I know many of you are reading the title and have questions about what exactly I am referring to. When discussing the “senses” factors, I’m talking about sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. It’s awesome how all of these factors can be applied to your content marketing to increase engagement building brand awareness. Whenever I write content, I try to apply these “senses” to my content, hoping to find ways to provide an experience for the user like no other. It’s these senses that make things attractive to us so I’m sure it’ll help grow our blog. It’s important, when applying this concept to your blogging, that you don’t make things too complicated. Just follow this simple blueprint and you’ll be able to create content that not only provides substance, but is also attractive to visitors.
Before getting started, here are the following elements I’ll be discussing…
- Smell
- Taste
- Sight
- Touch
- Connection
Let’s get started…
Taste = Audience
When writing content, it’s important to keep the taste of your audience in mind. The type of content they want to read is the type that should be published on your blog. If you can appeal to the “Taste” of your audience, you’ll be able to increase engagement while building brand awareness. If you’ve been blogging for years, you know what type of content your readers are looking for, but if you just started, it’s time to do some research. For example, I like to use the following strategies to get a good idea of topic ideas:
- Research existing competition
- Google Trends and Keyword Planner
- Research competitors with Alexa.com
In the end, the content you produce should be based on the taste of your audience.
Sight = Sharing
A cool concept and very simple to understand because it applies what we know about social media. The most shared content on social platforms is those we can see and utilize the social sharing interface. When creating content, you should always focus on providing value and where we can see the value. Next, to get our content in front of people, it’s important we make it easy for users to share. This is why I stress the importance of providing easy to share social buttons above and below the content. However, sharing doesn’t stop with finding value because it has a lot to do with type of format. For example, some people don’t lose sight of infographics because they provide value in illustrations. Some prefer videos and images, but you’ll only know by testing different content and how it resonates with your readers.
Touch = Interaction
Depending on the niche, your best content might be one that collects information then provides users with value. For example, I’ve visiting many blogs that require me to opt-in to download an eBook. Some blogs require I log in to access the information provided and fill out a quick survey. Again, this will depend on the type of niche I’m in, however, you might want to think about ways to implement the “TOUCH” sense into your content. Here’s something that works awesome…
When visitors arrive, ask them to sign up to receive a FREE trial of your product or eBook. By doing this, they’ll be involved in some sort of interaction, forcing them to engage with your page.
Smell = Conversions
With this concept, we are referring to the smell of money or conversions. This is a term used within North America to describe making money. People are often quoted as saying “Do You Smell The Money?” Whenever you write content, you should always keep your bottom line in mind, which normally is making money through your online blog. If you are interested in conversions, then think about ways to transition from a visitor into a paying customer. I usually go through my list, looking at the following:
- Increasing email subscribers
- Increasing product sales
- Increasing affiliate sales
Keeping these things in mind allows me to keep my purpose in mind, which is to make money through content marketing. I’ll tweak my content to include the right affiliate links and/or testimonials to attract visitors to buy my product.
Connection = Value
In the end, once you’ve applied all the other senses into your content marketing strategy, you should be able to build a connection with your visitors. If you fail to build the attraction, then you have to tweak your final content so it caters right down to the visitors’ needs. However, I’m a true believer in that connection comes with time once you start understanding your readers and what they’re looking for when engaging with your content. It’s important to note that with a solid connection comes an increase in conversions, but to achieve this, you should focus on making sure all other “SENSES” listed above are applied to your marketing strategy.