How to Write Content That Moves People

David Beebe, the CEO of Beebe Content & Co. once said that “Content marketing is like a first date. If all you do is talk about yourself, there won’t be a second date.”

As Beebe’s quote suggests, today’s savvy online audience typically appreciates content that features a natural balance between describing the subject at hand and understanding who they are. If you only focus on your own goals—whether in terms of making a sale or even driving them to free gated content—you risk losing them fairly quickly.

You Can Write Content That Moves People

Regardless of your type of business, you can write content that moves people to keep reading, actively engage and ultimately take action. This is also the content they will SHARE through their social media contacts…a double win!

Here are four ways to write content that moves people:

• Learn Who Your Readers Are and Write Directly to Them. Most readers can smell boilerplate content—focused on a combination of baby boomers, the generation x crowd and millennials—a mile away. Understand your target audience, and write directly to them. Learn and moderately—and organically as possible—use relevant pop culture references, and their terminology, to convey your organization’s message.
• Provide Answers to Questions Your Readers May Have. Perhaps your readers have typed in a question into their search engine, and your article comes up at the top of the page of results. Make sure that your content provides answers to backup your standing so you can keep them on the page and engaged.
• Focus on Your Audience and Not Just on Your Organization. Again, no matter how interested a reader may be in your brand or product, they do not want you to write about all the virtues of your company to the point of ignoring their needs. Focus on the ways that your brand can help improve their life in some measurable way. Consider Southwest Airlines, which is a brand that focuses on its core message of putting customers first. The airline relies on its core values, which they know are important to their customers who put so much faith in them, to speak directly to them with sincere and meaningful service.
• Create Actionable Content. Pair your informative, relevant and sincere content with possible actions. If you are writing a blog post about improving social media skills, for example, recommend ways to attract new followers by posting links to their own engaging content and by sharing their follower’s work, as well.

Start Writing Moving Content

Writing meaningful content that moves your writers can become a great tool for your business. Hopefully these tips can help you get started.

Contact me to learn more about writing content that moves people.