If you want your content to get you more leads and conversions, it needs to be persuasive. Despite all your traffic, if your content is not persuasive, it will not move the reader to the next stage of the marketing funnel. Persuasive content, on the other hand, influences the reader’s behaviour in your favour.
Below we have outlined some simple yet effective methods to help you write more persuasive content. Some of these methods are common sense, but that doesn’t mean that businesses remember to use them. The key to applying these tips is to ask yourself questions throughout the process.
Grab the Reader’s Attention
To write persuasive content, you first need to hook the reader. You need to engage them with a compelling headline, introduction, and a clear outline of the issue you will solve. If you fail to grab the reader’s attention and interest in the headline and intro, they are unlikely to read the rest of your content and will not follow your calls to action.
Ask yourself:
Does this introduction grab attention?
Grab the reader’s attention by using relevant, surprising facts and statistics. Try to inform them about something they did not know already. If you can manage that, you imply that you have more information that they want and need.
Include in your intro a brief outline of what the rest of the piece of content will be about. Your readers may be looking for something specific. You may have included that in your content, but if you don’t let them know what’s coming next, then they might miss out on that information they wanted and turn to one of your competitors for answers.
Support Your Claims
You can boost your content’s credibility, thereby making it more persuasive, by supporting your claims and statements with evidence. Add links to the latest research and findings about your theme.
Ask yourself:
Have I supported my claims with evidence?
Whether or not the reader follows those links is up to them, but simply having them there shows the reader that you have done your research and that you have evidence to support it.
Empathise with the Reader
Empathy is key to persuasive content. All of your content marketing efforts should consider and show empathy for your audience, leads, and existing customers. You can add an empathic tone to your content by finding out more about your customer’s pain points. Of course, a prerequisite for this is understanding your audience.
Ask yourself:
Do I understand my audience?
Have I shown that I understand their pain points?
Once you understand the type of people that make up your audience, you can explore what makes them tick, what brings them joy, and what their struggles are. From there, you can write in such a way that appeals to their emotions and makes you stand out as an authoritative provider for their needs.
Keep it Simple
“It’s not about trying to crank everything you can into the article, it’s about delivering value and persuading people that you can solve their problem in as few words as possible.” – Tim Soulo, AHRefs
Unless you’re writing an academic report, keep your use of language simple and to the point. You can play it safe here by writing for the average Joe. If a reader can read at a much higher level, that’s fine – they can still read and understand your content. If, on the other hand, you fill your content with jargon and complicated language, you risk losing a large majority of your readers.
Ask yourself:
Is my writing clear and easy to understand?
Is it easy for the reader to get the message?
Many writers make the mistake of thinking that they will impress the reader by using fancy terminology and jargon. Usually, the opposite is true. Readers feel alienated and even frustrated if they can’t easily understand what you have written.
You can use online readability tools like Grammarly and Hemingway Editor to keep your writing clear and simple.
Use Social Proof
Your readers know that you are a business and that every business wants customers. Today’s consumers are agenda-savvy – they understand the difference between genuine care for the customer and when a business tries to reach big numbers for profit. Research has found that over half of customers can spot when a brand or business is not entirely truthful. (MarketingInsiderGroup)
Instead of speaking to them solely from a business perspective, show them what your existing customers have to say about you. Throughout your website and across your social, share customer reviews and testimonials.
Sharing reviews implies transparency. You can share both positive and negative reviews on your socials. Positive reviews, of course, will boost your reputation. However, you can also share negative reviews for your own benefit.
Ask yourself:
Have I shared the opinions and insights of past customers?
Have I added a human touch to my content?
If a customer leaves a negative review, you can publicly reply to it with a commitment to change and improve. This shows that you respect the customer. Regarding your content, your honesty and authenticity on your socials will shine through in your blog pages and other types of content.
Testimonials are always positive. You can add them to your website home page or your socials as social proof to boost your reputation, which in turn increases your content’s credibility, ultimately making it more persuasive.
A Final Tip
Keep writing. Good, persuasive writing requires practice. The more you write, the greater your intuitive understanding of what is persuasive and what is not. Further, use online metrics tools to see which pieces of content have been successful in the past. Compare those to your less successful content and note the difference.
Conclusion
By following the above tips, you should be well on your way to writing content that persuades your readers to take action. Once again, good writing takes practise, so keep going.
