How to Craft Engaging Content: Insights From the Experts
Creating content that truly resonates with your audience requires more than just good writing—it demands strategy, empathy, and a deep understanding of what your readers actually need. This article brings together proven techniques and expert insights to help you build content that connects, engages, and delivers real value. From understanding your audience's pain points to crafting openers worth sharing, these actionable strategies will transform how you approach content creation.
Empower Clients With Educational Hot Tips
Our best-performing content consistently returns to education. When we share hot tips that help our clients feel more empowered, they want to reach out. I've had people message us saying, 'I saw your tip and had to ask... would that work for me?' That's when you know your content isn't just being seen, it resonates.
Write for One Real Person
Being the founder and managing consultant at spectup, I've seen how most people overcomplicate content. They chase trends instead of resonance. My best tip is simple, write for one real person, not an audience. Before creating anything, I visualize a single founder I've recently advised. I think about their frustrations, the exact words they used when describing their struggles, and how I would respond if we were having coffee. When content feels like a genuine conversation, it immediately cuts through the noise.
One example that worked exceptionally well was a post I wrote about the fear of pitching too early. I shared how one of our startup clients hesitated for months, refining their deck endlessly, until we convinced them to go out and talk to investors. That story wasn't polished or data-heavy, but it was real. Founders could see themselves in it, and that authenticity led to genuine engagement, not just impressions.
What I've learned is that people connect with vulnerability wrapped in insight. It's not about being loud or viral, it's about being honest and specific. When you speak from experience and make the reader feel understood, you don't need clickbait. You earn trust, and in our line of work at spectup, trust is what builds long-term relationships far beyond a single piece of content.
Introduce Novelty Through Interactive Elements
One of the best things that you can do to create engaging content is try introducing novelty. Think of what extra you can give to the readers. I remember when we were writing articles on email related topics and we came across places where we could give an example of an email template we would embed the actual template for the readers to interact with the different elements of the email template instead of just embedding an image. We did something similar with forms inside emails topics where users could actually fill out the form instead of just seeing how the form would look inside the email.
Show Up Where Your Audience Lives
The best tip I can give is to stop guessing what your audience wants and start showing up where they actually are. Join the forums and Reddit threads where your target audience hangs out. That's where the real conversations happen.
I spend 45 to 60 minutes daily on these platforms, responding to real questions and engaging authentically. No sales pitch, no gatekeeping. Just genuine, helpful answers. This practice has completely shaped how we create content because we're hearing directly from our audience about their pain points and interests.
This approach has brought in quality leads and referrals, but more importantly, it's informed our content strategy in ways no keyword research could. When you know exactly what keeps your audience up at night, creating content that resonates becomes natural. Plus, the SEO benefits and domain authority boost have been significant.
Know Your Audience Better Than Themselves
When it comes to creating content that truly resonates, my best tip is simple: know your audience better than they know themselves. I've always found that content performs best when it speaks directly to the challenges, aspirations, and interests of your target audience — not just what you think they should know.
For me, this begins with research. I analyse search data, forums, and social media to understand how people discuss their problems. Then, I create content that answers these questions clearly, actionably, and sometimes unexpectedly.
A practical example: In one campaign for a SaaS client, instead of creating generic "how-to" blog posts, we mapped out the real questions their users had — things like "How do I reduce my monthly churn without increasing workload?" Then, we created a series of step-by-step guides, case studies, and short videos addressing these questions. The result? Engagement shot up, and the content became a resource people kept coming back to, sharing, and linking to — all of which helped SEO too.
My key takeaway is that focus on solving real problems, use the audience's language, and present it in a format they enjoy. That's what creates content that sticks.
Become an Investigator Instead of Authority
My best tip is to stop trying to be the authority and start being an investigator. Most advice out there pushes you to position yourself as an expert, but "expert" content like "The 5 Things You Must Know" can come off as preachy or disconnected. Instead, invite your audience on a journey of discovery with you. Don't broadcast answers; dig into questions you're genuinely curious about and share what you uncover. Think of yourself not as a lecturer, but as the curious friend who's done the homework and wants to pass on the most fascinating bits.
A perfect example of this is the YouTube channel SmarterEveryDay. Destin, the host, is a brilliant engineer—he could easily stand at a whiteboard and teach physics like an authority. But his approach is all about investigation. For instance, he'll pick up a strange bicycle that steers in reverse and ask, "Can I learn to ride it, and will I forget how to ride a normal bike?"
The entire video documents him struggling, failing, getting frustrated, and eventually succeeding. By framing the content as a personal investigation, he turns a complex concept like neuroplasticity into a relatable, memorable, and truly human story—not talking at viewers, but discovering right alongside them. This makes the content far more engaging and meaningful.
Share Behind-the-Scenes Insights Without Polish
The best way to create engaging content is to focus on the questions your audience actually asks, not the ones you wish they did. At Event Staff, we stopped writing polished brand pieces and started sharing behind-the-scenes insights about how large-scale events really come together. That transparency built more credibility than any campaign ever could because it felt real and useful to our clients. The content that performs best for us shows expertise without polish—short videos of staff setups, quick process breakdowns, and genuine storytelling that reminds people there's a team of professionals behind every luxury experience.
Lead With Empathy and Transparency First
Lead with empathy and transparency, not algorithms. Before writing or designing anything, I ask: What is my audience actually feeling right now, and what do they need to hear to feel seen, understood, or inspired?
For example, when I started sharing founder stories on FemFounder, I shifted from generic "success tips" to raw, behind-the-scenes narratives about burnout, self-doubt, and rebuilding confidence. Those posts consistently outperform polished thought-leadership pieces because they're human — they remind readers they're not alone in the chaos of entrepreneurship. Authentic emotion, paired with practical value, is what truly earns engagement.
Build Trust Through Gradual Digital Shifts
We first acknowledged their concerns and tried to build trust before we proposed any major changes. My team shared case studies with clients where we had helped small businesses implement digital automation like AI chatbots for customer support and workflow optimization systems. This built up the trust, and we started a gradual shift to digitalization rather than an all-at-once approach.
We agreed on a hybrid approach where many operations, like manual billing and local customer service, remained offline, but shifted some must-have operations, like customer onboarding and data management, to digitization. We saw a significant increase in their customer acquisition because now the main operations, like inquiries and lead tracking, were automated, and customers were getting faster responses and consistent service. This also shifted the client's perception, and they agreed to gradually shift to a digital interface.
Talk to Your Audience Like Friends
The best tip I've learned for creating engaging content is to talk to your audience like you're talking to a friend. Forget about sounding perfect or overly professional. Just be real. People connect instantly when your content feels honest and personal.
I begin with understanding my audience and its requirements. What sort of help do they need? What are their pain points? Further, I give real answers considering all these aspects. I keep it simple and useful.
One thing that worked really well for us was sharing real stories. I once wrote a post about a project that didn't go as planned and what we learned from it. It wasn't a polished success story. However, people loved it. They related to the struggle and appreciated the honesty. That post got way more comments and shares than any of our usual promotional content.
I've also learned that short, clear sentences work best. No one wants to read long, complicated paragraphs. Adding a few visuals or short clips makes the content even better. It grabs attention and keeps people reading till the end.
The biggest lesson? People can tell when you're being genuine. You don't need fancy words or perfect grammar. You just need to sound like a human who understands what they're going through. Your audience trusts you more and keeps coming back when your content feels real and helpful.
Combine Relatable Stories With Real Value
My best tip for creating engaging content that truly resonates with your audience is finding the sweet spot between sharing a relatable story and providing real value.
In my field, there are plenty of public speaking coaches who can teach similar material. What helps me stand out is bringing my own personality and perspective to the mix and sharing solutions to my audience's problems through my unique lens.
For example, I recently created a LinkedIn post that paired a funny Modern Family meme with a discussion about FLSA (Foreign Language Speaking Anxiety). That post received over 100 comments and more than 110,000 impressions.
Looking back, I realized why it worked: it made people feel seen and understood, it offered a moment of humor and relief, and it taught something new and valuable.
Build Content Around Shared Emotions
The best tip I can give is to build content around shared emotion, not just shared interest. Data helps you find your audience, but emotion helps you connect with them.
At Brand Professor, one campaign that worked beautifully was when we asked founders to share the most human moment behind their brand, a mistake, a late-night idea, a story that shaped them. It wasn't polished or promotional, but it created genuine engagement because people saw themselves in those stories.
When your content makes your audience feel seen, not sold to, that's when it truly resonates.
Use Purpose-Driven Story Architecture
My advice is to build every piece of content around what I call PURPOSE-DRIVEN STORY ARCHITECTURE.
I start with the reason the content needs to exist. Once that purpose is clear, the story almost builds itself. Every headline, visual, and sentence should guide the reader toward that purpose, creating a natural flow that feels less like marketing and more like a conversation that matters.
Writing blogs and content daily has taught me that people don't connect with brands; they connect with stories that mirror their own experiences. I map content like a narrative — even when it's something as simple as a how-to guide. That structure keeps readers engaged because it respects their time and gives them emotional footing.
Purpose gives the story weight; story gives the purpose reach.
I learned that, while cliche, engagement is all about clarity, empathy, and direction. When a story is built with purpose at its core, readers carry it with them. That's when content stops being noise and starts becoming something people actually trust.
Measure What Matters and Refine Accordingly
I recommend measuring what matters and refining the story accordingly. Our team tracks which content topics led to newsletter sign-ups and time spent on each page, and then we iterate based on the findings. When we observed that ingredient-origin stories created deeper engagement than general lifestyle posts, we redirected more focus and resources toward those narratives.
That data-driven approach allowed us to refine our content strategy in a more meaningful way. By identifying the connection between authentic storytelling and user behavior, we were able to craft content that felt personal and purposeful. It also encouraged us to experiment with new formats that enhanced audience trust. Over time, this continuous refinement improved engagement, loyalty and the overall impact of our content.
Get Hyper-Specific When Choosing Topics
Get hyper-specific when choosing a topic for your content. Rather than creating a blanket piece of content that covers multiple problems or more generalized problems, hone in on one specific problem or question that your audience has. A great way to find specific questions or problems is to ask AI tools what your audience has been asking them. Being very specific in your content will help resonate with key members of your target audience.
Write Openers Your Reader Would Forward
Write the opening like an answer your reader would forward to a friend, using their exact words, not yours.
I keep a "language bank" of phrases from comments, emails and support tickets, then build every key page with a simple structure: a 40-60 word opener that solves the question in plain language, a short checklist, and one piece of proof right there (mini case study, screenshot, or quote).
For instance, for a burnout mini-series tied to a book launch, our audience kept saying "I'm fine on paper, fried in real life." We used that line verbatim and opened the page with: "If you feel fine on paper but fried in real life, here's a 5-day reset you can actually finish."
Below it: three steps, one testimonial, one obvious CTA. Engagement climbed, support questions dropped, and sign-ups came from people repeating that exact phrase back to us. When your opener sounds like them, everything after reads like help, not marketing.
Use Short-Form Videos to Identify Interest
Short-form content: 15 to 30 seconds max on Meta. We're getting 100% views for as little as $.03 per user. Sometimes up to $.10, but still a great deal. It's not cheap reach; we're using those views to build custom audiences we can retarget later in the funnel.
Meta's algorithm is fantastic if you're selling impulse buys under $50. But our B2B clients are selling $2,500 phase converters, $300,000 thermal processing ovens, cobots for manufacturing, 3D printers. . .Things that require phone conversations and actual sales processes. You can't just let the algorithm optimize for 'purchases' when the purchase happens offline 75% of the time - and never in a 7 day window.
So instead, we use those cheap, short videos to identify who's actually interested. Someone watches a 15 second video about industrial equipment? They're in our audience.
Now we can show them case studies, testimonials, more detailed content,and eventually get them on the phone with sales.
In a world where Meta wants to let it's AI do everything for you, and CPC are rising on Google and LinkedIn, you have to take a different approach. For high-ticket B2B, this method works. We've generated millions in revenue for clients this way because we're controlling the funnel instead of hoping the algorithm figures out what a qualified lead looks like for a high ticket purchase.
Emulate How Your Audience Talks Naturally
An excellent piece of content does more than inform-it emulates how your audience talks about their problems. My top advice: stop writing from a brand perspective and mine the real deal. We use SEO tools such as AlsoAsked and Semrush, coupled with client reviews, Reddit threads, and customer support transcripts. This is where pain points and questions live in their raw form.
One example: We worked with a small law firm producing technical blog content on marginal scale. We rewrote their top pages according to phrasing by actual clients-moving "estate planning strategies for asset protection" to "how to make sure that your kids don't lose the house after you die." A subtle tweak, but a shifting of tone; in a number of weeks, the post climbed to position 2 and increased dwell time 4 times.
I am confident that marketers care much more about how magnificent their material reads than about how readable it is. Ultimately, the material that makes the deepest impact on people is going to sound much more like it was written by someone sitting across the table from them at their kitchen table than someone sitting across from them in a boardroom.
Understand Audience Pain Points and Aspirations
If you want to create content that truly resonates, you need to understand your audience's pain points and aspirations. Great content isn't about pushing information. It's about starting a conversation that feels relevant and valuable. You need to talk to your audience, not at them.
At Digital Silk, we've found that educational storytelling works incredibly well for this purpose. For example, when we write about the latest trends in digital marketing, we don't just present a list of tactics; we illustrate those tactics through the lens of the real problems businesses experience, and actionable takeaways in the real world. That type of authenticity builds trust and makes audiences want to come back.
Focus on Real Problems With Data
My best tip for creating engaging content is to focus on real problems my readers have.
Then support your recommended solution with solid data provided in a clear and illustrated manner, such as an infographic or used tables for comparision.
Let's take Pointalize, my website, as an example, where I saw a lot of confusion among the readers regarding the best value of credit card points redemption. Instead of coming up with another usual guide, I developed a user-friendly "Points vs. Cash" calculator, which is an interactive tool that allows users to see and compare the actual redemption values.
In a nutshell, do not make things complicated, rather, teach with clarity, and employ tools, visuals, or data to give the audience a better understanding of abstract ideas.
Lead With Problems and Show Outcomes
Lead with the problem, show the outcome, keep the tech secondary. Most B2B content fails because companies promote features instead of transformations. We found that case studies with specific timelines and measurable results get actual client conversations. Generic "we do AI automation" posts get likes. Specific "we automated after-hours call handling for a pest control company in six weeks" posts get DMs asking about pricing.The example that works consistently is our weekly LinkedIn case study format. We pick one implementation, explain the business problem the client faced, describe what we built, and share the operational impact. No promotional language, just the story. For instance, when we shared how we built route optimization for home services companies that reduced travel time and fuel costs, we got inquiries from three similar businesses within a week. They weren't interested in AI features. They wanted to solve the exact problem we demonstrated solving. Its about specificity over scale. One detailed story about solving a real problem beats ten generic posts about capabilities. Our target audience is service business owners dealing with operational challenges. They don't care about our tech stack. They care that we understand their problem and have proof we can fix it. Content that resonates shows you've been in their shoes, not that you have impressive tools.
