Have you ever posted content that you dedicated hours and hours to researching, crafting, and perfecting only to see disappointing analytics showcasing your readers’ lack of interest? Stop the madness and get strategic about how to create your content. You’ve got great stuff to share, but readers nowadays need more than just a steady stream of content to engage them.

In this article, we’ll dive deep into the art of crafting that perfect blog post that will not only dazzle your readers but also drive more people to you and your website. We’ll cover:

• Setting your intentions
• Anatomy of an article: using the AIDA model
• Proper use of keywords
• Calling your readers to action

Setting Your Content Intentions

Pro tip: Know your audience and keep your goal in mind when researching and writing. If you’re looking to convert more readers into customers (really, who isn’t?), content marketing can drastically affect your chances of success. Articles are excellent methods of showcasing to the marketplace that you and your business have solutions to their problems.

The Buyer’s Cycle

Keeping the 5 purchasing principals in mind while you map out your article will help you define your goals and thus the direction of the article. You want to position yourself as an expert in your industry in order to gain awareness and loyalty so that readers grow interested in your business and convert to consumers of your product/service vs. your competitor’s product/service.

Anatomy of an Article: Using the AIDA Model

Alright, you’ve set your intentions, identified your audience, taken three deep breathes, and your keyboard stand at attention beneath your fingertips. Now what? It’s time to start crafting your article. How? Using the following framework for your articles will help you build engaging, easy-to-follow posts that readers will want to read to the very end.

What’s the AIDA Model?

AIDA stands for Awareness/Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action. Think of this model as an inverted triangle segmented like a funnel. Or you can use this visual…

This model helps capture your readers. Let’s break it down:

1. Awareness: You want to cast a broad net right up front with a super catchy title. According to many a marketing guru will tell you, 8 out of 10 people will read your headline, but only 2 out of 10 people will click on your article to continue reading. That headline better pack a punch if you want your readers to care enough to open your article.
2. Interest: Within the first few lines of your article, you’ll have to continue to hold your reader’s interest by clearly stating why they should want to keep reading this article rather than continue scrolling. How will the information in this article benefit them? A captivating image never hurts either!
3. Desire: Congrats! You’ve got them hooked. Now you have to fulfill your promise you stated earlier that this article is worth their time. Structuring your content in an easily digestible way — like this numbered list– will help maintain the interest and desire.
4. Action: Arguably the second most important part of your article, a call to action is crucial for conversions. Your readers made it through your content, are you just going to leave them hanging? Whether you direct them to sign up for a newsletter, leave a comment, or contact you, a call to action is a must to keep your readers.

Got it! Now, how do I implement this model? Read on to find out!

Content Deconstructed

Posts should identify what readers are looking for or the challenge they are facing and define the solution to the problem they’re trying to solve.

• Construct an awesome headline. Your headline is the FIRST thing people will see. It needs to be engaging and interesting enough to pique the interest of the reader. While this is won’t make or break your headline, research shows there is a 12-18 word sweet spot that readers will find most engaging.
• Find a catchy picture that will add visual context to the article so your reader can digest your content across mediums. Multimedia elements will not only help break up large blocks of text to make reading and skimming easier and less daunting, but it will also give readers more to engage with throughout the article. So keep on adding them throughout our post!

• Introduce your reader to the topic that you’re about to delve deep into (think HOOK!) Your introduction essentially explains why the reader should keep reading, or WIIFM (what’s in it for me).
• Lead-in by offering up the main points that will be discussed in the article in order to create a vested interest. It’s all about managing expectations. Use bullets of your main points so your reader knows exactly what he or she is about to get into.
• Dig deep into your main points. Remember the bulleted list you just created? These are your subheadings for your article and will allow readers to quickly search for specific information. Breaking down your article into subheadings will also make writing content easier for you and help to keep you on topic. And don’t forget, write content for your reader, not for search engines!
• Gracefully transition to your conclusion by asking your audience for something specific such as leaving a comment on the post, signing up for a free trial, or giving you a call. This call to action is crucial because it will convert readers from passively interacting with your business to actively engaging with you.

Using Keywords Properly in Your Content

When researching keywords, think about it from the perspective of your reader or your ideal customer. What would they search in order in order to find what product or service you offer? Those are the keywords that will help you get in front of more readers. Where to best place keywords?

• In the title of the post
• In the main headings of your post
• Within the content of the post
• In the conclusion

There is an art to keywords, however. You can’t just construct sentences crammed with your keywords so a search engine will pick you first. This is called keyword stuffing and can have a negative impact on your overall SEO. Keywords should be used where they make sense…that’s the point of content marketing!

Concluding with a Call to Action

As we mentioned earlier, the call to action is a major player in your article strategy. We know you’ve put in a lot of hard work already putting the rest of your article together, but you don’t want to drop the ball yet! Your conclusion will incite action (the last point in the AIDA model) and covert your readers into actively engaged consumers of your content. Now that you have the hooked, converting them into customers just got much easier. There’s a lot that goes into writing successful articles and strategically utilizing content to grow your business. But, it can be done and very successful when done right! If you want to start implementing content marketing but you’re not entirely sure where to start, our team at WriteForMe would be happy to talk you through it, and even do it for you! See what we did there…