The whole point of producing a steady stream of written marketing content is to capture more readers and refer them back to your company’s website, products and services, thus ensuring more hits, more conversions and, ultimately more revenue. When you can skillfully turn a boring topic into something interesting you can count on getting more backlinks to your site, which results in more traffic to your site and more profits.
In short, good copywriting can help ensure the success of your business and your financial security.But what do you do when you must write on a topic that seems about as interesting as watching the proverbial paint dry? (If you sell paint products for a living, you might even have to write on that very subject!) The following tips can help you avoid boring your target audience:
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Get the readers involved. How do you know what your readers find boring or interesting about the subject matter at hand? Ask them! Solicit their opinions on what aspects of your industry fascinate them the most (or least), and then tune your marketing content to suit their tastes. (Keep in mind, incidentally, that what they love to read about may not be what you love to write about, and be prepared to suffer this annoyance for the sake of increased traffic and sales.)
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Get other writers involved. Sometimes a subject gets a little stale simply because the same writer has been hacking away at it from time immemorial. If you have shouldered the entire copywriting burden for your company, maybe you could profit from bringing in another writer once in a while. If you don’t have the budget to hire or sub out to professional copywriters, consider asking a colleague or business partner in a related field to contribute an article to your blog. Fresh perspective can yield fresh interest!
Have fun with your topic. You can’t feel bored by a piece of writing that gives you a good laugh, so think about ways to inject humor into your subject matter. For example, do a little homework and dig up a collection of amusing quotes by famous people that apply to the topic you’re writing on. If you anticipate publishing your article during a particular season or holiday, look for ways to bend it around the time of year in a cute or enlightening way. Don’t forget to enhance your writing with a few engaging images!
Make use of multimedia. If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video can yield a king’s ransom when it comes to holding your readers’ attention. Insert a link to a YouTube video, or embed the video right into your article, and you’ve enlisted the power of moving pictures to bring your point home in a big way. After all, many people who don’t care to read love to watch movies and TV, so this technique can help those individuals stay interested and encourage them to stay with you.
Connect your topic to other topics. This tip enables you to break down the walls between a boring topic and the countless exciting, interesting topics that relate closely to it. Let’s say you write for a company that specializes in various types of wood. Does wood have any inherent interest? It does when you bring in all the fascinating things you can craft with it! Beautiful tables and chairs, expensive musical instruments, ornate wall decorations, sturdy outdoor decks and fences — these and countless other items can prove very interesting to write about and read about. By providing professional advice on what type of wood to employ for different projects, climates and applications, you can make that “boring” topic endlessly fascinating while displaying your industry expertise and hawking your company’s wares.
What kinds of topical connections can you make?
Maybe you’ve read the Personal Finance Interview on Being a Cubicle Renegade with Caleb Wojcik for Mint.com. If so, you might remember this quote from Caleb, “In order to live a simplified life, be financially secure, and have a successful career you must follow your passion.” Working in a career that you are passionate about makes life more fun and when you also solve other people’s problems you can write your own ticket to success. Just remember that every topic holds some interest for somebody out there. It’s up to you to look at your industry from new angles, draw on others’ input, and use all the modern media tools at your disposal to keep readers hanging on your every word.
Have anything to share? just leave it in the comments below.
William Reynolds
About the Author:
William Reynolds has worked as a freelance copywriter since 1997. William specializes in website content, ghost-blogging, print marketing content and audio/video scripts to help his clients with their promotional efforts and online reputation management.
William Reynolds
