How to Build an Audience That Stays

Three steps to be a blogger with authority.

Trust is everything on the internet. Whether you are teaching something or inspiring someone through story, trustworthiness builds authority and, thus, a loyal tribe of readers.

Why?

Because there are so many shysters on the internet. Scammers, hyperbolists, con men — people who are just out for themselves to make a quick buck.

Which is good for you, the writer.

Because if you can write an ethical blog post — one that delivers quality content or sells a product you believe and are confident in — you’ll stand out as a trustworthy content creator and do better than 99% of people on the internet. Quality content rises to the top.

You’ll be rewarded with:

• A loyal audience
• Money
• Authority
• Search rankings in Google

Use your copywriting skills to get there

What is the definition of copywriting?

Copywriting is the act or occupation of writing text for the purpose of advertising or other forms of marketing. The product, called copy or sales copy, is written content that aims to increase brand awareness and ultimately persuade a person or group to take a particular action.

An action can be any other the following:

• Become a true fan and follower.
• Join your email list.
• Buy your product, service or course.
• Follow you on other social media platforms.

Good copywriters and bloggers who stick around for the long-haul stay around for a reason — they’re bolstered by their audience’s loyalty. Their audience trusts them because they deliver the goods.

There are three main areas where you can use your copywriting skills to build a loyal tribe that stays with you for years. Once you have these three things down fundamentally, you can work on them with practice and build on each one to be a better writer and creator.

Step One

Use copywriting to treat your metadata like an ad.

Metadata is simply data about other data.

The word “Meta” is highly overused to the point I want to scratch my eyeballs out when I hear hipsters and talk show hosts drop it into casual conversation. This morning, after I wrote this post, I opened an email from Goop, and the subject line was “heavy meta” (not a joke). Case in point, I thought. And added this anecdote to this post as an example.

I need to use the word meta for this post because it is actually relevant.

Meta is simply data that provides information about other data. So if you write on this platform, the metadata would be your headline and your subhead. Both, crucial.

Treat your headline like an ad. Use your copywriting skills.

You want readers to click. If you don’t get them to click on your headline, the chance of them reading the article you slaved away on is nil. That is how important the headline is. Make it more clickable. The average clickthrough rate (CTR) on Google is the number of people who actually click on your link in a search result versus the number of impressions it gets. You want readers to click through, not just view your headline and pass it by because it didn’t grab them.

Metadata — Treat your metadata (headline) as a copywriter would, make it more clickable than others. Headlines and subheads persuade your reader to click.

Do this by:

• Pique someone’s curiosity.
• Put time into your metadata.
• Use power of words that provoke emotion.
• Add a number to the title if you can, Three Steps to being an Ethical Blogger.
• Metadata is directly relevant to social media in hashtags.
• Other metadata — hashtags.

For blogging purposes

Googles’s whole goal is to provide relevant answers to a specific query that is being searched. If a headline is being clicked on twice as much as others with a similar topic, Google will bump it up on their page because they view it as “good content.”

When a headline has a high CTR, as far as Google’s algorithm is concerned, most people prefer that page over others with similar keywords, so Google bumps it. It’s a feedback loop. High CTR is an indicator to raise it on Google’s page, thus getting it more views and clicks.

That’s what you want. Be creative.

One of the best ways to increase ranking is interesting headlines and unique descriptions — make it as compelling as possible — to persuade someone to click your link. When you write a headline and description, treat it as — or more — important than your story. A headline is one sentence, you can spend time on making one sentence really interesting.

Don’t throw any headline on your post. I see this mistake made again and again with newbie writers. They don’t look at their headline as if they are real copywriters with real marketing skills. Your headline is an ad.

If you are a blogger, put time into title tags, descriptions, and hashtags on social media. Be creative with copywriting by grabbing the reader’s attention.

Five Books and One Website That Will Make You a Better Writer is going to stand out and is more interesting that the title, Five Books That Will Make You a Better Writer.

Step Two

Use copywriting to increase the user time on your site.

“Time-on-site” or if you are writing on this platform, “member reading time” is what every writer wants. We write, so people read our words. If this weren’t the case, we’d stick to our journals. This means you need a high-quality post.

Here are some thing to think about when writing

• Pose a question or questions.
• Promise the reader an answer and make sure you deliver.
• Genuinely make them curious about what type of content you’re offering.
• Pique their interest with questions and then give answers that solve their most common problems.

Write high quality content.

The sole goal of each line you write is to get your reader to read the next line and so on. Keep people reading. The more compelling and the more interesting you can be, the better.

Use open-loop.

Good copywriters used a technique called the open-loop; they use it all the time in blog posts, emails, and marketing material. It is posing a question to the reader to keep them reading until they’ve got the answers you’ve promised that they came for.

When you answer one question, you pose another one, and so on. Pique someone’s curiosity by asking a question and answer it later on down the post.

If you’ve stated to the reader that you’ll give them the one key to success, make sure you give them the key by end of the post. Don’t leave them hanging. Delivering on your promise is what builds trust.

When you get to the end, make sure you have answered all the questions. When bloggers over promise and under deliver, that is considered clickbait, and if used often, you’ll lose your readers’ trust.

When readers click on your content and stay there all the way to the bottom of the page, this is a sign to Google or other platforms — that run on algorithms — your post is of high-quality and will be boosted further. The goal of each line you write is to get somebody to read the next line — starting with the headline to keep your audience reading. The more they read, the more likely they will get “sold,” the more likely they will buy your product or add their email to your list, for you to then sell them something in the future.

This also works with blog posts; the more interesting you can be, the more valuable you can be, the more you get people to keep reading.

Really good copywriting uses multiple open loops to keep the reader engaged. Your reader wants the answer to the question. Make sure you close all the loops, and answer all the questions that were posed at the beginning of your article.

Your reader wants to know the answers. When you deliver them, that builds your authority.

Step Three

Use copywriting to build trust with your audience.

Trust is everything on the internet — there is minimal trust. Most people aren’t trying to build trust. If you become a trustworthy creator, you will be better than 99% of the content creators online. You will start being rewarded. With an audience, search rankings, and more authority.

It doesn’t happen overnight. And, you can lose trust in an instant with your reader by not delivering what you promised. Readers are savvy, don’t manipulate them, they will see right throught it.

How do you build trust?

A big component to building trust is through story. Be willing to admit mistakes when you make them and share with your audience stories about when you were starting, your failures, and triumphs in your blogging area. That builds trust. Being vulnerable.

Use copywriting to build trust with your audience.

How do you persuade someone to click? How do you persuade someone to read a whole post? How do you persuade someone to sign up for your email list? How do you persuade someone to buy your course?

You get them to trust you.

Storytelling that gains trust includes:

• Showing vulnerability.
• Openness.
• Having the ability to admit mistakes.
• The ability to admit you were clueless on something you now know a lot about. Tell a story that relays when you knew less and what that meant for you. What did you learn? Share it with your audience. How can your readers benefit from this learning experience?
• Tell stories about your newbie days when you didn’t know anything or weren’t making any money. When you were just starting out.

If you’re going to be successful online, you have to be trustworthy. With trustworthiness comes authority in your blogging space and a loyal following. If you do these three things, you will start seeing success online. Show up as an ethical blogger; your audience will grow and stay with you for the ride.

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Jessica is a writer, an online entrepreneur, and a recovering type-A personality. She lives in Los Angeles with her extrovert daughter, two dogs, and two cats.