In today’s competitive business environment, how do you make your website, brochure or advertisement stand out from the crowd with compelling content? But before you even craft any content, you should realise the importance of planning before writing.

If you think you can save time by just quickly cobbling together some text without coming up with a plan, think again! Chances are, this may result in content that lacks a sense of direction, and may even lead to incoherent text that can confuse, rather than effectively conveying your message to your target audience.

So, what goes into the planning process before you even start to craft your marketing material? Let’s take a look.

1) Who is your target audience?

Before you even write a single word, you should know exactly who it’s aimed at. Writing without a target market in mind will deliver just one thing – poor results. With this in mind, you can craft your content structure, tone, layout, style and language accordingly to suit your target audience, This will result in pitching your message at the appropriate tone to them.

2) Communicate W.I.I.F.M (What’s in it for me)?

After narrowing down your target audience, it’s time to plan your content to showcase how your product or service is going to help your customers. Avoid the common pitfall many business owners make of writing about themselves or focusing exclusively on your product’s features. Instead, consider how your product or service will make your consumers’ lives easier, help them save money or time, help to solve a problem or make them feel better, among other things. By giving careful thought to this in your content, you will be answering the question at the back of your customer’s mind, “what’s in it for me”

As obvious as it sounds, it is critical to keep these points in mind as you plan the content to market your business.

Reference:

http://www.evancarmichael.com/library/chris-pracy/Online-Copywriting-Plan–5-Steps-to-Writing-Your-Business-Website.html

Image source: http://www.atb.net.au/planning-your-corners-fail-to-plan-plan-to-fail/