Blogging for Techies - Order your thoughts.
Start with the point of the story. A bit of thinking about structure makes it more likely that your reader will act on your ideas. Too often business blogs begin with a glib statement or some dull context and leave the best bit til the very end.
It’s not our fault; we’ve been taught beginning, middle and end at school. So the blog ends up with a structure like this, (which we've seen in TL;DR too):
It's boring for your reader. If this was in the pub, before your friend had got through Paragraph 2, they would’ve excused themselves to go outside for a cigarette. And they probably don’t even smoke.
You know your stuff, but I bet the best bits get buried in this structure. Let’s highlight the best bit for a change. Let’s imagine these four sentences are the opening lines for each paragraph. You’re going to fill in the detail, proof and examples underneath each opening sentence.
But first you have to get them in the right order. So you keep your reader interested. Instead of following the background-first order above, try putting the outcome first.
Paragraph 4 is the best bit.
This is information the reader came for; the statistic, the result, the proof. Now you’ve shown it’s effective, they want to know how it works. They’re paying attention.
Paragraph 5 shows them that it can work for them.
This may put some of them off. If they’re not a large farm they may think it’s not relevant for them. But resist the temptation to make it too general. Large farms will be even more interested, knowing that it’s aimed at them and not just all farms.
Paragraph 3 primes your prospect, explaining what they will need to make it work.
You’re also getting into how AI works in practice and not just another take on AI in general.
Paragraph 2 makes more sense towards the end of the blog.
It reassures the reader that this isn’t a flash in the pan that you’ve invented. The industry has been on it for years.
Paragraph 1 can probably now be binned.
It’s not reassuring like Paragraph 2. It was only ever a filler, to get you through to more interesting stuff. Better to put the Call to Action in here, whilst your reader is still paying attention!
Sort your structure out first and it’ll be easier to write the rest of the blog. Plus, the reader will be more likely to act on what you’ve written. Which is surely the point of a blog?
Would you like to try this out?
Word Savvy runs blog sessions for techies. We work on your actual blog in the session, so you can show Marketing you’ve done something.
We’ll show you how to
• Think about your reader
• Structure your thoughts
• Work out your best bit
• Use proof effectively
• Edit to sound expert
Once we’re done you’ll have content you can use with prospects; post it on your website, put excerpts on LinkedIn, mention it down the pub.
