“Writing is less about beckoning the muse than hanging in until the typing becomes writing.” - David Carr
Are you telling your story from your unique perspective, with a voice and style that’s clearly all you?
“When you have to write your ideas out in complete sentences and complete paragraphs, it forces a deeper clarity of thinking.” - Jeff Bezos
“Good writing . . . is a matter of developing the skills of intuitive psychology that are so important in every other aspect of social life: getting inside the heads of other people so that you can respect their needs and their wants.” - Steven Pinker
Your words (what you say) and style (how you say it) are your most cherished (and, yet, undervalued) assets
Brevity and clarity matter more than ever
What matters now isn’t storytelling; what matters is telling a true story well
Quality content means content that is packed with clear utility and is brimming with inspiration, and it has relentless empathy for the audience:
Utility means you clearly help your customers do something that matters to them—you help them shoulder their burdens, you ease their pain, or you help them make a decision
Inspiration means your content is inspired by data (more on this later) or it’s creatively inspired (or both). It’s fresh, different, well-written, well-produced, nicely designed— and it feels like it could come only from you
Empathy means you relentlessly focus on your customer. You view the entire world through his or her eyes
Utility × Inspiration × Empathy = Quality Content
Stephen King calls fear the root of poor writing
We just require the will and the courage and the inspiration and the gumption and the wits to start
“The difference between good at math and bad at math is hard work. It’s trying. It’s trying hard. It’s trying harder than you’ve ever tried before. That’s it.” - Matt Waite
The Advanced Guide to Content Marketing by Neil Patel and Kathryn Aragon
The key to taking your writing muscles from puny to brawny is to write every day
“If you want to be a writer you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot” - Stephen King
“Habits are the invisible architecture of everyday life.” - Gretchen Rubin
Put the needs of your audience first
Creating content is a privilege
Every piece of content your create should be to please the customer or prospect
Take as long as you need to tell the story
Cut the fat. Respect the reader's time. Keep it tight
Make it clear. Don't make the reader work hard to understand you
Make it useful. Readers will read what you write only if something is in it for them
Write, rewrite, edit
Eliminate distractions, put what is most important first
1. Goal:
What's your business goal?
What are you trying to achieve?
☆ Help people learn about themselves and do what they love
Anything you write should always be aligned with the larger goal
Care about what you are writing about. If you don't care, no one will
2. Reframe:
Put your reader into it.
Why does it matter to them?
What's in it for them?
Why should they care?
What is the lessor or message you want them to take away?
What value do you offer them?
What questions might they have?
What advice or help can you provide?
Serve them with a mindset of generosity and giving
3. Seek out the data and examples
What credible source supports your main idea?
Don't discount your own experience but don't rely exclusively on it
“The more personal you are, the more universal you become” - Chip Scanlan
“The writer who uses herself as a source and resource has the greatest chance of connecting with the largest audience” - Chip Scanlan
Is there research that quantifies the problem?
Who else has dealt with catastrophes or successes?
4. Organize
List, how-to guide, client narrative
5. Write to one person
Put your reader into the story right up front
You want the reader to recognize and relate to an issue
6. Produce the ugly first draft
Write as if no one will ever read it
7. Walk away
Put some time between drafts
8. Rewrite
Swap places with your reader
9. Give it a great healine or title
10. Have someone edit
11. One final look for readability
Does it look inviting, alluring, easy to scan?
Short paragraphs
Bold subheads
Number or bullet lists
12. Publish
Answer one more reader question: what now?
What do you want them to do next?
Check out other resources?
Sign up to hear more?
Register for an event or a free trial?
Buy something?
The more you think about what you want to say, and plan for it, the easier it is to say
“An hour with a fresh mind is worth five hours of fog.” - Doug Kessler
Before you begin the writing, be sure you know the purpose or mission or objective of every piece of content that you write
What are you trying to achieve?
What information, exactly, are you trying to communicate?
And why should your audience care?
Why am I creating this?
What’s my objective?
What is my key take on the subject or issue?
What’s my point of view?
Why does it matter to the people you are trying to reach?
I make a list, because it feels less intimating to make a list than it does to write
“Great writing isn’t written, as much as assembled” - Andy Crestodina
Brilliance comes on the rewrite
The writing process:
1. Barf up the ugly first draft
2. Walk away
3. Rewrite
Good writing serves the reader, not the writer
Good writing anticipates the questions that readers might have as they’re reading a piece, and it answers them
Swap places with your reader. Be a skeptic of your own work. Get out of your own head, and into your reader’s or your customer’s. Think of things from your readers’ point of view, with empathy for the experience you are giving them
“A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes will ask himself at least four questions, thus: What am I trying to say? What words will express it? What image or idiom will make it clearer? Is this image fresh enough to have an effect? And he will probably ask himself two more: Could I put it more shortly? Have I said anything that is avoidably ugly?” - George Orwell
Empathy for the customer experience should be at the root of all of your content
Having a sense of the people you are writing for and a deep understanding of their problems is key to honing your skill
What matters now is creating useful content that solves customer problems, shoulders their burdens, eases their pain, enriches their lives
Use language to support people's needs and goals
Spend time with your customers or prospects. Listen to customer service inquiries. Watch how customers behave. See what problems they have. “Look for patterns.”
Understand their habitat. Talk with them in their homes, at their jobs; watch them as they browse your site or use your app on mobile while waiting in line at the coffee shop. This will give you an entirely new understanding of what people need from you and your content. You can’t develop empathy without context
Be a natural skeptic. A powerful question is, Why? Why do you do things that way? Why do you feel that way?
Ask why they do it. “Never assume that you know the answer to why your readers or the people who use your products do what they do
Share story, not just stats
You a customer-centric POV. Replace I or we with you to shift the focus to the customer's point of view
The best way to keep readers reading is to talk about them, not you
Editing by chainsaw:
State your key idea as clearly as you can near the start
Remove the introductory text
Remove anything that distracts from the key point
If each sentence does not bring something unique to the paragraph, kill it
Move things around
Editing with surgical tools:
Trim the bloat and fat
Trim the start or lop it off completely. Help the reader get into the heart of things more quickly
Think twice about placing only immediately before a verb
Give special love to the first and last sentences of your piece
A good lede:
Put your reader into the story
Describe a problem your reader can relate to
Set a stage
Ask a question (use this one infrequently)
Quote a crazy or controversial bit of data
Tell a story or relay a personal anecdote
Close with a kicker:
Restate the main point of your piece as a summary
Switch up your tone
If you've been formal, go relaxed. If you're relaxed, become formal
Add a quote from someone
Show, don't tell
Good content—and good writing—doesn't preach or hard-sell. It shows how your product or service lives in the world, explaining in human terms how it adds value to people's lives, eases troubles, shoulders burdens, and meets needs
“What hell does my product save people from? And what heaven does it deliver them unto?” - Aaron Orendorff
Specific details make content vibrant, and they add a necessary human element that makes your content more relatable. Details paint a fuller, clearer, picture and give readers necessary footholds for getting more involved or vested in the writing
Be specific enough to be believable, but universal enough to be credible
A story featuring a real person and a real solution to a real problem is a far livelier approach for customer videos and in-person testimonials
Don't just tell your readers that you feel something; tell them why you feel it
Don't just say that works; tell them why it works and what led you to this moment
Don't say solution—tell me what your product does
Don't say a lot—tell me how many
“Any fool can make something complicated. It takes a genius to make it simple.” - Woody Guthrie
No one will ever complain that you've made things too simple to understand
Assume the reader knows nothing. But don't assume the reader is stupid
Clarity of writing usually follows clarity of thought. So think what you want to say, then say it as simply as possible
Simplicity comes primarily from approaching any writing with empathy and a reader-centric point of view to begin with
Do we need more or fewer words? Would a chart or graphic or visual convey an idea more simply? Would a video convey what we are trying to say more directly?
Design with your words, rather than fitting words into a design
White space is a prerequisite, not a luxury
The best web writing isn't necessarily short, but it is simple, with...
Shorter paragraphs with no more than three sentences or six lines
Shorter sentences with no more than 25 words in a sentence
Straightforward words—avoid cliches, jargon, and buzzwords
So...
Use bulleted or numbered lists
Highlight key points with bold or italic
Use subheadings to break up text
Add visual elements, such as graphics, photos, slide shows
Use lots of white space to give your text room to breathe
Test readability score with Flesch-Kincaid formula
https://www.webfx.com/tools/read-able/
Good writing is about thinking, rewriting, and keeping your focus relentlessly on the reader
Write for real people using real words
Don't use words you wouldn't whisper to your sweetheart in the dark
Ditch weak verbs for bold verbs
Ditch adverbs, except when they adjust the meaning
Adverbs usually end in ly—gratuitously and really
Adverbs tell us the writer is afraid he/she isn't expressing himself/herself clearly, that he or she is not getting the point or the picture across
Show rather than tell
“Avoid clichés like the plague.” - Toastmasters
Use should have, not should of
Storytelling is about how your business exists in the real world: who you are and what you do for the benefit of others, and how you add value to people's lives, ease their troubles, help shoulder their burdens, and meet their needs
A compelling brand story is a kind of gift that gives your audience a way to connect with you as one person to another, and to view your business as what it is: a living, breathing entity run by real people offering real value
Stories stir our souls, connect us, and shape a kind of shared experience
Characteristics of a compelling story:
1. It's true
Make truth the cornerstone of anything you create
Feature real people, real situations, genuine emotions, and facts
Show, don't tell
Explain in terms people can relate to how it adds value to the lives of your customers
2. It's human
Focus on how your product touches the lives of actual people
Be specific enough to be believable, and universal enough to be relevant
3. It's original
4. It serves the customer
Your story should always be told in the context of your customer's life
5. It tells a bigger story that's aligned with a long-term business strategy
Show how you change the world, on a gargantuan scale
Every piece of content you create should be telling your bigger story. Is this content steeped in our larger mission?
Clearly communicating what makes you unique helps position you for long-term success
Craft your story:
1. What is unique about our business?
2. What is interesting about how our business was founded? About the founder?
3. What problem is our company trying to solve?
4. What inspired our business?
5. What aha! moments has our company had?
6. How has our business evolved?
7. How do we feel about our business, our customers, ourselves?
8. What's an unobvious way to tell our story? Can we look to analogy instead of example?
9. What do we consider normal and boring that other folks would think is cool?
10. Relay your vision. How will our company change the world?
Don't tell me who you are, tell me why you matter to me
“Start telling the stories that only you can tell, because there'll always be better writers than you and there'll always be smarter writers than you. There will always be people who are much better at doing this or doing that—but you are the only you” - Neil Gaiman
“Art begins in imitation and ends in innovation.” - Mason Colley
“What would make the reader turn and say to her husband, 'Now listen to this, Ira ...'?” - Donald Murray
“Personally, I think it would be a great thing to call out a competitor that has done something really amazing and good, and to praise them. I think this would reflect well on your brand and would earn the admiration of potential customers” - Dan Lyons
Ideal length guidelines for everything in your marketing:
Blog posts: 1,500 words
Email subject lines: 50 characters or less
Line of text: 12 words
Paragraph: 4 lines or less
YouTube video: 3 to 3.5 minutes
Podcast: 22 minutes
Title tags: 55 characters
Meta description 155 characters
Facebook post: 100-140 characters
Tweets: 120-130 characters
Domain name: 8 characters or less
Share the why and who, not just the what on social
Don't pitch-slap
In social media, true engagement—person to person—trumps technology
Helpful skills for copywriting:
1. Always try to say it again in fewer words
2. Trust your own voice
3. Use humor whenever possible
If you have a clear, concise idea that has an authentic voice, it helps to set you apart
Humor is a fairly rare commodity, so if you've got it, use it. After all, who doesn't like to laugh?
Share content that is helpful and ties back to what your product or service does
Rethink your email content, to reconsider what you’re sending, and why, and how you’re communicating
Emails with the recipient’s first name in the subject line had a higher open rate (18.3 percent compared with 15.7 percent)
Write with a point of view—from an actual person to an actual person
A landing page should offer visitors a hyperfocused experience that delivers them to a specific page and gives them a clear path to follow
Ideally, your landing page should convey three simple things:
1. Where your visitors are (where they’ve landed)
2. What you’re making available to them (and how awesome it is)
3. What the next step is to procure (or find out more about) that incredibly awesome thing
If you sell someone on a promise, make sure that the first thing she experiences after taking action based on your promise doesn’t tell a whole ’nother story
A product-driven headline highlights what your product or service will do; a benefit-driven headline tells customers what your product or service will do for them
Speak to landing page visitors directly (lots of you and your) and use active verbs to match your tone to theirs. Something like Get or Go or Start or Try as opposed to the more generic Submit
“A good social media headline seduces people to click through by telling them enough to whet their curiosity, but not enough to fulfill it.” - Upworthy
Tips for writing headlines:
1. Create a curiosity gap, but with moderation
2. Promise what you're going to deliver
3. Place your reader directly into the headline
4. Short headers
5. Use numbers
6. Use lively words
Just as in your own actual home, you want visitors to feel welcomed as soon as they step in—to feel comfortable, to sense that you’re happy to see them
Speak to your audience: who is your audience? Whom do you want to attract? Whom do you not want to attract? All good content is rooted in a clear understanding of your audience.
Tell people what is in it for them
You want your home page to say, “We get you. And, what’s more, you belong here. We understand your challenges, your fears, your pain, your hopes, your needs. We shoulder your burdens. We’ve got your back. We’ll give you a leg up.
Remember: your value is not what you do or what you sell, it’s what you do for your customers
Use a lot of 'you's
Convey that others trust you
The best About Us pages aren't really about the company; instead, they focus on relaying who they are in relation to the visitor. Talk about who you do for the customers. What burdens you help them shoulder, what problems you solve for them
“A writer who waits for ideal conditions under which to work will die without putting a word on paper.” - E. B. White
Done is better than perfect.