Why You Should “Kick" Your Readers
By: Christopher Kokoski
Tags: Writing Life, Writers On Writing, Writing Tips, Writer, Writing

Why You Should “Kick" Your Readers

Photo by Jason Briscoe on Unsplash

If you want to keep readers engaged, you have to “kick” them.

Oprah does it. Stephen King, Tim Denning, and Barack Obama do it, too.

So, yeah, kick your readers good and hard. Not literally, of course. You use a YouTuber algorithm hack called a “kick” to grab their attention and keep them riveted to the page.

What’s a kick?

A “kick” is slang for when you give your readers what they want — a strong sensation, jolt of amusement, or burst of excitement.

For our purposes, it’s when you fulfill the promise of your article headline or book title.

On YouTube, it’s when you give your viewers what your YouTube video thumbnail and video title promised.

Here’s an example. YouTuber Paddy Galloway breaks down the success strategy of a massively popular YouTube channel called, Dude Perfect.

Watch the first few minutes of the video to get the definition and example of how Dude Perfect has quite literally perfected the video version of the “kick”.

Video by Paddy Galloway on YouTube

When you click the “play" button on the Dude Perfect case study video, what do you want?

You likely want some combination of the following:

Action right away

Excitement

Satisfaction

Closure

If you do watch the video (which I highly recommend), you will get all of that in the first 1 minute.

Go ahead, watch it. I’ll wait.

The importance of kicking your readers

Your readers want you to “kick” them. They come to your content (at least in part) for that exact purpose.

That’s a good way to think about “kicks.” If you don’t do it, you are letting your readers down. If you don’t give your readers what they want, you’ll lose them.

Here are even more reasons it is important to give your readers the boot:

Readers will engage with your content with likes, comments, and shares.

Readers will come back for more of your content.

Readers will become active followers who become raving fans.

Who knew you could build a fanbase — a vibrant and growing community — by kicking your way to the top? Your punts serve as consistent doses of positive emotional experience that readers can hardly resist.

“Customers who love you will market for you more powerfully than you can possibly market yourself.” — Jeanne Bliss

How do you kick your readers?

Ok, you are convinced. But exactly how do you do it?

You “kick” your readers by giving them what they want as soon as possible.

Here are some examples:

You answer their question

You give them entertainment

You solve their problem

You give them an emotion

You answer their question

According to SmartBlogger.com, when readers come to your article or blog post, they want answers to their questions.

Their question might be, “How does the hero of the story survive?”

Then again, it might be, “How do I write a better blog post?”

The better you answer the question, the better your chances of engaging readers. This technique gives you the added benefit of being a great way to get the coveted “snippet” on the first page of search results on Google (called the SERP).

In a how-to article, like this one, it’s helpful to get right to the point. Answer the question quickly. People are busy. Some writers want to save the answer for the end of the blog post, but that could frustrate readers.

Here is how to answer a reader’s question effectively:

Write short, simple sentences.

Avoid slang or acronyms.

Give step-by-step instructions.

Provide visuals like graphics, detailed pictures of each step, or a video.

You solve their problem

Answering a question is one way of solving a problem. So, this adaptation of the technique is directly related to the first example.

But this version takes things a step further.

Your reader might want to calm their anxious pet or fix their plot. Whatever the problem, your article punts the reader when you solve the problem or solve even part of the problem.

The insanely helpful way to solve the reader’s problem is to do as much of the work for them as possible.

This can mean:

Offering a free downloadable, done-for-you template.

Giving readers a copy-and-paste script.

Providing a table with well-organized data or information the reader wants.

The key is to do all or most of the work for the reader.

You entertain them

Some pieces of writing exist to entertain, not educate. Most do a bit of both.

Entertainment comes in many varieties: humor, snarkasm (snarky sarcasm), multi-media (images, audio, and video), case studies, memes, examples, shocking statements, or surprising free gifts.

Entertainment is also subjective. Sometimes it’s best to see an example, even if it isn’t exactly your kind of entertainment.

Personally, I found the following article hilarious: Five Funny Dating Profile Trends (from a Guy’s Perspective)

The keys here are:

Study your audience . (Look at the top 10 most recent and popular articles in your topic or niche. What kind of entertainment value do they offer? Start there).

. (Look at the top 10 most recent and popular articles in your topic or niche. What kind of entertainment value do they offer? Start there). 10X your entertainment. (Really bring it. Don’t hold back. Don’t save the best stuff for later. Put it all on the line right here and right now.)

(Really bring it. Don’t hold back. Don’t save the best stuff for later. Put it all on the line right here and right now.) Ask your audience. (Did they get what they wanted? Did they get more? What could have been better? Collect the data with online polls or by looking at your statistics. Then iterate and improve.)

You give them an emotion

A good way to think of creating an emotional “kick” is when Oprah gave away all of those free cars to her audience members:

Video by Oprah via YouTube

Talk about emotion! Wowzers!

Here’s how you do it:

Choose an emotion you want to give your reader. It can be positive (curiosity, hope, love, humor) or negative (fear, angst, loss).

Go big. I’m talking “Oprah car-giveaway” big. Don’t soft-pedal it. Go all out.

Push the boundaries. Don’t settle for comfortable.

Here is another example to hopefully make it crystal clear (Please note that this is only an example of an article that might elicit strong emotion, not a statement of support for or against the content).

“They may forget what you said — but they will never forget how you made them feel.” — Carl W. Buehner

Kick your readers early and often

Shoot for a bump in the introduction, maybe even the first sentence. Hopefully your title “pre-kicked" them so they are already riding the high of anticipation.

That’s when you hit them again, right away.

Now, you can whack them a few times before backing up to let them relax into your story. Or, you can back up, punt, backup more, punt, and repeat.

The key is to deliver this technique early and often.

Be careful of these two common issues:

Too many jolts can overwhelm readers

Too few can bore them

It’s about balance, mixing things up, and keeping your reader in a constant state of anticipation for the next jolt.

Final thoughts & takeaways

Captivating your readers is both art and science. There are no iron-cast rules. Rather, there are tools — strategies and techniques, experiments, and proven frameworks.

It’s up to each of us to riddle out specifically how to apply the tools to the particular article, blog post, or book before us.

However, if there is one takeaway from this story, it is to “kick” your readers early and often.

Kick them good.