7 Writing Tactics That Will Engage Your Audience

Do you put lots of effort into writing, but can’t increase engagement? Probably, you need to choose a new writing tactic to connect to your readers. You need to change the way you express your ideas and start choosing the words more wisely.

Here are seven effective writing tactics that can help you to fix the situation. Let’s discuss them in more detail.

Photo by Nick Morrison on Unsplash

Focus on One Reader

Why do you write blog posts? Don’t say that you do it just to make money.

You want to help your readers to solve issues related to your field of expertise, right? For instance, if you run a home décor blog, you aim to help people to beautify their homes.

Here is a pro tip for you. If you want to help your readers, don’t try to help them all together. Choose one reader from your audience and focus on a specific issue he is experiencing.

Let’s say you want to create a guide on how to choose a couch for a living room. Focus on a concrete person – a family man John, who lives in a small New York apartment with two kids and a cat.

What questions should you discuss in your blog post to help John to make the right buying decision? You should answer questions like “How to choose a pet-friendly upholstery fabric,” “What type of couch is best for a small living room?”, and other relevant questions.

Why it’s a good idea to choose this writing tactic? Trying to help one concrete person, you will create more useful content and add more value to your readers. Consequently, it will be easier for you to boost engagement.

Simplified Wording

If you are an expert in your field, you might be tempted to use technical terms and jargon in your writing. But please, don’t do it. Some of your readers do not know the meaning of those sophisticated words. So don’t overuse them. Otherwise, you will have little chances to engage your audience.

Do you want people to read your articles, emails, and reports with joy? Write in a manner that even an 8th grader should be able to understand the meaning of the text. Describe a complex idea in simple words, and your readers will appreciate that.

Do you need to use a specific term or rarely-used word in your article? Provide a reader with a brief definition. It will help you to keep the engagement rate high.

Simple Questions

What do professional speakers do to engage the audience? They start their speech with a rhetorical question. Here is an example.

A speaker, who gives a speech on the topic “How to become rich”, ask the audience: “Do you want to have enough money to send your kids to a prestigious university?”

A speaker who shares secrets on how to meet and marry a billionaire starts its speech with a question: “Do you want to become the wife of a man who can make all your dreams come true?”

If you want to boost your writing efforts, you can use this tactic. Whether you are writing an email, blog post, or ad copy, you can add a rhetorical question to hook the reader.

Storytelling

Have you mastered the art of storytelling? If you haven’t done it yet, it’s time to get acquainted with storytelling techniques and learn how to create captivating narratives.

Storytelling can be applied not only to script writing and novel writing, but also to blog posts, articles, social media posts, and even emails.

What are the elements of a good story?

• A hero – a real person or a fictional character
• Setting – the environment or surrounding of the story
• Conflict or issue experienced by a hero
• Resolution of the conflict (happy ending)

The next time you are writing a blog post, try to leverage storytelling. Come up with a hero (it can be your client or reader), and describe his/her way to success.

Readers connect to stories on a deep emotional level. So if you do everything right, you will see a significant increase in the engagement rate.

Active Voice

Do you want to make your writing more engaging in a simple way? Choose active voice over passive voice. It will help you improve the text’s readability and adds flow to your writing.

Take a look at the following example:

• Passive voice – “The Passionate Pilgrim” was written by William Shakespeare in 1599. The sonnets were distributed among private friends.”
• Active voice – “William Shakespeare wrote The Passionate Pilgrim in 1599. He distributed his sonnets among his private friends.”

Do you see the difference between the use of passive and active voice? An active voice simplifies the writing. Keep that in mind when creating content for your target audience.

New Technologies

No matter how good you are in writing, you should take advantage of advanced technology. You should use digital tools to improve the quality of your work in order to attract more readers.

Do you still believe that AI-powered tools and online services are hard to use? The vast majority of modern tools have a user-friendly interface.

Here is a task for you. Visit a grammar-checking website or an online college writing service. Browse it, see how it works, test various features, and check prices. Get acquainted with new technologies today, and enhance your writing.

Personalization

Modern users demand personalization, and you can’t ignore this trend. You should personalize your content by using “You”, “Your”, and “I” where possible.

Here is an example.

• Don’t write: “One can become rich and famous”, “These tips help to increase revenue.”
• Paraphrase sentences this way: “You can become rich and famous”, “These tips will help you to increase revenue.”

It’s a simple yet effective way to engage the audience. Try it out!

The Bottom Line

Let’s clarify one important thing. There is no one “perfect” writing tactic that fits everyone. You should try out different tactics to find out which one works for you.

Keep working on your writing skills development day by day, and then you will face no difficulties in engaging your audience.