Picture the last time you were held spellbound by a book or blog post or social media caption. What was it that drew you in? What made you to continue reading? What motivated you to get to the end?

It could be one of several things, but you read to the end because you could relate to what you were reading. Perhaps, it suited your interest, or it was in your field of knowledge.

How then do you craft compelling content that resonates with your audience and shape their perception. How do you keep them reading to the end?

Here are six tips to help you achieve that.

Tip 1: Know your audience

You can’t shape the perception of or craft a compelling story that resonates with an audience you don’t know.

Your audience is central to your message, and you must know them inside out. Your audience might be your customers, employees, external stakeholders, investors, or the public. Knowing whom you’re writing to will determine what you’ll write, how you’ll write, and how you’ll deliver your message. For instance, the information your employees will receive about a given situation is different from what the public will receive.

Knowing their interests, beliefs, and values will help you tailor your message to resonate with them. Can you imagine sending a newsletter about an animal rescue campaign to people who aren’t passionate about animal rescue? Your message won’t get as much engagement unlike if it were sent to people passionate about animals.

Similar to knowing their interests and beliefs is knowing how and where they receive information. Is your target audience digital media savvy or are they more attuned to reading the newspaper? Does your target audience prefer short-form or long-form content? This will help you decide the length of your message and where you post (the channel).

Tip 2: Use a strong headline

A strong headline is one that is not vague, captures the attention of your target audience, and pulls them in to read the full piece. What’s that popular saying about first impressions? Your headline is the first impression your audience will have of your content.

Tip 3:  Be clear and concise

Cut the fluff and jargon and make your message as clear and concise as possible. Don’t go on an endless ramble of technicalities or fill up your content with acronyms, if unnecessary. The most compelling content are those that don’t leave the readers confused.

Tip 4: Use storytelling

A good, well-crafted story will resonate with your audience and bring them to action. We all love stories, and we all have stories to tell. Examples of stories you can weave into your content include origin stories, community or volunteer stories, employee stories (for organisations), personal growth stories, etc. You can weave any kind of story you want into your content; the only thing you should keep in mind is relevance to the subject matter.

Every story has value. You just have to know how to tell it and how to tell it well. Storytelling humanises your brand and doesn’t make it impersonal. You can read more about how storytelling makes us human (How Telling Stories Makes Us Human: It’s a Key to Evolution | TIME).

Tip 5: Pay attention to your visual communication

Your audience might not have the time to read your content the first time they see it for many reasons, but a careful selection of the visuals you use to accompany your message might compel them to save or bookmark it for later. Your audience is chiefly moved by what they see, so move them through compelling visuals. Let them have something that drives them to want to read what you’ve written. And when visuals are all you’ve got, make them count.

Tip 6: Have a call to action

It’s not enough to craft compelling content; it has to resonate with your audience. How do you know your content resonates with your audience if there are no metrics to determine how well it was received? How do you have metrics if there were no specific actions that were demanded? Is your content informative and you want your audience to share if they found it to be useful, then ask them to do that. Do you want your audience to contribute to a fundraiser, then be explicit about that. Do you want them to buy a product, then ask them to buy the product. A specific call to action will help you gauge audience response and help you know whether your content resonates with them.

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