10 Engaging Content Creation Strategies You Should Use in 2024

Creating content is essential in building an online audience, but nothing is worse than spending time on a piece of content, publishing it to the world and getting nothing. No comments, no likes, crickets. I want to walk you through a few things you can start doing right now to start not only getting people to engage with your content, but to actually click on it and watch it. Now, in last week's video, I did a complete deep dive on what I truly believe the content marketing trends are going to be for 2024. So if you haven't watched that yet, go ahead, hit pause right now and check out that video right here. Because I'm going to be diving into the specific content pieces that I think you should be focusing on based on the trends I'm seeing for 2024. Since AI was a huge topic in that content marketing trends video, that's where I'm going to start. We know AI is going to continually be used in 2024, and Google is going to be using their own AI to dominate their own search results, but they do have a little bit of a lim. They're only going to be able to answer basic questions. So for your content to get the click and break out past the Google AI robot, you've got to really, truly understand your audience. And I mean really understand your audience. Like, how do they talk? What do they say? What do they think their problem is? Whose content are they currently consuming? Who are they watching on YouTube or Instagram? What platforms do they like to consume content on? What are they really struggling with? With? You may think that you have your audience all nicely mapped out in a clean little box, but your people, the people that will click and really engage in your content, leave you. The comments on your videos or your reels are much more complex than age, gender, location, household income. This is probably one of the harder pills, so to speak, for me to swallow in my business, because I was a marketing major and I understood all the demographic things that we needed to collect on our target audience. And I also understood psychographics as well. But until myself and my team started interviewing people on our email lists, people who bought our courses and people who have downloaded our lead magnet, I didn't really, truly understand what they were struggling with and how they were saying it, the exact words they were using to describe their struggle. And once I could understand that, I knew how I needed to shift to create my content, to pitch my content, to get those type of people to actually watch my videos. So the one thing that you can do right now is reach out to your email list and ask if anybody would get on a quick call with you. One of the questions you could ask them is who they are watching. So you can go to that specific person and see what type of content does really well for them, what YouTube video does well, what real has a lot of views or comments on. You can also start to dig into the comments of those YouTube videos or reels to see what people are saying. So again, you can really see how your audience is phrasing things and saying things. But until you take the time to talk, talk to your target audience one on one, you won't really understand what's going on inside their head. Trust me, this customer journey process was a game changer for us. The next thing you need to do if you really want people to engage and keep coming back to your content is tell stories or start incorporating some storytelling into your content. This is honestly one of the hardest pieces for me to figure out or know if I'm doing right. But I know it is so important because when I can talk about a story and how this problem that I had started and what I did, a lot of people reach out and say I had that same problem. I had to deal with that too. And they make that connection. They finally feel like they're not alone with that pain point and they see somebody else going through similar things that they have as well. Again, I'm going to bring up AI here and in last week's video I talked about the importance for your content Moving forward in 2024 is putting your sprinkle on it or making it uniquely yours. Because that is one thing AI cannot replicate. Human experiences. Stories. Your stories. And if you don't start tying in your stories and your uniqueness, your content is going to start to look like everybody else's content. And that's when your audience is really going to start to distrust you and look for an actual human to connect with that's sharing those stories. So I want to share one of the things that I do when it comes to my YouTube content to telling stories. So if you follow me for a while, you know that I go through a process called my video game plan and I dive into it inside my coaching program and give you the template. But I will plan my video first. I will basically outline what I'm going to say in the script and once I know everything I'm going to say in the video, I will go back through a second time and read through to see where can I add a story, where can I make a connection with you? That's watching that first of all makes you feel like I'm a real human and I'm sharing with you, but also allows you to see that thing that you're going through. I went through as well. You know, like that story that I shared, how I went out and actually interviewed my email list. I'm showing you I'm doing what I'm telling you to do in a video. A few weeks back, I shared my biggest lessons learned in my business as well. And this was an entire video on the story of my business in 2023 and the hardships I went through and all the things that I dealt with. For you to see that I am a real human. I am not this Instagram perfect person and sharing transparency when it comes to my business. So you know that I'm not pulling the wool over your eyes. And I want you to see that you aren't alone if you struggled in 2023 as well. I've also share with how I deal with exhaustion, how I deal with random days off because of sick kids, having failed launches, dealing with imposter syndrome. These are all things that AI is not going to spit out for you or for anybody else. And this is what's going to make your content excel above people who are just using AI and spitting out content. So when you are creating your content, think about the stories you can share to connect. Now, my friend Ashlyn of Ashlyn writes, she gave me this really good exercise of story banking. So at the end of every day, trying to just sit down in a notebook or on a trello board or in a sauna board and think about something that happened to you that day that you could possibly weave into any piece of content. Now, some days are easier than others, but if you just get into a cycle of story banking, different things that happen to you, you can always go back to that when you need a story to tell in a video, on a reel, in stories so that you're not always trying to come up with a story from scratch. Now this also leads into another way to create engaging content, and that's actually having calls to action in your videos. When I'm working with a client and when they tell me no matter what I do, I can't get comments on my videos, I go watch their videos and they don't ask them to comment on their videos. More specifically, they don't give them a question to answer in the comments. What I mean by that is not just saying like subscribe and comment, because your viewer then has to do the Work to come up with an actual comment. So are they going to do the work to come up with a comment or could you help them come up with a comment by giving them a question to answer? For example, I'm working on improving my content engagement in 2024 on both Instagram, YouTube. Where are you going to be focusing most of your content on in 2024? Let me know your favorite platform down in the comments below. That makes it easy. Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, whatever. But it's giving people a jumpstart in how to answer that question and not have to come up with it on their own. Another simple way to do it is just give them one word to comment. So another example on a reel the other day I was talking about how I shared my biggest lessons learned in my most recent YouTube video. And I said just comment video below if you want to send you that video. Right? Super easy. They just had to comment in video. And then here is a extra bonus tip for you. When those people comment to you actually respond to their comments. So this goes into another topic that I talked about in last week's video about being on every single platform. This year, if you're on every single platform, you're going to have to respond on every single platform. So focus on one to two platforms. Ask for people to engage, ask a specific call to action. And then when they do comment, respond to them. And I mean respond to them with a thoughtful, meaningful comment. Not just say thank you or thumbs up or heart. Actually start that conversation. Make them feel like you see and hear their comment and give them a thoughtful response. This is another reason why I cut back on being on all the platforms so I could really give thoughtful engagements and have conversations in the comments of my content on Instagram and YouTube. So very much like how I add stories to my script, I will do the same process with engagement pieces. So I will write my YouTube script, I will go through and add stories, and then I will go through that script again and see where I can add a call to action to comment or to like or to add a specific word below so that I'm making sure I'm getting stories in there and I'm making sure I'm getting engagement calls to action in every single piece of content. Another way you need to think about keeping your content engaging is you have to keep your content interesting. So what do I mean by that? One of the best things that you can do specifically here on YouTube is if you are telling people something to do, show them how to do it. As well. Or give representation of showing how to do it, whether it's B roll or, you know, doodles or some type of graphic. I find that you tend to watch my videos longer when I give examples. When I show you what I'm talking about instead of just me talking to you, if I'm talking about how I set up my camera, as I'm talking to you about how I set it up, it goes over much better. And you will watch it longer. If I'm showing you how I'm setting it up as I'm talking about it as well, that is way more valuable and way more engaging for you than me just saying, okay, then I put the camera on the tripod, then I put the tripod on the desk and then I set my ring light up. You're like, okay, wait, what? But what's that look like? Trina? So when you're creating your content, think about how you can show what you're talking about. And instead of just always telling, now you may be wondering, but how do I get these clips? Trina? Well, you can get stock B roll from a variety of different sites or something that I've done once a year for the past couple of years is write a list of all the different things that I usually talk about in my content. I have the same target audience for the last couple of years, so I usually talk about the same things. So I'll create a list and then I will just take a day to walk around my house with my camera and grab my own B roll. Whether it's me sitting here at my computer working, whether it's me writing in a journal, whether it' you know, reading on the couch, just a whole bunch of different clips that would make sense for me to incorporate into my videos. So it's not just random stock B roll, but it is me and it shows my personality. And then I will use that B roll library all year. And just because I use a clip from that B roll in one video doesn't mean I ever use it again. We use that B roll library in my videos throughout the year. This is what's really going to make your content more engaging so that people will actually watch it the whole way through. The other great thing about this B roll process is then you can use this B roll in Instagram reels, which at the moment, that's what's doing really well on reels is B roll with captions on it and then writing like a mini micro blog as the caption. Now this tip on how to create Engaging content may be the biggest, most important one yet. So grab a notebook or a post it and write this one down because it will change the way you decide what content you're going to create. And that's using your analytics, your data to determine what type of content you're creating that your audience likes best. Now you can get specific data in specific platforms like YouTube Analytics. Instagram also gives you data like how many shares, how many comments, how many impressions that that reel or story had. But if you are a business owner and you are selling courses or a coaching program, you need to go a level deeper to see what specific posts or what piece of content that created actually sent people to your sales page or your application page that caused results, as in sales or new clients for you. This is why every single client of mine in my coaching program goes through a lesson, a few lessons on how to set up their Google Analytics dashboard. Because this dashboard will show you exactly where people are coming from, who are buying from you, what is the best content that is turning people into buyers. And then you know this, this is the type of content you need to be doubling down on if you want to make more sales. So for example, one of the things we're working on in 2024 is what emails tend to get people to buy most. So is it an email that we send out about case studies that gets people to buy? Is it an email about FAQs that gets more people to buy? Is it a behind the scenes look at my program that gets people to buy from that? I can use that to create more of that content on Instagram or on YouTube. And I know when I am incorporating my evergreen funnels to use that email in a strategic place to get sales. This allows me to see what is the messaging that actually gets people off the fence. And joining my program, knowing this data allows you to make these data based decisions and not just think, well I had a lot of likes on that one content piece, so maybe I'll just talk about that again. But did that content drive you leads and sales? Because as a business owner that is critical to generating revenue and staying in business, right? So if you're wanting to take a deep dive into your analytics and have somebody help you build your Google Analytics dashboard so that you can track this kind of information, go ahead and apply to my coaching program@trina little.com forward/apply. You can learn more about the program there. This is a very high touch program and so we can only take a few clients every single month and it has to be the right fit. That's why we ask you to apply. We will review your application and be in contact with you within 48 hours if we feel you are a good fit. Consistency is another very important way of getting more engagement on your content. People need to trust that you are going to actually be around and show up every week for them or every day. Like on reels. People need to get into a routine of consuming your content and liking to consume your content. Think about your favorite podcast. You probably know when a new podcast is dropped. So currently my husband and I are really enjoying the New Heights podcast with the Kelsey Brothers and we know every Wednesday morning there's a new one there. And you also need to be consistent so you're staying at the front of mind of your audience. If you're posting once a month, then every other week and then once a month, they're not sure when you're posting. They may forget about you because they're being constantly bombarded with content every day. So what's really going to help you stay consistent, that's having a solid content plan. In the next video, I'm going to dive into how I create my content plan and walk you through how to set yours up. Click the video on your screen right now to watch.