In this article, we're going to take a close look at content engagement.

1. What content engagement is, and how you can measure it
2. The benefits of content engagement, and
3. 5 smart ways to increase content engagement.

When we're done, you'll have a clearer idea of what content engagement looks like, how to measure it for your own business, and actionable strategies you can put into practice today to boost your engagement numbers!

WHAT IS CONTENT ENGAGEMENT, AND HOW IS IT MEASURED?

Content engagement is about the interaction your audience has with your content. The likes, shares, comments, and other actions taken as a response to your content.

For example, engagement can look like you hosting a poll on Facebook and getting your audience to participate.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF CONTENT ENGAGEMENT?

Content engagement supports a positive user experience. Customers will be able to easily migrate across your website whether they're conducting research for a buying decision or looking for entertaining and inspiring content to make their day!

1. SEO benefits: When you create engaging content evidenced by user behavior, this tells Google that your content is valuable and customers are interacting with it.
2. Creating a self-led buyer's journey: Incorporating content engagement into your content marketing plan can streamline the buyer's journey. Customers gravitate toward brands that have higher customer engagement.
3. Creating an interactive experience: Create opportunities for your audience to interact with your content. Developing interactive content could mean using tools that allow users to write reviews, share their comments or questions, vote, like, follow, or share your content.

5 WAYS TO INCREASE CONTENT ENGAGEMENT?

Content engagement supports a positive user experience. Customers will be able to easily migrate across your website whether they're conducting research for a buying decision or looking for entertaining and inspiring content to make their day!

1. BUILD TRUST

Creating an environment that customers trust is a big part of having strong content engagement. 

Be honest, authentic, and forthcoming with customers. This goes a long way in developing your brand loyalty and creating lasting, long relationships with your customers.

2. OFFER AN INTERACTIVE EXPERIENCE

Interactive experiences are memorable to consumers.

There are many ways to achieve this:

1. Use various content formats like video, polls, etc.
2. Create a virtual wardrobe or virtual try-on experience, like trying on glasses on a self-uploaded selfie picture
3. Personalized experiences, like sharing browsing history and making recommendations based on previous browsing or purchase history
4. Social sharing, giving users a chance to share your content with their friends/family through site social sharing tools you provide

3. OPTIMIZE YOUR CONTENT

Optimizing your content is about learning from your user's experience and current level of engagement to improve engagement.

1. Review your website analytics and customer metrics to measure content engagement
2. Focus on producing high-quality, relevant, and well-researched content that your audience is interested in
3. Use storytelling to paint the picture and keep your audience laser-focused on your story
4. Incorporate interactive features like polls, quizzes, and other tools to keep your audience entertained and engaged
5. Experiment, and don't be afraid to try new things to see what works

FORMATTING TIPS

The formatting of your content plays an important role in how engaging your content is. Here are some tips to help you format your content for engagement:

1. Creating an interactive experience: Create opportunities for your audience to interact with your content. Developing interactive content could mean using tools that allow users to write reviews, share their comments or questions, vote, like, follow, or share your content.
2. Use video: Cater to the different ways your audience consumes content, including text-based and video content.
3. Use bulleted and numbered lists: This improves readability and can lead to increased time on page.
4. Include visuals: Engaging visuals like screenshots, infographics, and other visual content can help break up the text and make complex topics easier to understand.

4. CREATE HIGH-QUALITY, VALUABLE CONTENT

Focus on your content quality, whether it be social media content, website content, newsletter, etc.

Examples of interactive content that keeps your audience engaged include:

1. Polls: Ask your audience about their opinion. Encourage them to participate in a poll, which will force them to think about your company and how they use it in their daily lives.
2. Quizzes: Get your audience involved by providing them with a quiz they can participate in.
3. User-generated content (UGC): This is user-created content not created by your marketing department. It can include reviews, video reviews, and other kinds of UGC.
4. Case studies: Document a case study and share the results. Include before and after statistics, images, and videos to reveal a behind-the-scenes look at your experiment and how you conducted it.

5. USE SALES FUNNELS

Sales funnels may be one of the untapped marketing tools preventing you from providing the best user experience possible.

1. Awareness: Educate your audience about who you are and what you do. Capture your audience's attention through SEO, social media, etc.
2. Interest: Gauge your audience's interest and encourage them to explore it further.
3. Consideration: In this stage, your user is considering your product. Build desire, engage, and rapidly respond to questions, inquiries, etc. 
4. Intent: There's a clear intent to purchase. The customer may sign up for a free trial or get a quote in this step.
5. Purchase: Your customer buys your product or service.

BOTTOM LINE

At the end of the day, content matters. Creating engaging content goes a long way in cultivating a loyal, engaged audience that rabidly consumes your content and supports your business.

Now that you know how important content engagement is, you can use the tools and strategies we shared to measure your audience engagement. Then, go on to create your own engagement strategy to reach your content marketing goals.