Success in the marketplace is about more than just having a good product at a good price, especially when it comes to technology. You have to prove to your prospective customers that they can trust you to know what you’re doing and that you can execute. One of the best ways to do that is by writing useful, credible articles about your technology or your ideas so that your audience gets a better sense of who you are and what you know.
The good news is that most technical publications will accept contributed material. The more interesting content they have on their site, the more readers will want to go there. So everybody wins: prospects get useful information, you get respect and earn trust (and hopefully move closer to a sale), and the publication gains readers.
But you can’t just slap together an article and expect it to work. On any given web page or in any given magazine, there are dozens of items competing for the reader’s attention. You want your article to be the thing that they read. But that’s not enough: if you don’t keep them interested, they’ll stop reading and move to something else. No one has time for being bored.
So there are some rules you should follow in order to make sure that your audience reads your article, and reads the entire thing. Just like a gourmet cook who has spent all day on an amazing meal, you want to see empty plates when everyone is finished. You can help make this happen by asking yourself the following 10 questions when writing.
- Are you providing your reader with a solution or an advertisement?
You know this yourself: as soon as you smell marketing in an article, you become suspicious. Besides, most publications won’t accept a product pitch: they want technical solutions. You may not even be allowed to mention a product name. It’s OK: your readers are smart. If they know who you are, they’ll figure out what your product is even if you don’t mention it. - Is your article unique?
There are lots of people out there writing, and many of them may be covering the same thing. So, is your topic unique? Do you have a different view or solution? Do you take a different angle to make a more effective story than other ones already out there? - Have you taken an outsider’s viewpoint to target broadly?
Don’t assume your readers know your technical subject as well as you do. You need to write for someone who is smart, but isn’t doing exactly what you do. After all, if they did what you do, they wouldn’t need your product. - Does your article have a beginning, middle, and end?
Too many articles fail to ease a reader into the subject; even more articles end abruptly. Such an article has no structure, which makes it very hard to read or understand. - Do you have a well-articulated thesis statement?
A good article will make one solid point very clearly. If you try to make too many points, or fail to articulate one clearly, things get muddy and the reader ends up not sure what to take away. You need to introduce your theme up front, and then reprise it at the end. - Does your narrative have a logical flow throughout?
Too many articles simply ramble along, with no clear direction. A natural flow will compel your reader to continue through to the end. Most importantly, stick to the main topic, and don’t wander into unnecessary detail. - Is your style readable and conversational?
For some reason, engineers seem to think that, in order to sound credible, they have to use formal, stilted language. But no one really likes to read that. Loosen up; tell a story. Talk to your reader in a natural manner. Use varied vocabulary. People will enjoy reading your stuff. - Have you kept your article to the right length?
If you’re writing a technical article, it should be in the 1000-3000-word range. If you’re writing a viewpoint or opinion piece, it should be in the 500-1000-word range. Usually, economy of words is a virtue. - Have you selected the right graphics and the right detail?
Graphics should be used carefully – just enough, and not too many. In addition, you may be tempted to put in far too much detail for accuracy and credibility. But this isn’t a peer-reviewed paper: this is a narrative. Your graphics should look clean and professional and support your story with only the minimum necessary detail. And they should never be over-adorned with color and bangles. Stay away from the gimmicks. - Have you followed any style guidelines of the targeted publication?
Some pubs have stricter expectations than others. They may like your article, but they also may ask you to rewrite parts of it. And it can be for simple grammatical things like overuse of the passive voice. Be prepared for the editor to come back with requests.
As you can see, there’s a lot involved in writing a compelling article. It takes time and energy. If you’re a natural writer, these things will come easily to you, and you’ll enjoy it.
Of course, many brilliant engineers simply don’t like to write, and even those that do often don’t have time outside their regular jobs. This is when you should consider bringing in a ghostwriter, who can take your information, turn it into an article people will like, and put your name on it.
Regardless of how you do it, it’s worth the investment to make sure that the articles you write get read. From beginning to end. And that your reader comes away feeling like the article was time well spent.