Whether you’re a seasoned professional or a budding creator, here’s a comprehensive guide on how to create engaging content in 2024.
Over 90% of blog posts receive zero traffic.
Most social media managers say that a good average engagement rate is between 1% and 5%
90% of YouTube videos never reach 1,000 views.
Yet on the other hand there are tons of creators getting millions of views and their engagement is through the sky. What could they possibly be doing to get such attention in the realm of Digital era?
In the ever-evolving landscape of digital content creation, staying ahead of the curve is crucial. As we step into 2024, the demand for engaging content continues to rise, challenging content creators to innovate and captivate their audience through their talents and amazing minds.
We’ll provide some specific tips and How-To’s for optimizing your social media regardless of the platform. So, Dive in folks, its time to beat 2024 challenges.
Create engaging content with these tips.
Know Your Audience, Target their pain points
It doesn’t matter which platform you use for content creation, there is MUST need to have a substance behind your idea for it to do well on search engines.
Content marketing is designed to attract your ideal audience by answering to their questions and solve their problems.
Every individual search for a problem solver on google, Bing or other search engines. Hoping that somebody on the other side of this planet might be facing the same issue and how did he sort it out.
Understanding your audience is the foundation of creating engaging content. In 2024, personalized and targeted content reigns supreme.
When there are so many challenges your audience face each day and there are thousands of other content creators trying to prove their point by providing solutions, creators often run out of content ideas.
As a result, the audience find it less relevant and effective prior to their need and stops engaging further. Content creators may experience boredom with their chosen topics, leading them to explore parallel subjects to fulfill their creative desires.
However, it’s crucial to recognize that your audience likely follows you for a specific topic. Switching topics can diminish audience engagement and they might stop visiting your page if you’re not relevant to their needs.
To maintain engagement, focus on your chosen subject and utilize your content to address frequently asked questions from your audience.
Here are some ideas you can use to check what your audience is talking about and what their pain points are:
1. Use a Social Listening tool: Track keywords online by using Awario and Brand24. Its also very helpful in setting up alerts and know what important conversations you’re missing out in the industry.
Leverage analytics tools and audience insights to identify your audience’s preferences, behaviors, and demographics. Tailor your content to address their needs, interests, and pain points, making it more relatable and valuable to them
2. Audience Intelligence tool: Utilizing tools like SparkToro can help you identify the media your audience consumes and their online hangout spots. This data is invaluable, enabling you to participate in those conversations and engage with your audience individually.
Even if you opt not to employ an audience intelligence tool, actively seeking out where your audience congregates online is essential for effective communication.
3. Talk to your audience: Ultimately, engage directly with your audience by having conversations over the phone to discuss their pain points and challenges.
One-on-one discussions offer valuable insights, allowing you to delve deeper into their struggles through follow-up questions.
If phone calls are not feasible, consider sending out surveys to your email list to inquire about their pain points.
Actively engage in your comment sections and respond to their never-ending problems with your knowledge and let them sink in your content.
Create Content that Transcends Standard Advice
No advice is the best advice, for some it might work and some couldn’t relate to it because every individual out there is facing the same problem under different consequences. Many creators make this common mistake by providing “Best practice” advice.
The problem that cannot be ignored here is that your competitors are doing the same by discussing the best practice advice and you never know that your audience had already gave it a shot and it didn’t work out.
It will result in low engagement overall.
So, when you’re creating your content, address the issues with traditional best practices and the pitch in personal stories, case studies and real-time data to offer perfect solutions.
Its not always about the best formatting or grammar – its about the authentic advice that your audience seek.
Use conventional tone and visuals
Avoid creating content in a textbook style since most people dislike reading or listening to such formats. Keep your content tone conversational to prevent any friction in understanding.
If your audience encounters difficulty in grasping your content, they are likely to exit. Visual aids, such as infographics, graphs, and charts, are beneficial as they efficiently convey information with minimal effort.
Another benefit of using conversational language is that it helps you develop a stronger relationship with your target audience faster. And the faster your audience trusts you, the faster you’ll be able to convert them into customers.
Repeat And Refine On What Works
At last, once your got your particular content that reflects your audience, go ahead and create similar content to get a hold on their attention.
Many content creators find something that works and then try other new things to replicate the results. However, your top performing content is the recipe for success with your target audience, so create more content using that format and on that topic.
Consider republishing your content multiple times, as only a fraction of your audience probably sees it the first time. Even if they did, there’s a high likelihood they’ve forgotten about it. Reposting can significantly contribute to achieving positive results again.
If you’re posting content that never gets out of trend, be sure to update it from time to time.
How To Create Engaging Content for Social Media
Post Consistently With The Same Format
Unlike some other content formats, it’s essential to post consistently on social media as most posts are only shown in your audience’s feed for hours.
Therefore, if you aren’t posting content consistently, your audience will forget who you are and quit engaging.
To ensure you’re consistently posting content, create a content calendar using a tool like Hootsuite and then assign different steps of the content creation process to various team members.
Or, if you’re doing all of it yourself, create milestone deadlines for yourself. For example, complete the written content by a certain date and then complete the graphics for the post on a specific date.
Repurpose Top Performing Content
Social media content requires you to post consistently because the lifespan of a post is only a few days. However, this also means you can repost the exact same content every few months.
So track your engagement analytics and identify the posts that generated the most engagement and then plan to repost three to five of those posts per month.
Use The Platform’s Preferred Content Format
Social media platforms often promote content that utilizes their new features. For instance, when LinkedIn introduced carousels, it prioritized showcasing such content.
Therefore, generating more carousel content can enhance your reach and engagement on the platform.
Engage With Your Audience
Social media is called “social” for a reason. It’s designed to be a two-way engagement platform, so be sure to respond to comments on your post to build legitimate relationships with your audience.
Talking to your audiences makes them feel appreciated and involved in your cause. Never let those comments go in vain, people comment their opinions and ask questions that bothers them in certain way.
Make sure to be there Go-To man for their problems and respond accordingly.
Study Competitors’ and Influencers’ Top Performing Content
Finally, if a specific topic or type of content is working for your competitors, don’t try to reinvent the wheel – just use that as inspiration for your content strategy.
You can use a tool like Buzzsumo to identify the most popular influencers in your industry and even track their top performing content.
How To Create Engaging Content for Blog
Bog content, and specifically SEO-driven blog content, has earned a reputation for being boring and shallow. However, you can still create content that’s both engaging and well-optimized for search engines by using the tips below.
Invest in your writing skills
There are plenty of copywriting tips to keep readers engaged, but the real essence of great copywriting is addressing the specific problems your audience is facing, explaining why their current method for solving the problem isn’t working, and then offering a more effective solution.
Many people believe you have to have outstanding storytelling skills or excellent sentence structure to keep a person’s attention. But the reality is that the most interesting thing to your reader is the solution to their problem.
So just providing a great solution will make your copy more compelling than about 90% of the content online.
However, you can use copywriting techniques to frame the solution in a more compelling format.
Add visuals and graphics
Enhance reader engagement and improve the overall user experience by incorporating visuals and graphics. As you peruse this post, notice how the graphic above, illustrating the “pain point > solution > proof” framework, simplifies the concept, making it more accessible than if presented solely through text.
Contrary to popular belief, the more graphics you include in your content, the more likely people are to actually pause and read it.
You can also use a free tool like Canva to create your graphics.
Easy to Read Blog structure
Similar to incorporating graphics, carefully laying out the structure of your content to make it easier to skim will also help increase engagement.
Some tips to make it easier to read include:
- Adding bullet points
- Bolding and italicizing important phrases
- Using short sentences and keeping paragraphs under 3-5 lines
- Using subheadings
- Adding a sticky table of contents
- Comment Section:
Monitoring spam comments may be annoying, but people love interacting with the content creators they follow. So even though most blogs don’t offer comments today, consider turning the comments section back on.
In addition, your readers’ comments are excellent feedback on your content. You’ll also be able to better understand what content topics resonate with them, their pain points, and who your content attracts.
Finally Make sure to: Stay Trendy, But Authentic: While staying on trend is essential, authenticity remains paramount. In 2024, audiences are drawn to genuine and relatable content.
Balance trending topics with your unique voice and perspective. Be transparent, share behind-the-scenes glimpses, and showcase the human side of your brand to build trust and loyalty.
To create engaging content in 2024 is an exciting blend of art and science. By understanding your audience, embracing interactive formats, prioritizing visual storytelling, mastering micro-content, cultivating community engagement, and staying authentic, you’ll be well-equipped to captivate your audience in this fast-paced digital era.
Embrace innovation, stay adaptable, and let your creativity soar as you embark on the journey of crafting irresistible content. BE WISE.
