The most important content marketing lesson to learn as a content writer is knowing how to capture the attention of your reader with your content.
This will help you offer your brilliant ideas to your prospect making him/her look in your direction.
And it comes down to you getting their attention before you can turn them into a reader. First, you must let him know how good you are by giving them something of value.
Now that I have your attention, let’s dive into the article itself.
You’re about to learn how to get your reader’s attention.
Understand this, which is, your reader can’t pay attention to everything at the same time. Funny enough, that’s how the brain works. So, for your reader to understand, his/her brain will only focus on particular information at once.
However, attention is the capacity to screen out irrelevant things and decide the information that will enter, and stay, in our consciousness. Your attention decides what your brain focuses its energy on because your focus is only limited, meaning you can’t give your full attention to everything at the same time.
So, understand that your reader’s minds are selective. It’s then your work to give them a good reason why they should pay attention to your content instead of the other content out there.
Ways of Getting Your Reader’s Attention
The following tips will help you craft content that your readers will see and be attracted to your work.
1. Your First Sentence Matters
As a content writer, you must have this understanding that the first sentence is very important because it almost functions like a subheading. When your headline gets their attention, is then the work of the first sentence to maintain that interest.
That’s why is important for you to know their pain points, to include them into both your headline and first sentence. So, you must be good in keyword research to avoid using generic information, they find in other articles.
2. Show Them What You See
When it comes to creating content, your customers are the center of attraction.
And they won’t pay attention until you show them what you see.
So, you have to make your position very clear for them to see. And here is where your personal experience, storytelling, case studies, description, or anything that will position them to understand your message very well.
3. Make it Personal
It’s very important to make your writing personal.
Using interesting information can get their attention, and at the same time bring clarity, and bring understanding into your targeted client’s consciousness.
4. Make Use of Emotion
A perfect way to bring clarity to your content while making it personal is through the use of emotion.
This gives your clients a reason to talk about your business and also activates behavior and decisions to buy from you.
5. Follow Up Immediately
Once you’re able to get your reader’s attention, don’t waste it.
Capturing your reader’s attention is just like a boxer giving his opponent the first punch and when fails to land the next punch, he won’t be able to knock him out.
So, your second punch is the actual information and that is the reason you captured his/her attention at the beginning.
And when it’s valuable, then you have created a way for you to enter easily for more conversation with your content.
And when the information is not valuable, then know that it will be more difficult for you to capture their attention next time.
6. Make Use of Pictures to Get Attention
You must understand that not everyone loves long blocks of text. So, you need to use images that will make your reader pause for a while and continue reading your content.
Make sure that images are related to your topic, so while they pause from reading, you’re still able to keep and retain their attention.
Making use of an engaging image at the beginning of your content will bring more dynamics to your writing and add images to your content, where necessary.
7. Encourage Readers to Ask questions
Writing thought-provoking content will always hook readers prompting them to come back again and again. So, don’t be afraid of leaving your readers with some questions.
So, aim to make your content be the informative and conversational type that will interest your readers.
This will allow your readers to be part of your community because you used the opportunity to capture their attention.
Doing this will help the audience that will build your business and be the unpaid marketer of the same business.