Lead Your Online Readers to Victory 3 out of 10 Times
Want to produce compelling web content that guides your readers to great success? Want at least 3 out of 10 readers to actually finish that blog post that took 6 hours and as many stiff drinks to compose?
Then dust off your courage. Get your bravery outta the garage. Be the leader your parents always suspected you could be!
Sure, we aren’t all natural born leaders. If that were the case the world would be without followers, and that would make high school an even more confusing time.
But even the most pathetic and feeble of us can still lead. Even if we teach people how to write optimized web content for a living, we can still lead.
It’s true.
By embracing a few basic principles of leadership in your writing, you can lead your readers to victory at least 3 out of every 10 times. And I’ll explain how. So who’s coming with me!
Motivate your readers with a PROMISE
No one volunteers to wander aimlessly through a graveyard in the middle of the night. Most won’t even wander through a Wal-Mart parking lot after sunset. Too dangerous. Too spooky. Too much on TV.
So there simply must be a motive. A reason to embark on such a perilous adventure. A good cause to abandon the couch.
Think of the internet as that spooky Wal-Mart parking lot. And think of your readers as the sensible folks who won’t go strolling about the abandoned shopping carts just for the heck of it.
They won’t read just anything. So it’s imperative you offer a promise that explains the ensuing mission. That one thing that compels otherwise rational readers to follow you into the uncertain heat of the night.
Remember to introduce your promise right away – in your title if possible – and to reinforce it often.
Make it utterly clear from the outset. You can’t frolic down the road and expect people to follow without any inclination of where they’re headed. This isn’t Forrest Gump. This is real life. Ok, it’s the internet. But still.
Guide your readers with a COMPASS…Or a sweet MAP!
You know why everyone follows Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean? It’s not because he’s a heroic leader. And it’s not because he’s played by Johnny Depp, a guy who just about everybody digs.
They follow Captain Jack Sparrow because he has what they don’t – a super secret pirate compass!
Only by the navigation of this sweet compass can all the pirates get to the secret treasure, or the secret ship, or the secret Keira Knightley, or whatever secret thing it is they’re desperately searching for in those movies.
So get a secret compass…Or at least pretend to have one.
Tell your readers that only you can guide them to the treasures they seek. For some, that compass might be your expertise on a particular subject matter. For others, it might be an in-depth statistical analysis only you have performed, or an exclusive interview that only you have secured. Perhaps it’s a witty sense of humor or an especially unique point of view that only you boast.
Just give them something, for crying out loud.
Offer your readers an occasional park bench
Reading a blog post shouldn’t be like watching Seven Years in Tibet. Don’t make your readers suffer just because your post was a bad idea from the get-go and you have no idea how to wrap things up.
Nor is it like ripping off a Band-Aid or taking a shot of tequila. It’s not an all-or-nothing proposition.
If you write web articles that are 1,800 words of uninterrupted single-spaced thought, no one will read them, no matter how brilliantly composed and lucid they are.
It’s just too daunting. Too much to digest.
So divide it up. Make it a 7-course dining experience.
Offering distinct headlines divides your optimized web copy into sections and assure your readers that they needn’t consume it all at once, that it’s cool if they want to nibble on it one section at a time. Maybe have a drink and regale their friends with tales of collegiate debauchery. Whatever.
Doing so provides them the necessary endurance to complete the entire meal. And by the time they finish the last bite, they’ll be satisfied. 3 out of every 10 of them might even be thankful.
Because it was you – yes, you! – who delivered them to victory. You are a true leader. Just like your parents always knew you could be. See, even they’re proud of you now.
