Firstly, why is it important to engage your readers?
- You build relationships through engagement
- Your content will be shared through social media
- People are more likely to comment if they are engaged
- People will stay on your site longer
- People will come back to your site more often
- Prospective customers will trust you and will more more likely to contact you
So how do you go about engaging your readers? It’s not easy, but here are some tips:
Content is king!
How many times have we said that here at SMEketing? It’s the mantra we live by. Without good quality content, your site will never get ranked and will never achieve its goals. Writing high quality blog posts and articles that tackle industry issues, that solve problems, that educate and advise your readers is the key to your success. If you’re answering a problem via a blog post and it successfully helps one of your readers, there’s a very good chance that they’ll come back to your blog on a regular basis and they’ll also tell others about their experience.
Take time to think about your titles
We always talk about the important of subject lines in email marketing, but it’s also important to take this theory and apply it to your other content. The titles are the first things people read – they’re what pulls them in to read more. You’ll use the title when promoting your content in social media and many people will use the title as the anchor text if they’re linking to you. So make sure your titles has been designed to lure people in. And while you’re at it, try to add a good keyword in there too, so any links you do get have good anchor text.
Make it easy to comment and share
The Internet has changes rapidly in the last few years. People want to engage with you – so make sure you make it easy for them! If you want people to comment – make it easy, don’t force them to register with your site before they can do it. Likewise, if you want them to share it on social media sites make it easy – give them a button, let them click and share. Voila! Easy peasy. Remember, it’s an unfortunate fact that people are lazy. We want to be able to do things quickly and easily. No one wants to take the time to open their Twitter in a browser, cut and paste the link (sometimes going via a link shortening tool to do this first), cutting and pasting the title then sharing it. Install a plugin and make it easy for them, otherwise they won’t do it!
Remember to add a call to action
If you want readers to comment, want them to share or even want them to retweet a tweet, then you have to ask them to do it. Sometimes just saying ‘Pls RT’ at the end of a tweet will get people to retweet it. Likewise asking people to leave a comment also works.
Build relationships
If someone comments on your content (be it a blog post, and article or even through a tweet), then please say thank you. Manners cost nothing! Have you ever left a comment on a blog, only to get an email a day or so later saying someone had commented on your comment… you go back to that page to see that the blog owner has personally thanked you for your input. It feels good. It takes hardly any time at all to go back and say thanks. It also shows other would-be commenters that you appreciate any engagement you get.
To summarise, engaging with your readers is something that takes effort and time. But if you remember to be polite and appreciative and direct people to do the things you want then you’ll start to see an increase in engagement levels.
Have you had any success in getting people to engage with you and your content? Give us your tips in the comments below.