“Be true to yourself. If you don’t love it first, it will be hard to convince someone else too.”

Can you imagine seeing yourself speaking in front of an audience listening to every word you say? 

Their eyes in tears, their mouths shut, their hearts moved—overwhelmed with your passion to resolve their concerns. 

Your message resonates well that they couldn’t help but follow you and become a loyal fan. 

Your disorganized and unplanned blog launch magically morphed into something else. Time passes fast that you become a kind of blogger that inspires and motivates people to take action.

A figure they could follow. A legendary marketer they trust. 

Is this how you see yourself as a blogger? 

Is this the picture you want to achieve for yourself? 

To tell you the truth, to become an effective blogger, you have to possess this trait and become skillful at it. Because you know what, people don’t care about what you sell. They care about the story behind it. 

As Dan Lok, a Chinese-Canadian entrepreneur, said, “People don’t buy products. They buy stories.” 

This is why getting into the minds of our audience—our readers—plays a big role in transforming our content into an inspiring piece to read. 

With me is an inspiring faith-based blogger, Peace Nakiyemba of ToTheAfterThought blog.

She will help me explain how human connection plays a crucial role in our content and why being intimate and authentic with our audience helps us leverage our authority in our niche.

Are you ready? Let’s dive into it. Shall we? 

Just to give you a quick note, this post is divided into 3 parts:

• Why is it important to connect with your audience? 
• How to engage and influence your audience?
• Conclusion – How can you improve human connection in writing? 

Here’s how to build and improve human connection with your audience in a nutshell:

1. Be familiar with emphatic phrases.
2. Write content as if you’re talking to them.
3. Give them real-life or personal stories.
4. Make them feel understood.
5. Ask questions.
6. Give your audience some tasks.
7. Be clear about your intention. 

Now, let’s start.

Why Is It Important To Connect With Your Audience?

“I think every story, once told very well, is emotional. I definitely want to engage my readers, getting them to search deeper,” she added, “I think I’m still perfecting that skill.”

As I mentioned earlier, getting deeper into the minds and hearts of your audience makes your content more valuable. The users (who visit our page) will only care about how their benefits, not yours. 

If you can’t put yourself in their shoes, if you fail to understand their situation, you can’t get inside their heads and market something. You see, it’s important to become one with our audience. 

You and your audience should be on one page. 

You ask yourself, “How do they feel about this?” when you start writing a blog post, for instance. “Why should they care about the content?”

Answering these questions gives you clarity on how your target market thinks. If you want people to take action, it’s best to know what they want and the unconscious desires they can achieve—their pleasure. 

When you take a look at how big companies like Apple do their ads, you notice their commonalities. They know their market’s feelings. Regardless of how expensive the new iPhone series is, people feel the urge to get one. 

According to Carmen Bekker, who wrote an article published on AdNews, rediscovering the importance of human connection has been the hype among the smartest companies. 

“In these turbulent times the smartest brands are rediscovering their sense of purpose, innovating rapidly and getting closer to the communities they serve,” she wrote. 

You see, people will only take action if they understand your message—and if they can achieve pleasure. 

For example, your goal is to increase conversions. You must first present yourself as someone they can trust so they can invite you to enter their personal space—their inbox.

That means you have to show that in writing. You have to prove that you’re worthy of their trust. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have signed-up.

If they feel understood, they’ll have no qualms following you because, again, connecting with your audience plays an important role in marketing. 

How to engage and influence your audience

I read an amazing book entitled “Hypnotic Writing” written by Joe Vitale. He suggests that by being one and being with an agreement with your audience, you build rapport. A strong rapport. 

To elaborate on how emotions play a big role in effective writing and conversions, let me give you another example before we go through the ways to improve your content. 

When you arrived in this post, what were you expecting? 

Before you read the rest of the content, did you notice the first 3-5 paragraphs describe your thoughts? If you missed it, let me copy the text for you.

Can you imagine seeing yourself speaking in front of an audience listening to every word you say? 

Their eyes in tears, their mouths shut, their hearts moved—overwhelmed with your passion to resolve their concerns. 

Your message resonates well that they couldn’t help but follow you and become a loyal fan. 

I could have said it plainly and straightforwardly, however, it’s not my thing because I want you to flinch. I want to surprise you with an intuitive but correct assumption, which is more likely the case. 

For Nakiyemba, a piece of content can only be considered great if it contains the “true words” and beliefs she wants to convey. The one that evokes thought and emotion. 

So, how can you apply this when you write your next content? 

Here are 7 effective ways to build a human connection with your audience: 

1. Be familiar with emphatic phrases.

How do you feel about this paragraph? 

It feels totally bad, right? You’re here, stuck and confused. You have no idea what else to do to increase your following. 

Does that make you feel bad, sad, or compelled to be vulnerable? Yes, right? 

Based on the example, you have a clear picture of the author’s goal of the content and its goals, too. 

You don’t even need to read the headline because you already know what this is about. It’s about increasing your following. It could be about social media following or increasing your email subscribers.

With that being said, ThoughtCo gave a few adverb intensifiers that also function as emphatic expressions in Standard Written English, such as: 

• deeply
• enthusiastically
• categorically
• freely
• fully
• honestly
• positively
• readily
• sincerely
• strongly
• totally
• utterly 

Though these work, oftentimes, when they’re used too much, your content will sound aggressive. So, it’s about balance.

It’s also necessary to keep in mind that emphatic phrases can intensify the tone of the sentence (as they’re used for), it could also push the reader away if you use them everywhere in the rest of the page. 

2. Write content as if you’re talking to them.

In my previous post about non-native English speaking bloggers, I shared about the importance of becoming open with your audience. That could also mean, you write as if you’re talking to them. 

Just because you write in a friendlier tone, that doesn’t mean you aren’t being professional with them. It only makes you closer to them. And when they feel welcomed and heard, they’ll likely stay and read your content. 

I can tell this from experience from news writing for several news websites and other people’s professional blogs. The former tends to follow the formal tone versus blogs—structured to be intimate and personal. 

For blogs, keeping things friendly makes users stay and return to your site for new content. This is also the reason for increasing your following.

Nakiyemba shared something that I consider proof that establishing relationships with your audience means more than outsourcing traffic from others. 

Even if you have 200 loyal followers, that’s better than having 1,000 subscribers that don’t care at all. 

“I was mostly wound up over getting more followers and that wasn’t happening at first as I had imagined, then, I found a blog that’s been running constantly for 6 years with even [fewer] followers but the dedication they give remains strong,” she explained.

3. Give them real-life or personal stories.

Think about it. 

Why would people exert effort on asking people’s reviews? 

It doesn’t matter if it’s Amazon reviews or YouTube unboxing and review videos. 

Why would people care about these? 

The reason is this. Gone are the days when consumers only buy products from affiliated people. And “affiliated” means the companies pay them to promote. Don’t get me wrong.

I partner with affiliated programs, too. But I’m not recommending those that I don’t personally use. I review programs or products without bias to save you time, money, and effort on research.

This is why it’s worth noting that people consider real reviews more valuable than ads. They tend to buy something from someone who truly experiences the product. 

Thoughts from individuals not affiliated with the company are appreciated nowadays because people follow someone they feel connected and intimate.

“I start writing a blog post with a thought. I could be reading a book and one line stands out and I delve deeper into that. I could be having a conversation with someone and one line just sets it off; or looking at something and imagining what it could be,” Nakiyemba told me during the interview. 

There’s nothing more powerful than personal stories. You feel a faint pain, love, and bliss in your heart by simply reading the words unconsciously absorbing the flush of emotions from the author (you never even knew). 

Are you getting my point? 

4. Make them feel understood.

Dhara Jani, a life coach, shared on TinyBuddha about what it takes to become a great listener. According to her article, one must be fully present to show one’s willingness to listen. 

Listening without judgment is the best listening skill you can improve to allow others to open up to you. It’s because it allows them to feel free and accepted, pushing themselves to open up and take action. 

Similarly, Joshua Spodek wrote on his blog, “Making someone feel understood is a powerful leadership tool that makes the difference between motivating with external incentives, which merely guide, and internal emotions, which motivate from within.” 

You can do exactly the same in writing.

Remember, you aren’t blogging only for yourself. 

You blog because you can share something valuable for those who can relate. Thus, you slowly build following, converting users to becoming loyal fans. 

They follow you because they find you valuable and making them feel understood is an invitation for them to stick with you. 

Hence, blogging isn’t just a money-making machine. It’s a platform to channel human connection with others who share the same sentiment as you. 

5. Ask questions.

When doing speeches, what do you think is the most common tip to become an excellent speaker? 

It’s not about distracting them but to give yourself a chance to interact with your audience. It’s like having a concert. You want people to sing and dance with you. 

The same principle applies to write content. You ask necessary questions to allow them to think and reflect like how I wrote this post. 

Since blogging follows a friendlier format, it makes more sense to write the content that makes them feel more comfortable with you.  

6. Give your audience some tasks.

You can ask them to pin an image from your post or share a tweet. Other bloggers add videos or podcasts within the content. 

Many ways can be done to engage your audience, though the ones I mentioned above are one of the few popular choices. 

The reason for this is to keep their attention and stay on the page. In fact, it’s one of the best ways to do so. 

You can try some WordPress plugins which you think fit your content and the overall site appearance. Torque also suggested some of the best plugins you can install to boost your user retention. 

If you are an affiliate, this is the time you invite users to try the product and earn commissions from every sale. See my separate list of the best affiliate programs you can apply and make money online. 

There’s nothing wrong with adding some spice in your content. However, if you overuse it, it would be distracting to read an article. Imagine reading a good piece of content filled with ads in between. 

Do you think you’re motivated to stay towards the end? 

I don’t think so. 

Think of your audience’s perspective. Again, put yourself in their shoes. 

7. Be clear about your intention.

Among the 3 parts of the content, writing an introduction is a bit more work. 

Why? 

You want them to listen to you, right? 

Imagine this. You’re in the middle of the chaotic classroom. You have this goal in mind and you want them to pay attention to you. What would you do? 

Would you start talking without silencing them first? If you want to do so, what would be the best way for you to say to be interesting enough for them to care?

Let me give you an example. 

Do you absolutely think you have it takes to become successful?

What do you think of the sentence? How do you feel when you first read it? Do you feel your chest suddenly feels tight? Does that awaken your senses to take action and achieve your goal?

Let me give you another example. 

“Writing is a dream job, but not for everyone. Some writers are hired to write product descriptions for catalogs, and some turn out to be J.K. Rowling. Unfortunately, most writers have a better chance of writing product descriptions than they do of becoming best-selling authors.”

This is an excerpt taken from Shelly Gray’s article on Entrepreneur entitled “The 5 Skills You Need To Become A Successful Content Writer.” 

The first sentence already sparks interest. If you think deeper, humans can write. 

We write letters, billing forms, withdrawal slips, or essays. We write every single day. But, not everyone can write literature. 

Your blog post is a form of literature. Unlike most literary forms we know, blogging is considered the modern literary form because it is a written art, skillfully written with intellect. 

Going back to my example, you get the user’s attention the moment they land on your page and that’s the goal of the introduction. Regardless of how it’s written, as long as it’s clear and sparks curiosity, it’s okay. 

You don’t have to tell everything. 

When you make your introduction as briefly, yet, directly as possible, that invites them to stay longer from the beginning to the end. 

Hook them to stay with you longer with reasonable and interesting discussion, which will lead to either accepting or rejecting your offer (at the end or towards the conclusion).

Establish a solid discussion that will entice them to take action. Otherwise, they will never feel the urge to do what you expect them to do.

Do you get me? 

Conclusion – How Can You Improve Human Connection In Writing?

“[Other bloggers] seemed wiser, more inviting, and getting the point… I doubted I had something great to offer,” Nakiyemba shared with me. 

You may be thinking the same thing right now. But if you apply the ones I mentioned above, if you apply the techniques I shared with you today, it surely transforms your content. Trust me. 

Now, what would you do next? 

Would you go back to your back and review your content? Or, would you rather stick with your usual format and complain about your low traffic or low user engagement? 

Which of these describes you perfectly? 

If you are a go-getter like me, I invite you to download your FREE ebook and learn more about content writing that converts. You will learn the following that’s worth $199 value if I choose to sell it.

But it’s yours for no cost at all. 

Here’s what you learn from the ebook:

• Lesson 1: Master emotional connection
• Lesson 2: Understand “real” purchase factor
• Lesson 3: Create powerful content

You will learn how to design empathetic content and improve your storytelling skills as a blogger that move people’s hearts.

Get it now while it’s there. 🙂

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If you like this post, share it with your friends and family who are currently in need of strong support in content writing. Help them to improve and earn more opportunities online. Especially those who are about to start a blog.

If you have something to add, feel free to share it with me in the comment section below. Thank you for your time. Happy writing. 🙂

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