How to Get Your Audience to Convert There are many different ways to encourage and incentivize your target audience to convert. Below are some of the most common ones that you should be considering: 1. Grab Your Audience's Attention with Engaging Headlines and Images We live in an information age and are bombarded with content every day. As a result, we have become adept at quickly assessing — often just in the blink of an eye — which pieces of content we are going to consume and which pieces we will ignore. Your job as a content marketer is to give your target audience plenty of reasons to consume your content, starting with two of the things they use most often to make these rapid decisions: headlines and images. Pay close attention to both and you will dramatically increase the chances of people clicking on your links, opening your e-mails, and downloading your eBooks and reports. Let’s start by taking a look at headlines and their e-mail equivalents, subject lines. To be effective, always make sure that they are: » Concise: Get to the point…fast. Lengthy headlines and subject lines cannot be processed quickly and, as a result, often get overlooked. Many e-mail marketers suggest limiting subject lines to less than 50 characters. Headlines, while a bit more forgiving, should also be kept as short as possible. » Timely: Headlines and subject lines can be particularly effective when they are tied back to news or current events. Be cautious when using this tactic, however, and only select news that cannot in any way be construed as offensive. » Informative: With just a few words you have to convey to your audience what your content is all about. Vague headlines are easy to ignore and, even if they do convert someone, can frustrate audiences who expected to find something different than what your content actually delivers. » Compelling: You have to make your audience want to read your content. Mechanical or uninspired headlines just won’t do. Use active verbs, humor, and wit to engage your audience and get their attention. It Takes a Content Factory! | 43