How to write better and get noticed – compelling, thought-provoking and influential
Whether you write content for marketing, blogs or build presentations, there are some components that help make your writing catchy and sticky.
I have listed a number of these components here. Consider these next time you write content and watch your writing improve.
- Quotes:
A good quote makes you ponder. Some quotes are powerful enough to change people’s behavior. Everyone has a favorite quote, or two, or three.
My favorite quote is an African saying which ends in “…..when the sun comes up, you better be running”.
You can use powerful quotes to set the stage for a presentation.
Dilbert cartoons works just as effectively.
- Striking headlines:
I have written three examples of striking headlines. Use in your subject lines or blog titles, and watch the open rate climb up.
Next time you feel the urge to click on a headline, pause and examine what made you click.
- Bulleted lists:
Lists make for easy reading. They are good for SEO. When you add a sub-heading to each list item, your writing becomes powerful.
- Re-framing techniques:
Here are three examples of re-framing technique. The idea is to get your customer to pause and re-think their cancel decision.
- Structure and Outline:
Whether you write a blog, a white-paper or a presentation, have an outline. Better still, show that to your audience and then stick to it.
Having an outline before you write, let’s you gauge completeness and flow.
Ask chatGPT to write you an outline of whatever you want to create. Then follow the outline.
- Singular call to action:
Too many CTAs confuse the reader. On one page, or one blog-post, ask for one action. Click here, subscribe to my mailing list or buy now.
Better way is to assertively describe the action. Instead of “buy now”, say “get your awesome guide today”.
- Appropriate keywords:
The internet works on SEO. SEO helps rank websites, products, profiles and almost all content in the online world. Search results work off of keywords.
If you write well for the wrong keyword, you are attempting to sell to the wrong audience. Your customer will not see your product.
This post shows you how to pick out highly relevant keywords.
Don’t leave home without it.
- SEO:
You have to understand SEO. If you are a student, mid-career professional or business owner. If you are marketer, content creator or a website owner. Everything is subject to SEO. Lower ranking causes invisibility, as in invisible presence or sales.
- Readability:
There are rules for readability. Search engines rank easily readable sites higher.
The Hemingwayapp helps you check if your writing is good for, say, sixth grade (considered good readability).
- Ai tools:
You already know about ChatGPT. Also check out midjourney, copy.ai, synthesia.io.
They all help you write better and create content at scale.
- Quantification:
When you display numbers, people are better able to compare, or understand the magnitude of something.
Ranked in the top 1% in my school (250 students) tells you something.
550 single star ratings can mean anything.
Out of 5000 it is 10%. But if a product has 550 single star ratings out of 100,000, it has an entirely different meaning.
- Psychologically appealing:
Use psychological techniques such as FOMO, anchoring, sunk cost, recency bias, emotional desire, etc. to get people to act on your messaging.
Appeal to the human side for urging decisions. Where logic does not work, try appealing to emotions. People make decisions from their gut, and then use logic to justify.
- Analogy:
When you use analogy, people understand better.
This post contains an example of analogy for influencing your customer’s mind and two other creative pricing techniques.
- 10-20-30 rule for presentations:
I love the 10-20-30 rule from Guy Kawaski on presentations. You can’t go wrong with his prescription: 10 slides, 20 mins, 30 size font.
- Proof-read using Ai:
Did you know you can use ChatGPT for proof-reading? Just paste a block of your content and ask it to check spelling, grammar, etc.
Oh, by the way, it can write code for you as well.
- Multimedia:
For capturing your reader’s attention, add images, audio and videos. That is good for your customer, and also for SEO.
At Accelevaite, our guides and courses help you write better and get noticed. Better writing is a sure way to find your next job, get customers to take action and generally have your ideas and thoughts recognized. You can build credibility and a powerful presence online with your writing.