When was the last time you read an article and when you finished it, you had a grin on your face?
Unless your aim is to really depress readers or users, your content should be upbeat, or at least not (too) negative. I repeat: Your content should be upbeat. There's no reason why it shouldn't. Why, because you're selling laptops or houses or clothes, it needs to be cut-and-dry? Because you're writing about current events, or politics?
When I say happy content, I mean content that leaves the reader or user with a feeling of positivity, a feeling of content, wanting to share it to a friend, implement the advice he or she read in a recent blog, because the company presented it in. It doesn't have to be - in fact, it most likely shouldn't be - about selling a product, or a service. In fact, it should be promotion-free. Let the readers figure things out for themselves. If the content's well-written, they'll want to find out more about you. And if they want to find out more about you, they'll find out more about your products or services.
Happy content means stories that can make a person feel good or better about themselves or where they are at the moment. Readers want to be uplifted, feel something optimistic, get a positive vibe - after all, the world around, especially these days, the news that floods us from every conceivable media outlet, is depressing enough already. So, if you're trying to reach out to your current customers or users, or reach out to new ones, getting them down even further may not be the best idea.
True, some ads, or content, use shock value to get a reader's (or customer's) attention. But unless you're aim is to sell home security equipment, anti-drunk driving promotion or horror movie collections, straightforward and dull is just that: straightforward and dull. Many websites have extremely polished texts that go with equally polished images. Without naming fingers or pointing names (thank you Captain Jack Sparrow for that), some companies do it better than others.
Visit many tech company websites, they are all written heavy-handed, full of "marketese" wording or highbrow phrases. Even if you're accustomed to read those, eventually it wears you out, and all the content becomes the same thing. Bombastic words won't make a difference, because the reader's seen it all before. True, when you need to keep it professional you need to keep it professional, but it's not written in stone anywhere that it has to be dry as the desert, boring as a political debate, or taking itself so seriously.
Happy content doesn't mean clickbait, or stupid stories about how a guy who lived 500 years ago in a remote England village looks exactly like Nicholas Cage. That's not content, that's fluff, at best, or utter nonsense at worse. It's a waste of time for all because a) you don't provide anything of value b) it's not memorable and c) it doesn't really leave the reader feeling content.
Examples of happy content:
For the holiday season, you could publish a Thanksgiving guide to avoiding fights, or a Christmas home movie screenplay where each family member reads a part.
10 ways to deal with friends who are on the other political side (sounds like fun, eh?)
5 Disadvantages of autonomous, or self-driving vehicles (because sometimes we want to be late to that annoying meeting)
Smart devices we'd love to see in cereal boxes (homework helper, anyone?)
Here's one for adults: Conversation topic generator (perfect for the date that's going nowhere)
As you can see, ideas are everywhere. You just have to find them and twist it in the happy angle.
After all, when we see a hilarious image or anecdote, we usually don't hesitate to share it, if it's by email or social media. If it has negative connotations, we may think twice about sending it to our friends. We don't want them to think, "why did he send this to me? Does he want to get me depressed?"
Happy content not only makes the source of the content easier to remember and likely to be shared, but it can help brighten a person's day, even just a bit. And that's valuable.
Want to add happy content? Contact me through the site or at copywriterway@protonmail.com
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