13 Easy Ways To Engage Your Readers

What is the fundamental rule of content writing? To keep your readers engaged with your content and keep returning to your page for more.

This may seem easy, but over the years, most writers find it difficult to create entertaining content. There are several ways of handling this issue, but the most efficient is creating content with personality.

Want to know the different ways you can engage your readers as a content writer? Keep reading.

  1. Broaden Your Vocabulary:

Hey now, don’t get it wrong! No rule says that your content writing has to be filled with Shakespearean English, but improving your vocabulary and adding one or two great words to your writing is going to be amazing, as it not only gives your content life but it also helps your readers learn new words themselves. It’s okay if reading a dictionary is not your thing. That is why we have an online thesaurus to help you find great alternatives.

However, ensure that it’s on a low level. Do not fill your writing with ambiguous words, else your readers may perceive that you are proud and will get bored easily. Use great words wisely by not exceeding the grade-level expectationsof your audience.

  1. Have A Genuine Interest In Your Writing:

How can you create a spark of interest in your readers without being genuinely interested in it yourself?

If you perceive that the topic is dry and boring, do some research and find some interesting aspects of it. Just make sure that you are interested in what you are about to write before you start, and you will see your writing blossom.

  1. Include Stories:

Who wouldn’t love a good story? People love it. That is why ancient men tell it to their children gathered around a fire. Stories (anecdotes) can be a content writer’s best friend if used wisely. If you feel your content piece is boring, use anecdotes that are related to your writing.

The characteristic of a good content anecdote is that it must be entertaining as well as educative. Let it have a message that relates to your writing. It keeps your readers on your page expecting more.

  1. Read Entertaining Contents:

The same saying applies here, “You can never give what you do not have”. Most people compare content personality with their personality, but it shouldn’t have to be that way. By reading other contents, you get inspired by other writers’ styles and choice of words.

How to do this? – Read a lot of entertaining magazines. Subscribe to your favorite blogs, read them often and appreciate their use of words. Read amazing novels. You will become a better writer in no time and with not much effort.

  1. Ask rhetoric Questions:

The beauty of rhetoric questions is that it allows the reader to think and imagine, rather than just ingesting information. However, this must be used sparingly. Littering your content with a lot of rhetoric questions is a recipe for disaster and reader frustration. The formula for this is to use rhetoric questions per 500 words. This way, you will be able to keep their use in check.

  1. Format Adequately:

Formatting is a very essential component of content writing, as it plays a major role in engaging your readers. Make good use of paragraph spacing, bold and italicized fonts, bullet points and other features to make your content more appealing to the reader.  Create short paragraphs to keep your readers glued. Use italics to emphasize a word (you can also bold keywords for emphasis as well). Use symbols to convey more meaning. Use parentheses and dashes to add more information.

  1. Write The Way You Talk:

People do not just want to read content, they want to feel a personality behind that content. So content writers are always encouraged to use the same enthusiasm and energy that they talk with when they are in the midst of their friends.

However, you must learn to draw the line between formal and casual. If you are a legal or financial writer, starting your content with, “what’s up?” is a terrible idea. Asides that, maintain the enthusiastic tone in your writing. Communicating as clearly as you do in real life will automatically cause your readers to be more engaged.

  1. Create Suspense:

No, it’s not about spooky ghosts and you are not about to write a best-selling mystery or crime novel. You may have certainly read a novel that kept you glued to your seat/bed and the book till the last page. Now, try to infuse that suspense in your content, on a small scale.

Looking at your content, identify the greatest part of it or the main message and slowly engage the readers towards it little by little. Give your readers a taste of what is coming and slowly unravel it to create suspense.

  1. Learn The Grammar Rules, Then Break Them:

Most people were taught grammar rules in elementary schools that even the greatest writers do not even use (Did your teacher warn you against starting a sentence with “and”?)

While it is not advisable to forsake grammar and tenses, creating content should be casual. So learn the grammar rules, then know the ones to break to suit your style without causing chaos in the English world.

  1. Add Fascinating And Mind-blowing Facts To Your Work:

People read for basically two reasons- to learn and/or to be entertained. In writing, it’s very difficult to teach an uninterested audience, and the audience will not be entertained if they are not learning something new. Find out some fascinating facts and add them to your work to bring your readers back for more.

  1. Talk To Your Audience:

While it is good to write the way you talk, it is also good to write the way your readers talk. Reach out to them on different social media platforms, send them an e-mail and request a short interview.

Inform them of your upcoming topic plans and watch their response. Use the same language they used to write. That way, they would hear themselves in your words.

  1. Have Something Unique To Say:

The best way to infuse personality into your writing is to create something new and unique. This doesn’t mean that you must create fresh ideas anytime you want to write. You only have to either find something new or refurbish an already-existing concept in what a reader will enjoy.

  1. Let Your Writing Create An Emotional Response:

Research has shown that blogs post that creates an emotional response- be it anger, frustration, hatred, etc. get more response and shares than the ones that do not. Sharpen the overall tone of your writing, and use stories to your advantage.

Author Bio : Harindra Bhatt is a digital marketing specialist and communication expert. He also serves as a content developer with many years of experience. He has previously covered an extensive range of topics in various posts, including seo, social media, business and start-ups.