How to Make Sure Your Online Writings Fulfil Their Purpose

You spend hours writing. You pour your heart out trying to make an impact. For someone, for you, for your business.

But no matter how hard you try, it doesn’t seem to work. No one seems to care.

The problem?

You’re not planning and editing well.

To solve your issue, I’ve created a free 7 Question Framework. Answer these seven questions before and after you write to make sure your copy has maximum impact.

These are the questions:

1. Will the right person follow me because of this?
2. Do I know who’s reading? Does it help them?
3. Does it make me feel anything?
4. Does it sound right when I read it out loud?
5. Are there any words I can cut?
6. Is it clear what I want people to do when they’re finished?
7. Would I read something with this headline and lead?

#1 Will the right person follow me because of this? 

When you come up with an idea, ask yourself if this is going to be worthy of your audience’s time.

Will it make them feel something and give them enough value to leave a bleep on their radar?

If the answer is yes, proceed.

Write without inhibitions, the next six questions will make sure you fix mistakes and publish something of high quality. 

#2A Do I know who’s reading?

First, you need to know your audience in general.

So you’re going to decide if you’re writing for techies, sportspeople, retired nurses, newbie accountants or whatnot.

Then you’re going to figure out what these people care about. And that’s why you do audience research.

So you’ll be looking for:

• Their pain points, needs and struggles.
• Their stories, goals and motivations.
• Their beliefs, limitations and objections.
• Their prior knowledge of your (personal) brand and products.

Search where your audience hangs out: on social media, in restaurants, in parks, and so on.

And if it’s within your budget, set up a couple of interviews to get to know your potential reader or customer even better.

There’s an extra benefit to doing this too. You’re going to discover the exact words and phrases your audience uses. And don’t worry about blindly copying this. It’ll make you seem more like them, and people love people who are alike. Am I right?

Next, you want to bundle this information and create a persona or avatar.

But beware! Sometimes, it feels artificial. So what works better for me, is to bundle what I’ve found and think about someone I know that best matches the description. I then write for that person.

#2B Does it help them?

Now you’ve figured out who you’re writing for, you need to worry about the value you’re giving.

It’s about finding the right balance between too much new information and too much of the same. You don’t want to overwhelm anyone but you don’t want to bore them to death either.

Try to figure out what they already know and what they are looking for.

That can be information, a free solution, a product or a service.

By aiming your content at the right person and making sure it aligns with their intent, you can’t go wrong.