Crafting Captivating Content
How to Attract an Audience, Build Trust, and Keep People Engaged
© 2015 by Christina Vasilevski. All rights reserved.
www.christinavasilevski.com
Cover image courtesy of Canva — www.canva.com
Note: Some of the chapters in this eBook are adaptations of posts originally
published on www.christinavasilevski.com.
Bonus: Don’t forget to take advantage of the offer at the end of this eBook!
Table of Contents
Introduction: What’s the Point of Having Captivating Content? ..................................................... 4
Chapter 1: The Sole Rule to Remember About Content That Attracts an Audience .................. 5
Chapter 2: Build Trust by Cutting Crutch Words................................................................................ 7
Chapter 3: Build Trust by Using Plain Language .............................................................................. 12
Chapter 4: Don’t Be Like Taco Bell ...................................................................................................... 15
Conclusion: One Final Piece of Advice for Crafting Captivating Content .................................... 19
Don’t Forget Your Bonus! ...................................................................................................................... 20
Introduction: What’s the Point of Having Captivating Content?
If you’re a marketer or entrepreneur, your job relies on finding new clients and
keeping your existing ones happy. And the first step towards being indispensable to
clients both new and old is to give them what they need to achieve their goals.
In other words, they need to believe that what you offer is vital to their success. And
the best way for you to do that is to give them the information they need to solve
their problems. In other words, you need to give them useful content.
However, it’s not enough to be useful. You have to be captivating.
But what does that mean?
Being captivating means being not only informative, but also engaging. It means
more than just hitting all the SEO and analytics checkboxes. It means creating
content that people want to spend time with. And that means content that’s easy to
read or listen to and that flows well.
In other words, it means communicating with humanity and warmth as well as
authority. That’s a hard tightrope to balance upon, but it’s possible — and this
eBook will give you some of the tools you need to do so.
In Crafting Captivating Content, I’ll talk about what makes good content succeed and
bad content fail. I’ll talk about the mistakes that some make when it comes to
creating content, and what you can learn from those mistakes. I’ll give you the tools
you need to go from being an expert to having an audience that will trust your
advice and pay for your expertise.
And if you’re still not sure by the end that you’ve got this “captivating content” thing
figured out, I have one tool left to recommend. So let’s get started!
Chapter 1: The Sole Rule to Remember About Content That
Attracts an Audience
One of the hardest things to keep in mind when you’re creating content is that
you’re not doing so for just yourself, but to help others. Whether your audience
wants to learn something new, needs to make an important decision, or is
searching for a sense of belonging to combat isolation, your writing, recordings, or
videos need to address what they’re looking for in some way.
Sometimes the insight on how to do so can be summed up in a single sentence.
Let me tell you a story about when such an event happened to me.
In the summer of 2014 I was at a cocktail party held by a company I was working
with. Also at the party were some of the writers whose work I had been editing for
this company. One of them talked about how when he started writing for them, he
didn’t have a handle on what to write until he had a key conversation with a friend.
After this conversation, his writing became very successful for this company.
“I just want to be told what to do”
“Look, when I’m reading something, I’m busy and I’m looking for advice. In the end, I
just want to be told what to do,” the friend said.
I could hear the awe and relief in this writer’s voice when he repeated that line to
me and to the others listening to him: I just want to be told what to do.
So what’s the rule?
In other words, this writer proved his worth when he realized something from
talking to his friend: great content tells your audience as clearly as possible
what they need to know and what to do next.
Is creating content that tells people what they need to know a hard thing to do? Yes!
Think about how many articles and videos out there that are filled with fluff and adspeak, rather than useful, actionable information. At best, you probably get
annoyed by the meaningless hype in those messages. At worst, you probably get
confused. Do you really want your audience to feel the same way about you?
“I just want to be told what to do” has become one of my own mantras when it
comes to creating content for myself and my clients. So what about you? How have
you tried to apply that lesson to the people you want to help, persuade, or
convince?
Chapter 2: Build Trust by Cutting Crutch Words
However, there’s more to building an audience than just providing useful
information. You need people to trust what you have to say.
Unfortunately, sometimes the way you deliver your advice can undercut the impact
you want to have. Imagine the public speaker who fidgets on stage — even if that
speaker is an expert in their field, their movements make them look anxious to the
audience, which could result in the audience tuning out.
This nervousness that engenders a lack of trust can appear just as clearly on the
page as on the stage. One way it shows up is through the use of “crutch words.”
What are crutch words?
Crutch words are filler words that don’t add any value or information. We often use
them to buy time when deciding what to say. Adverbs like “really” and “very” are a
common culprit here — while they can add emphasis when used judiciously,
overusing them makes for flabby content. Here’s an example from Camilla Blakely,
a professional copy editor in Toronto. Look at this sentence:
I was really quite scared.
Then compare it to this:
I was terrified.
Which sentence sounds more vivid? I think you can guess — it’s the second one. In
fact, the first sentence makes the speaker sound less scared than in the second
sentence despite the use of multiple intensifiers. Technically, both sentences mean
the same thing, but they convey opposite images.
However, the true insidiousness of crutch words lies in how often they pop up,
sapping the willpower of your audience as they roll their eyes over your limited
vocabulary. Want an example?
The “Apparently Kid”
You probably remember this kid from when a video featuring him talking to a news
reporter about a local carnival went viral in the summer of 2014. Here’s an excerpt1
from that conversation:
Kid: It was great. And apparently I’ve never been on live television
before. But, apparently sometimes I don’t watch the — I don’t watch
the news. Because I’m a kid. And apparently every time — apparently
grandpa gives me the remote after we watch the powerball.
Reporter: Tell me about the ride, what did you think about the ride?
Kid: Well it was great.
Reporter: Why?
Kid: Because, you are spinning around. Apparently every time you get
dizzy.
The video became popular because this kid peppered his speech with the word
“apparently” so much it was obvious he had no idea what it meant.
It’s cute when a little kid uses words incorrectly — it’s a sign of their language skills
developing. But it’s annoying when a person old enough to know better does the
same thing. Even worse is that in certain contexts, using a crutch word can
undermine your credibility, as a recent article on the Canadian job search website
Workopolis2 shows. Here’s an excerpt where the author, Peter Harris, describes the
speech patterns of an unsuccessful job applicant:
Him: I was basically responsible for the content strategy. The senior
editor had me running the day to day updates and maintaining the
websites. I always kept the sites fresh by having the newest stories
featured front and centre.
Me: So you weren’t actually in charge of the editorial websites, you just
basically updated them with the newest stories as they came in.
Him: Basically, yes.
I suppose it isn’t necessary to say that I didn’t hire this editor for the
role. His resume got his foot in the door for the interview, but he
proceeded to undercut all of his alleged accomplishments by saying
that he had “basically” done them.
I’ve actually not done justice in this piece to how often he said the
word. It was so frequent that I suspect it may even have been a
nervous tic. If so, I hope he’s overcome it by now.
I want you to try something: the next time you’re listening to a friend talk or reading
someone’s long-winded status update, pay attention to what words they overuse.
Then imagine a big noisy “beep” sound over that word, like it’s being censored on
TV. Imagine that sound popping up every time those words appear. The more you
hear that sound, the more it aggravates you, right? Now imagine how your audience
feels when you do the same thing in your own content — your pauses and tics
distract from the core of your message and may even make you look incompetent.
What’s worse is that it’s hard for us to recognize our own crutch words because
they help us sort out our thoughts as we think them. They’re the scaffolding we use
when structuring what we want to say. However, a true professional takes a look at
that scaffolding and dismantles it when the construction project is complete.
Common crutch words to avoid
You could write entire books about what to cut (and many have), but here’s a list of
some common crutch words and phrases that appear in both written and spoken
English:

really

very

quite

basically

truly

apparently (I couldn’t resist!)

honestly

actually

focus on (e.g., “I focus on helping people write well” vs “I help people write
well”)

like

you know

um/uh

so

anyway

well

literally
When you find these words in your text, ask yourself a few questions:

Does this word add meaning or emphasis to what I want to say?

Will my meaning be altered if I cut this word?

Can I think of a way to make this shorter?

How does it sound when I read this out loud?
Applying these questions to your own content and cutting the words that don’t pass
muster will make it stronger and more memorable.
1. Apparently Kid” transcript excerpt sourced from http://lybio.net/tag/read-apparently-kid-transcripts/
2. Workopolis, July 19, 2014. “The One Word that Can Basically Ruin Your Credibility” http://www.workopolis.com/content/advice/article/the-one-word-that-can-basically-ruin-your-credibility/
Chapter 3: Build Trust by Using Plain Language
In the last chapter I talked about how cutting crutch words can strengthen your
message. However, there’s another way to make your content stronger and clearer,
and that’s by using plain language.
Not sure what that is? Here’s how the Government of Canada3 defines it in Plain
Language: Clear and Simple:
Plain language writing is a technique of organizing information in ways
that make sense to the reader. It uses straightforward, concrete,
familiar words. You can use these techniques to adapt what you have
to say to the reading abilities of the people who are likely to read your
document. Using plain language to explain concepts and procedures
involves using examples that relate to your reader’s experience.
In short, using plain language means communicating clearly and avoiding jargon.
Understanding the value of plain language is something that both people and
businesses have trouble with, especially when it comes to cutting jargon. Ironically,
even the Canadian government hasn’t implemented plain language rules across all
of its departments, as a recent news story about Revenue Canada4 has made clear.
The story revealed that an American consulting firm reviewed thousands of letters
sent to Canadian citizens by Revenue Canada (Canada’s version of the IRS). The firm
found that the letters were “poorly organized, confusing, unprofessional, unduly
severe, bureaucratic, one-sided and just plain dense.”
Ouch.
The cost of not using plain language
It gets worse, though. Using bureaucratic, complex language — that is, the opposite
of plain language — has a huge cost:
All that gibberish comes with a human cost: confused taxpayers
swamp the agency’s call centres with needless telephone inquiries, or
they send thousands of letters to tax offices asking for clarification.
[…]
“Often the main purpose of the documents was not readily apparent,
and other important information was scattered throughout the
document or embedded in dense paragraphs,” Siegelvision said in its
$25,000 review for the government.
The evaluation included an online survey of taxpayers by another firm,
which asked respondents to examine a typical CRA notice that
required the recipient to send the tax agency money. About half of
those surveyed could not figure out they were supposed to write
a cheque to the government because the document was so poorly
written. [Emphasis added.]
Think about how much time those poorly-written letters have wasted. Think of all of
the money the government isn’t getting because people can’t understand that they
need to submit a cheque.
Would you let unclear content get in the way of getting paid?
I didn’t think so.
So why do people resist plain language?
Many people worry that using plain language means that you have to “dumb down”
your content. If you’re using plain language, the thinking goes, you won’t sound
smart or authoritative enough.
Plain language doesn’t mean you have to sound like you’re talking to a five-year-old.
Instead, it means that you have to assume that the people you’re talking to don’t
know as much about your topic as you do. And when you put it like that, plain
language is a sign of respect — it shows that you’re willing to give your audience the
information they need without hiding behind a veil of insider-y language that is
meant to obfuscate or condescend.
More importantly, if you show that level of respect for your audience, they will
respect you back.
Let’s face it, no one knows everything — but people do want to learn, and plain
language is all about not getting in your reader’s way. Who knows how much
money (literal and figurative) you’re leaving on the table otherwise?
3. Plain Language: Clear and Simple is no longer published in print by the Canadian government. However, editor
and indexer Iva Cheung has recreated these guides in PDF. You can read her blog about it at
http://www.ivacheung.com/2014/03/plain-language-clear-and-simple/ and download the English PDF of Plain
Language: Clear and Simple at
https://www.dropbox.com/s/fujlkv2vg1ozm2x/PlainLanguageClearandSimple.pdf?dl=0
4. CBC, October 29, 2014. “Revenue Canada’s letters full of gobbledegook, internal report finds” http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/revenue-canada-s-letters-full-of-gobbledegook-internal-report-finds-1.2814181
Chapter 4: Don’t Be Like Taco Bell
Do you know what your content says about you? Not what you think it says, but
what it actually says?
What if you want to look professional and competent but your business copy is
secretly undermining you? Would you be able to see what you’re doing wrong?
Many don’t. But some do, and those people know how to use language to appeal to
different demographics. That’s why I found a 2014 article about fast food menus5
so fascinating.
A quick recap: Dan Jurafsky, the author of The Language of Food, sat down with a
writer for Mother Jones and compared two menus side-by-side. One menu was from
Taco Bell, and the other was from U.S. Taco Co., Taco Bell’s new upscale spinoff.
Not surprisingly, the two menus sound very different because of the markets they
target.
The upshot? Many of the things that Taco Bell does are things that you shouldn’t do
when it comes to your own business content. Let’s look at a few.
Too many descriptive words
One of the first things that Jurafsky noticed was that Taco Bell’s menu uses a lot of
descriptors like “fresh” and “fluffy” in its copy:
“So there’s all of those adjectives and participles,” he says. “‘Fluffy.’
‘Seasoned.'” That’s one thing that’s common on cheaper restaurant
menus — as if the restaurant feels the need to try and convince its
diners of the quality of the food. A fancier restaurant, he explains,
would take it as a given that the diner expects the eggs to be fluffy and
the pico de gallo to be freshly prepared.
“Notice the word ‘flavorful,'” Jurafsky says. “The cheapest restaurants
use these vague, positive adjectives. ‘Delicious.’ ‘Tasty.’ ‘Scrumptious.’
Wonderful. Again, more expensive restaurants take all that as a given.”
In contrast, the menu for U.S. Taco Co. is more spartan:
“What the really upscale restaurants these days are doing is just listing
their ingredients. They don’t say ‘and’ or ‘with.’ It’s just a list.”
How a company describes its products and services can say a lot more than
originally intended. You’ve probably read more than your fair share of fluffy,
meaningless copy yourself: adjective- and adverb-stuffed text talking about how
“amazing” or “innovative” some product or service is, rather than what it actually
does and letting the thing in question speak for itself.
Too many options
Jurafsky also noticed that Taco Bell’s menu had more items on it than U.S. Taco
Co.’s did:
There are dozens, if not hundreds of items. “The very, very fancy
restaurants, many of them have no menu at all,” Jurafsky says. “The
waiter tells you what you’re going to eat, kind of. If you want, they’ll
email you a menu if you really want it.”
One of the first things I learned when starting my business was to focus on a few
things and do them well. How many times have you met someone at a networking
event and heard about the dizzying variety of services they offer, some of them
completely unrelated to each other?
The little things count
A third thing that Jurafsky noticed in both menus was their differing attitude
towards Spanish. Here’s Taco Bell:
…. the word “jalapeño” is missing its tilde — the little squiggle over the
“n” that signifies a “nye” pronunciation in Spanish words. Jurafsky isn’t
sure whether the missing “ñ” is linguistically meaningful, but keep it in
mind, because it will become important when we look at U.S. Taco
Co.’s menu.
In contrast, here’s U.S. Taco Co.:
“There are more unusual Spanish words on this menu,” he [Jurafsky]
says. Taco Bell has “burrito” and “taco.” Everyone knows those. But
“here we have ‘molcajete’ and ’cotija.’ Every item has at least one
Spanish word. And there’s the “ñ” in jalapeño!
A single letter may be trivial, but it means a lot — in this context, it shows one
restaurant trying to be more “authentic” than the other. On top of that, the more
upscale menu is using more obscure words — it’s trying to be a bit more culturally
diverse. (Though honestly, considering Taco Bell is the parent company, I doubt you
should read too much into this.)
What does this mean for you or your business?
These lessons can be boiled down easily because they follow well-known rules of
good business copy:

Don’t fluff up your copy. Stick to concrete details —what your product
contains and what it actually does — and cut the meaningless puffery.

Know what you’re doing and do it well. Don’t try to be everything to
everyone.

Get the little details right because people will notice.
More importantly, what does not following these rules mean? It means you look
cheap. There’s no other way to put it. And, let’s face it, being cheap is not the way to
captivate others.
Think about the content mills that charge writers only one or two cents a word.
Those writers have to keep their heads above water, which means that they can’t
afford to spend time creating captivating copy if they have to meet a certain word
count. Instead, it’s much faster for them to slip in filler or crutch words like “really”
and “quite” to put them over the top.
If you don’t value your business enough to invest in clear, concrete content, then
you’ll probably attract customers with a similarly cavalier approach to value and
price. When it comes to your business, is that truly the impression you want to give?
5. Mother Jones via Alternet, September 30, 2014. “The Creepy Language Tricks Taco Bell Uses to Fool People
Into Eating There.” - http://www.alternet.org/creepy-language-tricks-taco-bell-uses-fool-people-eating-there
Conclusion: One Final Piece of Advice for Crafting
Captivating Content
You may have noticed that most, if not all, of the advice in this book has one central
idea: be clear about what you need to say, and don’t let anything get in the way of
what your audience needs to hear.
That’s an important message. But what if you’re still not sure where to start? You
may understand the value of having content that convinces your audience that
you’re an authority whose advice and solutions are worth paying for. However, you
may not have the skill, the time, or the willingness to create the captivating content
you need, especially if you’re a busy entrepreneur who wears many hats.
That’s why there’s one last thing you need to know about. Think of it as your secret
weapon.
You need to hire someone who understands how to create great content. You
need someone who knows how to craft a message so that it’s clear and actionable,
yet also friendly and engaging.
In short, you need a professional — like me.
That’s why I’m offering a special deal: a free 30-minute phone consult to discuss
your company’s content strategy and how we could make it stronger together.
Want to know more?
Email me at [email protected] with the subject line “Captivating
Content Strategy” and let’s get started!
Don’t Forget Your Bonus!
All done with this eBook? Ready to captivate your audience?
Awesome!
But don’t forget: email [email protected]
for your free 30-minute consultation about your company’s
content strategy! Just use the subject line “Captivating Content
Strategy” to get things rolling.