact or statistic. E.G., “Last year, 610,000 people died of heart disease in the United States. If your diet and lifestyle have been lax lately, you could be next.”
- Offer a relevant quote. E.G., “Winston Churchill said, ‘Success is not final; failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.’
Which brings us to the next question…
Does the piece engage reader’s emotions?
If you want your readers to take some sort of action, then you need to put them in the right frame of mind. And usually, this means you need to engage their emotions in some way.
Here are two examples:
Did you build anticipation or curiosity for what’s coming?
The beginning of your content should build anticipation for what’s coming. If it’s a longer piece of content, you can sprinkle curiosity-arousing bits all through the content to keep people reading until the end.
For example, you might leave a cliffhanger at the end of a story like this: “So, what weird trick did I use to make $674 with five minutes’ worth of work? You’ll find out the surprising details in just a moment. But first…”
Here’s the next question…
Did you include a Compelling visual component?
Look around, and you’ll see that some of the most successful pieces of content online tend to have a visual component.
And that makes sense, right?
The rules may not be all in black and white but a really good graphic can get your reader’s attention. Even if you have a really good title, some people are scrolling on their phones and tablets so fast that they’ll never even see it.
A good image is different.
It catches the eye.
The brain can process an image much more quickly than it can plain text. So, when you create a relevant visual component and add to your content, you’re going to get people’s attention and hold it much more easily.
But – and this is important – the visual component needs to look GOOD. If it looks like a kindergartner created it, people are going to pass it by. Worse yet, they’re going to judge the quality of your content just based on that visual component. If you’ve got low-quality graphics, people are going to think you, your business, your products, and your content are low-quality too.
Yep, it’s totally unfair, but that’s just the way it works.
Fortunately, creating a polished visual presentation is a lot easier than you think, especially when you use a tool like Vizully. Vizully makes it point-and-click easy for anyone to create content that’s visually appealing.
You don’t need to hire a designer. You don’t need to fiddle Photoshop. You don’t even need to go looking for images.
All you have to do is use Vizully’s templates to get started, and then point and click your way to something with a whole lot of visual appeal.
Now let’s wrap things up…
Parting Thoughts
Are you making any of the mistakes revealed above? If so, be sure to fix them before you send out that piece of content you’re working on right now.
Pro tip here…
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