Five Steps to Constructing an Exceptional Content Experience

" trackback:ping="http://www.copyblogger.com/exceptional-content/trackback/" />--> Copyblogger runs on the Genesis Framework

Genesis empowers you to quickly build incredible websites with WordPress. Whether you're a novice or advanced developer, Genesis provides the secure and search-optimized foundation that takes WordPress to places you never thought it could go.

Take advantage of the 6 default layout options, comprehensive SEO settings, rock-solid security, flexible theme options, cool custom widgets, custom design hooks, and a huge selection of child themes ("skins") that make your Genesis site look the way you want it to. With automatic theme updates and world-class support included, Genesis is the smart choice for your WordPress website or blog.

Find out more about the framework featuresCheck out the Genesis demo and the variety of child themesSee example designs in the Genesis design showcaseBookmark and Promote!Like this post on FacebookSubscribe to CopybloggerBookmark on del.icio.usDigg this postStumble this postFurther ReadingThe Outsourcing Conspiracy ReportThe Jim Morrison Guide to Strategic Content PromotionThree Quick Steps to Clear WritingCopyblogger Weekly Wrap: Week of January 11, 2011How to Write an Ebook that SellsSites That Link to this Postbusiness buzz 1-15-11 | January 15, 2011 Report Card for Bloggers « Buchlady's Blog | January 16, 2011 Want Your Writing To Get Noticed? | January 21, 2011 CommentsRandy Kemp says: January 14, 2011 at 8:48 am

Stanford:

Great thoughts in a five step action plan.

I’m happy you are continuing the thread that Sonia and Brian started this week.

Randy

ReplyStanford @ PushingSocial says: January 14, 2011 at 9:10 am

Thanks Randy, Brian and Sonia are a hard act to follow!

ReplyJ.D. Meier says: January 14, 2011 at 8:59 am

It’s all about the experience.

Life is a flip book of experiences.

I like the way you framed creating an experience that sticks.

It’s always a beautiful thing how just the right words can inspire action, even if that action is simply to read the next line.

Some people have the gift of gab, and others write with might, but I find that everybody has a special ability to make something interesting … if they decide to share “why” it’s interesting to them (we all got our ways of looking at the world and that’s where magic happens.)

There are so many punch lines waiting for delivery, so many songs waiting to be set free, and so many insights waiting to hitch a ride on the right story. I think your recipe here is a way to help set them free.

… and beautiful point on ending with skill.

A great ending is a powerful beginning in disguise.

ReplyStanford @ PushingSocial says: January 14, 2011 at 9:11 am

“A great ending is a powerful beginning in disguise” I’m going to have to steal that one

ReplyTrafficColeman says: January 14, 2011 at 9:03 am

be yourself and say what you fill, don’t hold back to just respect an small group of people..if you hate blogs with with pop ups..then let it be know..people will respect you more..

“Black Seo Guy “Signing Off”

ReplyStanford @ PushingSocial says: January 14, 2011 at 9:13 am

Interesting…I’ve learned that people notice trouble-shooters but respect (and buy from) the problem solvers. Creating content is all about being useful…so saying you hate pop-ups is a start – you’ll get more action if you can suggest the alternative.

ReplySimon Dodd says: January 14, 2011 at 9:09 am

Hey Stanford,

Thanks for the great advice, I am pretty good at keeping my content good but I always miss out on opportunities with my headlines and then the first few sentences. At least I know I need to work on it!

Thanks again for the great advice

Simon

ReplyMarnie says: January 14, 2011 at 9:14 am

Detail! I tend to leave out details in my writing as my enthusiasm takes over. I need to think more about the reader when I write. I have just the right post to start revising…

ReplyStanford @ PushingSocial says: January 14, 2011 at 4:01 pm

Get your post out first while that enthusiasm is thumping! Then think through the reader’s perspective and other “details” while editing. Don’t want to bottle-up your enthusiasm by overthinking it.

ReplyMatt says: January 14, 2011 at 9:48 am

A bad lead.

I just reviewed one of my favorites, and I basically wrote a great headline, but skipped the lead and went straight to delivering the goods.

Great post. Definitely bookmarking this one.

ReplyStanford @ PushingSocial says: January 14, 2011 at 4:00 pm

Bad Matt!
I’ve skipped the lead many times myself. However, after studying blogs like Copyblogger, I’ve seen how important they are for getting your post read. I often spend more time on my lead and headline than the rest of the post!

ReplyMark says: January 14, 2011 at 9:54 am

I have had a chance to read a few of your Blogs now and so far you have not steered me wrong with my Blogs. I will try this as an exercise and see how it does. With step 4 “ask for what you want” is it good to only ask for one thing or can I integrate multiple requests.

Thank you for being you
Mark

ReplyJulia Grif says: January 14, 2011 at 10:04 am

Love the advice to write the call to action right after the headline. That’s a nugget I’ll use!

Thanks!

ReplyJustin P Lambert says: January 14, 2011 at 10:45 am

Stanford,

Awesome post. Thanks very much for “leading by example” with this powerful list of action steps.

I find all too often my posts are rushed. This is something I’m trying to work on. I may have a good idea, but I know I’m not engaging my readers as well as I could because I’m not taking the time to edit and rewrite as needed on every post.

Ironically, I’ve guest posted several times, and I’m always relentless with those. Apparently I just need to start guest posting routinely on my own blog!

Thanks again!

ReplySimon Rudge says: January 14, 2011 at 11:06 am

Thanks Stanford, great post. Storytelling is here to grow! Thankfully!
All the best,
Simon.

ReplyStanford @ PushingSocial says: January 14, 2011 at 3:58 pm

Long live the Story…
Funny thing is that the great manifesto writers, pamphleteers, and copywriters have always leaned heavily on good storytelling. The art is re-emerging after years of being overshadowed by the soundbite.

ReplyIshan says: January 14, 2011 at 11:51 am

Hi Stanford,
I love #5. Asking is the only way people will give your comments or retweets. There’s no way they will know that they are supposed to comment or retweet. Tell them that you want comments. Tell them to Retweet and they will.
Nice post, just retweeted.

ReplyStanford @ PushingSocial says: January 14, 2011 at 3:56 pm

It shocks me how often people forget to ask for comments or retweets. If you want it – you gotta ask for it.

ReplyJoan M. Sargent says: January 14, 2011 at 12:14 pm

Great points. As a former copywriter, I find the principles of blogging to be almost identical to those of print advertising. Now if I can just remember to ask for comments!

ReplyStanford @ PushingSocial says: January 14, 2011 at 3:55 pm

You’re right Joan! That was the point of Sonia’s post earlier this week. Infusing your blog posts with solid copywriting principles will only boost your impact.

ReplyMKR says: January 14, 2011 at 3:43 pm

Just ran through next week’s post to see what I could do to improve it. It always amazes me how switching a sentence around or replacing a word can affect so much.

ReplyAhlam Yassin says: January 14, 2011 at 5:02 pm

So much attention is often given to the headline, that sometimes writers (myself included) will overlook the beginning sentence or two.

It’s so much harder to compliment a great idea with words to match, this is a helpful process to implement. You’re right, getting into a mechanical structure will help write killer content. Thanks for the reminder to pay attention to our first few lines..

-Ahlam

ReplyJef Menguin says: January 14, 2011 at 5:11 pm

While reading your post, I can’t help but think that this is A-I-D-A approach.

Nice explanation.

ReplyVika says: January 14, 2011 at 6:46 pm

Excellent content! Thank you. Coming up with a bang ending is always the hardest thing to do.
The five step process reminds me of the 4 step Law School IRAC method: Issue, rule, application, conclusion, only it is a lot better. I am going to apply your five steps to a legal brief I am writing. I’ll try to boil it down to one page.

ReplyRob McCance says: January 14, 2011 at 8:10 pm

Other than straight up technical data posts, which are pretty much my favorite, I find the most compelling posts are ones where the writer is just layin’ it out there (his or her opinion). No regard for correctness or what others think.

ReplyGavin | SEO Training Alliance says: January 14, 2011 at 9:30 pm

Different niches will have different expectations about what is ‘exceptional’ nevertheless, by being a customer of your niche, and by creating what YOU think would really WOW you, then you start to get very well on the way to becoming a market leader.

ReplyNatan says: January 14, 2011 at 9:46 pm

Some really valuable insight here, Stanford. Lately, I’ve been focusing a lot more on starting off my articles with a pop. I’ll ask a question, bring an image to mind or simply state the obvious about something and the rest of the post just seems to flow naturally out of it. It’s like planting a seed. Plant the wrong thing and you’ll reap what you sow, Cheers.

ReplyBernadette Jiwa says: January 14, 2011 at 9:58 pm

Hi Stanford,

I really like how you’ve framed this post.

As we write our posts we can forget that we are crafting an experience for our readers.
The quality of that experience can mean the difference between being noticed and being believed.

ReplyJoe from Carpet Cleaning Kirkland says: January 15, 2011 at 4:58 am

I like the idea of using a story to convey a message. Trying to figure out how I can incorporate a Villian for a carpet cleaning website. Hmmmm?

ReplyStanford @ PushingSocial says: January 15, 2011 at 11:46 am

How about attacking those nasty dusty mites, or ground in pet hair… tons of villains.

Replygreg urbano says: January 15, 2011 at 8:40 am

i recently posted an article on my new phone 7 blog but ran out of steam at the end due to exhaustion, i guess not blogging while you are tired is something i would like to do better

ReplyDonny Gamble says: January 15, 2011 at 8:51 am

I love use sub-headlines, bullet points, and pictures when writing post on my blog. It helps the user easily navigate through the post. People have a short attention span so you must allow them the ability to skim and scan through the post.

ReplySteve@Lifestyle Design says: January 15, 2011 at 3:43 pm

I really like your five step action plan. Engaging the reader and then delivering seems like a powerful way to entice and get the reaction you desire. A reader and of course hopefully a follow up. Thanks for the article.

ReplyMike Fook says: January 15, 2011 at 11:08 pm

As much as we writers want to write what we want to read about – there is a limit. This is something I have a real hard time with… writing for my reader! WHO cares what they want? I want to write what I WANT TO WRITE.

This is probably why I spend a sick amount of time re-reading everything I’ve written. I love it. Lol.

Sign of a failed writer – he likes too much what he has written!

I know I’m not like most of my readers. I’m not even like most of the human race in most respects. Bodily – yes. I have all the parts. Mind? My train’s left the station and there’s nobody else aboard… just me.

Writing FOR the reader is one of my new resolutions. Good post. Cheers!

ReplyStanford @ PushingSocial says: January 16, 2011 at 1:47 pm

Well at least you are honest!!

I bet you are not alone in your love for your own writing. I crashed and burned with two blogs before I realized that I had to write for my readers!

ReplyCarlton Flowers says: January 16, 2011 at 1:28 am

As always, this is outstanding content that could be the basis for a book or a seminar. Keep it coming, we appreciate all of this great info.

ReplyMike | SEO Services says: January 17, 2011 at 9:42 am

I have never really thought about these five steps before, however, if I go back and look at the posts I made the really WORK, they follow these five steps. The posts that don’t work are missing 1 or more of them.

Thanks fo rthe share…it will certainly the change the way I lay out my topics and work on articles!

Mike

ReplyNote Taking Nerd #2 says: January 17, 2011 at 1:17 pm

Love this concept!!!

I just wanted to add a few more points that I learned from Eben Pagan’s Guru Blueprint Course about how to make sure that you eliminate misunderstanding in your content using the 4 Learning Styles.

You don’t want to try to force your message across. Work to eliminate all possibilities of mis-understandings.

When you say something one way, Eben estimates that there’s an 80% chance of being misunderstood. If you say the same thing 2 different ways, it probably cuts the chance of misunderstanding in half to about 40%. If you say it 3 different ways, it cuts it in half again, and if you say something in 4 different ways, you have a very small probability of being misunderstood.

There are 4 different ways to communicate anything and they correspond with the 4 ways people learn, think, communicate and teach.

Every time you teach something, every time you write a piece of content, every time you make a video, it’s important that it be a complete communication. A complete concept. A complete self-contained concept that is understandable all by itself.

What do you need to include to give people a clear idea/concept?

Introduce your idea:

You must talk about what you’re gonna talk about.

Then you talk about it and give the conceptual and practical action steps

Wrap up, summarize, and get the other person into action

It’s easy to forget that the person we’re talking to doesn’t have all of our experience and they don’t have an on ramp to the ideas that were given to them. And so if we just toss them in the random puzzle pieces, they’re trying to put them together blindly without seeing the cover of the box.

When we give an intro, we say what we’re gonna talk about and why it’s important to listen, then we give some theory and then give some action steps, then summarize and get the person to take action, that’s when our communication is complete.

The 4 Learning Styles

There are 4 different ways people learn and 4 different ways people teach and when we use all 4 of these, we dramatically decrease the possibility of misunderstanding and dramatically increase the chance that the other person fully gets what we’re trying to communicate to them.

The easiest way to understand these 4 learning style is to think of them as asking a question. Here they are…

1. Why?

Why do I need to learn this? You need to get them excited to learn. Tell them what’s in it for them if they learn what you’re about to teach. You also need to tell them what they’re going to avoid if they learn it.

You need to use both pain AND pleasure.

Example: If you use what I’m about to teach you, you will lose weight. If you don’t use what I’m about to teach you, you will not lose weight and if fact you will probably gain more.

For the why learning style, they can’t hear you until you’ve connected up what you’re about to teach them with the benefit or the result that they want. So always explain, the outcome, the result, the benefit that the person about to embark on this journey will get.

And also explain the pain and the frustration, the fear that they’re going to avoid if they learn what you’re teaching them.

2. What?

These are the theoretical types. They want to know what they’re going to learn. They want the concept and the theory.

This type of learner loves to know the history, the science behind what you’re teaching. If you can talk about a study that was done about the topic you’re discussing, they’ll love it.

You can also explain the history of how you figured out exactly how the system works. If you can, show them a map of how all the pieces fit together. You want to zoom out and give them a conceptual view.

The example for a weight loss product would be explaining how the body puts fat on and how it sheds fat; the science behind it.

3. How?

They need a recipe. They want specific action steps in order to learn.

Each of the action step involved… 1, 2, 3…

4. What If?

What if I go out and do it? What will happen? This one is where they see themselves using it and the result that comes from using it and that’s how they learn. And ultimately come to understand once they’ve used it in the real world.

Everyone needs to do this.

So at the end of your content you would summarize and say, “Here’s what to go and do, right now to get started! As you’re taking action, here’s what to watch for to determine if it’s working, here’s what to watch for that tells you it’s not working.”

That’s it.

Thank you so much Stanford for shedding more light on this subject. It’s something way too important to slack on if you’re an information marketer!

ReplyNorman Rogers says: January 20, 2011 at 2:19 am

Sometimes the weakness of the material can be enhanced by making things up. I recently did a piece on how I believe that Confederate soldiers in the Civil War “ran home to mama” when they couldn’t hack it anymore. The piece was okay, but when I added a “fake” letter home from a Confederate general, asking his mother to tell his sister to prepare a purple cotillion dress for him to hide in, the piece took off.

[This was a piece of satire, by the way]

ReplyActivo says: January 20, 2011 at 7:08 pm

Great points. I like the tip on incorporating a story into the message, I always find myself way too direct in the web development world… geek issues… Definitely something to implement on my own blog.

ReplySpeak Your Mind Cancel replyName *

Email *

Website

Notify me of followup comments via e-mail

Enter your e-mail:

more info →

139,764 subscribers

69,053 people follow Copyblogger on Twitter.

Popular ArticlesHow to Use Twitter to Grow Your Business 381The Mad Men Guide to Changing the World with Words 131Is Your Tribe Holding You Down? 248Do You Recognize These 10 Mental Blocks to Creative Thinking? 27911 Smart Tips for Brilliant Writing 13710 Effective Ways to Get More Blog Subscribers 371Why No One Links to Your Best Posts (And What to Do About It) 267The 7 Deadly Sins of Blogging 288How to Be Interesting 284How to Write Ebooks That Sell 223The Eminem Guide to Becoming a Writing and Marketing Machine 204Why You Can’t Make Money Blogging 296SEO Copywriting: The Five Essential Elements to Focus On 153The 8 Habits of Highly Effective Bloggers 245The #1 Conversion Killer in Your Copy (And How to Beat It) 20760 Ways to Increase Your Influence Online 145The Three Key Elements of Irresistible Email Subject Lines 11110 Steps to Becoming a Better Writer 4245 Steps to Going Viral on Twitter 29950 Can’t-Fail Techniques for Finding Great Blog Topics 144The Two Most Important Words in Blogging 2137 Ways to Improve Your Writing … Right Now 141The Inigo Montoya Guide to 27 Commonly Misused Words 502Is Commenting on Blogs a Smart Traffic Strategy? 4788 Bad Habits that Crush Your Creativity And Stifle Your Success 178Five Ways to Write Magnificent Copy 127How to Increase Your Blog Subscription Rate by 254% 203Five Grammatical Errors that Make You Look Dumb 793How to Get 6,312 Subscribers to Your Business Blog in One Day 162How to Write an Article in 20 Minutes 329Did you notice how fast this site is?

Copyblogger is accelerated by NetDNA Content Delivery Network.

Copyblogger

Copyright © 2006-2011 Copyblogger Media, LLC

Powered by the Genesis Framework for WordPress