Craft writing that your audience wants to read
On average, a person will receive enough content every day to fill 174 full newspapers.
When you hit publish on your post, were you positioning your message clearly and in a way that people want to read? Or are you spending hours writing content that is easy for your readers to ignore?
I learned key personal and business writing tips from Ann Wylie during a conference she held in Denver. Here are the key takeaways she shared that will help you grab your reader’s attention and draw them into reading your content.
Make it about “you”
That doesn’t actually mean you, but rather the “you” in your audience.
The benefit is key to capturing your readers. The first thing you put should always be the nuggets of information they will find valuable.
On average, a person will spend 16 minutes a day reading for pleasure. Give them a reason to focus on your writing.
Increase the readability
The key is making sure readers can understand your writing. Most newspapers are written at a 7th-grade reading level, which means that readers are looking for something that is easy to read.
Avoid using these elements in your writing:
- Long paragraphs
- Long sentences
- Large words
Avoiding these elements will ensure your readers can understand the information quickly and easily.
Make Your Content Scannable
60% of your audience is illiterate.
This includes people who are illiterate, can’t read, and people who are alliterate, those who don’t read. Make it easy for those scanning your content by making your content easily scannable.
- Choose the right headline
- Include a deck that adds additional information for readers
- Add an informative image caption that gives information and doesn’t tell what the photo is about
- Add bullets to help break up content into scannable sections
- Bold key points
- Add clear subheads between content sections
- Label graphs and charts
- Use a pull quote; the more provocative the better
These visual cues will stick out to those scanning your writing and if done correctly will convey a summarized version of your story.
Make your writing stand out
At the end of the day, the goal of writing is to capture your reader’s interest and get them to read what you’ve written. If you’re not writing in a way that engages them, you haven’t accomplished your main goal as a writer.
Use these tips to help capture your readers attention and see what kind of response you receive. I’d love to hear your results below in the comments.
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Read more writing tips from Ann Wylie