How to write an article that sells for you

We all know that these days content is the secret to getting people engaged with our business, yet, so many people are disappointed with the result.

Scouring the internet there are commonly quoted stats that say the average blog takes over three hours to write. Now, imagine, you spend that time writing and editing only to discover that nobody views it.

What a waste of time.

Even worse than that, the ones that are reading it aren’t even the right people.

Whether it is a LinkedIn article, note on Facebook, Article on Medium or a Blog on your website, you want it to get seen by the right people. In this article, I’ll share with you some critical elements you need to consider to product a long form piece of content which will interest your target audience.

What is the goal of the article?

 If you are writing an article, you should have a goal. If you are just writing articles for the sake of it, perhaps you have a ‘schedule’ and so that means you must churn content because that is part of your plan – STOP!

Everybody starts writing articles for a reason, even if it is just to rank higher in Google, you have a goal, but if you are writing just for SEO, you still need a more specific goal…

After reading your article or blog, what do you want to reader to know or do?

If your goal is just to pass on information and help people, that is lovely – but it won’t get you customers or clients.

There are lots of people who think ‘if we write helpful articles, people will buy from us’ it doesn’t work (or to be more accurate), it doesn’t work well enough to justify the effort.

Every article you write should have an objective for you, if you are giving helpful information, you need to create a fair value exchange, where you benefit from it too…

This is where SEO is one of your goals… writing valuable articles will help you rank higher in search.

But… would we not like to write articles that work for SEO and help convert customers?

Here are some good reasons to write an article…

·        Awareness - so more people know you exist and what you can do for them.

·        Interest – to help people see the need for what you can do for them.

·        Decision – to help them decide they need you to help them.

·        Action – to help them act and purchase.

So now it is clear what your goals should be, it is time to move forward.

Who is this article for?

Your aim with your blog or article is to make it relevant. It needs to talk to a specific audience. Each article has an AIDA goal, but you now need to define the audience for the content.

If you are writing an article, you can only talk to one person at one time. Whatever you are selling, different customers will have different challenges and perspectives. Your product or service may help lots of people, but their reasons for buying, their frustrations and challenges will be different. This isn’t just about phraseology; it is about relevance.

When you define the audience for each article you can write in a way which is more relevant and more compelling for the reader. You can use examples which are like their situation, you can share quotes from similar customers.

The solution you offer might work for accountants and coaches, but you increase your engagement in direct proportion to your article’s relevance.

Let me share two examples…

“How to improve your website traffic”

“How accountants can grow their web traffic”

“How coaches can grow their website visitors by 25% in 30 days”

Which of those headlines do you think would appeal to accountants?

Which would appeal to coaches?

Which articles do you think will be more likely to be read to the end?

Relevance doesn’t stop at the title, in fact relevance must weave all the way through, sharing experience, stories and quotes which tie back to the identity of the target customer.

Are you using intent based topics and titles?

When I’m consulting with companies this is one of the hardest areas to help people understand. When we are producing content not only do you have to have a clear goal and target audience, we need to use intent based topics.

What are intent based topics and titles? Well, it is simple, we write about things which shows us that the readers are potentially interested in what we have to offer.

Now before we go further with this, let me first explain some critical things you should be doing to discover your topics.

I used keyword tools to help me find what people have been searching. I look for questions people have typed into Google to help me form my topics. I’m looking for the topics which line up with the problem I solve.

I’m looking for search volume and competition score for my SEO, but I’m looking for intent in the search terms…

‘How to write an article’ has decent volume and low competition, but that doesn’t tell me the intent of the reader, but “how to write an article that converts customers’ really does tell me the intent, just like ‘how to write an article that gets your agency found’ would be brilliant for a marketing agency that wants to ramp up their web traffic.

Intent based topics and titles can be powerful, not just for getting readers but readers with the problems you can help them solve.

Are you living up to your promises?

As part of our business we have an agency division. We don’t really advertise it because, generally we get flooded from students asking for help, but we do get inbound enquiries for our copy work. I wouldn’t say we are brilliant at writing, but we are brilliant at writing things which get a result.

This process takes time and you learn along the way how to structure things. One of the biggest frustrations people face, which we faced in the early days and is one of the top questions I am asked is how do you know how much to give away?

Remember, people read because they want to know something. If people want to read for the fun of it, they can pick up a Kindle book.

So, you need to give some value in your content that helps the reader.

I mean REALLY helps the reader

There are two schools of thought, some say that if you give too much people will get the help and you lose. The other is that, most people who want to solve a problem, even if you give them the answer, will still need help.

I sit between these two positions.

I believe some people will take free help from you and use it without you gaining any benefit.

I also believe some people will take the free help from your article, never use it, but when they really decide to take action, they will get help from the expert that showed them what they needed to do.

Having said the above, I derive my income from knowledge, insight, and tactics… so I use this to help me form how far to go…

Give people enough information to be dangerous.

Enough to see how it can help them.

Enough for them to have a go and see it can work.

Enough to realise I can make it 10-times better.

Are you reminding people of the GAP?

The gap is simple, it’s about reminding the reader they are at point A and want to get to point B. You thread gap reminder through your content. Combined with relevant examples, it will help you keep people reading and see how it makes a difference for them.

Without the gap built into your content, you’ll see people losing interest and not reading the whole article. In web terms your time spent on the article will be low.

Do you want to produce content which is read to the end by people who will be motivated to do business with you or just churn content which nobody reads to the end?

Do you want content that does the selling for you?

Use the gap. See what I did there? I used the gap.

If you are fed up of poor performing website content, then you want to use the gap to keep people engaged, then you will see your engagement and more readers will read to the end.

There I did it again.

Just use the gap, it works.

What is the compelling outcome?

Whether you include the outcome people can achieve in the title or you include the frustration of the problem in your title, you need to help people see the compelling outcome. So people embrace your article and take your advice.

You need to demonstrate to readers the logic of your points, but you need to show them the goal or aim they want to achieve is possible. Making people believe you isn’t done with logic. It’s done with emotion. Belief and fact aren’t the same thing. The outcome you offer must be clear, realistic, and deliverable. Don’t be afraid to tell people what you can do and how they can achieve it.

“How to improve your website traffic”

“How accountants can grow their web traffic”

“How coaches can grow their website visitors by 25% in 30 days”

Which title makes the promise of a compelling outcome?

Do you have a powerful call to action?

Long sales waffle at the end won’t help you. What is the clearest call to action you can make? Here is my example.

 If you want to increase your website visitors by 25% in the next 30 days, we have a money-back guaranteed service for ￡xxx, to sign up or learn more you can do x or sign up here.

You need a link and a direct and clear call to action. Wishy washy calls to action will deliver wish washy actions from the reader.

Why did I add the price? Well, telling the price upfront also helps qualify people who take the call to action. They know the price and so if they make an enquiry, they are doing so, in full knowledge, this is how much you charge.

You don’t need to be afraid of your prices. People hide their prices for two reasons, they are embarrassed by them or they want to vary their prices depending on who enquires. Outside of those two the only people who should not publish prices are those who offer customised services, which means any price they do put out there could be misleading or not representative.

Finally, I have one more tip for you in writing powerful and performing articles…

Get your article out there

You can’t just publish an article and hope for the best. Get it posted onto your social pages and put a little bit of money behind it. You’ve just written a highly targeted, highly valuable content piece, so what do you think will happen when you drop that in front of a targeted audience? ￡10-￡50 you can make a huge difference.

You’ve just spent 3 hours making an amazing piece of content, why would you not post it, email it to your list and spend some money pushing it out there.

Remember, an article can be re-posted on social channels regularly, at least once a quarter, don't make it just a one-hit-wonder, re-use it in your posting and newsletters.

Now stop reading this and go do it… 

…and if you can’t do it or are struggling to do it, drop me a line and I can walk you through it in a paid strategy session (￡199 for 90 mins) or you can hire our team to do it for you.