A Blueprint for Writing Edgy Content

Eliciting emotion from your audience is one of the most powerful ways to create strong engagement. And being controversial is a surefire way to elicit those emotional responses. It can be a risky practice though, so here are a few considerations to bear in mind.

The Reframe

People interested in your area of expertise invariably settle into a status-quo. Provide an alternative perspective. Through a reframe, you pique curiosity to discover something they may have been doing wrong, or prompt them to discover an alternative way of execution.

Stir the Pot

When you introduce controversial topics, you tap into an area most brands prefer not to touch. Providing shock-value won’t always guarantee positive impressions, but “forbidden” topics always stand out and draw attention.

Making Controversy Work

A highly controversial voice probably isn’t one to build a marketing effort around, but it is worth exploring how your audience responds to controversy. Marketo blog contributor Andrea Lehr remarks on a Harvard Business Review study by Jonah Berger and Zoey Chen:

“…results revealed that while low-level controversy encourages discussion among audiences, anything beyond a moderate level of controversy actually decreases the likelihood of high engagement.”

When publishing potentially polarizing content, have a look at your competitors or a brand that markets to a similar audience to gauge the potential reaction of your audience.

Dig further into using controversy in Lehr’s original piece below.

Read the source article at B2B Marketing and Sales Effectiveness