[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ admin_label=”Top skinny IC Logo Section” fullwidth=”off” specialty=”off” transparent_background=”off” background_color=”#fce1c1″ allow_player_pause=”off” inner_shadow=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”off” padding_mobile=”on” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” make_equal=”off” use_custom_gutter=”off” custom_css_main_element=”@media only screen and (min-width: 1350px)||.page-id-25059 .et_pb_section_0, .page-id-25059 .et_pb_section_0 .et_pb_row_0 {||padding: 0 !important;||}” custom_padding=”0px||0px|” custom_padding_tablet=”50px|0|50px|0″ next_background_color=”#ffffff” custom_padding_last_edited=”on|desktop” global_module=”26126″][et_pb_row global_parent=”26126″ make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” use_custom_gutter=”off” padding_mobile=”on” allow_player_pause=”off” parallax=”on” parallax_method=”off” make_equal=”off” parallax_1=”off” parallax_method_1=”off” padding_top_1=”0px” padding_right_1=”0px” padding_bottom_1=”0px” padding_left_1=”0px” column_padding_mobile=”on” custom_padding=”0px|0px|0px|0px” custom_margin=”0px||0px|” custom_css_main_element=”@media only screen and (min-width: 1350px)||.page-id-25059 .et_pb_section_0, .page-id-25059 .et_pb_section_0 .et_pb_row_0 {||padding: 0 !important;||}” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” background_size=”initial”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_image admin_label=”IC logo Image” global_parent=”26126″ src=”https://iriscontent.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/IC-logo-horizontal-framed-e1468862028685.jpg” alt=”Iris Content logo” show_in_lightbox=”off” url_new_window=”off” use_overlay=”off” force_fullwidth=”off” always_center_on_mobile=”on” use_border_color=”off” custom_margin=”0px|0px|0px|0px” custom_css_main_element=”@media only screen and (min-width: 1350px)||.page-id-25059 .et_pb_section_0, .page-id-25059 .et_pb_section_0 .et_pb_row_0 {||padding: 0 !important;||}” url=”https://iriscontent.com” show_bottom_space=”on” _builder_version=”3.0.101″ align=”center” /][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ admin_label=”section” background_image=”https://iriscontent.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/bigstock-Blackboard-chalkboard-textur-15751904.jpg” transparent_background=”off” background_color=”#ffffff” parallax_method=”off” padding_mobile=”off” prev_background_color=”#fce1c1″ next_background_color=”FDF3E7″ _builder_version=”3.0.101″][et_pb_row admin_label=”row” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” background_size=”initial”][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”2_3″][et_pb_divider color=”#ffffff” show_divider=”off” height=”200″ divider_style=”solid” divider_position=”top” hide_on_mobile=”on” disabled_on=”on|on|off” /][et_pb_text admin_label=”Blog Post Title Text” background_layout=”light” max_width=”620px” text_font=”Cantata One||||” text_font_size=”72″ text_text_color=”#ffffff” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” custom_margin=”0px||0px|” text_line_height=”1.1em” text_font_size_last_edited=”on|tablet” text_font_size_tablet=”52″ _builder_version=”3.0.101″]
How Not to Bore Your Audience with Your Content Offerings
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There are millions of online websites, and all of them are competing for attention. More people use the Internet today than ever before. Along with that comes the realization that people tend to tune out a lot of the noise that they see or hear when they are online. They want to find exactly what they are looking for without being bothered with distractions. At the same time, when they land on a website or a content page, they want to be able to learn something from it without being bored.
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Illustration by ari-s via Bigstock
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Grab the Reader’s Attention in the First Few Seconds
People only glance at a content page for a few seconds before deciding whether they are interested or whether they want to move on. You’ve got to make the first few sentences as interesting as possible. You must be able to quickly provide some useful detail that will give readers a reason to continue reading. You have to give people something useful that will make them want to continue reading.
One way to do this is to find a statistic about the topic that people are unlikely to know. When doing so, you can link to the website where the information was originally published. Look for recent studies or reports that you can use to bolster your data.
Create an Interesting Title
The title is the first thing people see when they reach a particular article or blog. If the title is interesting, they will be more likely to want to read the entire piece. Make sure the title includes a problem or solution to a problem or concern. For example, if the article is about baby cribs, it may sound rather boring. Make it more appealing to readers by creating a title such as “5 Ways You Can Get Your Baby to Sleep through the Night”. This immediately sounds much more intriguing, and it’s more likely that your target audience will have more interest in reading the article.
Use Sub-Headings and Bullet Points
People love to skim articles, especially online. One of the best ways to keep people reading through your entire content is to utilize sub-headings and bullet points. These will effectively break up the content into smaller and more manageable bites. Keep paragraphs short and concise so people can read them more easily. Link your ideas from one paragraph to the next in order to create flow and interest throughout the article.
Bullet points are the ultimate way to make an article more easily readable. Bullets can be quickly skimmed, and people will garner useful details from them. However, make sure that you don’t overuse bullet points. Try to use only one set of bullet points per article or blog. Otherwise, the content begins to look like a shopping list.
Use White Space Creatively
The goal of content marketing is to provide useful information that people will read. If they won’t read it, you haven’t accomplished your goal. To make the content appear more appealing consider how it appears to readers. The page should not be crowded with words. Spacing should be used properly, and there should be enough room on the margins to ensure a nice look. Break up content into paragraphs and use photos or informational boxes to help make the page more readable.
Avoid Useless or Overused Information
Every portion of your content should provide something useful to readers. If you must rehash details look for new ways to present it. Become more creative in your presentation of details. Research the topics to find data that is current and use it in your content. Find a new angle that hasn’t been overused. Read and edit your work before you publish it. If you feel that part of it is unnecessary, you can replace that portion with different content.
Make Boring Topics More Interesting
Let’s face it; some topics are boring by nature. When you are writing about these types of topics, it can be difficult to come up with interesting writing to make the topic less boring. If you identify a particularly stale topic, it is up to you to try to punch it up for readers. There are several ways to do this. One thing you can do is try to find new and interesting facts about something related to the topic.
Look for topics that are related to your main topic and write about those. For example, if you are writing content marketing for a plumbing company, it can get boring to write about how the company will fix your broken pipe. Instead, think about related topics that people will be interested in. for example, you could write an article teaching people the top 5 things they can do to fix a water drip.
Add Photos or Videos
Adding photos or videos that are related to your article or blog can add more interest to your content marketing. You can find stock photos through online companies that supply royalty-free pictures for a small fee. Use a photo that is interesting, and that adds something to your content. Avoid boring or overused photos that only detract from your article because they could actually prevent people from reading further.
Content Marketing Tips
Providing useful and interesting information is the most important part of good content marketing. Review the content on similar websites to get an idea of what is good and what isn’t. It is important that you never copy or plagiarize content marketing from any other website. Create content that is long enough to completely cover the topic but not too long as to start to become boring or repetitive. Typically, blogs and articles should be no fewer than 500 words.
Make sure that you do enough research on the topic so that you have enough useful details from which you can draw. If you have excess information you can keep some of it aside for a future article. When you have a particularly large topic you can break it down into several different but related content pages.
Content marketing is a skill that can take years to master. Content marketing specialists understand how to write interesting and useful content while at the same time making sure that it is optimized for search engines. Sometimes your time and energy is best spent elsewhere while you allow a professional to complete the content that you need.
[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” use_custom_gutter=”off” custom_padding=”50px|||” padding_mobile=”on” allow_player_pause=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”off” make_equal=”off” parallax_1=”off” parallax_method_1=”off” column_padding_mobile=”on” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” background_size=”initial”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row admin_label=”row” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” use_custom_gutter=”off” custom_padding=”17px|||” padding_mobile=”on” allow_player_pause=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”off” make_equal=”off” parallax_1=”off” parallax_method_1=”off” parallax_2=”off” parallax_method_2=”off” column_padding_mobile=”on” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” background_size=”initial”][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”2_3″][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” use_custom_gutter=”on” gutter_width=”2″ padding_mobile=”on” allow_player_pause=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”off” make_equal=”off” parallax_1=”off” parallax_method_1=”off” parallax_2=”off” parallax_method_2=”off” column_padding_mobile=”on” custom_padding=”50px|||” custom_padding_tablet=”30px|||” custom_padding_last_edited=”on|tablet” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” background_size=”initial”][et_pb_column type=”1_2″][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row admin_label=”row” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” use_custom_gutter=”off” custom_padding=”17px|||” padding_mobile=”on” allow_player_pause=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”off” make_equal=”off” parallax_1=”off” parallax_method_1=”off” parallax_2=”off” parallax_method_2=”off” column_padding_mobile=”on” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” background_size=”initial”][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”2_3″][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_divider color=”#cc4315″ show_divider=”on” divider_style=”groove” divider_position=”top” hide_on_mobile=”on” disabled_on=”on|on|off” /][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ admin_label=”Blog post main Section” fullwidth=”off” specialty=”off” transparent_background=”off” background_color=”FDF3E7″ allow_player_pause=”off” inner_shadow=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”off” padding_mobile=”off” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” make_equal=”off” use_custom_gutter=”off” prev_background_color=”#000000″ next_background_color=”#c97824″ custom_padding_tablet=”50px|0|50px|0″ custom_padding_last_edited=”on|desktop”][et_pb_row make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” use_custom_gutter=”off” padding_mobile=”off” allow_player_pause=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”off” make_equal=”off” parallax_1=”off” parallax_method_1=”off” parallax_2=”off” parallax_method_2=”off” column_padding_mobile=”on” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” background_size=”initial”][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][et_pb_image src=”https://iriscontent.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/AIIIA.jpg” show_in_lightbox=”off” url_new_window=”off” use_overlay=”off” animation=”left” sticky=”off” align=”right” force_fullwidth=”off” always_center_on_mobile=”on” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” _builder_version=”3.0.101″ show_bottom_space=”on” /][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”2_3″][et_pb_team_member name=”Annie Ianko” position=”Chief Content Officer” background_layout=”light” facebook_url=”https://www.facebook.com/IrisWebContent/” twitter_url=”https://twitter.com/Iris_Content” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” custom_css_main_element=”box-shadow: 0 0 20px rgba(0,0,0,.1);||” _builder_version=”3.0.101″]
Annie has over 20 years of experience as an editor and content creator and manager. With work in television and written media, she has dedicated her past 10 years to learning the ropes of online content creation, from writing to editing, from SEO to content management.
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