No one is engaging with your content? Try this.

Have you ever spent a ton of time creating a piece of content — but then it doesn’t get nearly the response that you thought it would?

You write a social media post, or a blog, or an email.
And when you hit publish, there are…
No comments
No replies
Maybe a couple of likes.

But otherwise – crickets.

And you’re left wondering:
Where did I go wrong?

There are a lot of possible answers.

One that I see more often than not is:

You might be teaching… when your audience doesn’t need “how” yet.
They need something else first.

What that actually looks like

This can be really subtle.

• You use words that are familiar to you but new to them
• You start further along in the journey than your ideal client actually is
• You solve a problem that they haven’t even realized they have yet.

None of this is wrong.

But it might be a few steps ahead of where they are, so it doesn’t resonate with them… yet.

Why this happens

As business owners who are really good at what we do, we’ve already grown a lot.

We’ve learned.
Refined & iterated.
Gained experience.

We’ve solved the problems that once felt incredibly challenging…and now they feel obvious.
So we naturally speak from our current level of experience and understanding.

But that’s not where your audience is.
They’re back where you used to be. 

Do you do a lot of teaching in your content?

It’s easy to do this.

You want to provide real value
You don’t want to simplify things too much or talk down to your audience
You want them to see that you know what you’re talking about (especially if you’re still building your authority)
Teaching feels safe… it’s in your comfort zone

So you talk about the “how”.

But if they’re not responding to it, that might not be what they need right now.

Before they need the “how”, they often need:

• Clarity about what they’re struggling with
• Reassurance that what they’re experiencing is normal
• Perspective about why it’s happening
• A vision about what’s possible if they figure this out

Teaching gives the next step.

But helping them address their current situation and perspective creates something even more powerful:
Connection.

Try this small shift

Before you write your next piece of content, pause and ask:

• When I was first starting out with this, what did I struggle with the most?
• What questions did I Google?
• What did I wish someone would just explain clearly?

Start there.

Use that to help the people who are still struggling with the things you learned early on.

Because the best content doesn’t teach…
It helps people feel seen and understood.

And that’s what creates real connection.

 

If this was helpful, you might want to read the post that this one emerged from:

3 Content Mistakes That Hurt Engagement... and How to Fix Them

This article is mistake #3 expanded. The full list might help you spot a few other easy shifts you can make to encourage your audience to engage with you.