Article's Content
Article's Content
All great online content falls into at least one of four categories:
- Educate.
- Engage.
- Entertain.
- Empower.
Work that doesn’t fall into at least one of these buckets is less likely to obtain shares, receive clicks, or have a high placement on SERPs.
Work that doesn’t fall into at least one of these buckets is less likely to obtain shares, receive clicks, or have a high placement on SERPs.
The 4Es above are a framework to keep your audience in mind while writing to keep at the forefront of your mind how you want them to feel or what action to take. Without adhering to this framework, you risk delivering content with no real goal in mind.
Let’s figure out how to master the 4Es to build your brand presence with every word and bring your readers real value.
What Are the 4Es?
Educate, Engage, Entertain, and Empower represent four potential outcomes after people read your content and focus on the feelings you want to evoke in your readers.
- Educate: Your reader should come away from an educational article with valuable information or have a new perspective on a topic. This content type positions you as an expert in your field, helping to see you as trustworthy.
- Engage: An engaging article should give the reader both the tools and the desire to respond. It involves providing your own take on a topic to keep your audience invested so they’re hooked with your every word.
- Entertain: Entertainment isn’t just for laughs. Content that truly entertains makes dry topics more interesting with personal stories, flair, and personality that other brands could never replicate.
- Empower: This type of content makes your readers feel capable and motivated. Empowering pieces aren’t just motivating — they also should position you as a role model to advise your readers on the next steps.
Your work doesn’t need to incorporate all four Es. In fact, that could send too many messages in one piece and provide conflicting tones. But the most successful articles, social media posts, and videos fall into at least one of these categories.
So how do you actually create this? Read on for the answers.
Each “E” Explained with Examples
Let’s look closely at each “E” and use a few great examples of each to illustrate how to make excellent content.
Educate
Educational materials provide valuable knowledge and insights to your audience. This type of content does a service for your readers by doing the legwork of researching a complex topic. Then, you give them the most important takeaways in one digestible article, newsletter, ebook, or another asset.
It also establishes your brand’s expertise on the subject matter. In fact, that’s why Foundation publishes this kind of article; we want to provide pieces you can learn from to improve your marketing strategies.
Educational content can take any of the formats illustrated above. But there are a few ways to make educational pieces stand out no matter their form. Here are a few ways to go above and beyond with yours:
1. Provide a Valuable/Unique Perspective
Incorporate expert opinions or original research to make content stand out. An expert’s insight or firsthand data provides depth and authority for credible and engaging content. If you’re the one providing that original data, you’re the expert with the information they need.
We did this with our marketing survey results. These results share the impact of AI in marketing through original research and data. This piece answers industry-specific questions and provides value for marketers looking to stay ahead on a cutting-edge topic.
Doing the research ourselves allowed us to give our audience new, useful information. We created our own unique perspective by conducting original research.
2. Solve a Real Problem
Content that addresses and offers solutions to problems the audience faces is inherently valuable. It not only attracts readers looking for answers but also establishes a brand as a helpful resource.
Bankrate’s guide on personal loans for bad credit is an excellent example of educational content. It addresses a tough problem: How to get a loan if you have a poor credit score. It offers a comprehensive overview of the issue, types of loans for people with bad credit, and expert advice, making complex financial information accessible and actionable for readers.
This table of options is a resource for the readers so they don’t have to compare lenders. It compresses all the most important information into a dense but readable format.
3. Include Trending Information
Add the latest developments or trends related to the topic to make educational content timely and compelling. Trending information keeps the audience informed about the current state of affairs and positions the brand as an up-to-date source.
Abnormal’s attack stories do this effectively by showing how this type of content isn’t limited to just reporting a news story. If people wanted that, they’d go to a news source. Instead, they look to educational pieces to find out what new developments mean for them.
In this case, Abnormal reports on recent hacks of major companies, and then tells their readers what they can do to prevent similar attacks. They use their industry expertise to turn trending news into something uniquely valuable for their audience.
In all of these examples, educational content works to arm its readers with valuable information. You can do this by performing the research yourself or giving precise instructions on solving a problem.
Engage
Engaging content sparks conversations and encourages interaction from the audience.
Unlike the educational type, which focuses on imparting knowledge, engaging content aims to draw the audience into a dialogue, making them an active participant in the conversation.
This work often takes forms that prompt responses and make things personal, such as:
Personal Stories
Share personal experiences to invite empathy and connection, encouraging readers to connect or feel that they can open up to you. The stories don’t even have to be that detailed — short anecdotes about something that was important to you when you were younger can do the trick.
One of the greatest gifts I was given as a kid was the confidence that I could learn anything I wanted to if I actually applied myself to it. Some things might be more difficult. Some things might take more time. But with time… Anything can be learned.
Growth mindset.
— Ross Simmonds (@TheCoolestCool) July 19, 2021
In this example, Ross, the founder of Foundation, shares a story about his childhood and turns it into a quick takeaway. That inspired 19 shares and over 100 likes — enough to show how this approach can build engagement. It was also an opportunity for Ross to share a little about him, which helped to give his brand a personality.
Questions
Pose questions to the audience to stimulate thoughts and prompt them to contribute their views. Pair questions with your opinions or kickstart the conversation to show you’re willing to share your perspective without asking for engagement in return.
See how they include their own recommendations? That opens the doors for others to offer theirs, too. They say “we’ll go first” to imply others should participate without explicitly asking what others recommend — a politer, less demanding way of encouraging a conversation. Plus, it demonstrates the brand’s willingness to offer something to their readers, not just ask for engagement.
Thought Starters
Introduce a novel idea or perspective to initiate a discussion on topics that might not have straightforward answers. This can be an interesting fact, a statistic, or just a different perspective on some common advice.
In this example, the writer took a common piece of advice and injected her own unique perspective to begin a conversation. Ninety-nine people replied, so she certainly succeeded in her goal to get others talking.
Opinion Pieces and Hot Takes
Boldly state an opinion or a controversial take on a subject to spark debate and encourage others to share their viewpoints.
This blog post from Ahrefs is a helpful example. It’s educational, and it also really excels in its engagement. That’s because the writer injected their voice and character by framing it as a hot take. In fact, its confrontational headline and opener seem designed to initiate a discussion.
Filling the post with short, pithy sentences like the one above transforms a straightforward educational piece into a more engagement-focused one.
Fill in the Blanks
This format invites the audience to complete a statement, prompting creativity and participation. However, the internet can be a daunting place, and asking people to complete your sentence could invite negative responses.
fill in the blank ⬇️
as a creator, i’m most grateful for _____
— YouTube Creators (@YouTubeCreators) February 13, 2024
That’s why posts like this one from YouTube strike the right tone by framing the topic in a clearly positive light.
Engagement thrives on risk and reward. While asking a question without offering an opinion might lead to a lack of responses, you can share a strong stance, offer resources, or provide some context to encourage replies.
Entertain
Entertaining content earns your reader’s attention through humour and creativity, making the interaction with your brand enjoyable and memorable. This can take many forms, each looking to amuse the audience while still connecting to the brand’s core message or offerings.
Examples include:
Fun Anecdotes
Share lighthearted stories related to your industry or brand experiences. Even something short and simple can demonstrate industry knowledge while entertaining your audience.
4 people I meet at marketing conferences:
– People who genuinely want to elevate their skills
– People who ask questions but really just want validation of their approach
– People who are looking for a silver bullet & quick results
– People just there for the croissants
— Ross Simmonds (@TheCoolestCool) January 16, 2024
This example shows Ross making a joke about conferences while establishing himself as an industry leader. Even if you didn’t know Ross, you would know he attends plenty of marketing conferences!
Jokes
Inject some humour that relates to your field to humanize your brand and make it more relatable. For example, Ryanair, a low-cost European airline, uses their Instagram posts to make a joke about how their attendants don’t help passengers with their bags.
View this post on Instagram
Their savvy nature positions them as trendy and in the know of how they’re perceiving. This post reinforces their position as an inexpensive airline while staying lighthearted.
Memes
Include memes with a twist to tie back to your business or industry. You can just reframe an existing meme with your own caption like this:
The person who posted this is the CEO of a company that sells to salespeople. Memes like this speak directly to that audience’s concerns while entertaining them.
Pop Culture References
Incorporate elements from popular culture that resonate with your audience for timely and engaging content. This doesn’t have to mean keeping track of every piece of celebrity gossip. Instead, it can just mean using your expertise to put a different spin on major pop culture references.
In this example, the CEO of a communications company uses references to Super Bowl commercials to explain concepts in marketing. The pop culture references make this light and entertaining.
Interesting Formats and Mediums
Experiment with different formats, such as interactive quizzes, GIFs, or animations that entertain while informing.
The key to successfully entertaining your reader is finding the balance between humour and brand messaging. The jokes and entertaining elements should complement your brand’s image and build on it.
Feel free to get creative with this. Zendesk once created a whole website for a fake band called Zendesk Alternative to misdirect web searches for people looking for alternatives to their software. It’s a truly unique format for some entertainment, and people still talk about it years later.
Empower
Empowering content uplifts and inspires audiences, making them feel valued, recognized, and capable of achieving their goals. It does this through celebrating achievements, encouraging progress, and shining a light on the best people, achievements, and brands in your industry.
There are a few ways you can do this:
Awards
These are the most obvious ways to celebrate others’ achievements. Highlight what they’ve done by awarding them the best [Insert achievement here] of the year, month, or even week.
A great example of how this kind of content benefits you is Glassdoor’s “Best Places to Work” award. They get a lot of attention because companies love to brag about how great they are, and they give them a free opportunity to do that. Just look at how glowingly VMware mentions the fifth time they’ve been given the same honour:
Thanks to our employees, VMware is honored to be named one of @Glassdoor’s Best Places to Work in 2022 for the 5th year in a row! #GlassdoorBPTWhttps://t.co/ze0wcfTKD3 pic.twitter.com/hLzcX1TU06
— VMware News (@vmwarenews) January 12, 2022
You can quickly get others to promote your work — all it takes is a few kind words.
End-of-Year Lists
These are like awards but with more room to include even more people. These let you collect and compare examples of great work.
G2 does a great job of this. They split up their year-end list into plenty of different categories, such as this regionally specific one. That lets you include more companies and products that might otherwise be overlooked.
Case Studies
These are more in-depth dives into why something is successful. While they can also be educational content, an alternative angle is celebrating a great achievement rather than seeking to provide instructions.
Case studies can empower your audience, too, by putting the spotlight on their successes. Our Canva case study received 120 shares on X and over 1,000 backlinks. That’s partially because it has useful insights for any marketer, but it’s also inspiring.
That’s not just us bragging about how great we are, I’m just quoting Cyrus here:
Typically, I don’t share many SEO case studies, but this one ➡️ by @TheCoolestCool on @canva‘s stratospheric growth is both educational + inspiring:
The Canva Backlink Empire: How Outreach & Content Led To A $6B Valuation
Post — https://t.co/k4T0hrqMgr pic.twitter.com/SYEK6ZdanT
— Cyrus SEO (@CyrusShepard) June 26, 2020
Shoutouts/Recommendations
If there’s a product you use daily or someone whose work you truly appreciate, you don’t need an excuse to celebrate them.
In this example, the author isn’t even referring to anyone specifically. It’s a post appreciating her community, focused on a specific conference. Your shoutout posts don’t have to just be about businesses, anyone or anything you appreciate is fair game.
Collaborations
Do you like the work someone does? You can work together to promote both of your offerings. That’s what makes podcast collaborations so effective.
If you’re looking for a podcast to listen to for lunch, walking around, or on your commute later today…new interview just dropped with @TheCoolestCool…
Fantastic conversation, and he asked some unconventional questions.
Here’s the link:https://t.co/y41x6VX8LI
— Dr. Julie Gurner (@drgurner) September 11, 2023
In this case, Ross collaborated with an industry expert in a podcast episode, and the interviewee shared his post, expressing a desire that people listen to it.
If you can highlight someone else’s successes, it doesn’t just make them feel good; it inspires others to do their best, makes you look altruistic, and builds your reputation as the industry’s “kingmaker” in a position to honour others.
How the 4Es Fit into Your Marketing Strategy
Now that you know how to write content that fits each of the four Es, the next step is to figure out how these will fit into your overall strategy. Experiment with different content types to educate, engage with, entertain, and empower your audience.
That way, you can figure out what works best for you. For more instances of how leading SaaS companies use these four Es, you can see our breakdown of even more examples here.
