In short:

• all humans do is persuade each other of things
• blogging connects you to your target audience
• leverage links, expert opinions, and jargon to boost your blog

The main purpose of all human interactions is to persuade each other of something. You tell someone a joke with the less declared purpose of having it out in the open that you two share a similar sense of humor. When either of you two needs a pick me up, you’ll know where to get it. 

But then it wouldn’t be a far-fetched assumption to think that if you two share a similar sense of humor there is a high chance your backgrounds overlap in quite a few spots. The more similar, the easier it’ll be to let yourselves be persuaded of the other’s point of view. 

It makes sense evolutionarily to trust those who’ve survived trials that resemble your own. You share and can access together a piece of knowledge foreign to others. This is what ultimately leads to building friendships and communities i.e. having a point of connection. 

Connecting with your audience

If there’s anyone that can grasp at the potential of establishing strong points of connection, it’s bloggers. That’s all they do. In all fairness, that’s what we’d all like to do – team up with others who get it.

However, defining it could come with a bit of trouble. That’s because it involves an often hazy mashup of actions, emotions, and words. And it only carries any value if all these elements align and complement one another. Value, as in, you know, trustworthiness. 

You want to be a part of someone’s team? Show them you already are one of them.

The same exact concept applies to successful blogging. Of any kind, really. Both the young entrepreneur and business mogul, should they want to establish a point of connection, have to achieve this crucial goal – show their target audience that despite what each side brings to the table, they are on the same team, with the success of one side benefitting the other. 

That’s it. That’s the age-old game.

So if you’d like to better connect with your audience with the help of your blog, make sure you can confidently tick the following boxes:

1. Have a clear premise and argument(s) 

Let your audience know your stance on specific topics. This means refraining from redirecting their attention with a link elsewhere. Give them a bit of reading space to get into the point you’re trying to make instead of shooing them away to an expert opinion before they even had a chance to fully grasp your idea. 

This translates into no links placed in your introduction. Wait to make a point, then link them somewhere if you absolutely see the value in it. 

Don’t do this:

❌Dr. X who specializes in Y argues that Z + [introduce your argument]

Do this:

✔️[introduce your argument] + Dr. X who specializes in Y agrees that Z.

The expert opinion backs yours up, not the other way around. Gain the respect of your audience by showing them that both logically and visually. 

And speaking of expert opinions, they better be just that. It’s of no use to send your readers to the opinion of another that fits your narrative. It only works if said authority has more credibility than yours. 

Hey, nothing stops you from having multiple voices in your piece but that doesn’t make them experts on the topic, so don’t present them as such and your audience’s esteem for your content remains intact.

2. Clarify your lingo 

There’s a couple of ways you can do this. You can either take up a bit of writing space to explain jargon every time you sprinkle it in your blog, or you could create your own glossary. 

You might have noticed how none of these variants encourage sending the reader away to figure out what your terminology means with the help of other pages. 

If you can anticipate a set of notions that would need a bit more context, don’t just let it be implied that your audience can look it up on Google themselves. Offer them the chance to do that within your blog by creating a glossary listing such terminology. 

The point of the glossary is to give your audience just enough information so that they can continue the read, not to further confuse them. Keep your explanation short and simple, meaning a maximum of 100 (fundamental vocabulary) words.

3. Interlink, interlink, interlink!

If you have several existing pieces you could use, this is the best way to strengthen your blog. It’s the same reader journey sketched out in tip number 2 except instead of being driven by lack of knowledge it’s led by curiosity and interest. 

These are usually the pieces that end up bookmarked so that the individual doesn’t interrupt their current read but can still have them close by for when they are able to switch their focus. And close by is where every blogger wants to be in relation to their audience. 

Now don’t just nod along at these tips. Take a good look at your blog, start checking these boxes and see what happens next.

Why keep doing less of a good job than you could be doing?

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