Web articles: a tool for your business

Articles are one of the most immediate and effective content that can be created online. 

They let you advertise at best a product or service, guide users in their purchase choice, inform them, answer their doubts and needs in a clear and thorough way. 

That is why it is really important to start writing articles for your company's website right away. 

Unfortunately, the fear of the blank screen, the great-grandson of the oldest blank sheet of paper so loved and hated by writers, causes many to desist from this endeavour.

But thanks to this article you can avoid writer's block, or at least make it bearable! ;)

In fact, we will see together how to write good and consistent content for your corporate website. Read on!

Discover who your audience is

First you need to understand who your audience is. This is crucial not only for writing articles, but for your entire business. Knowing your target audience will allow you to propose topics that interest them and address them in the right tone. If you still have no idea who your audience is, you need to do some measuring.

Organise content

To better organise the publication of your articles, use an editorial plan and calendar. By doing so, you will be able to:

• write good content consistently
• avoid delays and forgetfulness
• test what works and what does not

Editorial Plan

Prepare a monthly editorial plan where you mark the different topics you will cover in your articles. Doing this will allow you to coordinate with other marketing activities, to think about business goals, to draw up a precise plan of action and to understand what works and what does not.

Editorial calendar

Together with the editorial plan prepare an editorial calendar where you mark the days and times when you publish your articles and when you share them on social media. By comparing the dates you can see when your content performs best. Specifically on which day of the week and at what time of day.

Choose the tone of voice

The tone of voice (which simplified to 'your writing style') is an element that thoroughly characterises the way a company communicates and interacts with its users.

There are brands that decide to take an informative and inspirational tone of voice, others ironic and convivial. The combinations are many. 

With your tone of voice you have to arouse emotions in the reader, make them identify with you, share your values. in short, make yourself known and recognised by your audience.

Decide which themes to address in the articles

It is certainly good to write articles about your company's core business: on the one hand to prove to the user that you are an authoritative source on the subject, on the other hand to improve your website's ranking on the Google search network.

Allo stesso tempo può essere utile affrontare altri temi, che riguardano più da lontano l'attività principale della tua azienda ma che comunque sono parte della tua mission.

At the same time, it may be useful to address other topics, which are more distantly related to the core business of your company but are nevertheless part of your mission.

For example, a company that manufactures or resells hearing aids might decide to write more specific articles on its core business (hearing aids) and more generalist articles on 'health and wellness'.

Here is a possible rundown of articles for a hearing aid company:

• Articles on the workmanship and quality of the product on sale, in this case hearing aids
• Articles on the different types of hearing problems
• Articles on the prevention of hearing problems
• Articles on a healthy lifestyle in general
• Flying a little higher: articles about life stories of people living with hearing aids or other types of hearing aids

These series of articles would then form weekly columns:

• The column in the first week of the month deals with the prevention of hearing problems
• The second week of the month column talks about the product sold by the company, its peculiarities and strengths
• The column in the third week of the month deals with the subject of a healthy lifestyle, and so on

Structure your story

To avoid writing things in a confusing manner, it is useful to decide on the structure of the article right from the start.

Let us look at a very simple one, for example, which is often used to develop film scripts.

This structure divides the story into three acts:

• Act One. The introductory chapter
• Act Two. The chapter presenting the problem, the challenge, the confrontation
• Third Act. The final chapter, where the problem is solved 

An article on your corporate blog can have exactly this structure. Of course, the article is not a screenplay, but the idea of the division into chapters remains the same.

In fact, we can:

• Starting with an introduction (e.g. 'writing articles on your company website is very important')
• Get to the problem or challenge (e.g. 'how to write effective articles')
• Solve the issue (continue reading the article to its conclusion to find out ;))

This basic structure helps both you, who will be facilitated when writing, and the reader, who will not be disoriented when reading the article.

You can also use other types of narrative structure, the important thing is to be clear about the three essential elements of the text, which are introduction, development and conclusion.

Decide the plot of the story 

Take these seven archetypes on which fairy tales are based, identified by the scholar Christopher Booker, as a starting point for writing your articles.

• Rinascita (esempio: La Bella e la Bestia)
• Defeating the monster (example: War of the Worlds)
• From the stables to the stars (example: David Copperfield)
• The quest (example: Lord of the Rings)
• The journey and the return (example: Alice in Wonderland)
• Comedy (example: Bridget Jones's Diary)
• Tragedy (example: Macbeth)
• Rebirth (example: Beauty and the Beast)

Why should you do it?

Stop for a second and think of a story that has impressed you recently, whether it is a short story, a novel, a film or something else does not matter.

It will certainly be traceable to one of these seven archetypes.

Use them to storytell and make your articles a content to remember, bearing in mind the difference between an online article and a literary classic ;).

Vary article types

The types of articles that can be written on the web are many. To give you a few examples:

• Tips articles, explaining how to do a certain thing (how to create a marketing funnel?)
• Articles that answer a specific question: do your customers often ask you for something? Make it an article and write the answer on your blog
• List articles, which put together lists of products, services or something else. They are easy to write and catchy articles. Better than that!
• Articles covering news in your industry: keeping up to date with industry news is useful for both the copywriter and readers interested in the topic
• Case studies on a specific topic
• Interviews with industry experts
• Opinion articles: in print, these are the good old editorials

Important: do not always write the same types of articles, test and analyse the data to see which articles perform best.

Study the specifics of web writing

Writing on the web is not like writing on printed paper. Writing for the web in fact has certain characterising elements that make it suitable for fast and non-linear reading. Making use of these elements will make you write more effective content and achieve your goals faster. Here are them.

Optimise text for reading on the web

Subdivide the text in a way that gives the reader breathing space and allows him/her to scan the text easily. Emphasise key concepts in bold, use a large font for viewing from mobile devices.

Relate different media

Include images, videos or other elements within the article that allow the reader to better orientate themselves and have an enjoyable and immersive experience, including not only reading but also interacting with the content and viewing images.

Link building

Insert links from authoritative sources, which have real value and which lead the reader to go deeper into a topic. Also create valuable content yourself that leads other copywriters to link to your work and make you known. Link building is also crucial from an SEO perspective.

Care for SEO

SEO optimisation of articles is very important for visibility on Google.

This activity includes:

• The inclusion of the keywords for which you want to appear in the search network
• Optimising the size of images, their title and description
• The orderly division of the different parts of the text (H1, H2, paragraph text)
• The use of bulleted and numbered lists and spaces
• Optimisation of the title tag, description tag and header tag
• Link building

Write persuasively

Persuasive writing is a writing technique that is widely used in online and offline marketing, especially:

• In article titles. Those that manage to ignite the reader's curiosity (e.g. '6 tips for writing a good article') or those that promise a benefit (e.g. 'The ultimate guide to learning how to write on the web') work very well.
• In call-to-actions at the end of paragraphs. (e.g. 'find out more', 'contact us', 'buy now'). Calls to action are invitations designed to make the user take an action on the website.
• In using the principle of scarcity. (e.g. 'this offer is valid for 24 hours only'). The scarcity principle creates anxiety and prompts a desire.
• In proposing testimonials. A customer satisfied with the service who tells of his experience is a powerful testimonial because it generates trust.
• In the use of cliffhangers. A technique that is more narrative than persuasive. The cliffhanger is the momentary interruption of the story immediately after a twist, widely used in TV series to keep the viewer glued to the screen. In articles you can use it at the end of a paragraph to stimulate the user to continue reading.

Conclusion

The conclusion of this article remains open-ended, like when in the movies you think the story is over, but just before the credits the appearance of the villain you thought was defeated forever makes you realise that this is not the case!

Similarly, the art of writing articles that work does not end with the end of this article.

Certainly, the notions we have seen together are sufficient to start creating articles effectively on the web. But man has been writing stories for more than 2000 years, there will always be something to learn.

The final advice then can only be this: read, read a lot.

Not only online or industry texts.

Read novels, newspaper articles, great classics of literature.

Books are a mine of knowledge and imagination. Lifeblood if you want to write quality articles that differentiate you from your competitors and bring value to the user.

We hope this article has been of interest to you! If you would like to know more about our copywriting and content marketing service, contact us now!