Ever have a friend who tells stories that never seem to go anywhere?
It sounds okay at first, then it spins off to a tangent about how they met their spouse, then we go into their first college dorm room, with a side trip to that deeply formative event that happened in third grade, then …
There might be a point in there somewhere. But by the time it’s arrived, your eyes have rolled back in your head and you’re hoping to get struck by lightning so you can get out of this conversation.
It’s boring. And it’s annoying. So let’s make sure that your audience never feels that way about your content.
In the work I do with our content marketing students, I’ve critiqued hundreds of blog posts.
One mistake I see over and over is content that’s interesting and well written, but that wanders all over the place before it gets to the point … if, in fact, it has a point at all.
Creating aimless, fuzzy content wastes your time. Even worse, it wastes your audience’s attention.
Your audience wants content that makes a solid point and gets there quickly. And improving that for your own content is one of the quickest ways you can get better.
Here’s how.
Step 1: Begin with the end in mind
Ideally, before you start to write, you’ll ask two questions about the blog post, script, or infographic you’re about to write:
- What are your goals for this piece of content?
- What one thing should your audience take away?
Publishing good content can do lots of great things for you. You can attract a larger audience, nurture prospects so they’re more likely to make a purchase down the line, inspire your audience to take action, find new allies to help you promote your work.
But you probably won’t do all of those with a single piece of content. Instead of creating shaggy-dog content that wanders around trying to do everything, understand which single point in the constellation this piece of content will represent for you.
Even more importantly, what will this piece of content do for your audience?
What will they be able to do, become, have, change, or avoid after they’ve read it? What transformation are you presenting to them?
Now, a single blog post usually won’t create a “Sliding Doors” dramatic life change.
But being able to, say, come up with a headline idea any time you need one…
