Remember back in high school when we were forced to compose creative pieces of writing during English class? I know, I'm sorry for bringing back horrible memories for the majority of you - but I assure you there is a point.
I remember my English class, and the look of disgust on everyones face when we were told to sit down, brainstorm our upcoming story, plan the key points, write a draft, and then finish with the "good" copy.
At the time, this seemed like the most pointless exercise of all.
Countless hours wasted away having to muck around with words, sentence structure, and idea flows.
But - look at me now! Here I am writing this well planned (and hopefully well executed) article.
When it comes to writing articles for publication, there is no way of getting away from these necessary steps.
As I have come to discover, a lack of planning is one of the most obvious ways to identify an article written by an amateur.
Perhaps you are not readily able to picture the planning and brainstorming that went in to these 3 paragraphs so far, but I assure you that if no planning occurred whatsoever - it would be blatantly obvious.
This goes to highlight the need for correct article writing practices, and can prove to be an excellent lesson for article marketers.
What I mean is - articles written poorly will fail to generate the response that an equivalent, well written article could receive.
So just how do you perform this "planning" stage? And more importantly - how do you ensure that articles, released for the sole purpose of marketing campaigns, actually reach and relate to potential respondents? I'll start with the initial planning and strategy implementation stages.
Here, it is all about identifying the target audience of your article.
You need to ask questions such as - "what niche is my business in?", "how will this niche affect the audiences I target?", etc.
If you are not able to tell me the group of people who you were writing for, and the reasons why - you have not done enough preparatory work.
Let me give you an example.
This article has been targeted to marketers and writers.
I am writing in a sophisticated way because the people in this group are known to be highly intelligent.
I am also using a few comedic inputs, to ensure the seemingly dull topic doesn't get too boring.
See what I mean? This article actually has a pre-planned readership, goal, and style.
Did I manage to achieve it? Well, I'll leave that up to you to debate.
Moving right along, I'll answer the second question from above.
Do you think it's a coincidence that 90% of the people reading this sentence right now are employed as article marketers or writers? Thanks to the power of the internet, and the targeting technologies at work here, this article has been specifically dished out to places where my target group are known to "hang out".
This is actually the job of article marketers - so it makes this entire script a bit ironic doesn't it? Alright - that's enough.
Surely by now I have convinced you of the need to plan, brainstorm, and identify the applicable groups of people to which your article will be directed.
Having finished my work here - maybe I could go and find myself a job as an English teacher.
I remember my English class, and the look of disgust on everyones face when we were told to sit down, brainstorm our upcoming story, plan the key points, write a draft, and then finish with the "good" copy.
At the time, this seemed like the most pointless exercise of all.
Countless hours wasted away having to muck around with words, sentence structure, and idea flows.
But - look at me now! Here I am writing this well planned (and hopefully well executed) article.
When it comes to writing articles for publication, there is no way of getting away from these necessary steps.
As I have come to discover, a lack of planning is one of the most obvious ways to identify an article written by an amateur.
Perhaps you are not readily able to picture the planning and brainstorming that went in to these 3 paragraphs so far, but I assure you that if no planning occurred whatsoever - it would be blatantly obvious.
This goes to highlight the need for correct article writing practices, and can prove to be an excellent lesson for article marketers.
What I mean is - articles written poorly will fail to generate the response that an equivalent, well written article could receive.
So just how do you perform this "planning" stage? And more importantly - how do you ensure that articles, released for the sole purpose of marketing campaigns, actually reach and relate to potential respondents? I'll start with the initial planning and strategy implementation stages.
Here, it is all about identifying the target audience of your article.
You need to ask questions such as - "what niche is my business in?", "how will this niche affect the audiences I target?", etc.
If you are not able to tell me the group of people who you were writing for, and the reasons why - you have not done enough preparatory work.
Let me give you an example.
This article has been targeted to marketers and writers.
I am writing in a sophisticated way because the people in this group are known to be highly intelligent.
I am also using a few comedic inputs, to ensure the seemingly dull topic doesn't get too boring.
See what I mean? This article actually has a pre-planned readership, goal, and style.
Did I manage to achieve it? Well, I'll leave that up to you to debate.
Moving right along, I'll answer the second question from above.
Do you think it's a coincidence that 90% of the people reading this sentence right now are employed as article marketers or writers? Thanks to the power of the internet, and the targeting technologies at work here, this article has been specifically dished out to places where my target group are known to "hang out".
This is actually the job of article marketers - so it makes this entire script a bit ironic doesn't it? Alright - that's enough.
Surely by now I have convinced you of the need to plan, brainstorm, and identify the applicable groups of people to which your article will be directed.
Having finished my work here - maybe I could go and find myself a job as an English teacher.
SHARE
