Opinions matter, says Kristel Brown, Operations Director for Writing Machine. Opinion articles can help you convince your customers that your company is at the top of its game – and they can showcase your vision of the future, too.
Opinion articles can be used to:
- Comment on a hot industry issue
- Provide some intelligent insight into how to solve a particular problem
- Educate your reader about a new development
This is also known as thought leadership, and it’s not only something that’s useful to companies – it can be hugely beneficial to individuals too.
Opinion articles build credibility and brand awareness, by demonstrating that an organisation and/or an individual can see beyond sales, and can understand their customers’ strategic business needs. But they are also notoriously hard to get right.
We have seen many an opinion article that is, ironically, missing a vital component…an opinion. Some are so complicated in structure you need a map to follow them. And others are just plain dull.
Opinion articles may be short, but they sure aren’t simple to get right.
At Writing Machine, we have written our fair share of opinion articles for our clients over the past 25 years. Articles and blog trends may have evolved with new online channels, but the principles of success remain the same.
Our top ten tips for article success
Here are some of our top tips for creating opinion articles that inspire comments, response and debate, without the stress and rewrites.
1. Focus on one thing
If there is only one piece of advice we could give it would be this. The best type of article is about one thing. It introduces an issue, comments on it and wraps it up. Don’t get side-tracked. Don’t try and be objective and write a balanced essay. You’re writing marketing copy: you’re trying to win a debate, trying to convince someone of your point of view.
2. Consider creating a synopsis of the article first
By sitting down and creating a pithy summary, you’re forced to distil your thinking into a few words that sum up the vital opinion your finished article needs. That means no time wasted when you’re writing! Not only that, but armed with a synopsis you can approach publications with a short, punchy elevator pitch of your article.
3. Create the right structure
Once you’ve got your synopsis, plan out the structure of your article. Make sure there is a clear objective to your piece and a logical flow to what you want to say. This will actually make the writing process faster.
4. Value? What value?
With your structure in place, consider your blog critically and ask yourself: am I offering genuine value to my audience? Where is the insight? If you are not delivering some clear value, it may be time to go back to the drawing board.
5. Write an enticing heading….
An attention-grabbing headline makes sure your audience has no choice but to read on. Challenge them!
6. …and an engaging standfirst
The standfirst (the first paragraph) can serve a double purpose: as a summary for when you want a short-form version of the article, and as a reason to read more. It’s critical that this is engaging and enticing. To encourage readers to click through, it needs to give just enough away to make them want to read on, but not so much that they feel they know everything already. A standfirst that doesn’t sit on the fence also gives your audience another reason to read the rest of your article.
7. Make it suitable for scan reading with bullets, bold and subheadings
Bullets. Bold. Sub-headings. Make these your friends and your reader will thank you for it. Make sure sub-headings are relevant and interesting in their own right – they can tell a lot of your story at a glance.
8. Consider outboxes
If you do need to include technical or company information in your article, consider putting it in an outbox to keep it out of the way of your argument or main narrative.
9. End strongly, with a call to action
End strongly, even controversially. Consider where does your article stop? If you’re just raising awareness, that’s fine – finish strongly and away you go. But always make sure you ask the reader to take action after they’ve read your article. Provide more information, invite comments and include links to other relevant articles.
10. Check: is it interesting?!
Above all, articles have to be interesting. Many articles, whether in newsletters, online or in magazines are read in people’s spare few minutes. Once your draft is completed, make sure it’s compelling enough to make people want to spend that spare time reading. Getting someone else to read it for you can help with this.
But of course, if you’d rather not…
If all that sounds far too difficult for your liking, then you can always leave it to the experts. Writing opinion articles is something Writing Machine does day, in day out, and we relish the challenge of fleshing out opinions, and writing articles that get our clients’ voices heard. Call us on +44 1962 841250 and let’s have a chat about what you’re looking for.
Read more about writing for marketing:
Kristel Brown is the Operations Director at Writing Machine.
If you or your marketing team are writing opinion articles, you might be interested in the blended learning version of our Structured Business Writing training course. The course is based upon the Structured Writing Method™ and is customised for each team to focus on the particular documents that they need help with.
Meanwhile, Writing Machine Agency has been writing opinion articles for many of the world’s largest companies for nearly 30 years. If you want to chat about how we create such content so that it can be used in all your sales and marketing channels, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.