Six Ways to Boost Content Engagement


As long as organizations create content, organizations will look for new ways to make it more engaging. What good is your content, after all, if your audience isn’t paying all that much attention to it?

How can you convince your audience to share your blog posts, spend more time clicking around your website or pass along the latest issue of your magazine?

There’s no simple formula. Content marketing is an art, not a science, after all. But incorporate these six tips to see what resonates most with your audience.

  1. Recommend additional content for every piece you create. For online content, consider a related articles box, cross-links to relevant content pages and a final call to action with a suggested “next step,” a page or piece of content that naturally follows. In print, use vanity URLs to include calls to action to relevant online content.
  2. Pair longer pieces with bite-sized ones. If you produce long-form content, maximize engagement by creating complementary bite-sized pieces — an infographic, a short video or a tips sheet, for example. Post the bite-sized pieces on your social channels to promote the long-form ones.
  3. Offer more than words. Go beyond the written word, especially online. Think photo slideshows, infographics and video. Bonus points if your content is interactive, like a quiz or interactive infographic.
  4. Write intriguing headlines, but deliver on them. There’s nothing worse than a clickbait headline that doesn’t deliver on its promises — a powerful headline that immediately grabs your attention, then disappoints. Be creative but search friendly, and follow through on your word.
  5. Ask questions and encourage answers. Allowing commenting may not be appropriate for all organizations, but if it is, turn on the commenting feature on your website. Ask questions to encourage participation at the end of every piece of content. When your audience comments, respond back to encourage even more engagement.
  6. Make your content easy to share. That means taking down the gate for most, if not all, of your content and making it easily accessible. It also means including prominent share buttons for Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, other relevant social channels and email.

How is your audience engaging with your content? What could you do to improve upon that?