How to Create Content that Connects, Engages & Inspires your Audience in 7 Steps

Whether you’re a writer, blogger or innovator, one of the most powerful ways to get people to care about your message, ideas or products is to create content that connects, engages and inspires them to care.

From Gary Vaynerchuck to Tim Ferris and even Steve Jobs, this is one of the best kept secret of some of the most successful marketers and innovators – being able to create stuff that people can really connect with.

As a creator, by now you must have known that creating content that connects and inspires your audience is one of the easiest ways to get them to buy into your idea, product or philosophy.

Why Creating Connection Matters

Without creating a level of connection with your content, it gets difficult to inspire some kind of audience to take action after reading your content. But, I didn’t realize this in time.

In fact, I didn’t realize people can easily connect with some kind of content from a place of empathy until the day I allowed myself to be vulnerable enough to actually write out my heart as a piece of content.

Trust me, this wasn’t intentional at all. Although I won’t say it was some kind of accident. This was the only thing I got left with to do at that time but surprisingly, my readers were able to really connect with it.

I was completely blown away by the outcome of my little write up that day. And till this day, I still wonder how that piece of content manage to kick start my journey as a content creator.

As a trainer, I have come to understand that a lot of content creators are still struggling with mediocre result because they have not been able to really connect with their audiences.

If you’re one of these kind of creators, then this guide is for you. And in the following paragraphs, I’ll be sharing with you fireproof strategies you can use to create meaningful connections and better results with your content…

Find your Audience

The first step to create content that connects is to know your audience.

Without knowing about the people that are going to consume your content, there’s no way you can create content that will resonate with them.

So, before you get started planning your content, find out about your target audience. And the kind of content that makes sense to them.

This knowledge is very crucial because one of the major ingredients that will lead to creating meaningful connections with your audience is being able to know who they are, what they want and how you can offer that to them in ways that on one else is doing.

When you’re able to identify your target audience and their needs, you can then work on providing the solutions with your content.

Read this post here to learn how to identify your audience.

Identify their Needs

As a creator, one of the things that will make your content stand out is that you’re well able to know the needs of your audience and the solution that will work for them. This was one of my super powers, in those early days.

To create content that connects with this audience, you must identify what’s getting them to websites like yours, or the thing that matters to this set of people.

Find out, what are their needs? What do they want and how can I proffer solutions to these needs with my content?

The reason you must fix this is because people are moved by personal interest. Your audience are not exempted. They will only connect with your content if and only if it meets their needs and they can relate to it.

So, find out what they can relate with.

To do this, you can begin with finding out what your audience searches for when they use search engine platforms like Google.

Using tools like Google trends, you can find out what matters to audiences from a particular region, niche or industry.

And then furthermore, you can use a tool like Wordstream, Ubersuggest or Google Keyword tool to analyze the search volume of your proposed keywords.

This is very important.

In addition to that, identify the popular websites in your industry with audiences similar to yours. Find the content with the most interaction and engagement. This will further give you an idea on what matters to your audience.

This post here will guide you on how to research a keyword.

Create Valuable Content

One of the secret recipes to create content that connects with your audience is going all the way out to create additional value to your content.

It’s not enough to know exactly the needs of your audience. You might still know their needs but there are a number of other creators creating content that meets those needs.

As a beginner, to beat around this, you have to go all the way out to add that extra value to your audience in a unique way that will make your content stand out.

In addition, beyond creating valuable content, be sure you’re aiming to also create content that’s actually relevant to your target audience.

I remember starting out with incredibly valuable pieces of content that were really good but never always driving the expected results from users.

It was not until that business packed up completely that I got to realize that even though my content were valuable, they were not relevant and could not drive my expected outcomes.

As much as possible, be sure relevance matches up with value in your content. This is the way to build connection that thrives.

Share Compelling Stories

Over the years, story telling has become one of the powerful strategies to build authenticity and actually create content that connects with audiences.

As humans, we’re able to easily connect to stories that are relatable. This kind of connection has a way of reducing suspicion while building trust over the long term.

While starting out as a new content creator, one of the ways I used in building connection in the early days was through sharing my own personal stories, experiences and opinion.

I also made sure to project through my content, the things I was learning or building, how it was shaping me or the value these things were adding to my clients.

Over the years, I have taught this to my students and most of them have recorded impressive results, using this strategy.

While sharing your content, make sure that you are able to share your own relatable experiences, personal stories or opinion, through your content.

Outside making your content even more relatable, it will as well position you as a verifiable authority or trustworthy brand in that niche.

Be Authentic & Sincere

Authenticity goes a long way in building trust and making you more likable by your target audience. It’s one of the assets you must utilize as you aspire to create content that connects.

Because when you’re trustworthy or likeable, you can easily break any resistance your audience would want to have towards you and your content.

In the digital world, people tend to buy only from a brand they feel they can trust. So, regardless of who you are, as a newbie without much of a track record, you have to build authenticity with your content.

In a world filled with filters and near perfect humans on social media, I was not scared to share the not so proud parts of my life back then when I started my content creation journey. And this was super relatable to a good part of my audience.

I know this can be hard. But, as a brand that plans to build authentic connections, you must allow your audience to see through your human side.

Show some vulnerability when you have to. Show growth. Get them in on your back office. With your content, allow your audience to see through your greatness, your struggles and your journey. This will make you more real.

Create Consistency & Intentionality

To get people to connect with your content, you need to be very intentional about how you create that content.

You don’t want to show up today and then no one sees you again for the next few months. You will lose your audience.

To create content that connects, you must be very intentional. And you have to be able to commit to consistently foster the kind of connections that will lead to meaningful outcomes for both you and your audience.

Work on creating a content and posting schedule then stick to it. If you plan to create content on a certain theme, as much as possible, stick with that.

Also, where you have a posting schedule, try to keep up with. This is the way to build a loyal audience that will always keep coming back to your content.

Promote your Content

Content promotion is one of the easiest ways to get more visibility and subsequently, more readers that can get to connect with your content.

If you’re a new content creator with a new blog, promotions can come in very handy in getting you new readers for your posts.

Pay a lot of attention to it.

As an old content creator, content promotion can also expose your content to new readers and thus making it possible for more people to connect with your posts.

In a nutshell creating content that connects will work really well with a large audience. So, outside creating, you have to pay attention to promoting and sharing your content to reach a wider audience.

Conclusion

Outside what you’ve learned so far, using videos, Images and Infographics as part of your content are also ways to create meaningful connections with your audience.

Also, listening and paying attention to their questions and needs as it changes, following trends and even replying to comments are also ways to build lasting connections with your audiences.

Beyond these strategies here, do not just create content, try to use powerful descriptive adjectives and compelling words in your stories and post titles. This will amplify the effect of your content.

Remember, building deep and meaningful connections with your audience as a creator is a journey. It will not get accomplished in a day so, allow your self to learn and build meaningful experiences through the journey.

Focus on consistency and intentionally create content that your audience can connect with without fail. And in addition to that, sign up for our content marketing course, to gain even better insights and professional guidance.

Now, it’s over to you now. What’s your biggest challenge when it comes to creating an effective content? Drop your comments below.