{"id":191,"date":"2011-07-20T15:41:40","date_gmt":"2011-07-20T15:41:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.write-angle.com\/thewritestuff\/?p=191"},"modified":"2011-07-20T15:41:40","modified_gmt":"2011-07-20T15:41:40","slug":"the-secret-to-engaging-a-business-reader-is-to-tell-a-good-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.write-angle.com\/thewritestuff\/the-secret-to-engaging-a-business-reader-is-to-tell-a-good-story\/","title":{"rendered":"The secret to engaging a business reader is to tell a good story"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Boredom<\/a><\/div>\n

Nobody’s ever been bored into reading something.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

People love good stories.\u00a0 After all, it’s part of what makes us human.\u00a0 And no matter if it’s a technology white paper, a product brief, a speech or a Op-Ed submission to technical journal, readers are people first. They want to be engaged on their<\/em> terms, not the author’s or the vendor’s.<\/p>\n

It’s incumbent upon the content creator<\/em> to engage the consumer\/reader.\u00a0 No matter how compelling you believe your material is, don’t assume you have a reflexively engaged audience.\u00a0 It’s not up to the reader to find a way to stay interested.\u00a0 So, how to do this in an age of short time and shorter attention?<\/p>\n

Right from the start, at the concept-stage of your project, it’s fundamental to get inside the head of the individual you envision on the receiving end.\u00a0 Think about yourself as a reader or a member of an audience. What is it that grasps and holds your attention?\u00a0 Of course, the subject matter has to be relevant to an issue or problem you might be dealing with at the moment but if what you read is fluff that evaporates before the end of each sentence, or so opaque and dense with jargon that you have to re-read each paragraph, chances are you’ll put it aside.\u00a0 Even if it’s clearly worded, a tract that reads more like a textbook is unlikely to inspire the calls-to-action envisioned by the author.<\/p>\n

By storytelling, we don’t mean anything touchy-feely or non-analytical.\u00a0 The watchword here is “anecdotal”.\u00a0 Incorporating real-life vignettes or business anecdotes gives authenticity, immediacy and texture to your content.\u00a0 The reader can identify with it. We won’t argue that the objectivity of numbers and statistics don’t inject strength into any argument but the objectivity of the numbers weakens them as a communication device.\u00a0 And make no mistake, you’re trying to communicate — images and ideas and opinions. You need to motivate a prospect.\u00a0 Reassure a customer or partner. Capture their interest and, ideally, their imagination.\u00a0 Get them to think in a new ways about familiar things.\u00a0 And get them to want to read your content when you have something else to tell them.\u00a0 Your objective is not just to get your content approved for publishing.\u00a0 It’s to get read.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nobody’s ever been bored into reading something. People love good stories.\u00a0 After all, it’s part of what makes us human.\u00a0 And no matter if it’s a technology white paper, a product brief, a speech or a Op-Ed submission to technical journal, readers are people first. They want to be engaged on their terms, not the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,52,36,37,9,10,53],"tags":[210,26,38,17,212],"class_list":["post-191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-case-studies","category-content-marketing","category-content-strategy","category-marketing","category-online-content","category-website-content","category-white-papers","tag-case-studies","tag-content-creation","tag-content-strategy-2","tag-sales-minded-content","tag-white-papers"],"yoast_head":"\nThe secret to engaging a business reader is to tell a good story - The Write Stuff<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.write-angle.com\/thewritestuff\/the-secret-to-engaging-a-business-reader-is-to-tell-a-good-story\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The secret to engaging a business reader is to tell a good story - The Write Stuff\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Nobody’s ever been bored into reading something. People love good stories.\u00a0 After all, it’s part of what makes us human.\u00a0 And no matter if it’s a technology white paper, a product brief, a speech or a Op-Ed submission to technical journal, readers are people first. 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