11 Reasons Your Content Makes Readers Flee
Twenty page views and seven shares on a blog post that took you hours to write? It’s tough when your content flops. You may feel like you failed or lost your touch. But, hold up! Your writing skills might not be the reason your content makes readers flee. The issue could be that you don’t fully understand your audience and what they need.
Assume a few things about your audience:
- Their attention spans are short
- Their reading level is that of a middle or high school student
- They want to read something they can relate to
Understanding these simple truths will make a difference in your engagement. They don’t mean your audience is uneducated or uninterested. They mean your audience wants the quickest, most straightforward solution to their problem. When they come to your company for answers, take it as a compliment and provide them with easy-to-understand and navigational content.
Understanding Reader Attention
Reader inattention is not necessarily a reflection of poor writing skills. We’ve heard that the average person has an attention span less than that of a goldfish. It’s eight seconds or less. You can’t change people’s attention spans. You have to quickly capture their attention and keep it.
When you fail to capture attention at the beginning of your post with a catchy intro, readers often won’t make it to the end. They also won’t make it far into your content if it’s difficult to understand. So you have to keep your language simple, casual, and relatable. And you must present information in a format that’s easy for your audience to read and relate to.
Your techniques to capture attention have to be better than other pieces of content online. People will do business with a brand that catches their eye and engages them continuously. You have the opportunity to add your flair and brand personality to every piece of content you create.
11 Reasons Your Content Makes Readers Flee
Increasing your readership doesn’t require a massive rebuilding of your marketing strategy. Minor tweaks can change everything! Understanding keywords, audience, and other basic writing details will make your content stand out.
Do the necessary but difficult work to understand why your content makes readers flee. Then, take steps to repair the issues.
1. Lackluster Titles
The title or headline is the most critical initial attention grabber readers see. If the headline doesn’t catch the reader’s attention, they won’t even click on the post. Add something special, make it genuine, and don’t do what everyone else is doing.
2. Boring Intros
Your heading is not the end of your fight to grab the reader’s attention. If you jump straight into statistics or filler information without keeping their attention, your readers will ghost you immediately. Catchy intros show your brand’s personality and tell stories. The reader can relate to them immediately.
3. No Storytelling
No flair, no personality, and no proper relatable setup will make readers leave. People like to read about other people, even anecdotally. No one’s saying you need to embellish the truth, but you have to make your content intriguing enough to increase those page views, shares, and sign-up rates.
4. A Giant Wall of Text
Breaking up your content makes it scannable. Most readers do not read every word. They would rather scan. We are busy! We don’t always have time or energy to read every word, especially when it’s a solid block of boring text. Use bullets, subheads, and graphics to make text easier to scan.
5. Forgetting SEO
Google needs the most accurate keywords about your content to direct people there. Be sure to include those keywords throughout your post, including in the title, H2s, and in the overall text. SEO helps make sure the people most interested in your content find it.
6. Trying to Sound Smart
Not everyone is a scholar, nor do they want to be. It’s not effective to write like you are either. The average reading level is eighth grade. Keep your words, sentences, and paragraphs simple.
7. Not Being Helpful or Relatable
Readers click on your content for a solution to their problem. To make your content helpful, you need to understand their problem and explain why your product or service is the best solution.
8. Absence of Media
Photos and videos create a visual way to convey information. They’re eye-catching and attractive as well. Often, people look at the media on your post before they read a word. Be sure to include media in your posts.
9. No Shareability
If you want more exposure, your content needs to be shareable. It also gets your business into the feeds of people who may not have otherwise researched your service/product on their own. Making your content shareable can be as simple as including social media buttons on your posts.
10. You Don’t Understand Your Audience
Know who you’re talking to and what they need. If you don’t understand your target audience, you will not know how to serve them. You also won’t know how to present your content in a way that they understand what’s in it for them.
11. Poor Calls to Action
Readers need a final invitation to support you. A Call-to-Action is your chance to drive home precisely why your business is the “fix” they need and what they should do next. Use best CTA practices to make them super effective.
Preventing the ‘Flee’
Whether your content isn’t performing well or you just think it can be better, understanding why readers flee your site, then changing those things will help. Once you make changes, your audience will notice, and they’ll want to read and share. They’ll also be more likely to engage with your content and your business. You may not see positive results immediately, but a little patience will pay off in the long run.
If you need help producing the kind of content your audience wants and keeps them around consistently, contact Content Journey. We can help you provide your audience with the content they need and grow your business in the process.
