Remington Begg
There are a lot of metrics to look at when analyzing how successful your current posts are. Inbound marketers can easily look at everything from how many people click from a various social media outlet to the post, to how long people stay on the page, to how many people then share the post. While these engagement metrics are important, determining the impact of your blog posts goes beyond that. With easy-to-understand programs like Crazy Egg or Hot Jar, you can also tell if your users are reading the entire page before they leave. Their heat mapping elements will tell you exactly where people stop reading, and where it goes dark.
This is important for several reasons. Most importantly, your number of clicks may be misleading. If 100 people viewed your blog today, you may want to pat yourself on the back. But what if 80 of those people read only the first paragraph and lose interest? Obviously, there’s still something missing. The scary part for marketers is that those 80 people are less likely to return to read another post, since they’ve already been disappointed once before. So, with that in mind here’s a few things to increase the number of people reading your entire post:
Develop the Voice Your Buyer Personas Want to Read
Your content pieces should be written in an engaging way that speaks to your buyer persona(s). If you’re writing to stay-at-home moms about potty training tips, use language and jargon that would speak to them. If you’re writing to college-age males who are looking for a new place to eat sandwiches, the verbiage you use will be a lot different. Your company might not be modern and fun, like Impulse Creative, but that’s alright. You’re not trying to mimic anyone else’s brand voice, you’re trying to find what your own brand voice is and make sure it clearly reflects what makes you you.
Use Bullet Points
Nothing will turn people away like opening a link and seeing 2,000 words staring back at them, looking like a textbook. Break up what you need to say into easily manageable, b
ite-size pieces. Places these into bullet points and allow people to skim your blog for the information that is relevant to them. If your bullet points are answering their question, they will read the entire blog.
Incorporate Images
Aside from it being eye-catching and inviting, images also help bullet points to break down large chunks of texts into much more digestible parts for the eye. Remember that your readers, and all people, are very visual in nature. Studies have shown that readers are four times more likely to engage and comment in a post with an image on it than that which only consists of plain black and white texts.
Take Advantage of Blog Templates
Regardless of the CMS you use, your will probably have some sort of template to help you build a piece of content that is pleasing to the eye. Don’t just put text onto a blank page and post it, you can do better than that! Instead, experiment with headlines, titles, side bars, hero images, and more until you find a template that looks great and works well for your readers.
Just a few simple things will increase the readability of your posts, thereby boosting your analytics in important areas like time spent on site and returning visitors. There’s so much more to content marketing, and inbound marketing, than just posting something online and waiting for the Leads to roll in. Don’t get overwhelmed, let Impulse Creative help! Download our free eBook The Beginner’s Guide to Inbound Marketing now for expert tips and advice.
