Hey, Reader,
What's your process like when it comes to creating content that converts?
At the end of the day, social media is a game for attention...
And content is the medium on social media through which you:
- Grab people's attention,
- Hold that attention,
- Direct that attention.
So how effective your content is and how well it converts comes down to how effective you are at doing these three things.
Whoever grabs attention best, holds it for the longest, and directs it where they want wins.
Let's break each one down.
How to grab attention:
When it comes to grabbing attention, you can use well-designed images on the cover slide of your Instagram carousel or reel cover...
But it mainly comes down to having a strong hook or headline.
This can come in many forms:
- The first line of your caption,
- The text on your carousel cover slide,
- What you say in the first 3 seconds of your reels
You should actually be familiar with how important hooks are because almost everyone has spoken about them.
They truly are one of those things that their importance needs to be restated over and over.
If you mess up here then your content won't even be given the chance to perform well.
People say "Don't judge a book by its cover" but we all do.
Just like we make judgments on people based on their appearance, we judge a piece of content by its headline.
You should be spending at least 60% of your time on your headline, it's that important - even I could get better at this.
When writing hooks, the main objective is to give people a reason to redirect their attention from what they were doing previously to your piece of content.
Tips to write better headlines:
- Talk about a big benefit that's relevant to them
- Include prominent figures/celebrities
- Use power-evoking words
- Talk about a pain point
- Use numbers in them
- Evoke curiosity
- Use 'How to"
You can combine many of these when writing your hooks for better results.
e.g How to grow your first 10k Instagram followers in 3 months without stressing over algorithm changes.
This includes the words "how to", talks about a big benefit, and a pain point as well.
When it comes to hooks, relevancy is also important.
The above hook could be very catchy when targeting people who want to grow their audience but it would fall flat to those who have no interest in that.
For this reason, it's important to know who your target audience is.
Lastly, you need to make sure you can deliver on whatever you used to grab their attention - we'll cover that in the next section.
How to hold attention:
This is one part that hasn't been discussed as much but is just as important. If you grab their attention but don't hold it then you'll still lose them after a few seconds.
If you want people to consume your content, you need to hold their attention.
Before we discuss techniques to do this, the most important thing is whether your content is actually valuable or just fluff.
You can try all the strategies in the world but if your content has no substance then you're wasting your time.
Ask yourself:
- Will someone in my target audience learn something new from this post?
- Does this post contain actionable tips that they can apply to see better results in whatever they're trying to achieve?
If you answered no then you have some work to do on your content itself. Remember, people don't care about you, they care about what they can benefit from you.
If you're confident your content is good, here are 4 ways to structure your content to hold attention longer.
- Use effects/transitions (this mainly comes down to video editing)
- Make use of a story
- Include steps
- Use lists
I'll be discussing using steps and lists because they are the two I mainly make use of myself.
Steps are a set of actions that must be done in a particular order to achieve a result e.g 4 steps to grow on Instagram could be:
Step 1: Setup your account
Step 2: Start posting content
Step 3: Start engaging with other accounts
Step 4: Stay consistent
Steps are powerful because they create a roadmap for people to follow and if previous steps were valuable to your audience then there's a great chance they'll stay till the end.
Also, stating the number of steps in the headline helps as well.
Lists are similar to steps but with one main difference, the actions don't have to be in a particular order e.g. 10 lessons I learned after creating over 250 posts.
This is a list because these lessons aren't in any order - most tips and tricks posts are lists.
Lists are also very powerful and retain people for the same reason as steps.
Quick tip: If you can’t think of something to post, a list will usually do the trick (and can be created from almost any word or idea you can think of)
Also, people love them.
How to direct attention:
After you've shared the main information in your post, what then?
You have to tell people the next steps to take.
You do this with a call to action.
Every piece of content should end with a call to action telling your audience what to do next.
This doesn't have to be something big, it could be to like the post, drop a comment, or follow you.
But it has to be something.
If you don't do this, your viewers will leave your content and someone else who understands the power of calls to action will get them to take another action.
Calls to action are simple, tell them what to do. That's it!
The most common mistake people make with them though is using too many all at once.
Asking your audience to like, comment, save, and share all at once just ends up confusing them.
Don't make this mistake, make things easy for yourself and your audience. Use one clear call to action per post.
If you read up to this point, you're awesome!
Happy Sunday,
Niyo
P.S.: This is part of a chapter in my upcoming ebook "The Content Creation Blueprint".
It'll teach you all you need to know about creating content that gets results and actually grows your audience on Instagram in 11 easy-to-follow chapters.
Since you're a part of my email list, you'll also qualify for 3 exclusive bonuses and a discount when it drops. Keep your eye on your inbox for more information coming soon!
