Publishing content regularly — and striving to improve with each new creation — is a proven way to figure out how to serve your audience and meet your business goals.
But I have other things to do besides writing content, and you do too.
Recently, I had trouble finishing a draft of a post and realized that my other responsibilities were distracting me from getting clear on the message I wanted to communicate.
So today, I’m going to share the simple solution that helped me complete the article with ease.
Why is the coffee shop sexier than the bar?
No, that subhead isn’t a new spin on: “Why did the chicken cross the road?”
It references one of my recent posts, The Coffee Shop Is Sexier than The Bar.
I initially wrote down a lot of ideas for that content, but when it was time to create a solid draft, I was stuck.
My go-to remedy when I feel blocked is to ask myself questions. I said:
If I’m calling the post “The Coffee Shop Is Sexier than The Bar,” every part of it needs to answer the question, “Why is the coffee shop sexier than the bar?”
My other musings needed to be cut out and (potentially) saved for other articles.
With that minor outlook shift, it felt like the floodgates opened … every sentence that was appropriate effortlessly stayed and I saw what didn’t work.
How to earn the attention of people “who don’t have time to read”
People quickly navigate away from content that contains too many ideas.
You can challenge readers without overwhelming them.
So, once you craft a headline, turn that title into a question in order to pinpoint your main message.
Then, as you draft and review your content, make sure every part of it answers that question.
Length doesn’t matter. A short post could be cluttered and convoluted; a long post could be cluttered and convoluted. A long post could be clear and crisp; a short post could be clear and crisp.
Even the busiest readers will make time for focused content, regardless of length, because they know they’ll get a payoff for their investment in it.
3 more examples of how you can use this technique
Browsing the classic five-W tribe and lone-wolf H will help you transform your headline into a question:
- Who
- What
- When
- Where
- Why
- How
Here are three other posts I’ve written and the questions that helped keep the content focused:
7 Unusual Signs on the Path to a Breakthrough
- What are the 7 unusual signs on the path to a breakthrough?
Attract Better Clients and Customers with the ‘Chuckle Point’ Technique
- How does this technique help you attract better clients and customers?
The Best Place to Consistently Find Winning Content Ideas
- Where is the best place to consistently find winning content ideas?
This tip may seem obvious, but …
So much writing advice fails to take into consideration that content marketers are people who have other responsibilities.
And those other responsibilities sometimes make it difficult to see the obvious.
I was distracted and needed to use this quick tip to move forward.
A resource to help you with your content marketing tasks
Wouldn’t it be cool if there was already a checklist that could walk you through the steps of producing solid content?
We thought so, too, so we created one. 🙂 It’s a small but mighty resource to help you click Publish with confidence.
Our Content Confidence Checklist lets you check off the most important elements of good content, so you know you’re producing your best work. Because even when we know what to do, we have to remember to do it … every time.
Reader Comments (13)
You could combine the above strategy with the Pyramid Principle of Barbara Minto. Take the key point, split it out, then further. Build up a bullet list of points, then turn it into a text. That’s the way I like to do it. Probably a bit engineering style, but it works.
I like combining and tweaking tips to find what works for you. 🙂
Focus is such a valuable commodity and skill to learn! It’s about so much more than just sitting down and scribbling out something. Taking the time to guide your creativity into an intended message is an excellent habit to put into place. Even though we all have busy lives, there is definitely time to develop writing and organizational skills. Great post!
These are great strategies. I like to take a few minutes when I first sit down and jot down thoughts on my topic. Seeing all my ideas on paper helps me focus on the true message and write more concisely.
The concept of asking yourself questions whey trying to fight through writer’s block isn’t a new one. I the last few weeks, I’ve read at least half a dozen books and/or blogs that use the same technique to fight writers block. What I did like about this posts here is that is uses a real-life example. Most of the books or blog posts that I’ve read didn’t point to an actual article that they had written before to show exactly how they used the techniques. In fact some of them, usually the books, simple quote what another authors said about the subject. The blog posts, simply reference another blog post. So kudos for that. It was nice to see exactly how you pulled this one out using another blog post that you have written.
Thanks, Stefanie for such a useful post! Asking yourself questions is a proven way to keep your story going. And you have explained it well. Thanks, again.
Great post!
What helps me is to put the content aside for overnight at least but even for 2-3 days is good. You’ll come back to it with new thoughts and your brain has even sometimes been processing it in the background.
More research also helps because you get to see what others might say about a topic and you can build on their ideas from your own perspective.
Thanks,
-Tony
This is a perfect application of the KISS formula. I printed it out and posted it on my “writing tips” board (which is high praise because the board isn’t that big).
Thank you for sharing it.
You have to keep the board small if you want to KISS, right? 😉
I appreciate that this post earned a spot there, Craig.
Sometimes it’s better to cut it and publish it than to craft, polish, finish it nicely 🙂 Thank you for sharing your tips
Thank you for sharing this. I’ve just began implementing it in my blogging and I have high hopes it will work. There’s always that temptation to end a blog post when ideas run dry when there is actually something meaningful to add. After all, there are no prizes for clicking the publish button sooner.
I have to use this principle in academic writing. I need to formulate research questions before I start an article or a paper, and I need to keep coming back to them to make sure I don’t wander off on a tangent. So no matter how much I love the comedy in What We Do in the Shadows, if I’m looking at set design then I can’t talk about it! So it helps me stay on the topic. I honestly don’t know why I never thought to apply the same principle to blog content!
It’s a time-saver for sure!
Often when I find a post isn’t working it’s because I have ideas in there that just don’t fit the topic. I may love those ideas, but if I want to finish the post I’m working on in a timely manner, I need to cut and save those excess ideas for another time. 🙂
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