When you’re creating an editorial calendar as a content marketer, it can often be challenging to put a fresh spin on evergreen content. Beyond writing about trending, newsworthy topics from Google News or refreshing your blogs for the current year, it’s challenging to keep writing about topics related to your industry if you’re not in a “sexy” industry like entertainment. But not to fear! We’ve outlined tactics to engage your readers, even if you’re in what some might call a “boring” industry.
Change your mindset
The first step in creating engaging content is realizing “boring” topics don’t exist. What hurts your content is how you present your topic. To increase the chances of your content being successful, you need to do three things:
- Understand your target audience’s persona.
- Create your editorial calendar based on your target audience’s needs.
- When you write, always keep your audience in mind.
Writing in a conversational tone is critical. Even a topic as exciting as the first humans landing on Mars can come across as dull if not done correctly. By writing in a conversational tone, you increase your chances of keeping them on your page, and better yet, exploring other areas of your site.
Tell, don’t sell
Storytelling is a powerful form of communication with science to back it up. According to neuro economist Paul Zak, our brains produce the stress hormone cortisol during our tense moments in a story which increases our adrenaline and focus. You can play into the psychological needs of your audience this way and keep them engaged in your content. Telling a story rather than selling your product, especially in the beginning, gives you a better chance at generating leads and ultimately conversions.
Build suspense
With your audience’s extremely short attention spans, building suspense is essential in every piece of content you create. Maintaining the balance of not giving away all of your points in the beginning and also informing them of what they’re going to read is tricky. But once you master it, your content can go from good to great.
Keep it simple
Some industries have more complex concepts or terminology than others. The trick is to break down this content into easy-to-digest pieces that keep your audience intrigued. To achieve this, try and limit your content to a single topic with a clear purpose. Using short sentences, breaking up paragraphs and eliminating compound sentences also goes a long way.
