Content creation is no easy task, and capturing the attention of an audience is arguably one of the toughest jobs in marketing. With the digital sphere becoming more cluttered than ever, reaching the intended target audience with your content is only winning half the battle. Marketers have to work harder than before for their brand to cut through the clutter and capture the audience’s attention.

How do brands then capture the reader’s attention? The first challenge of crafting good online content is creating the ‘hook’, that is, a content angle that grabs attention and creates interest for the audience to consume and engage with your content. A good hook keeps the audience from scrolling past your content after chancing across it briefly. In SEO, this is otherwise known as “bounce rate”.

Here are some ways content writers can increase “dwell time” or “stickiness” of their content.

Tap on trends

Brands can tap on viral trends to draw attention to their content, even if the trend is not fully within the scope of their business. This can be as simple making a stand or posing a question that sparks discussions on the trending issue. A good example of a trend that numerous brands had tapped on is their position on the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite not being directly related to the healthcare industry, social content on how businesses or employees navigate during the pandemic has been woven into the digital content of many brands across various industries. Through tapping on trends, brands are able to grab attention of users who follow the topic elsewhere in addition to gaining traffic to their content.

Include interactive content

Brands that provide an interactive content experience are more successful in attracting attention and keeping users engaged. When an audience is given the opportunity to interact with content rather than passively consume it, attention kicks in. People enjoy learning about themselves, answering questions and receiving feedback in terms of a score or persona – as evident in the success of polling ads and platforms such as ask.fm. Introducing interactive assets that are intuitive and simple to engage with as part of the brand’s content marketing strategy can serve as a great hook that increases the time users immerse in your content, ultimately leading to increased trust in the brand and higher conversions.

State the value

Consumers are bombarded with ads on a daily basis. With shorter attention spans, content which provides no value is easily scrolled past. One tip would thus be for brands to state the value proposition or value of your content upfront. The clearer the value proposition is, the greater the chance to grab and retain the audience’s attention.

Brands can, for example, let the audience know upfront on what awaits them in a content piece and why they should invest their time in it. For example, a brand selling supplements can share educational posts such as health maintenance tips or health checklists for users to find out if they are at risk of a certain health condition. With the brand’s understanding of their buyers’ persona, content previews can then be crafted in a manner that appears applicable to the intended audience for them to read on.

Did we get your attention?

In fact, our article is the perfect example what we are trying to do here. If you need help in crafting or refining your content marketing strategy, be it for your website or social content, hit us up for a chat today!