Seven steps to writing great articles and getting them published — in the publications that matter most.
By David M. Freedman and Paula Levis Suita
Writing an article under your byline, and placing it in a publication that is read by your clients, prospects, and/or referral sources, can help you build a reputation as an eminent authority in your area of expertise.
In this handbook, we’ll help you choose subjects that are suitable for bylined articles, compose outstanding manuscripts, and place them in the print and/or online media that you target – though not necessarily in that order. Often the most effective way to go about it is to get an article published (that is, get a commitment or at least some assurance that the editor wants to publish it) before you write it.
We’ll also give you tips on writing op-ed pieces and letters to the editor. The latter is an underrated, cost-effective way to get media exposure and demonstrate your value as a source of accurate information and good advice.
You may fear that you don’t have the time or skill to write publishable articles. You do not have to be a great writer to create a great article, however, as long as you have a compelling story to tell or vital information to share. You can collaborate with a coauthor, freelance editor, or ghostwriter who can help you get the story out of your head and onto the page. We will provide resources for finding very good writers and editors.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Part A: Your byline in seven steps
1. Define your target audience
2. Identify publications for which to write articles
3. Conceive topics for those publications
4. Focus the article and create an outline
5. Query editors
6. Compose the article (or collaborate with a writer)
7. Submit the article and work with the editor
Part B: Writing columns and op-ed pieces
Part C: Writing letters to the editor
Part D: “Hyper-syndicate” your articles for maximum exposure
About the authors
Step 1: Define your Target Audience
The first cardinal rule of article writing, in the context of business development, is: Write to illuminate, not to impress.
Readers want to learn something that will help them earn more money, stay out of trouble, improve their performance, or solve problems. If you genuinely and consistently focus on helping readers do those things, they will realize that you are a reliable source of valuable information and advice.
Do not write for the purpose of showing how knowledgeable, experienced, and clever you are. People who approach writing from that self-serving standpoint are usually boring or even irritating.
This is why the first of the seven steps is not selecting a topic for your article. Step 1 is identifying the target reader. Before you select a topic, you have to know what the reader needs. Many professionals are tempted to write about what they know, with incidental regard for the needs of the audience – a mistake that will not endear you to audiences.
We don’t mean to be preachy. But egocentric writing is one of the biggest mistakes that inexperienced writers make, especially among professional advisers and consultants. Your article is not about you, it’s about the readers. That is, it’s about what the readers need to know. That is the second cardinal rule of article writing. Let’s review the two cardinal rules:
1. Write to illuminate, not to impress. 2. Your article is about the readers, not about you.
Integrated Marketing Strategy
If your business occupies a narrow industry niche or a distinct practice area, defining your readers is simple: they are your clients. In that case, you are surely familiar with their needs, and with the publications that they read – those are the publications you want to write articles for (go directly to Step 2).
On the other hand, if your prevailing marketing strategy is to promote a new practice area or industry group, your target audience may be less familiar, so you will have to do market research to find out what they need and what publications they rely on.
Your marketing strategy may focus on developing referral sources, in which case you might have to target several distinct audiences, such as bankers, accountants, lawyers, venture capitalists, and appraisers. You probably can’t reach all of those audience segments in a single publication; so unless you want to focus on just one of those segments, you would have to write several articles, or at least different versions of one article, for various audience segments. [continued]
To read the rest of “Under Your Byline,” please download the complete handbook (32 pages in PDF format). Thank you.