Best Practices For Making Any Piece of Content More Engaging

According to one recent study, more than 3/4ths of all marketers say that the most frequent level of engagement - and the most critical - occurs in either the middle or end stages of the marketing funnel. This, in essence, is why the quality of your marketing collateral could not be more important in the modern era.

Keep in mind that customers who are fully engaged tend to represent a massive 23% share of your company's total profitability, revenue and potential relationship growth - at least when compared to the "average" customer, according to Gallup.

So based on all that, we know WHEN your customers are the most engaged and we know WHY focusing on this is so important. The next question becomes - HOW, exactly, are you supposed to guarantee that your content is as engaging as possible? How can you know that the Infographic or presentation you just created is the best possible form of itself that it can possibly be?

Thankfully, the answer is simple. You just need to keep a few key things in mind.

1. The Key to Engagement Rests Within

If you really want to take any piece of content and make it more engaging, you need to think about your customer before you think about that content, to begin with.

In essence, the next time you sit down with a tool like Visme to start work on that next big presentation, stop and take a deep breath. Think about the people you're trying to reach. Think once again about what they like and dislike. Then, think about what stage of the marketing funnel they're in and what they need to know at this particular point.

If you really want to take any piece of content and make it more engaging, you need to start with the customer and work your way back to the content. Don't start with the presentation and hope that it finds an audience.

Recommended: 21 Key Pillars You Need to Create a Viral Content [Infographic]

More often than not, it probably won't. Make every piece of content from the customer's perspective. The added benefit of this is that it also makes your content naturally more timely, as you're offering insight into an issue that is pressing in their minds right this very second.

Another great way to make any piece of content more engaging is to practice the age-old art of brevity wherever possible. You need to remember that the shorter something is, the more effective it is - and the more naturally engaging it is as a result.

We've written in the past about how every piece of content you create should always begin with a story that you need to tell at this particular moment. Any element that doesn't feed directly back into the main idea of the story shouldn't be included in the first place. You're only muddying the idea that you're trying to get across, moving farther away from your goal and not closer to it.

To return to the example of creating a more engaging presentation, think about which of these two options you would rather see as a reader:

• Page after page in the presentation explaining a recent study you just found or conducted, breaking down each data point and relationship in great detail, or
• All of those ideas expressed in exactly one slide by way of a visually interesting and compelling

On the surface, both of these two things are getting you to the exact same destination: at the end, people understand the study you just conducted and why the results are so important. But while one goes into an almost excruciating amount of detail, one cuts straight to the heart of the matter - and allows you to rely on the time-honed technique of "show, don't tell" to boot.

Yes, the latter means that your presentation is going to get shorter. But it's also going to get more engaging, too. People still get all the critical insight they need without the fluff. Besides, if your presentation runs too long a significant amount of your readers aren't going to finish it to begin with - which is a situation you absolutely want to avoid.

Brevity can also apply to the format you choose for a piece of content, too. Is that presentation you created a chore to get through, no matter what you try to do and how many visuals you try to include? Maybe that's a tell-tale sign that you've chosen to express your story in the wrong format. Maybe you had an idea that you thought was perfect for a presentation, but was really destined to be an Infographic all along.

Don't fear this type of thing happening. Lean into it and embrace it. Your content (and your customers) are going to thank you for it.

2. Engagement is the Soul of Marketing

Again, it's hugely important for you to remember that every single piece of content you create needs to be as engaging as it can possibly be. You spend all that time working on an Infographic and push it out into the world.

If it doesn't get a reaction out of someone - if it doesn't motivate them to take your desired step or learn more about your brand, your products, and your services - does it really exist at all?

3. Technically yes, but by all accounts no.

Engagement is one of the most critical factors that you need to always keep at the forefront of your mind when creating ANY piece of content.

Nothing is "too small" for you to think about on these terms. But as you can see, taking any "adequate" piece of content and transforming it into the most engaging version of itself is probably a lot more straightforward than you even realized.

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