Key Takeaway (TLDR):
Topic: How to create curiosity in your writing and marketing content to keep readers engaged, spark interest, and leave them wanting more!
What you’ll learn: There is so much content competing for attention that creating genuine curiosity in your writing has become one of the most valuable skills a small business owner can develop. This post covers four practical techniques for making your written content more compelling: asking yourself the hard question of whether you’d actually read your own content, infusing your personality so readers feel like they’re encountering a real human being, resisting the urge to answer every question and close every loop, and keeping your language simple and jargon-free. Features insights from Mignon Fogarty of the Grammar Girl podcast and guests Amy Reinecke and Jennifer Draper of the Ultimate Blog Podcast.
Who this is for: Entrepreneurs, coaches, service providers, and small business owners who create written content, including blogs, emails, website copy, and social media, and want it to be more engaging, more readable, and more likely to turn a casual visitor into a loyal follower.
Written by: Emily Aborn, Small Business Copywriter for home trade professionals, event planners, non-profits, podcasters, and small business owners. Host of the Small Business Casual Podcast, based in NH.
Spark Interest in Your Content
CREATING CURIOSITY IN CONTENT & WRITING
Creating curiosity in writing and sparking interest with our marketing content is an art.
There’s SO much content flying around the internet, books, podcasts, articles, television (does anyone watch that anymore?), etc. It’s a HUGE gift to those engaging in our content, especially written content, when we pique their interest jussssstttttt enough.
How much is too much when it comes to creating curiosity in writing?
Can you ever have TOO much?
As a content copywriter for women entrepreneurs, I strive for a recipe of curiosity and clarity.
Our content should spark an interest and a sense of excitement. The goal is to leave them wanting to know more, but not feeling confused.
When sharing written content, you can create curiosity in your reader, and cause them to lean in with some of these simple tips.
#1) Start by asking yourself this question to spark interest:
I recently had a chance to chat with Mignon Fogarty, host of the Grammar Girl podcast on a recent She Built This podcast episode. If you missed it, you can catch it here. In the episode, Mignon shared with me some of the curiosity questions she brings during her own writing and content creation process that helps her to ensure that what she’s sharing is the good stuff.
Would I want to follow me?
Would I want to read this article I wrote?
Would I engage with my content?
I love asking ourselves these questions as a way to stop, look, evaluate, and listen to what we might be doing well with our written content, and where we might need to look at making some adjustments and shifts.
The answers might not be easy, but getting curious about what you’re writing, is the first step to creating more curiosity in your writing.
#2 Create curiosity by showing your personality in your writing and content
Paraphrasing a quote in Seth Godin’s book, Purple Cow, “Don’t try to make something for everyone because it ends up being for no one.”
“Don’t try to make something for everyone. That product is for nobody… The everybody products are all taken.” — SETH GODIN, PURPLE COW
The same rule applies to our content creation and writing. If we try to write for the masses, we end up speaking to no one in particular.
You’re not for everyone, and neither am I! But the people you ARE for, you’re very much for! So infuse YOU into your writing, copy, and content!
Identify the pieces of your personality and YOU-ness that make you remarkable, stand out, exceptional, and unique, and make sure that your writing is grounded in that.
It not only helps to create curiosity in the mind of the reader:
“Who IS this person!?”
“I have to get to know them!”
“I want to read more of what they have to say!”
“Sign me up for ALL their content!!”
You can also use your personality and quirkiness to show curiosity about THEM! Secret marketing tip: The things that make you “weird” or “boring” in your mind are the very things people reading will relate to! You can use the sharing of these things to ask your audience and readers questions about them too!
Even your flaws and mistakes are an opportunity for you to get curious about others,
“Does anyone else do this…”
“Does this get under your skin as much as it does mine…”
“Anyone else totally OVER this…”
There are hundreds upon hundreds of people doing what you do. Like, the exact same thing. But you’re the one and only one that can show up as YOU while doing it. The world wants more of YOU.
Show your personality and let it shine through in your copy and content to create more curiosity in your writing!
#3 Don’t lead the witness
Ok, so it’s my husband who watches all the true crime and detective shows at our house -not me, but I’m pretty sure there’s a term called “leading the witness” where you get them to come to the conclusion you want them to arrive to.
Don’t lead the witness when it comes to your writing if you want to create more curiosity through the words you’re sharing.
What do I mean by leading the witness?
Don’t answer all the questions for them. Let them come to their own conclusions and discoveries along the way. Maybe there are multiple interpretations, or you leave them with a question, or you just don’t quite solve the problem in its entirety but you give them a REALLY good starting point of how they can explore it more for themselves. Ask them what they think and don’t close the loop.
I’m gonna’ stop this paragraph right here because I don’t want to lead YOU to any definite answers (see what I did there?).
Stay curious and add some of these methods to your writing for yourself!
#4 Create more curiosity by avoiding jargon and complex language
This should’ve been tip number one. Not sure what I was thinking there. Oh well, too late.
Getting in the weeds with jargon and complex language is an anti-curiosity disaster waiting to happen. Some people might be into it, but most people are going to glaze over and say, “Next!”
Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE some complex words, I’m a grammar nerd, bibliophile, word-a-holic. I like learning definitions of things, but even I don’t like when a word, phrase, or concept is so complicated to understand that it’s distracting. I don’t want my head to be spinning while I’m reading (unless it’s in a good way). Your reader doesn’t either. It’s not curiosity-invoking, it’s just dizzying.
Keep it simple, utilize storytelling, and don’t get too jargony.
This is where it’s extremely valuable to work with a copywriter or content writer like myself because we can listen to where you get stuck overcomplicating and help you to put it into simple, understandable terms.
You Have the Power to Create Curiosity
Hopefully, this blog helped show you how you can create curiosity in your writing and how our word choices can increase interest for our readers.
To create more curiosity in your next piece of written content, remember these four tips:
- Ask yourself if YOU would read this piece
- Infuse personality into your writing
- Don’t lead the witness to the “right” answer
- Avoid jargon and complexity in your language
The goal in creating curiosity in any content, including our writing, is to keep them interested, engaged, and ready for more of your unique perspectives!
Connect with me, Emily Aborn, HERE
Want to know more about curiosity and how it can help your marketing? Click HERE to read the blog, “Examples of Curiosity Marketing”
More tips from this She Built This Episode on creating curiosity in written blogs with guests, Amy Reinecke and Jennifer Draper:
- Be willing to listen and lean into learning as you write
- Share stories and personal experiences
- Your readers want you to sprinkle in your unique viewpoints and perspectives
Start by asking yourself whether you would actually want to read what you just wrote. It’s a deceptively simple question that cuts right to the heart of whether your content is genuinely compelling or just going through the motions. From there, focus on three things: let your real personality come through instead of writing in a generic “brand voice,” tell stories and share specific personal experiences, and resist the urge to explain everything completely. Leaving a thread for the reader to pull is often more engaging than tying every bow.
Leading the witness means guiding your reader to one specific conclusion rather than letting them arrive somewhere on their own. In writing, this often shows up as over-explaining, answering every possible question, or closing every loop before the reader even has a chance to wonder. When you leave some questions open, invite the reader’s own interpretation, or give them a strong starting point without solving everything for them, you create genuine curiosity. You also invite conversation, which is one of the best things written content can do.
Jargon creates distance. When a reader hits a word or phrase they don’t immediately understand, the natural response isn’t curiosity, it’s disengagement. They check out, move on, or simply feel like the content wasn’t written for them. Simple, clear language invites people in. It also takes more skill than most people realize: translating complex ideas into accessible language without losing nuance is one of the most valuable things a good copywriter does.
A useful gut check is to ask whether your reader will finish a piece feeling intrigued and energized or just lost. Curiosity feels like wanting more. Confusion feels like giving up. If you’re regularly getting responses like “this made me think” or “I had to share this,” you’re creating curiosity. If people are dropping off early, not engaging, or asking basic clarifying questions about what you meant, it may be time to simplify the language or tighten the focus of what you’re saying.
