In the sea of craptastic content that are published online every single day, you need to come up with a technique that would enable you to grab your audiences’ attention and compel them to read your content through and through.
Of course, there’s no way you’ll be able to do that if you’re publishing the same ‘ol dry, boring, mediocre, or lifeless content that everyone is doing.
You need something that will punch them in the face.
Something that’s so amazing that they’d want to read your article for future reference, again and again, helping you increase your website’s traffic.
Allow me to share with you six tips that you can use to create an attention-sucking content that will increase your website’s traffic.
Let’s hop right in.
#1. Make your first sentence count
Grab em’ by the collar and scream at their faces “Look at me!” — that’s how attention-grabbing your first sentence should be.
If your first lines aren’t that catchy, then good luck to your articles competing with over 3.1 million articles that are published daily. With how noisy the internet has become, your readers are bound to click away if they aren’t captivated by your first lines.
Allow me to share with you two of my favorite strategies to writing a captivating first line:
1. Start in the middle of your story. It’ll get the readers curious about how your story started, and how it will end. This will entice them to continue reading your article. Notice how this article started with, “Not again?!?”
2. Start with a statistic. At this point, you must be imagining how an article would look if it started with a statistic or a poll of some sort.
Boring.
That’s probably how you imagine it to be.
While you might be right in thinking that (unless the statistic shared is staggering), you need to realize that for your readers who are in need of more information about what they are trying to research, they’d be euphoric with seeing the figures. It gives them the impression that your piece is well-researched, therefore, worthy of being read.
#2. Add a clear call-to-action asking them to bookmark your article
Call-to-actions can spell the difference between your users clicking away after reading your article, or them sharing and bookmarking it.
The thing is, if you don’t tell your audience what to do after reading your content, the chances are good that they’ll simply click away — even if your article is well researched and it provides tons of value.
That’d be such a shame, don’t you think?
To increase the chances of your audience sharing your article or bookmarking it for future references, I urge you to add an effective call-to-action in your post.
When you have a call-to-action, your audience won’t have to wonder what to do next after reading your article since you’ve already told them what they’re supposed to do. They have only to follow your instructions.
#3. Tell a story. One that they can relate to.
“Oh … I can certainly relate to that!”
Have you ever found yourself saying something like that while reading an article all because the writer described a similar scenario that you also went through in the past?
If you answered with a “yes,” then here’s my next question: Did you stop reading the article mid-way, or did you continue reading the entire piece?
If you are like most people, then your answer would have been the latter.
The logic behind the strategy is simple.
When you tell a story that your audience can relate to — since they’ve experienced something quite similar in the past — it will entice them to read further because they’ll become curious about how everything will unfold for your character.
“Will the character’s fate be similar to mine?”
“I hope the character ends up victorious.”
These are the kind of thoughts that will fill your audiences’ minds (albeit subconsciously for some).
Of course, they’ll never figure out the answer to their questions unless they read your article to the very end.
#4. Talk about their frustrations
This tip is somewhat similar to the previous one; however, the impact of this strategy on a psychological level is far more powerful.
On tip number three, you can share scenarios like staying overnight at your friend’s place, you eating a hearty meal prepared by your mother, or you cuddling your cute Yorkshire Terrier — all of which are pleasant experiences (or neutral at best).
When you talk about your audiences’ problems and frustrations, however, the kind of impact you can make to their minds become even more intense.
This strategy is so effective, that seasoned sales copywriters would almost always include this element when writing their sales copies.
Imagine your website getting hacked, and you being oblivious about the next steps that you should take to retrieve it. As you click on an article that you found on Facebook, the article’s first line greets you with, “My website was hacked!” The succeeding lines will then say, “I can’t sleep. I feel helpless about what the hacker can do to my site, and I’m losing bajillions of sales!” How would you feel (or react) as someone who’s facing the same exact problem and frustrations?
You’d be hooked, right?
You will want to read the next lines to see how the character/writer managed to solve his frustrations since you are getting emotional from being reminded of yours as well.
What makes this tip so amazing is the fact that it doesn’t just get your audience hooked to reading your content, but it also makes them emotional. And when they are in a state of being emotional, that’s when it’s easier to influence them to take action on whatever action points you want them to do (e.g., buy your product, comment on the post, share the post).
That being said, not only will your audience end up reading your entire write-up, but your chances of influencing them to take action on your offers drastically increases as well.
#5. Ask questions. Involve them in your write-up.
When you ask your readers a question, several things are going to happen:
- They’ll think about the answers to the question you’re asking them.
- It’ll make them feel important because you are telling them that you are keen on hearing their opinion on the matter.
- They’ll feel that you’re conversing with them because you aren’t just vomiting words from the start to the end of the article; you’re actually asking them to converse with you.
Looking at the points that I shared above, I’m sure you’ll realize how using the tip can easily get your audience hooked. After all, asking your readers several questions will make them feel involved. Of course, the more involved they feel, the higher the chances of them not clicking away.
This tip isn’t for the faint of heart.
I’d also like to remind you that you can suffer some backlash should you use this strategy. However, if you do this right, not only will your readers want to read your articles, they’re even going to subscribe to your news feeds so they can get updates from you.
That’s how much of a double-edged sword this strategy is.
The strategy’s core is transparency.
If you’re like me, then you love people who are transparent. When you’re talking to someone who isn’t hiding anything, you’d feel safe with the person, you’d know that you aren’t going to be scammed or tricked, and most of all, you can relate to the person should he/she share the same weakness that you’re struggling with as well.
The last bit is important. Because when your readers start to realize that you’re just like them — or at least, you’re struggling with the same things that they are struggling with — it leads them to think that you are their advocate.They’ll see you as one of them and not some business owner who is only interested in getting them to open their wallets.
They’ll see you as one of them and not some business owner who is only interested in getting them to open their wallets.
What’s next?
What content creation strategies are you using to get more website traffic? If you have ideas that you feel are worth sharing, then please use the comments section below.
