Who, What, and When – When we, as a consumer read through or skim through content the main lookout is toward the information. What is it about, how much does it cost, and when is it happening are some basic information any content is supposed to declare. Now, the art is to find the balance between the speed with which this data is found by the consumer along with how long can the same consumer retain this data to take action in favor of it.
Reading vs Writing – There are mainly two types of content that anybody can write. The one which feels good to read and the one which feels good to write. Allow me to use an example here.
“The month of April is celebrated as a poetry month all over the world and so to keep the spirit of poetry and art alive we are planning to organize an open mic to recite poetry for all budding poets on the 13th of April, Saturday at Words & Sips Café, FC Road. You are welcome to read your original work and listen to some of the other poets in the community. The best poet of the evening shall get a chance to publish his/her work.”
The above content is an example of a ‘good to write’ note. However, let’s take a step back and analyze the whole thing. The intent of the marketer here is to get people interested to come and perform their poetry. But with all the preambles the actual subject is found in the 2nd line after 25 words. Now to put things in perspective the average consumer has an attention span of approximately 3.5 seconds which is about 5-7 words.
Let’s examine another example below of the same content.
“Poetry Open Mic on 13th April at Words & Sips, FC Road. Keep it original, keep it short. Recite in front of a non-judgmental Junta and that’s not all, if you are good we will invite you to publish your work as well. #PoetryOpenMic #WorldPoetryMonth #PoetsCommunity”
This is bad grammar and too short with all the hashtags (#)! But does it convey all the required information? Does it get the attention of the target consumer within the first 5 words? Yes, it does! The above content which is ‘good to read’ will get me much more people interested than the 1st one.
So, to write content that will be consumed more remember the three ‘S’- keep it short, keep it simple –to the point, and keep it silly – something which will stay with the reader.