Creating engaging content is hard but anything worth doing is difficult. Several direct benefits come from engaging content but you need to know if you are producing engaging content so you need to track it. In this post, we take a look at what to focus on to create engaging content, how to effectively measure it and why it is important.

Creating Engaging Content

To create content that readers want to engage with, writers need to do three basic things well:

Tell a story – In order to reach your audience you need to connect with them on an emotional level. By creating a well-structured contextually relevant story, readers are able to relate to the content. As with any story, you need to make a point, preferably a point that your reader cares about. This will get them thinking at a more emotional level that keeps them engaged in your piece.

In order to reach your audience at an emotional level, you need to know what they care about. This means that you not only need to know your audience but be able to understand what each segment of your audience values. Trying to tell a story that will connect with your entire audience at a deeper level usually results in superficial content that connects with no one.  This is where good research and well-developed personas can be very helpful.

Be credible and educational. – Once you have connected with your audience at an emotional level, increase engagement by connecting at an intellectual level. This means telling them something that they didn’t already know or providing a different perspective on something that they thought they knew.  This means that you need to provide original thoughts and perspective so you need to know your stuff. Readers will not engage with content that rehashes stale ideas they have seen many times before.

Make it easy to read – Making your audience struggle to read and comprehend your content will only motivate them to hit the back button. Organize and structure your copy so it is easy to read and scan.

Measuring Engagement

While we all strive to connect with our audience we can’t always hit the mark. To be more successful we need to measure how our audience is engaging with our content. With the competition for our attention constantly growing, we should all strive to improve our game. Measuring engagement is key to getting the most out of your content, but you need to make sure that you are measuring authentic engagement.

Some may think that page views are a good gauge of the success of any particular piece of content. By focusing on page views you are really just measuring how your audience is engaging with your title or headline. This is not all bad but if your audience is disappointed with the content once they click on a link, you will not only hurt your brand your content will fall in search engine rankings when they immediately hit the back button.

Tracing social shares is another way marketers might measure engagement but again this metric is misleading. The reality is that most people do not read the articles that they share. An academic study conducted by Columbia University and the French Nation Institute found that 59% of content shared on social media was never read by the person doing the sharing.

Measuring time on page, or the time a web page is open is also not a perfect measure of engagement. Just because an article is open in a browser does not mean that it is actively being read. Very often we have multiple browsers open jumping from one to the other. Many times a user will click away from an article without reading it without closing the window.  If you only measured time-on-page you would think the user is engaging with your content when really they are not.

Scroll depth is a much better metric for measuring engagement. Tracking scroll depth shows how far down the page a user scrolled to reveal more text. This tactic can also uncover patterns that reveal where you lose your audience. With this data, you can improve your writing.

The best way to know if you are connecting with your audience is if they are commenting on it. For a reader to comment on the piece they need to have read it, comprehended it and formed an opinion about it. By posting comments, your audience is also often revealing their identity, providing an opportunity for you to take engagement to the next level. Comments are the holy grail of content engagement.

Profiting from engagement.

Why should we pay so much attention to creating engaging content? There are a number of direct economic benefits.

Lower Advertising Costs on Social Networks

When companies create content that is engaging, it is less expensive to promote on social networks. Social networks leverage user generated content to drive advertising revenues. Consequently, if your content is valuable and engaging, it adds value to the social network so they are willing to reduce adverting cost to promote good content. LinkedIn uses a formula that considers the relevancy and engagement level and how much an advertiser is willing to pay to determine what content to display in a user’s feed.

Better Leads

Companies that create content that engages prospects will generate better leads that drive revenue growth. IDG released a study earlier this year that found that 85% of IT decision makers are more likely to consider a vendor that educates them throughout the process. Additional studies show that 62% of B2B technology buyers’ journey is done digitally. This means that buyers that are engaging with your content are educating themselves before making a purchase. A better-educated lead is one closer to a purchasing decision.

Greater Loyalty

Once a prospect becomes a customer, keeping and growing that relationship is an important driver for many B2B technology companies. Customer engagement is highly correlated to loyalty. Loyal customers not only buy more stuff from you but will recommend your offerings to colleagues. Referrals are the easiest deal to close.

The growing sophistication of the internet and the interconnecting and integration of products, services, and data has reduced switching cost significantly. Engaged audiences are not only more loyal but more willing to let you know what they want. This gives companies with high engagement rates the ability to respond quicker than their competition. In the world of digitization, an engaged community is perhaps one of the last sustainable competitive advantages.

Hopefully, this post was helpful and engaging. If you got the bottom please comment and engage.