How to write mouth-watering articles to create a website they don’t want to leave, and turn readers into raving fans (and even clients!)

24 Jan

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When I first started hashing out posts and content for business and websites in 2017, I kept getting stuck on what to write. I knew I wanted ‘more’ than posting on social media, but I didn’t have a clear vision of what that could look like.

I’d get distracted, then my site would sit there, with just a few articles or blog posts on it.

Maybe you’ve felt this?

What stops us from really creating a meaningful body of work that can help us grow our business?

Is it fear?

Lack of confidence?

What about when we don’t have a clear system in place to make sure the process is worthwhile?

My first exposure to the world of articles was back in the Wild West online fitness world circa 2009. Back then I was into all of the paleo fitness gurus, and intermittent fasting et cetera. I used to nerd out on the latest blog, going deep into nutrition and training topics.

The Westside Barbell site was another one. I’d spend hours scouring the site when I was getting into strength training, trying to learn everything I could from Louie Simons’ articles and books.

Later, I learned a lot from Sean D’Souza, a marketer in New Zealand. I saw his site, and was blown away with how deep and ‘sticky’ it was - to the point where I just kept coming back to see how he structured it all.

All of this led to me starting to pound out emails, longer articles and even a book (with more coming).

When people visit your site and see a lot of helpful content, it leads to one of three outcomes:

They get stuck into an article and read the whole thing
They bounce, but realise that you have a huge amount of articles and resources there on the site, they make a mental note to come back later
They are repelled, because they don’t like going deep, or helpful information

All of these are good outcomes.

(You probably don’t want to work with the last group of people anyway).

The other thing, is the longer form stuff can really help you to grow your email list, because you’re kind of ‘leading’ with generosity, and then you can link hyper-relevant opt-ins to the back of your articles, so people know exactly where to go to sign up to get more of your stuff.

If you’re keen to set up your own articles, and build your own sticky website that helps turn readers into raving fans, and even clients, start with these steps.

1 - Make sure you are clear on your business ‘vertical’, then branch out

Your ‘vertical’ is your specific area of focus for your business.

For us, it’s business coaching for coaches and creative businesses.

This sounds obvious, but when you know what your focus is with your business and how you help people, you spend time and energy writing about stuff that’s actually helpful.

What I’ve found is, when I wasn’t been clear on this, I’ll would write about all kinds of things that got off topic. And just because I was interested in something at the time, doesn’t mean the relevant reader was.

(Obvious in hindsight…)

Start by making sure you’re clear on your ‘vertical’ and then you can branch outwards.

EXAMPLE:

I recently met a woman in the bookkeeping business. She has strong revenue at about $45k per month, but when she came in, she had low profit. She wants to focus on the real estate segment, where she can help agency owners clean up their books, make more money and be better prepared for the future, plus save money on the front end by not hiring admin.

This would be her new ‘vertical’ - Bookkeeping, finance, and back end practices for business growth, for established realtors.

From there, she can branch outwards, and look at specific activities they do, or problems these guys have.

Writing helpful articles on these areas for her website could be part of a positioning strategy to become known in this new area, and create a site that is much ‘stickier’ for these new clients.

Let’s go more specific with another example.

Say you’re a strength coach who does online training for guys with more of a ‘power’ focus. So that’s your ‘vertical.’

But that’s still way too general to actually write about. You don’t want general articles. You want to go specific, so that what you write about resonates deeper. So you ‘branch out’ from here to go narrow, contextual, and wrap your ‘world’ and ‘character’ around it.

So to branch out, let’s look at exactly what some of your clients might be doing in their day to day, seeing that training could be their number one key passion.

You could write on:

What to look out for when you get your first first ‘online’ strength program
Developing ‘power’ versus strength (if that’s relevant)
How to change to a new coach when you realise your last one sucks
Using a remote program in the gym without obsessively looking at your phone for the workouts
Filming lifts for remote feedback and not feeling like a tool
Staying motivated when there’s nobody there in person to train with you
Buying workout gear that doesn’t look lame
Supplements that can help you stay healthy as you train through winter
Mindset strategies to break through specific plateaus

And more. You could probably do 30 - 40 topics on here pretty easily.

You can see how we’re going ‘outwards’ from the main vertical, to surround the topic with sub topics.

So then you can be specific, and bring your world and stories into it. (This is exactly what I’ve done with this article)

2 - Deploy the supreme power of entertainment

Before small business, I was an engineering nerd.

To do well, I had to learn all kinds of engineering speak, and submit big, technical theses on different aerospace topics.

All of a sudden when I owned the gym and started doing content, I had to de-train all this engineering speak. I had to lighten up my content. I would write articles for the gym, and it would be all dark and gloomy and heavy. I needed to have like a checklist, to check for some jokes, and make sure the whole thing wasn’t too ‘coach-speak’.

Otherwise it was boring.

I don’t think I’m the only one here. It’s easy to write articles from the high horse. This is why so many people are worried about the AI stuff right now, because they are used to speaking directly to a topic, rather that around the topic and entertaining as well. AI is just going to destroy this kind of dull content.

And this is where all the storytelling kind of came into it for me.

I realised stories and jokes are a great way to lighten things up, and entertain so that people can stay with you, and you can get the response you want. This ain’t new. You can go back one hundred years, and see direct response copywriters using this. John Caples was a great example. He had an ad for a music school course, with the famous headline: “They laughed when I sat down at the piano, but when I began to play…!” And it was all story, entertaining the reader, and a super successful ad.

You can see this also in the coaching industry if you really look at who does well.

The big players are entertainers.

I mean Tony Robbins, the dude basically came up unqualified, but created huge celebrity around himself, and then had the fire walking thing which was his signature ‘show.’ There’s even a quote from the guy:

“It’s not the Information Age, it’s the entertainment age.”

Great coaches, great creatives - if you know about ‘em, they are most likely entertainers, storytellers, people who can speak, write and hold attention while they do it.

In my experience, if you just give ‘value’ all the time, you get crushed.

So the way I think about this is the 80/20 rule.

80% story or entertainment, 20% insight.

I remember when I was little getting a ride into school, and someone would have the morning radio show on. Even if they had some expert in there, I remember thinking man they just talk crap. Basically they just entertain. Back and forth… Then a little bit of insight. It’s the same with mainstream media, if you think about it. Entertainment can be fear and tension as well. But basically it’s more to do with the banter and the drama than it is to do with being a teacher in front of a classroom.

And that was a huge shift for me and for most people. Most are out here doing 90-100% education or insight, with zero entertainment, recording it into super-coach-speak facebook lives, and wondering why the hell it ain’t getting’ any engagement or converting.

I don’t know any quick solution here, because you’ve got to find your voice and loosen up.

Personally, I have a bit of a copywriting checklist to go back through once the article is done… Is this too heavy on coach-speak? Are there enough jokes? Are there enough stories?

If I need to lighten up the article, I go away, loosen up, then come back and finish it.

Ideally I have fun writing the articles, and laugh at my own stuff.

3 - Use the articles as a bridge in your world (and help readers become raving fans and clients)

Articles can get lost on a site. If you’re not careful, they fall into some kind of dark hole on the internet.

And if you see this happening to you, you’ll quit writing completely, because it looks like a hopeless waste of time. Why put stuff out there that nobody reads?

Exactly. You shouldn’t. You want it to be time well spent that can grow your biz.

So the alternative is to create a ‘web’. An ecosystem that includes your articles, your social media, and then your email opt ins.

So basically the way this ‘web’ works is:

Write the core article, by branching ‘outwards’ from your vertical (area of business).
Put out social media posts that point to the article (no, not just one. Do multiple)
At the bottom of the article, have a pop up, or embedded email sign up.

(You can do this same process with a podcast).

So your articles are a ‘bridge’ for people to go to your email list, rather than trying to get people to jump on your list straight away (“a ‘leap’ that can be too far.”)

And you get exposure to your crafty articles from social media or other sources.

What if you don’t have social media? Well my friend, you need to find other entry points to the articles.

See if you can get your articles up on other people’s sites.
Ask friends with similar businesses if they want some articles for their weekly or monthly business newsletters
Mention your articles on podcasts - either your own, or when you go on as a guest
Publish your articles on other sites with more traffic (medium-dot-com, et cetera. You can still link to your opt-in on the back end)
The more obvious one - start up some social media channels that suit your market, and publish the articles to there for free

Articles are a great way to take people deeper into your world, add value, and show that you actually know what you’re doing. And the over-arching goal with them should always be bring your readers and audience to a deeper level of your world, at all times.

So remember to include an opt-in spot at the bottom (or as you go down) the page.

This gives people a chance to get a relevant PDF, quiz, video, or other opt in as they go. And gives you a way to speak to them over time, to build a relationship, give value, and share offers they might want to buy.

There you have it, enjoy your article writing success.

(Download as PDF here)