Do You Want to Steal Our Online Writing Process?

We’re all looking for the magic pill that will turn our content into conversion fuel for our products and services.

There’s no magic unicorn or secret formula that will make your content conversion perfect every time. But, you knew that already.

There are best practices that you should follow every single time you write content. In this, Ahava discusses the inverted pyramid, a foolproof way for bubbling the right information to the top.

How to Write Great Content

We know how hard it is to create great content. We’ve worked through every imaginable obstacle during the past eight years (almost nine, partay!) to create a content process that produces enviable, imaginative and “juicy” content to engage your audience.

Want your customers to thank you for your content? We know how.

So, what’s our secret sauce? We share our process with you below. It’s what has made our recent projects for Time, Inc. and T. Rowe Price so successful. If you want to have everyone staring at you while you walk down the hallways like you’re wearing a cape, keep reading.

Our Writing Process

1. Gather strategic information: Our writers are former journalists. They know the scent of a great story. We review all of the information we can find about a project before we start interviewing stakeholders. Our ears are open with “minds like water,” so we can follow a fantastic storyline once it comes up.
2. Interview the appropriate stakeholder: We’ve rejected jobs because clients didn’t want to give us access to stakeholders and subject matter experts. How can you write engaging, personal content for your customers if you don’t get their questions answered from your best possible internal resources?
3. Create an information architecture or template: Doesn’t matter if it’s a blog post, email newsletter or website, you need a template that works for that particular project. After our research and interviews, we’re prepared to do just that.
4. Write the content: Don’t let your 8th grade English teacher haunt you forever. Everyone has writing muscles; they just need practice. Try writing every day for at least 10 minutes. Write whatever comes to your head. While I was writing my book, there were days that I just starting writing about content to see what came up. Inevitably, there were a few gems I used in the book.
5. Edit the content with your client: Great content comes from great editing. Don’t leave it all on the floor; leave what doesn’t matter to your customer. Or, save it for some other format or project.
6. Edit the content with the stakeholder for factual verification: You have to make sure your content is correct and valuable. Only the stakeholders can finalize the details and particulars that make content magical.
7. Finalize the content: Does compliance and regulatory need to review? Do you need executive sign off? Make sure your content is camera ready; or in this case, web or print ready.
8. Quality assure (QA) the content and links: If we’re talking about digital content, you need to proofread it once it’s inside the CMS or social media channel. Make sure all the links point to the right place and the titles and phrases make sense. For print? You can’t read it over too many times; a second, third and fourth set of eyes doesn’t hurt either.

Hundreds of Aha Media customers can’t be wrong; this process works. You probably will need to tinker with it in your organization. But trust me, it’s set for a repeatable lifecycle of success, otherwise known as a recipe for awesomesauce content.