Why 90% of Your Blog Is Not Memorable
The hard cold reality is that 90% of what you write is not memorable enough to get your reader to respond to your call to action. That’s a rather bitter pill to swallow.
Up to this point, you believe you’re doing everything right. You write attention grabbing headlines, use keywords and SEO, create content that’s relevant, keep text clean, short and easy to read, include an image or video, share a story line and always end with a “call to action.”
Regardless of how great a writer you may be, most readers even if they read from beginning to end, will only remember 10% of what you write. It’s frightening that the other 90% of your coherent message that you agonized over is not as memorable.
A reader will remember only 10% of what you write. Click To Tweet
According to the cognitive neuroscientist, Carmen Simon, being memorable is about “… improving content to control what people remember.”
Begin by asking yourself –
- What is your memorable brand message?
- What do you want your reader to remember?
- What words can you link to strong emotions which will create a memory back to you?
- What do you want your reader to do?
After all, “… marketing is about persuasion and persuasion relies on memory. If people don’t remember what you want them to remember, how are they going to be persuaded to decide what you want them to decide?”
Share your thoughts about how much you think you remember from a blog you recently read.
Analysis
After reading about Dr. Simon’s research, I decided to depart from my usual blog writing style and incorporate her suggestions. Here’s what I did to make this blog post more memorable. You be the judge if it works for you.
Kept the original content message brief
Identified a reader problem in the first sentence
Used attention getting descriptive and emotional words: hard cold reality, bitter pill, frightening, agonized
Contrasted 90% against 10%
Used the word “memorable” as the keyword
Cited an authority for validation
Repeated the key point in a tweet-quote
Anchored the reader’s problem with an authority quote
Used only 4 bullet points (3-4 are recommended)
Involved reader directly with a question format
Included a photo image reader could identify with
The Call to Action engaged reader in a memorable act by asking them to recall their own behavior
Resources:
https://www.itsma.com/brain-science-says-three-keys-to-memorable-marketing/
http://www.intelligentcontentconference.com/science-creating-memorable-content/
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071004121045.htm
Image: Pixabay 265132