I love the challenge of writing about something completely new and different – topics that are completely outside of my comfort zone. But, when I was asked by a manufacturing company to write blog posts about their machines, I have to admit, I was a little bit anxious.
Machinery is quite a complex topic to write about with all those CNCs (Computerised Numerical Control to the uninitiated) and whatnots, and one might think, quite a dry subject. So, how would I make machines that bend metal interesting to the reader?
If you work in a less that glamourous industry, there is a risk that reader’s eyes will start to glaze over as soon as they read your headline. Others, however, might get a little fizzle of excitement for your kind of content. It doesn’t matter what your industry or niche, you can get more readers interested in what you have to say, if you say it in the right way.
So, if you’re working in a snooze-worthy industry, there are ways you can make your web content more exciting.
- Be helpful – Aim your content at the specific questions or problems you think reader’s may have. Make it educational and informative but keep it simple
- Avoid jargon – If you don’t want people nodding off, or clicking off, to a competitor, write so they will understand you, avoiding industry acronyms and business babble –the stuff that makes it like wading through treacle.
- Keep it lighthearted – Imparting your words using a lighthearted tone, a few humorous touches and avoiding too much seriousness adds a bit of spark and will keep your audience’s attention for much longer.
- Use examples to illustrate – show how your product or service is relatable to the real world, in terms readers can understand.
- Keep it short and sweet – particularly important. Readers have a short attention span as it is so the less time it takes them to get through a paragraph, the more likely they’ll get to the last sentence without nodding off.
- Break it up – you don’t want to overwhelm readers with large blocks of text so break it up into easily digestible paragraphs and include plenty of images, bullets, sub-headings etc. to keep things interesting. Also, try using other formats to entertain your readers such as video or GIFs.
It doesn’t matter if you make window frames for a living or nuts and bolts, try some of these approaches to jazz up your content, and your audience will be hooked.