How to create a compelling content that stands out!

3 easy steps I follow in creating compelling content.

My job as a Communications Lead requires creating contents mostly targeting diverse group of audiences across the globe. To some extent, to come up with a compelling content that is easily relatable is a bit of a challenge especially when it is needed within number of days, or worst, within limited number of hours.

In every content I create, I aim to catch people’s attention to spend time to it. However, it is always a challenge on how you can possibly stand out and get your words noticed.

In this situation, apart from using plain English and ‘humanizing’ the content, I follow 3 easy steps in creating a compelling content.

1. Starting with 'The Hook'.

It is important to catch the attention of the readers quickly. It is like going into a bookstore and you are browsing through some newly released books and you do not have the luxury of time to stop and look at every single book. Highly likely, you will only take the book that has a catchy title and cover design. With constant stream of contents specially in digital media, for a content to stand out, it needs to have an ‘attention-grabbing’ headline – one that offers value in exchange of the reader’s limited time.

The question now is to how to create a post headline that will surely catch the readers attention quickly? And here I say, use the 4-U rule.

a.   It must be unique. Something that will lead the reader to pop an imaginary bubble thought saying, ‘I have not seen something like this before’.

b.   It must be ultra-specific. A headline apart from being unique should specifically tell outright what the content is all about.

c.     It has to be urgent. Something that will require the user to act on it by grabbing, clicking, looking or reading through it.

d.   It has to be useful. How it will be of use to the person reading it – will it provide some inspiration or maybe tips that can be applied.

Chances are, you won’t be able to cover all of these four U’s, but if you used at least two of them, you should be able to come up with a strong and interesting headline. Lists post (e.g. 3 steps in creating a compelling content) normally performs well as it is ultra-specific to 3 easy steps and it offers useful tips to writers or content creators.

One helpful tip. Once you are able to come up with the headline, choose a lead photo to best illustrate your headline in some way which will appear when you post your content in the social media to make it more eye-catching.

In the hook, you can grab attention with a memorable story, a fact or a question. For instance, ‘The three C’s that steals joy in your life!’

2. The body of the message.

When you are done with creating ‘the hook’, now it’s time to create the body of the message. Readers normally look for a different perspective in every content. In this case, storytelling has been a popular choice among writers and content creators.

Stories add a different dimension to writing which provides an illustration and structure of your main points. The body take your readers on a journey. In this post, I share the steps I follow in creating a compelling content and how it will help us to increase interest and readership once these steps are implemented.

However, even if you are able to write a compelling or incredibly helpful post, people might still not stay around to read through the content. Most people skim through to see how long the content is or whether it will benefit their time.

At this point, you can follow another 3 easy steps to make your post more convincing to read.

a.   Break your points to subheadings and use sectioning. Subheadings provides an outline a reader can follow, and short sections make a long post easier to digest.

b.   Use short paragraphs and sentences. Long texts are very intimidating. Normally, I try to write paragraphs that are not more than three to four sentences.

c.    Evaluate your post. It wouldn’t harm to read the content many times and evaluate typos and grammatical error. 

3. Introduce a call to action.

Your aim with your content is to take them on a journey. The big question afterwards is ‘what should they do with the information they just read?’. I call my conclusion section as ‘What’s the gist?’ or ‘What’s next?’. It is where I normally emphasize the lessons of my post and provide a clear call to action to follow. It is where I have an option to redirect them to a link to know more information, an email to sign up for or even strong ending message when they get back to what they do. Sometimes, I ask people to leave a comment if they found the article helpful.

What’s the gist?

You don’t need to become a professional writer to come up with a compelling content. You don’t need to use fancy or highfalutin words to make it sound and look great. Most of the times, articles written concisely in plain and simple English connects better to the readers. Most importantly, be clear on what’s in it for the readers.

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