7 TIPS FOR GREAT CONVERSATIONAL CONTENT
How often do you get really bored and press delete after reading an article?
Many
marketing contents make us cringe. They sound like a machine wrote them. They aren’t
interactive. They lack a soul and feel cold.
Supprised
already?
At
school, we were taught how to use grammar, how to write and spell, but we were
never taught how to use language to engage our readers. We didn’t learn how to interact,
persuade, and inspire.
But your
audience want feel your heart.
When reading
conversational content, you instantly connect with the author. You feel like you
have known him for years. You start to
like him. Actually you love him already.
As content marketers, our aim is for readers to get to know, love, and trust us. We create opportunities to market our services and sell our services to them. Our writings should be conversational.
Conversational
style does not require recording yourself talking and then typing out what you
said. No!
It’s
full of wishy-washy words, grammar mistakes, and unfinished sentences. People
rarely speak proper English when they talk. That’s normal.
Conversational
text is a lot tighter than spoken language. So, writing conversationally
doesn’t mean you write as you talk. Instead, edit your text so it doesn’t sound
like writing.
“If it
sounds like writing, I rewrite it.” – Elmore Leonard
Specific editing
techniques help make your content sound more conversational.
Here
are the tips. All for you.
- Address one person
Imagine writing
an email to a list of 10,000 people.
When
you think about those 10,000 faceless subscribers, you probably sound like
this:
Thank
you to those of you who have donated to our charity appeal. You can still
donate here.
It
sounds like you’re addressing a crowd, right? The phrase “those of you” feels
impersonal.
Now,
let’s choose your favorite subscriber. Imagine
your biggest fan — she often replies to your emails with praise, and
sometimes with questions. Even though you’ve never met, she’s a friend:
Have
you already donated to our charity appeal? Thank you so much. If you haven’t
donated yet, you can still donate here.
A
conversational tone makes readers feel like you’re addressing them personally.
As if you two are having a drink at your local Starbucks.
“I’m going to have a green tea. What would you like to drink?”
2. Write to inform and educate
When
you talk with your best friend, what kind of words do you use?
Do you
try to impress with MBA jargon? Do you use complicated words?
To
write conversationally, skip the gobbledygook and make your content more
specific. For instance, look at this copy:
Pioneering
software from the market leader. Schedule your social media updates with our
award-winning all-in-one app.
Now,
here’s the conversational version:
Save
time with our new app. Schedule all your social media updates in one go.
Empathy is
the foundation of a good conversation. Understand the problems your readers are
struggling with, and address those problems using their words.
Write
to engage and help.
“Would you like a ginger cookie with your coffee? Or a blueberry
muffin?”
3. Make it a two-way
conversation
When
writing, we can’t see the person on the other end of the conversation. So, we
forget to engage our readers and merely write from our own perspective.
Here’s
an example of how self-importance sneaks into our content:
Sign up
to get on our list, and we’ll send you our weekly email with marketing tips.
Note
how “we” and “our” are both self-referring pronouns. Here’s how to focus on
your reader instead:
Grow
your business with smarter marketing. Sign up now to get weekly emails with
marketing tips.
To spot
your self-important sentences, look for the sentences with “I” and “we.” Edit
them to highlight benefits for your reader.
But
don’t feel you need to replace all instances of “I” and “we.” You don’t need to
hide yourself.
If
you’re a one-person business, use “I,” “me,” and “my.” And if you write on
behalf of a team, feel free to use “we,” “us,” and “our,” when appropriate.
A good
conversation goes two ways: A little bit about “me” or “us.” A little more
about “you.”
“How was your weekend?”
4. Make it personal
Think
about your friends or favorite colleagues. Why do you enjoy chatting with them?
It’s
the small stories you share. You might discuss a bad referee decision in
Sunday’s match, the movie you went to yesterday, or where you can get the best
steak.
Your
friends talk about more than their specialty subject.
It’s
the same with your content. If you only discuss your topic of expertise, you
show yourself as a one-dimensional expert. It’s kind of boring.
Think
about how you can inject
your personality into your blog posts, emails, or sales copy:
- Share the mistakes you’ve made so your readers can learn from
them. - Use a personal anecdote to illustrate a point.
- Create your own style of metaphors.
- Tell readers why you’re on your mission to change the world.
- Add a personal P.S. to your emails — even if it’s an unrelated
comment about the weather or your latest cycling trip.
When
you sprinkle a little bit of yourself over your content, readers get to know
you.
That’s
when content marketing becomes magic.
“Yeah, my weekend was good. My sister came over from the
Netherlands. Luckily the weather was good.”
5. Engage with questions
Do you
pose questions in your writing?
Research has shown that questions in
tweets can get more than double the amount of clicks. And what’s more, they can
even boost your persuasiveness.
In his
book To Sell Is Human, Daniel
Pink explains that a question makes readers think — they process your message
more intensely. And when readers agree with you, your question is more
persuasive than a statement.
Note
the difference between:
You
ought to include questions marks, so your writing becomes more conversational.
and:
Want to
make your writing more engaging? Add a few questions.
Questions
are a powerful technique for engaging and persuading your readers. They keep
readers invested in your content.
“The weather is nice today, too. Shall we sit outside?”
6. Make your sente
A
standard tone of voice in marketing often sounds boring and robotic, and an
academic tone creates a certain distance, too, as if you look down on your
readers.
Both
styles tend to use unwieldy sentences — and those long sentences are tiring to
read. To make your content more readable, chop up long sentences.
Here’s
a long academic sentence:
Presenting
yourself only as an expert makes you one-dimensional, but when you tell short
stories about yourself in addition to sharing your knowledge, you become a
multi-dimensional human being, and you become a more fascinating person in your
reader’s eyes.
Phew.
Did you run out of breath? That’s forty words in one sentence.
Here’s
the conversational version with only nine words per sentence on average:
Presenting
yourself only as an expert makes you one-dimensional. Perhaps even a bit
boring. But when you tell itty-bitty stories about yourself, your hobbies, and
your life, you become a real human being. You become more fascinating.
In
grade school, we received praise for using difficult words to write complicated
sentences. In college, we read verbose sentences stuffed with words derived
from Latin and Greek.
That’s
how we learned to write to impress.
We
didn’t learn how to communicate our message, write with clarity, and be
persuasive. To engage our readers, we must unlearn what we
learned in school.
Put
your readers first. Make your message simple. Chop your sentences down.
“Nice shirt you’re wearing. I like the color. Suits you well.”
7. Break the rules
Just
thinking about my high school teachers puts me on edge. I get nervous about
making mistakes. I worry about sounding crazy. I fear not living up to their
expectations.
And
that’s how writing becomes stilted.
Following grammar
rules usually makes content easier to read. However, certain
rules may actually hamper readability. So, give yourself permission to break
them:
- Use broken sentences. Broken sentences don’t necessarily
befuddle readers; they often add clarity. By stressing words. (Like that.) - Start a sentence with “and,” “but,” or “or.” Because it makes
your content easier to read and less monotonous. More dynamic. Enthusiastic. - Create one-sentence paragraphs to stress specific statements and
give readers room to breathe. A short silence in a conversation is okay, right? - Feel free to occasionally use … uhm … interjections like “Ouch,”
“Phew,” and “Duh.” They add emotion and a touch of casualness to your writing
voice.
Writing
is not about sticking to grammar rules. It’s about communicating ideas with
clarity and personality.
So,
please come along for a cup of tea and a chat, but don’t bring your grammar
teacher with you. She’ll strangle our conversation with her pedantic remarks.
“Your hair is getting long. You should get a haircut.”
Embrace your unique style
Do you
ever think back to a conversation you had with a friend? Do you hear her voice
in your head?
That’s
how readers should experience your content. Let your words linger in their
minds. Inspire them long after they’ve read your words.
In a
world of endless pixels and meaningless likes, we crave human
connections and voices that resonate with us.
So, be
yourself. Brew a cup of green tea. Offer your readers a slice of homemade cake.
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