There are millions of different websites and blogs on the Internet, but only a few of them become of interest to anyone other than their creators.
There are many channels for attracting traffic and leads, but only high-quality content can really attract people to the site.
Your content should be engaging, helpful, and credible. But how can it be achieved? There are several proven recommendations for making your article attractive and useful not only for the reader, but also for the website itself.
Determine your target audience and the main purpose of an article
Before starting to write an article, one should answer the following question – why do I need to write it?
If we are talking about the purpose of the article in terms of business it can be determined as follows:
- To confirm the author’s expertise as a professional in a certain field;
- To warm up the audience. Increase the amount of visitors/conversions;
- To increase customer loyalty to a company brand, increase brand awareness;
- To make users buy a product/service.
The purpose of the article determines the users’ target action – what they should do after reading the article. For example subscribe to a newsletter, register on a platform or download an app.
The next essential step to consider is to know who your reader is. In other words, present a buyer persona and keep it in mind while working on the material. Let’s say these are young entrepreneurs who want to understand payment processing for individual entrepreneurs. Or they are wealthy people who are looking for new investment instruments. Or a marketer who plans to improve their skills.
The style of the article and the terms that you can use will depend on the target audience.
The next step is to attract the reader to perform the target action. The article must solve a reader’s problem and make their lives easier. No user will spend time on useless information. Even if it’s an entertaining article, it still has a purpose to relax readers and distract them.
As soon as you understand why and for whom your future post will be written, it is time to develop a headline.
Make up an idea for future publication
There are a few simple but effective steps you can take to make your headline a top-notch:
- You must know the problems your targeting audience is facing;
- Describe the problem, research relative keywords, and create a semantic core;
- Personal experience is a great source of topics. It is especially useful for novice authors since it is much easier to describe what you know well;
- Use competitors. Read related blogs and magazines. If in some article the topic is not fully disclosed, and you have something to add, write your material on this topic;
- Ask your subscribers what they would like to read about. You can create a survey in your social media group, blog, or personal page.
Note: One article, one topic. There is no need to try to illuminate all the problems of humanity in the text, this will not work. Dive into one question and reveal it completely.
Determine the format
The format of the article largely depends on both the topic and the platform for which you are going to write the text.
The most popular formats for both corporate blogs and the majority of media:
- Cases with a problem-solution structure: how the writer faced difficulties and how to overcame them, and how it helped others;
- Instruction: how to do something, with specific steps, details, nuances, expert advice;
- Expert review – you consider the product/innovation/service from all sides, independently express the opinion;
- Tips – a less voluminous format than instructions, these are recommendations from an expert in the form of a list;
- Frequently Asked Questions – take popular questions from potential customers and answer them like an expert.
One way or another, before choosing the format of the article, you need to understand where the text will be published. If it is on a company’s blog or a personal page, then you decide which feed is better. In the case of an external site, you should be guided by the editorial policy of the publication and study in advance which formats are accepted on the resource.
Gather the information
To write an interesting article, you need to search through dozens of sites, find relevant researches, and involve outside experts.
Here are some tips on how to find relevant information:
- Do not provide statistics without proof. For example, Statista – a popular web resource where everyone can find statistics for various needs;
- The more sources you explore – the better. Read similar articles, look for relevant videos, webinars;
- Do not deviate from the main idea of the topic. No need to insert unnecessary information just to make the post longer.
What to remember?
Talk to your audience in their language. You write for the pros – you can use terms and not explain them. But if you want to write an article for beginners, then any abbreviations must be deciphered and defined.
When you create a text for a mass audience, then absolutely everything should be clear in it. If you’re describing difficult things, draw analogies and include real-life examples. This will make it much easier for the reader to perceive the material.
Keep it simple! This applies not only to terms but also to phrases, gerunds, strange metaphors, clichés, clericalisms.
The bottom line
Writing a good article is not so difficult, the main thing is to clearly articulate the purpose of the text, and then follow the plan step by step. Of course, in theory, everything is simple, but in practice, we see hundreds of uninteresting, unstructured, meaningless articles on the Internet.
So what’s the solution? Practice, regular practice – that’s the only way. Write every day. Write short posts on social networks, write full-fledged blog articles – analyze mistakes, learn from them.
Notice what you are doing well and leverage it. Thus you can increase customer loyalty and boost conversion.
