A lot of content on the internet seems to be the same old stuff, with nothing new, exciting, or noteworthy to pay attention to. One of the best ways to break out of this is to build suspense.
Newspaper writing vs. blogging
Journalistic writing is the type of writing used by newspaper and magazine writers. It focuses on the five Ws to report the facts:
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WHO
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That
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When
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Where
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because
Journalistic writing is also an “inverted pyramid” style of writing, with all the meaty information in the first paragraph or two, tapering off to less and less important information until the article is finally concluded.
With this style of writing, there is very little suspense or “twist in the story” at the end. About the only place you see suspense used consciously is in the headline. A good headline is designed to entice those browsing a newspaper to read the full article.
So you need to be proficient in more than just journalistic writing if your content is ever going to be read.
Marketing as storytelling
All online content is marketing. And one of the hottest trends in online marketing is storytelling.
Storytelling is as old as time itself, and one of the first activities we engage in as children. “Once upon a time there was a…” It’s a common storytelling formula because it works.
The most successful stories have a beginning, a middle, and an end. They don’t even have to be very long. What the best stories have is a twist in the story, that is, a surprise ending. Or they might end with a special point that was intended to be made through the story, such as “the moral of the story.”
add suspense
Every good story has some element of suspense. Although in most cases, we love a happy ending, it’s exciting to be on the edge, not knowing if things are going to work out. Stories like “The Three Little Pigs” or “Little Red Riding Hood” keep you on edge until the end. We go from an unhappy situation to a happy one where everything has been solved.
This formula also works well with content. Think about the problems that people in your niche have and how they can be solved. What solutions have you discovered along the way? What has really worked for you? What setbacks did you have? Was it a straight forward progression from A to B, or did you have to take a more winding route around the scary forest to find what you needed? What lessons can you offer your readers as the moral of your story?
This type of content will not only be more vivid and suspenseful, but it will also help you position yourself as an expert in your niche worth paying attention to. This can be the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow when it comes to your content marketing efforts.