Why your audience struggles to read your content and how to keep their attention
Vivien- Apr 4, 2023
- 5 min read
Updated: Apr 2
It's Wednesday evening, and two salespeople at a networking event in a fancy hotel make a bet to see who can collect the most business cards.
– let's call them Chatty Charlie and Conversational Connie. You may already know how this ends, but indulge me for a moment.
Chatty Charlie is the human equivalent of a squirrel on Red Bull.
He can talk faster than an auctioneer.
And is relying on his speed-dating strategy — the more people he can talk to — the more cards he'll get.
He bulldozers a group of unsuspecting victims with a grin that says, "You're gonna love this!" and then unleashes an avalanche of words about his company's achievements, peppering his monologue with industry jargon.
And before he can take a breath, he's jumping into explaining the features of their most popular products.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the room, Conversational Connie is having a very different experience.
She greets her prospects with a warm smile and a compliment.
She has genuine questions, treating the conversation like a friendly game of ping-pong.
Instead of flooding them with technical terms, she breaks down her company's offerings using language they understand and relates them to the specific challenges her listeners face.
Connie doesn't feel she has to be the only one talking.
She listens carefully to their feedback and concerns, nodding and laughing at their jokes (even the terrible ones).
People feel so comfortable with her that they're offering their business cards without hesitation.
As the event wraps up, Connie's pockets are stuffed with new contacts, while Charlie's left wondering why his 3x speed talking skills failed.
Most B2B marketing messages are written from the company's view. For some unexplainable reason, when it comes to sitting at our keyboard and writing, we turn into Charlie - tapping out large blocks of text and starting all our sentences with "We are proud to announce..."
Which is why your reader struggles to finish that whitepaper or article.
One way to get your reader to read all the way to the end is to make your content more human-friendly.
Conversational Writing makes your reader feel more like they are having a one-on-one conversation with you, rather than being spoken at.
According to Harvard Business Review, positive conversations produce oxytocin, a “feel-good hormone,” that encourages people to communicate and collaborate with others.
So when you have a conversation with your readers, they release more oxytocin, which makes them feel a personal connection, which in turn makes them more open to trust you.
The tone you adopt in your writing depends on many factors: the kind of business you’re in, your target audience, and your messaging goal.
8 Tips to Write Conversationally
1. Want to make your writing more engaging? Ask a question. (See what I did)
A question changes the flow of your writing and makes your audience stop to think about their answers.
In his book, To Sell Is Human, Daniel Pink explains that a question makes readers pause and think. And when your readers agree with you, your question is more persuasive than a statement.
Even if they are rhetorical, try asking your reader what they think or would do before lending your own insight.
2. Tell a story.
Stories catch and keep your audience's attention a lot longer than a wall of text.
You don't have to talk only about your specialty subject.
Use analogies
Add some humor
Drop in sensory words and visuals to make your story come alive.
Use the words “you” and “I”
Even though you can’t see the person on the other end of the conversation, if you never refer to the,m then it's not a conversation
You don’t have to replace all instances of “I” and “we.”
A good conversation goes two ways: A little bit about “me” or “us.” A little more about “you.”
Charleston's ratio of 6 "yous" to 1 "we" is a good benchmark to aim for.
Use contractions
When you talk with your best friend, what kind of words do you use? Do you say, “I will go to work,” or “I’ll go to work”
Don’t Write Like You Speak
Writing conversation and writing conversationally are two very different things. Natural speech is often repetitive, lacks clarity, and is filled with bloated words, which make for very poor writing.
Conversational text is a lot tighter than spoken language. So, writing conversationally doesn’t mean you write as you talk. Instead, edit your text so it doesn’t sound like writing.
Choose simple words: Don’t write to impress; be relatable
Are you trying to impress them with how smart you are? Do you throw in technical jargon and complicated terminology?
To write conversationally, you'll want to skip the dictionary-grabbing content and simplify what you say so that anyone can understand what you’re talking about.
Avoid industry jargon and buzzwords. Use words that you would use in everyday life. No one says "with reference to" in a conversation; instead,d use "about."
Don't worry; a conversational tone makes your words more relatable and relaxed without losing their authority. You can still present clear, concise information, tips, or ideas to your readers.
6. Use shorter sentences
Phew. Did you get all of that?
Long sentences reduce readability by taking more focus and time to process the information. By shortening your sentence, you make your point easier to read and understand.
You can break a few rules here
Start some sentences with “and” or “but,”
Create one-sentence paragraphs to stress specific statements and give readers room to breathe.
Feel free to occasionally use interjections like “Ouch,” and “Phew,"
You want the structure of your writing to sound as if someone is speaking rather than a polished piece of prose.
7. Use transitions: You’ll probably cover multiple subtopics within your blog post, just like you would in a regular conversation. Transitions help keep your reader moving onto those subtopics. Try writing your subheadings as questions instead of descriptions
Writing in a conversational tone isn’t unstructured writing. Conversational writing is still refined. It's carefully crafted to speak to your reader, making it easier to read and remember.
8/ Read it out loud
Like a conversation between two friends -
Read your copy aloud - if it sounds one-sided, explain what you’ve written to a friend and then replace your draft with what you just said.
Writing conversationally helps your audience feel part of the conversation. You're speaking with them, not at or around.
Your B2B readers are human, and the goal is to get your content read. It just makes sense to write more like a human than a robot.
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