Work Your Content Magic

Content marketing can be compared to a magic show. Seems too far-fetched? Then here’s a comparison. Picture a magician, a deck of cards, and the audience. Now picture a writer, the content, and the audience. As a magician, you need to pick the right cards that will leave your audience impressed, stunned, and wanting more. As a writer, you need the prowess of a magician to pick the right words that again, will leave your audience impressed, stunned, and wanting more. You pull the right card — your show is a success, you don’t, you fail. So what are the magic words?

Psychology — The Abracadabra of Content Marketing

The workings of the human mind, a kaleidoscope of emotions, a mash-up of personalities, the many voices in your head, choices driven by experiences — sounds like a class of psychology 101? Wrong.

Welcome to the world of content marketing. Psychology is to content, what jam is to bread — they’re just better together. Having said that, it is understandable that psychology and content go hand in hand in the B2C space, because consumer buying behaviour is considered, and purchases are driven by emotions. But here’s the thing — B2B buyers too are, at the end of the day, people like you and I — every business decision is backed by emotions and cognitions, and ultimately, the workings of the human psyche. In fact, research suggests that a buyer’s decision is based on 80% emotions and 20% logic — it is what we call ‘emotional marketing’.

Fairy Dust Or Theory of Reciprocity

A sprinkle of fairy dust adds a sense of awe to any magic show. As far as content marketing is concerned, adding value to your content will make all the difference. In social psychology, we call this the Theory of Reciprocity. It applies to the fact that humans in general, tend to reciprocate most actions. So, if your content comes with a promise in the form of a free trial, gift vouchers, samples, free content, or simply good customer experience, then you will get from your clients, a favourable response in the form of loyalty.

Luring an Audience with Social Proof

Another fundamental theory of psychology that applies to content marketing is the Theory of Social Proof. You need to generate content that people can’t ignore. If the content that is created is rich with facts, relatable with experiences, and snackable enough to catch your audience’s attention, it sells better. Through this content, you could bag more sales, leads, and website traffic. Incorporating social proof into your content can be done via user reviews, testimonials, ratings, social plugins, follow buttons, and social media ads. When your stakeholders and customers see that others trust your business, and choose your business, they’ll follow suit.

Casting a Spell with the Verbatim Effect

Too many cooks spoil the broth, the same way cluttered content leaves a bad taste in the mouth. The Verbatim Effect in psychology, tells us that people tend to take in only the gist, and eliminate anything that is excess. This means your content has to have all the information that you need to convey in a systematic, concise form. Also, research suggests that the attention span of a reader is just eight seconds — your content will have to keep them hooked right at the start. Your audience must not only understand your content, they must remember your content as well. Keep this in mind to be a differentiator.

The Magic Potion: Market Research, Building Audience Personas and Polished Writing Skills

Generating content is more than just throwing in information, following a brief. To generate truly compelling content that sells, you need to imbibe in your writing, the art of storytelling, and the science of marketing, and understand the workings of the human mind. The entire process of writing is an emotional odyssey that requires facts, fiction, and a strong foundation. Time has to be invested in good research of the market, competitors, and audiences. Only then can the content be relevant, striking the right chord with the readers. Crafting a structure that fits in all of that information, a content marketing strategy with emotions is what makes the deal.

The final trick is levitation. This is every magic lover’s favourite trick, understandably so, as defying gravity and floating mid-air is a quest only a true magician can perform.

With the amalgamation of writing and the understanding of human psychology, create content that levitates above all others, in the world that we call the internet!