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The Dangers of Blog “Selling”

We’ve all read those comments on social media posts, right?

“Clickbait!”

“Don’t read – it’s an ad.”

People don’t like being advertised to, and most can sniff out a promotional article from infinite (cyber) miles away. How is it possible, then, to write a blog post or article that ranks well, but does not come off as salesy? How do we keep posts informative that people find useful, all while moving your SEO efforts forward? This is the holy grail of content marketing, and it’s easier to achieve than you might think. Indiana Jones Time!!!!

Following a specific approach to content writing can help you make the most of your content marketing efforts. Here, you’ll learn how to start a blog and create content that helps improve your online visibility. Can you actually sell your products or services without your prospects calling clickbait foul? We know you can. It isn’t rocket science… much. We’ll lay out the process, step by step.

Step One: Gather Your Content Tools

Like any good recipe, you should make sure you have all the ingredients necessary before throwing everything together. Let’s face it, shortcuts and substitutions rarely work out well, and you likely have memories of failed cookie batches to prove it. Before you just dive into content writing, make sure you have proven quality tools at your disposal that aid in the creation of your content. You can break these tools down into general categories: those for writing and editing, those for finding high quality images, and those for improving the search optimization of the article you’re going to write. We’ll talk more about specific tools later, but, in general, we like tools like Grammarly and Canva to aid in the creation of content, screen captures for images, and keyword research tools like SEMRush.

Step Two: Create a Blog Post Template

To have an idea of what a blog post should look like, it is helpful to have a blog post template downloaded. There are several different places you can find these. Google Docs has one, for example, as does Hubspot. Why use a template? Why not just open up a word document and get to writing?

For a couple of very compelling reasons. First, blog templates force you to plan. Even if you consider yourself a “planner,” you might not do the same kind of exhaustive outlining that comes with working from a template.

Second, it’s easier…. the fields are already laid out for you! Why wouldn’t you make this process easier on yourself? Working from a blog template does just that. Fill in the blanks and move on with your day (it’s not exactly THAT easy, but it does minimize the amount of blank-screen gaping during the content creation process).

Blog templates, at a basic level, force you to take a thoughtful approach to your content creation. Your fields may include keyword research, which focuses your plan on social sharing, internal linking, and more. Just delete sections that aren’t relevant to your particular post and prepare to dive into the creation process!

Now, here is the good news: Eminent SEO has a Google Doc template that you can nab in the link below!

Nab This Sexy Blog Template

Here’s How to Use the Template:

• Open the template link and make a copy (go to File>Make a Copy)
• Decide on the type of content you will create (Blog post? Webpage? White paper? Guest post?)
• Plan your content by using the spaces in between the brackets provided and links to tools we love to use.
• Fill in the blanks using our tips and add your own touch!

Tips For Using the Eminent SEO Blog Post Template and Content Marketing Plan: 

• Include your key phrase in the Title, and keep it to 60 characters max (read these tips on writing compelling headlines)
• Don’t forget a meta description, which should be a single sentence summarizing your piece (155 character maximum), including the main key phrase.
• Create a shortcut URL with your key phrase (ly)
• Don’t forget your social media plugs! Share with your inside and outside network using tools like
• Come up with potential hashtags that will help your content trend. Learn more about hashtag research and development.

We’ll expand on these ideas in later steps, but make sure you are following general best practices for blogging when writing your content (don’t worry; throughout this article, we’ll blissfully highlight what those are).

Tips for Writing the “Meat”

• Your headline is your <H1> tag
• Your formatting should feature short paragraphs, lots of headers and sub-headers, bullet points, and bolding to “break up” the content and make it easier to read.
• You should include images at every scroll depth (we’ll get into image best practices later in this article).
• Aim to use the key phrase 4-6 times within the body copy. Though Google is not as concerned with key phrase density as it once was, it is still important to mention it a few times.
• Ideally, your article length should be 1500+ words to rank well.
• Well researched contributor quotes can help you rank, as long as they are from relevant experts with good social followings.
• Make sure to include a call to action, whether it is to subscribe to something, follow the blog, or comment on the article itself.

You’ll hear many content writing experts say that great content isn’t written, it’s assembled. What does that mean? It means using a blog template to create a compelling outline for the content that’s to come. Once you have your template copied and assembled, you can progress to the next step: the planning phase!

Step 3: Plan, Plan, Plan Your Content (Sing to Tune of “Row, Row, Row Your Boat)

Are you staring blankly at that template we just gave you? This is where the planning phase comes in. Your next step is to fully understand the topic at hand. Every business is different, has a unique value proposition, and has goals they want their content marketing to achieve. If you’re interested enough in improving your content marketing efforts, you likely already have an idea of who your target customers are and what kind of information they are interested in learning about. Hopefully, at this point, you have your first blog topic in mind. If you’re having trouble getting to this point give us a holler. Below, for the sake of illustration, we’ll use this blog topic – how to write a high ranking post – and apply it to narrow down subtopics and questions that should be included in the content.

There are a few of ways to do this. Try using research tools, like:

Answer the Public – Enter your chosen blog topic and related questions will appear. For example, when we enter our topic – “blog posts” (don’t be too specific) – idea trees appear with questions that your audience will want answered. This can help you narrow down your focus or develop subtopics that your audience will find useful.

Google search. The autocomplete section of Google search can be a boon, as it tells you what people are looking for related to your chosen topic. Just go to Google and type your basic keywords and see what the suggestions are.

Keyword.io – The autocomplete section of Google search is great, but this process can also be time-consuming. We recommend using this keyword tool to figure out keyword phrases related to your blog topic from Google autocomplete. In order to get data, you must upgrade to Pro, but for a way to make it easier to copy the top suggestions in a list, this is handy.

Using these tools can help you develop sub-headings within your content. You can also plug them into the “related words and phrases” section of your blog template, as a reminder to include them in your article as you write. Either way, using these steps helps ensure your content will be relevant to your readers, as well as provide some direction for your writing process. A little upfront research now will make for a higher traffic article later, we promise. Putting the extra effort in on the front pays off dividends (in the form of a higher ranking article$$) in the end.

Step 4: Plan Some More (Your Sections and Subheadings, That Is)

Now that you have an idea of the questions your target audience wants answered, you can begin to set up the flow of the article you have in mind. Consider using some of those questions you found using Answer the Public to create subheadings, also using the keywords you found in Keyword.io. Since you have a lot of options, you can take some time to prioritize what you think is most relevant. The more familiar you are with the subject matter, the easier this step of the process will be.

This is also a good opportunity to start thinking about what else your blog article needs to flesh it out. Examples? Statistics? Links to useful tools? Here at Eminent SEO, we tend to be data driven (it’s the nature of the business), so we like to include these elements for our readers whenever possible.

Step 5: Research Your Blog Topic

The fortunate part of this next step is that you will likely be familiar with the blog topic at hand. If you are looking to establish thought leadership through blogging, you likely already have a general idea of what to say. The research aspect of writing a blog article may not necessarily be the topic at hand, but data to support it and key phrases will help it rank well.

We could tell you, for example, that from our “Answer the Public” query, we found one of the most common questions asked is, “why is blog writing important?” We know, of course, that regular blog writing is important for SEO and improving your online visibility in general. By spending a few minutes researching, we can also tell you:

• Websites with a blog have an average of 434% more indexed pages (in other words, way more opportunities to rank).
• B2B marketers who have blogs enjoy an average of 76% more leads compared to those who do not.

Next, do some research to determine which key phrases will rank well. You should have some idea of keywords and phrases to include by looking at Keyword.io. Put these at the keyword section of your template, and open research tools from Moz Keyword Explorer or SEMRush. There’s a lot out there! We’ll get you a list. The best tools will offer ideas for more key phrases, as well as each phrase’s search volume and relative difficulty.

Step 6: Determine Your Main, Target Key Phrase

How do you know what your main key phrase should be? Ideally, it will fulfill three main qualifications:

• People want to know about it (i.e., it has a good search volume)
• You have a shot of ranking for it in relation to other sites (how competitive is it?)
• The key phrase is relevant to your business or content marketing goals.

How can we make sure that a humble key phrase meets all this criteria? How else, but with a handy array of tools! Yes it’s tool fever setting up a world beater post.

YES there are a LOT of tools, apps, plugins and programs that can help you do key phrase research. Too many to detail in this post for sure. In general, we like to use like:

Google. Let’s face it, when is the last time someone said, “let’s Bing it?” Google is the dominant search engine and also a good source of free keyword data – Google Ads Keyword Planner and Google Trends. Google Adwords will suggest phrases and show you search volume so you can determine the value and the competition. Google Trends, on the other hand, will show you how a specific phrase trends over time. Just enter a phrase related to your blog topic and you can get instant insights.

You can use MozBar to give you a little more detail about the competition. Open it, search for a key phrase, and you’ll get access to other metrics like external and internal links. It will give you an idea of whether the key phrase you are choosing is a crowded field or less popular and hence easier to outrank.

Moz Link Explorer to determine the Page Authority of the new page. Page Authority, or PA, is a score between 0 and 100 that helps determine how well a specific page (or keyphrase, when included in the URL) will rank. Learn more about Page Authority.

The key to finding the right key phrase is to strike a good balance between competition and relevancy. To rank high quickly, you should pick the least competitive, relevant key phrase. If you want to rank for more competitive terms, you will have to build a library of content related to the key phrase, not a single post.

The final step in solidifying it is to assess the rest of the competition related to your key phrase utilizing a keyword research suite like SEMrush has. Enter the top ranking URL into the search bar, and Voila! You’ll get related terms and phrases that you can include in your content to rank even better.

Remember to never go to heavy on the stuffing at Thanksgiving dinner, while trying to talk your way out of a traffic ticket OR performing writing tasks. (All big no-no’s)

So you’ve chosen a target key phrase, based on exhaustive research. Congratulations! Now you just skillfully weave it within the article you’re going to write and wait to appear in the top page of search results, right?

Nope.

Keep in mind that adding a key phrase (and related keywords) is only one aspect of writing a blog post. Is keyword research important? Yes. Is creating relevant, interesting content just as or arguably more important that making sure that the keywords are in there? Also, yes.

You want your articles to be interesting – or at least as interesting as you can make them. Loading your articles with keywords because you think it will help you rank well will only backfire (and potentially result in penalizations on Google search). Be skillfully engaging first, incorporate your keywords naturally second, pat yourself on the back when completed third. This was a pretty big step…. If you completed it, congrats.

Step 7: Write Your Draft Headlines and Social Posts

Writing headlines and social media can be essential to making a blog post that ranks well. In general, imagine the reader and how they would react to the headline and social teasers:

• Do you communicate the benefits of reading the article explicitly?
• Do you put interesting or evocative words or phrases in the front to draw the reader in?
• Do your headlines and teasers evoke curiosity and kick up the flow of dopamine?

The tricky thing about social media and headlines is that you need to consider both the psychology of the reader and the optimization of the article itself. In other words, you need to include the target key phrase, but you also want the reader to make the click. It’s not easy, and it takes practice. These additional tips can help.

Step 8: Write Your Content and Gather Your Images

Now that the planning phase is done (we told you that planning was the most important part, right?) you can dive into the writing and image collection. Using your template, fill in the rest of the blanks. You should have subheadings picked out already based on all the research you did. Now, use your own expertise and any additional data and support you found to fill in the blanks. And don’t forget the images! Content with images tends to rank better (given certain caveats related to image quality and optimization for mobile). For how-to articles like these, we like screenshots that better illustrate how to perform each step. Keep in mind that original images are always better than stock, but using stock won’t affect your SEO. For this article we picked a creative, illustrated theme to break up the screenshots and lengthy content.

Step 9: Gather Your Contributor Quotes/Quotes From Influencers

One of the best ways to make a blog post stronger is by adding in quotes from influencers and experts. This naturally helps with social sharing and makes for good networking to write about topics both parties care about. Connecting with knowledge experts, sales prospects and social media mavens is always good business and this is a great reason for them to reply back. Contributor quotes serve three essential aims:

• More Knowledge! Get an opportunity to learn from someone new.
• Get More Traffic! When social media influencers share your content you get a larger audience reach.
• Get More Sales! More traffic = more prospects = more conversions = more potential sales (or whichever currency you deal in).

Gathering contributor quotes is a necessary part of the process, but it also requires some planning. Give contributors at least a week to respond, then frame your email request in a way that’s easy to answer. Whether you’re reaching out via DM or email, follow some simple best practices:

• Keep your subject short and sweet (i.e. “Contributor Quote?”)
• Keep your request concise, and include, topic, length, and timing
• Make sure your tone is friendly and no-pressure

Gathering contributor quotes may seem all well and good, but what if you have no idea where to find them? We recommend looking for social influencers:

• In your competitor’s social media. If an influencer is working with a brand like yours, they will be more likely to work with your organization.
• In your industry related search terms. Set up Google alerts to see content from people reporting regularly on topics related to your industry, or check Quora for common threads.
• Look through industry-related hashtags and find influencers who regularly talk about things you care and write about.

Step 10: Check Your Work

The key to good SEO writing is to target the topic holistically. Yes, you will have a primary key phrase to guide you, but you will also need to cover any applicable subtopics and questions to rank well. Incorporate the keyword phrases that you found during your research (and ideally should be listed at the top of your blog template). Check your work using Control +F (finding each key phrase within your content and adding it if necessary). Be sure to use all key phrases naturally within your content, which may require adding extra content and answering questions that your readers will find helpful. Using this SEO approach will make you a better writer while naturally appealing to both your target readers and search engines. Simple, huh?

Now that you have written your blog post and incorporated all your keywords, walk away from it for a while. Give it to someone else you trust and let them check your work. Have them check from grammar and semantics as well as readability and detail.

Step 10.2(checking is as checking does): Check the On-Page SEO

Finally, run a simple on-page SEO check to see if you have covered all the topics and subtopics at hand. You can use SEMRush SEO Writing Assistant, which is an add-on for Google Docs that compares your piece to others that are ranking well for your chosen key phrase. Plugging your body copy into this add on will give you insight into the originality of your document, its readability, and strategic use of key phrases and keywords compared to the other well-ranking competition.

Relevant key phrases that you incorporate in your document will show up highlighted in green. If you miss an important keyword or phrase, it will show up in white; feel free to try to work it in but remember that readability and intelligibility of writing should trump trying to rank for every phrase. I know this is a lot of SEMrush exampling (not a real word, I know) but feel free to experiment with other quality tools. There’s a lot to chose from and you’ll be able to find what works best for you with a little experimenting.

Step 11: Cut, Print, Publish, Release…. Ahhhh

Now that you have exhaustively researched, written, and edited your blog article, it’s time to publish! Choose where you’ll do this – a post can be shared or published in a number of ways. For example, your company blog, LinkedIn page, Medium, released as a white paper, gated offer such as an eBook, delivered as an email blast, or released on another person’s blog.

With your bad ass content live it’s time to reach out to those quote contributors over social media and email. @ them on Twitter and Instagram with their quotes so they can see and share what you’ve written. The quotes are great for newsletters and just about any other sharing source out there. In time with enough content under your belt you’ll be connected with all the top influencers in your space. Your page needs mentions from other websites to rank well and this is a great way to get those. Keep the content updated and edited based on keywords it ranks for and what the web searchers intent is when landing there. If you write more on the topic make sure to link back to your original post naturally. This helps to show Google that you’re a subject matter expert and they should serve you up more.

Congratulations! By completing all 11 steps you just wrote and published a fully optimized article! How do you feel? It’s more work than it looks like to optimize for the users and Google, right?

If SEO not your cup of tea, never fear – you can always use the Eminent SEO expert content writing team. Our professional agency will take the guesswork out of SEO by providing you with everything from the research to the content development or post editing and final SEO. It’s really up to you how much, or little, you’d like to be involved. We offer a full suite of content optimization and marketing services. Seriously…. That’s what we’re here for.

This is part two of a two-part series. In part one, we covered the pre-writing process you can use to set up your blog post or content piece for success online.

In this article, I’ll show you how to take all that information and turn it into a compelling, high-quality article that people want to read and share, which will also help it rank better in organic search.

If you’ve done the planning process for a blog post and are feeling a bit overwhelmed, maybe wondering what to do with all that information now that you have it, no worries – I’ll walk you through what to do next.

This Is a Guide, Not a Formula

First, let’s talk about an important mindset to have as you go through this process.

Even though I’m sharing my secret writing recipe with you in these two articles, it’s important to not think of this as a formula, but rather as a guide. Even if you’re writing for business purposes, writing is still a creative endeavor. This process helps you balance the practical and artistic aspects of writing blog articles.

Use the Outline to Structure, Not Stifle

There’s really no one-size-fits-all formula you should follow when it comes to writing. It’s OK if your writing is loose and free when you start, because you’ll go through and revise it to give it structure.

The key is to allow the structure of your article to be determined by the flow of ideas. This way, it has structure and readers feel like they are being led through a logical progression, all without stifling your creativity or turning out cookie-cutter content.

For instance, you can begin writing the article in a narrative, story-like format to engage the reader, and then build to the main message and the supporting details.

Or, for more informational articles, you may use a structure more like you learned in school – where you start with the main message in the opening, list the supporting ideas, and then close by reinforcing the main message in the conclusion.

So take a deep breath and relax as you move forward with writing and refining your blog article.

Headline Hacks for Beginners

You may write the headline first and use that to help you decide what to include in the article, but it’s also fine to write what you want to say first and then come up with the headline that best encapsulates what the article covers.

If you already have a great headline that you wrote during the planning process, great. If not, make sure you spend some quality time working on the headline.

The headline serves two main purposes:

1. It entices the reader to click on the article and read it (so it should be enticing!).
2. It promises the reader what he or she will get from reading the article.

It’s important when you’re writing a compelling headline to make sure that you can deliver on what the title promises. It’s also a good idea to verify that your finished draft will fulfill your audience’s expectations, based on the headline.

When brainstorming headline ideas, try this process:

1. Write several headlines meant to be enticing to people.
2. Write several headlines that have the keywords people will search for when looking for information on this topic.
3. Review both lists of headline ideas and look for ways to slip keywords into your favorite people-friendly headline.
4. Copy and paste your headline into an internet search and see what kinds of articles it will be up against. Is it the right topic, and is your article better than the ones that are already ranking?

If you’re new to writing headlines, Jon Morrow’s Headline Hacks is a good place to start. It lists the types of headlines that have been most successful over decades of use (they’re timeless) and how to use them, with examples.

You can download it for free on his website if you’re willing to submit your email address. You can unsubscribe from his list anytime, but if you’re serious about improving your writing skills, you won’t want to; he has great resources on writing for online audiences.

Begin with the Reader in Mind

I always recommend that you open your article by connecting emotionally with your audience and stating the problem or situation from their point of view. This communicates that you are going to talk about something relevant to them, and that you understand their feelings and the situation they’re in.

This can happen in the first sentence, or a few sentences in, depending on what makes sense. You’ll notice that in this article, I start of very practically by stating that this article is part of a series, but I still end the opening section by acknowledging that the reader may be feeling overwhelmed about what to do next, and providing reassurance that I’m going to make things easier for them.

Know Where You’re Headed

Think of writing as connecting the dots. You’re going to start with the audience’s problem/experience/feelings and then lead them through what you want to communicate to them, and finally to your call to action at the end.

When you sit down to write, review the information in your planning doc, and get a sense in your mind of how you want this article to unfold. Imagine yourself in the audience’s mindset and the journey of enlightenment you want to take them on.

For a refresher on the pre-writing steps I outlined in my previous post, here’s the 10-point checklist:

Get On Your Soapbox and Be Vulnerable

You may find it useful to write your article in chunks, and then piece them together in the revision stage.

For example, after you write a section connecting with the audience and what they need to get out of this, you can write a section that gets out what you need to say.

These days, people want more than information. They want expert opinions about the information as well. Unlike news stories that strive for objectivity, you can be as opinionated and emotional in a blog article as you want.

The key is to give compelling advice while also being authentic and personal. When done well, this leads people to trust you and like you, and want to hear more from you. The tone is totally up to you. It can be aggressive or compassionate, optimistic or cautionary, highly emotional or highly rational – as long as it reflects your genuine feelings on the topic.

Here’s an list of what to address when you write out the Writer’s Stance paragraphs:

• Your stance on the topic and why you feel strongly about it.
• Why you disagree with other approaches.
• A passionate plea not to make the kinds of mistakes you see people make in this area.
• An admission of mistakes you’ve made or misunderstandings you’ve had about this topic.
• What people absolutely must know to avoid the same mistakes.
• Compelling reasons why people should listen to you and follow your lead.

You can then either include these points all in one section, or spread them throughout your article. For example, if you’re writing a 10-point how-to article, for each step you might explain how to do the step and then why you believe it must be done that way.

Close Like a Pro

When you’ve made all of your important points, wrap it up with a closing paragraph or section that:

• Summarizes your main message and perhaps a key supporting point or two
• Has a call to action

If you began your story as a narrative, it is probably more appropriate to bring the story full circle and provide a satisfying conclusion to the tale. Articles that are more informational will summarize the main idea, yet still sprinkle in a compelling emotional component.

Post-Writing Checklist

Once you’ve written your draft and revised it to tighten up the structure, run through this checklist to make sure you covered all the key elements that will help it be successful:

1. Did you start out by empathizing with the audience’s current situation?
2. Did you say what you needed to say and take a stance, hopefully one that sets you apart?
3. Did you make sure your main message is clearly stated, preferably more than once?
4. Did you answer the questions the audience will have, especially if they are new to your topic?
5. Did you explain things in layman’s terms, or at least define any industry jargon you used?
6. Did you close with a clear CTA that flows naturally from the topic, fits with the buyer stage, and aligns with your goals?
7. Did you do a search to make sure your keywords are included in the headlines and body copy?
8. Does your article fulfill the promise your headline makes to the reader?
9. Did you proofread for spelling, grammar and capitalization?

Tip: Have a coworker do the proofreading if it’s not your strong suit.

In fact, I highly recommend that you have someone else read your article before you publish it. A fresh pair of eyes will catch errors that you miss because you’ve been looking at it so much. And a fresh perspective may bring questions that you hadn’t thought to include, but should have.

It’s Your Turn!

Writing a blog article that gets read and shared online isn’t an easy task, but it’s worth the effort if you’ve got something of value to share.

Keep in mind that for an article to get traction online, it needs to:

• Resonate emotionally with your audience
• Provide excellent content (be helpful!)
• Use keywords selectively

Now that I’ve shared my process for creating compelling online content, I’d love to hear from you…

What is your biggest frustration when it comes to writing online content?
What comes easily to you, and where do you get hung up?

Share in the comments!

Remember the days when blogging consisted of sitting down at your computer, throwing your thoughts onto the screen and posting online for the world to see, and people read it?

At least I hear that’s what happened. But I’ve never been a blogger in such simple times. When modern-day bloggers write a blog post – or any content for that matter – it’s competing with an ever-growing mountain of online information and faces the very real possibility of never being seen by another single person.

Content marketers these days don’t have the luxury of simply writing something and hoping that it will get seen. If you want your content to be read and shared online, you need a powerful plan to make it stand out from the crowd.

Do I Really Need to Pre-Plan My Blog Posts?

You definitely need a plan. It’s usually best to create the plan before you start writing, simply for efficiency’s sake. That being said, there are times when you might want to begin by simply getting all your thoughts on a topic down on paper, and then develop the plan afterwards.

Either way, you will need to modify the content so that it not only communicates what you want to say, but also hits home for your readers.

Investing time in a plan will help you achieve a much better ROI on the time you spend actually writing your content.

I’m going to give you an inside peek into the process I’ve created, improved and used again and again for the last nine years to create outstanding content. You’re welcome.

Pre-Writing Checklist

This is the step-by-step list I go through before I write a blog post – or any important piece of content. I’ll explain how each step works and how thinking about each angle ahead of time will help set your content apart from your competitors who aren’t doing this.

1. Company Objective (i.e., What’s in It for Me?)

This one is super easy because this is where everyone writes from by default when planning a piece of content. This is simply what you the writer (or the company you represent) what to accomplish with your content.

It can include things like:

• Sharing your message on a certain topic
• Educating clients and potential customers
• Ranking for a search term
• Creating a gated offer to get people to sign up for your email list

The Company Objective is whatever reason(s) you have for writing the content. It doesn’t matter if your goals are selfish or altruistic; in fact, they may be both. The important thing in this stage is to be honest and clear with yourself about why you’re investing resources in creating this content.

Don’t worry: Your audience won’t see this information. It’s for your eyes only.

2. Writer’s Stance

This is a step I added recently, and is really an extension of step 1. This is where you give your opinion, your position on the topic. Whereas the Company Objective is practical – what you want to accomplish – the Writer’s Stance is about what you want to say. It stems from your deeply held beliefs about the topic.

It’s OK – in fact, it’s good – for this to be emotional and opinionated. Remember that your audience has many other sources for their information. What can you bring to this topic that no one else can? What’s your unique take on the subject? What do you want to say that no one else is talking about – that needs to be addressed? Why does what you have to say really matter?

3. Audience

Next, you want to clearly identify who you’re writing this content for. The more specific you are, the better, because it will allow you to create a more targeted and impactful message.

If you have buyer personas that you use in your marketing, identify which one this is for primarily. It’s OK to have content that is for multiple audiences, if need be, but designate which one is the primary audience and which is the secondary audience.

It is also helpful to identify which part of the buyer stage this content is targeted to. For example, are you writing for an existing client, or a prospect? If they’re a prospect, are they in the early information-gathering stage, or in the almost-ready-to-buy stage?

4. Audience Objective (i.e., What’s in It for Them)

This is a critical step, and it’s one that most people skip without realizing it, because they’re so focused on their own objectives for creating the content.

Quite simply, you’re answering the questions:

Why will my audience care about this? What’s in it for them? How will they benefit from reading this?

Put yourself in the mindset of the person you identified in step 3, and be really honest with yourself as you ask these questions. Would I read this if I were them? Would I care? Would I share it?

If the honest answer is “no,” don’t panic. This is actually a good thing, because it means you just dodged a bullet. If you had gone ahead and written the article only because of the reasons you wanted to write it, then while you might be quite satisfied with it, your audience would probably ignore it. That’s no bueno.

But when you recognize that you’re missing the WIIFT (what’s in it for them) element, this gives you the opportunity to figure out what would make the piece relevant to your audience, and then plan your writing accordingly.

I cannot over-emphasize the importance of this stage enough. If you do no other planning before you write, do these first four steps. Do it every single time you write anything where you need to influence others to pay attention and take action.

I realize you’ve probably heard about the importance of the WIIFT principle before, but if you’re not using it on a regular basis, then you’re likely missing the mark in a lot of your communications. All people – myself included – communicate by default from our own point of view.

It takes conscious effort to shift your thinking to see the situation from another perspective. And that shift can make all the difference.

5. Emotions to Evoke

In this step, you’re asking yourself how you want the reader to feel when they read your article.

Whereas the Audience Objective is often very practical – they want to learn something – there should also be an emotional component.

In fact, when you do this step, you may end up going back and refining your Audience Objective, because the biggest thing your article may be able to do for your audience is help them feel better, or feel more certain about what they need to do next. Knowledge is powerful, but emotion is often the extra kick people need to motivate them to take action.

6. Main Message

Now that you know what’s in it for you, what’s in it for your audience, how you feel about the topic and how you want to make your reader feel, it’s time to identify your Main Message.

This is the main idea, the thesis statement, the single most important point of your communication. Like The Highlander, there can be only one. (If you’re not old enough, or geeky enough, to know that reference, don’t worry about it, just keep reading.)

Yes, you will have other ideas in your article, but those go in the next step. Feel free to brainstorm both your Main Message and Key Points at the same time.

7. Key Points

Once you’ve identified the Main Message, you can flesh out the key supporting details – just like you learned in writing class in school.

In practice, however, I find that I often start outlining and then get on a roll and end up writing paragraphs of content. If this happens to you, just go with it. Get out whatever comes to you.

Once the ideas are out on paper (metaphorically speaking) you can easily copy and paste to separate the outline points and put any content you wrote into your actual post draft.

The point of outlining is to organize the flow of your ideas, not to stifle your creativity. So keep this process as tight or loose as feels comfortable for you.

8. Call to Action (CTA)

This is another one of those steps that people commonly leave off, because they get so focused on writing the content that they forget to ask the reader to do something at the end.

There are many types of CTAs, including these popular choices:

• Share your opinion in the comments.
• Sign up for a free guide to learn more.
• Take the first step to applying this advice now.
• Learn about our services.
• Read one of our other posts on a similar topic.
• Call us to find out how we can help you.

Remember in step 3 how we identified which stage in the buyer’s journey your audience is in? This is one place where it becomes very relevant.

If someone is just getting started educating themselves on the topic, you probably want to send them to additional information, like another blog post or an eBook. But if they’re near the ready-to-buy stage, then asking them to visit your services page or call for a quote may be more appropriate.

9. Keywords

While your content should be written first and foremost for real human beings, it’s also a good idea to consider which keywords you would like your article to rank for. In fact, if online traffic is an important part of your business, then this isn’t optional: It’s an essential part of planning your blog post.

One common mistake that many people make when they’re focused on SEO is that they write for the keyword and not the reader. By doing this entire pre-planning checklist, you can be sure to do both. An article that speaks deeply to audiences will do well on social media, and if it’s also SEO optimized, it will do well in organic search – the best of both worlds.

Looking again at your audience and audience objective, think about what that person would search for if they were looking up information on your topic. Make a list of a few different search variations. Try to identify specific terms, because it will most likely be easier to rank well for long-tail keywords than general, umbrella terms.

10. Google-Tested Headline Ideas

Once you know your main message – which is optimized for your audience’s needs and emotions – and the keywords they’ll use to search for information, you can start brainstorming headline ideas.

Writing great headlines is an art and science in itself, and beyond the scope of this article. However, there is one tip that I picked up recently from a co-worker (thank you Zach) that is so simple and obvious that it’s easily overlooked. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t been doing this all along.

Copy your favorite headline idea, and paste it into a Google search and see what comes up. Read the top-ranking posts and evaluate them. How are the messages the same? How are they different?

And perhaps most importantly, what are they leaving out? Where is the gap in information that’s currently being served up by Google that you can fill with your article?

Your goal with this exercise is to find ways to set your content apart and not be just a copy of something that’s already been written. Because the thing that’s already ranking will keep ranking at the top, not yours, unless you have something better to offer.

How Long Does the Pre-Writing Process Take?

So now that you’ve gone through the whole pre-writing list, you’re probably wondering, how long will this take?

Expect this pre-writing process to take about an hour. It can certainly take less than that, but plan the extra time just in case. You may even find as you’re doing your research and strategizing that you come up with ideas for multiple posts, such as a series, or with different angles and audiences in mind.

Yes, I’m asking you to spend an hour of planning before you even start writing a word of actual copy.

Think that’s too much of an investment? Maybe it’s time to update your idea of what a blog post is.

In the early days of the internet boom, people would just throw their random thoughts up on a blog and publish it for the world to see. And unfortunately, a lot of people still do that – and still think that’s what blogging is. Please, please, for all of our sake, don’t be one of them. The last thing we need online is more junk.

A good blog is no longer an online diary; it’s an online publication. Each post is an article. You should treat it as seriously as you would being asked to write an article for a print publication.

Do you like reading stuff online that clearly didn’t have much effort put into it? No. And no one wants to read your stuff if you’re not going to put in the effort to make it worth their time.

This process will help you ensure that you’re writing something people actually want to read, that is written for a specific audience, addressing a topic that matters to them, and giving them something they can’t get anywhere else. That is the only way you will get any traction online these days.

It’s CTA Time, Baby

OK, let’s say you agree with me that we need high-quality content online, and you want to only publish outstanding content on your blog. But…you’re a busy person, and the reality is that you just don’t have the time to put in that much work. Eminent SEO to the rescue!

Writing outstanding content is what I and other talented writers here at Eminent SEO do all day long. And you can hire us to write your blog for you! How cool is that? Problem solved. And because we use this process, we can tailor it to your voice, brand and audience.

So go ahead and click the link below to learn more about the type of content writing services we provide, or simply contact us to tell us what you need.

Let Us Write Your Content!

Are there any audiences less forgiving than readers on the web? Many content writers ask themselves this question on a regular basis, and their assumptions aren’t far off.

According to data collected by publishing intelligence firm Chartbeat, a majority of users (55%) spend less than 15 seconds on a web page before moving on to the next one. Dang! Talk about the importance of a first impression.

After reading this report and reflecting on how hard it can be to hook and engage online readers,  I was reminded of another audience with even less patience than readers on the web: the Dark Lord of the Sith himself, Darth Vader.

After all, who could forget how quickly the iconic Star Wars villain dismisses information he deems inconsequential or subordinates who have lost his confidence. If you equate “bounce rates” to “being strangled to death with the Force” then the parallels are actually pretty hard to ignore.

It’s important to note that much like Imperial officers, content writers are enthusiastic about providing their audience with valuable information. Unfortunately, our eagerness to please and grand designs for our copy sometimes can get in the way of providing the audience with the answers they are actually looking for.

So let’s take a closer look at how a handful of Star Wars characters meet their demise at the hands of Darth Vader and see what their deaths can teach us about the wrong ways to engage with a demanding audience.

Don’t Mislead Your Reader

Though technically a member of the Rebel Alliance, Captain Raymus Antilles has the distinction of being that very first person we see being throttled by Lord Vader in the opening minutes of “A New Hope.” He is quite bold in telling Vader that his ship is merely on a harmless “diplomatic mission,” considering the last scene of “Rogue One” features the Sith Lord watching them jettison away from the docks of Vader’s personal flagship. And to be fair, he isn’t lying, from a certain point of view.

However, his word choice certainly isn’t intended to guide his audience to the truth. In this way, Captain Antilles provides a great example of what happens when you underestimate the intelligence of your audience.

As a content writer, you may sometimes feel tempted to quote data or a report that doesn’t entirely support your argument. You may be in a rush to meet a deadline or feeling frustrated with the research process, and settle on quoting evidence that, at best, has some tangential relevance to the point you are making in your copy. This is the way of the Dark Side.

Taking this approach assumes that your reader not only knows less than you about your subject, but also lacks the presence of mind to check your references. If you’re found out, your credibility with your audience is shot for good and your reputation as a writer is put into jeopardy.

While this outcome may be less dramatic than your trachea being crushed by Darth Vader’s prosthetic metal hand, the consequences of misleading your audience are very real.

Don’t Get Personal or Political

Admiral Conan Motti gets choked about 30 minutes into “A New Hope” during a debate among Imperial officers aboard the Death Star about how to deal with those dastardly rebels. Ignore the fact that Admiral Motti’s extreme skepticism of the Force makes absolutely no sense given that the Jedi Council was the galaxy’s most influential nonprofit just 20 years prior. Instead, focus on his obvious misstep in anticipating the experience of his audience.

Admiral Motti might have been able to persuade Vader to his side if he had stuck to verifiable claims about the military and strategic value of the Death Star. Instead, he allowed his own personal distaste for Vader’s religious background to color his rhetoric.

As copywriters, we should always be aware of how our personal biases can influence how we write and what we write about.

First and foremost, we must remember that we are representatives of our clients. Part of our responsibility is to make sure the client’s voice and perspective trump our own when producing copy for their website or a digital asset.

We must also acknowledge the potential for our personal biases to color our writing, and that our readers are capable of seeing through our mistakes. After all, an easy way to lose your audience is to make them feel like your copy is antagonistic toward something they hold dear. If that audience includes an evil space wizard, you might lose your audience and get choked to death.

Don’t Expect a Fair Shake

If you’ve been writing for the web for any period of time, you’re well aware of the importance of the opening line. Hooking readers is key to keeping them on the page. At the same time, a carefully curated opening line can do wonders to disarm a personal bias that might prevent a reader from fully engaging with the rest of your page.

Admiral Kendal Ozzel demonstrates life-threatening ignorance of these principles in his abrupt conversation with Lord Vader in “The Empire Strikes Back.” Remember that shortly before Vader summons Admiral Ozzel onto video chat, the Sith Lord had been stewing in his personal chambers over the officer’s tactical blunders during the siege of Hoth.

It seems pretty clear that Vader is Facetiming the admiral specifically to choke him to death with the Force and promote his nearby subordinate. If Ozzel had any chance of avoiding his grisly fate, it would have to be with his opening line.

Unfortunately, Ozzel did not anticipate that his audience was entering the conversation under the influence of a powerful negative bias. He led with a bland, predictable opening that probably encouraged Vader to snuff him out that much faster. More importantly, he lacked sufficient familiarity with his audience to anticipate these negative feelings and subvert Vader’s expectations.

We as content writers must learn from Ozzel’s errors if we have any hope of improving bounce rates and user engagement on our pages. The opening line matters.

Don’t Fail to Deliver

Organization and delivery are key to producing high-quality content. These qualities are equally critical when it comes to designing and manufacturing an armored space station with enough power to destroy an entire planet. Director Orson Krennic learns this lesson the hard way during “Rogue One” after reoccurring spells of incompetence lead him to a potentially deadly encounter with the Sith Lord.

As content writers, we can draw out a few useful nuggets of information by examining Krennic’s near-death-by-Force experience with Vader.

First and foremost, it is clear from Vader’s tone that Krennic had under-delivered in the past with regard to the development of the Death Star. As a result, the trust of his audience (Darth Vader and, more importantly, Emperor Palpatine) had already began to erode.

Content writers can likewise compromise the goodwill of their audience by promising one thing in titles and headers then failing to follow through in the copy.

Second, Krennic’s first reaction when confronted with feedback from his audience was to deny wrongdoing and deflect blame. This course of action results in him being strangled by a mystical energy field that controls his destiny.

Similarly, content writers have a choice when they fail to live up to the standards of their audience. They can either run from blame or take responsibility and commit to improvement.

(Don’t remember Darth Vader’s affinity for choking insubordinate members of the Empire – both by hand and by Force? Watch a “highlight reel” here.)

Trust DARTH

We’ve discussed in detail all the wrong ways to approach your audience as a content writer. But what can we take away as far as positive examples? Unfortunately, the Galactic Empire is such a dysfunctional workplace that it’s extremely difficult to find positive examples within the organization of successful, consistent communication.

Instead, I’ve devised a simple mnemonic device to help fellow content writers remember the lessons we’ve learned from the Empire’s finest:

By following the DARTH Standard, content writers can feel confident that their copy will meet the needs and expectations of their audience. Writers will have to continue to adapt their tone and style to each client, but approaching this challenge with the right mindset will make it much easier to engage your audience before they make the jump back into hyperspace.

Want even more tips on making sure your content messaging is on target as possible? Do not give into your fear, Padawan, for the final section of this piece offers some more detailed instructions on making sure your content strategy is as strong with the Force as it could be.

More Tips for Content Writers to Hit Their Mark

Don’t get stressed if you aren’t able to connect with an audience perfectly the first time you draft content for them. Crafting the right tone for the right group of readers can be extremely difficult. It can take time and practice and a bit of trial and error before you get the process down to a science. Try out the following strategies as you refine your approach as a content writer and marketing professional.

Do More Research

Writing for an audience means understanding the audience. To a certain extent, you need to get into somebody’s head to write a piece they find persuasive.

Unfortunately, most of us can’t wave our hands to get somebody to magically reveal their secrets. Unless you suddenly develop a talent for Jedi mind tricks, you’ll have to buckle down and learn more about your audience if you want to target them more effectively.

Learning more about your target audience may take the form of:

• Demographic research you do online
• A review of social media channels frequented by primary customers
• Reaching out directly to satisfied former customers to ask them questions about their positive experiences with your brand

Check Your Competitors

One of the easiest ways to enhance your messaging and perfect your tone for reaching a specific audience is to figure out which of your competitors is already succeeding in this effort. Plagiarizing their work is obviously not the way to go. However, understanding why their messaging is more effective than yours is a great step toward making your own content more appealing to your target audience.

Remember to take note of not just how a blog post or email is being used effectively, but every aspect of a competitor’s marketing strategy. Understand how your rivals are using social media to talk about and draw attention to blog posts. Figure out how (and if) the tone and messaging of their social media content matches that of the longer piece. Finally, compare their content directly to yours and look for areas of improvement like grammar, organization, tone or word choice.

Gather Additional Feedback

Enhancing your messaging isn’t always about correcting your own mistakes. After all, only the Sith deal in absolutes. Chances are that some of your messaging is effective and you don’t want to lose that value while you overhaul your content approach. That’s why it makes sense to understand what’s already working.

There are a few ways you can do this, and they all revolve around getting direct customer feedback. A client may have had a recurring edit to your work, for example. Consolidating feedback is one of the easiest ways to get your customer’s opinion on your branding.

If you don’t have these types of records available then you’ll likely have to reach out to your customers directly. You may want to consider offering an incentive in order to attract more feedback.

Any tool that your company can use to evaluate customer behaviors, including SEO and keyword analysis, can be helpful in refining your content.

Expand Your Networks

Want input from a market leader in another industry? Looking for an insider’s perspective into the process of other marketing firms? A long-term strategy is necessary for realizing these goals.

In the same way Emperor Palpatine consolidated power by making alliances, your company can enhance its messaging by picking the brain of content specialists working in other industries.

Your company taking the time to consult experts does not mean it is abandoning its original goals or values. That being said, getting direct input from those who have already had success reaching their customers is a powerful resource. Take the long view by investing in industry networking opportunities and developing connections with experts long before you ever need their advice.

Don’t Hold Back

There are no moral victories or consolation prizes when it comes to developing content for a specific audience. You either grab their attention and guide them toward action or you stumble along the way. Failing and trying again is just part of the process, so don’t let the pursuit of perfection hold you back. You might have to produce something eye-popping or controversial to get the response you want.

Furthermore, be willing to commit completely to a content strategy once your team has decided on one. If your audience is big on cars, for example, you may want to consider dedicating a month’s worth of content toward their favorite interest. This approach won’t be effective unless your company goes all out. Inconsistent content, after all, leads to inconsistent engagement.

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