As the famous line from Alice in Wonderland goes: “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there.”
Not to be your high
school English teacher, but trying to write something without an outline is
like trying to build a house without blueprints. You might be able to throw up
a wall or two, but sooner or later you’ll get painted into a corner or the
whole structure will come tumbling down on itself. That only leads to wasted
time, money and frustration.
Outlines for real-world business people
With all due
respect to my superb high school English teach Mr. Hallowell (see Stop
Clearing Your Throat When You Write) I hated the academic outline protocol:
Roman numeral I., subtheme A. and supporting point 1. That doesn’t work
for many people who aren’t in academia and I won’t subject you to it. Instead
think about how you’re going to “sell” your content to your target audience. I
know you know how to sell!
1. Identifying
the problem.
Start out be clearly stating the problem you’re trying to solve for the reader.
Even better, assure them they’re not the only one facing this problem. Sharing
stats from a reliable source, quotes from a recent article/broadcast clip or a
client example are great ways to draw readers in and convince them why they
need to read your words right now!
2.
Explain what happens to the reader if they continue to ignore the problem. Life gets worse,
they lose money, the leave big opportunities on the table, they have a less
than satisfying life. Maybe explain why skeptics don’t want you to address this
problem. You get the picture.
3. Briefly explain the solution, i.e. “there’s got to be a better way.”
4. Show the
reader how much better their life will be by following you the solution. Include compelling
stats or anonymous examples of clients who followed the advice and are much
happier for it.
VERY
IMPORTANT! Don’t give away the whole solution here. It doesn’t matter if you’re
writing a short post or a feature-length book. Just give them a taste….not the
whole meal. Show readers you know what you’re talking about, but if they want
the full solution, they must book a discovery meeting with you to learn more. Make
sure your Contact Me link is working on all of your digital points of presence
and make sure it’s not too salesy.
5. Conclusion. Summarize
the argument you just made and inviting them to contact you for a more detailed
conversation about the topic. Share links to related resources on your website
if possible.
Your finished outline should look something like this:
1. Intro: Identify the problem
2. Find common ground. Show readers they are not alone with this problem.
3. Explain dangers of ignoring the problem.
4. Introduce the solution.
5. Show reader how much better life is with solution in place.
6. Conclusion (with calls to action).
Outline
complete: Now sell the Content
Now
that you’ve completed the outline, don’t start fleshing out your piece yet. First
think about how you’re going to sell it. You need to think about your headline (or
book title) and Key Takeaways.
Headline
Start noodling around with some catchy
headlines to hook in your busy readers. I’m not suggesting you engage in click
bait or search engine optimization. Just ask yourself what will make a
super-busy person you’re targeting take time out of their busy day to read what
you have to say.
TIP:
See what the headlines you’re considering look like in the subject line of an email.
Do a few test-emails to yourself or better yet, send to unsuspecting colleagues
and see which one gets the most (or quickest) reaction.
Key
Takeaways
What are the three key things that you’d
like the reader to take away from your article, post, white paper or e-book? Many
of you follow our Key Takeaways protocol at the top of your writing. Trust me,
in this attention-starved mobile age, there’s no better way to make your
content skim-able and worth reading (and saving).
Now that
you’ve got the outline and sales pitch for your content, you’re almost ready to
start fleshing it out. But first, think about how this content will fit into
your overall content schedule for the weeks and months ahead. Will it be
duplicative or overkill? Should it be standalone or part of a series? Should it
be the intro 101 version of your expertise, or is it more of your “advanced
course”?
Map out your content schedule
Just as
we never recommend writing anything without an outline, we don’t recommend
writing anything in a vacuum, i.e. without thinking about how it fits into your
overall content cycle. Think of yourself as sharing a body of work—not a series
of random one-off takes about a subject. We recommend laying out your planned
topics 12 to 24 weeks in advance. You don’t have to stick to the schedule as
real-world conditions make certain topics more urgent than others. But following
these tips will ensure you have solid “blueprints” in place and you’ll never be
up late at night staring at a blank screen wondering: “What should do I have to
write about next?”
Even better, once you have your content calendar laid out in advance, it’s
amazing how many nuggets of great information you’ll start accumulating weeks,
if not months, before you have to write your piece. It’s like having a “rainy
day fund” for your content ideas.
Conclusion
You wouldn’t have clients
invest their money without a plan. You wouldn’t hire an architect to build your
dream house if he or she didn’t use blue prints. So, why would you start
pushing out content to your universe of followers without a plan? Familiarize
yourself with the 1-7-30-4-2-1 principle. My post The Power of
Content Calendars has more.
#betterwriting, #outline, #writersblock,
#productivity
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