Article writing is an art form, so when it’s time for you to write an article, you may struggle to start writing. You’ve got a solid idea, but it’s challenging to get it from the concept to the draft. That blank page is quite intimidating!
The possibility of the idea to take on different shapes or forms can paralyze you and leave you frustrated and slow. You’ve got no focus, and you’re worried about not hitting your goals or missing the deadline.
There is a better way to write articles. You can use tested and proven article writing templates! They bring more consistency to the writing session and can be quite helpful for writers of all types. Plus, you can provide quality content each time.
You can’t think yourself out of the writing block. You’ve got to write yourself out of the thinking block. Therefore, it can help to have an article template to remove the paralysis and get you writing and thinking more efficiently!
Why Follow a Template When Writing a Blog Post?
The internet is a scary place, and there are tons of articles out there. Here are just a few of the benefits of having an article writing template in your arsenal:
Be More Efficient
When you initially sit down to write about an idea you have, you could spend hours upon hours doing research. This leads to tons of screenshots, tabs, and downloads to sift through to find the best ones. Though note-taking is crucial, you get pages and pages of specific points for your article, which makes it even worse.
Those who have unlimited time to write the article might not have a big issue with that. However, if you’re a marketer, you don’t have all the time in the world for article writing.
Harvard Business Review has shared some research suggesting that creativity and innovation thrive when constraints are in place. This is also called creative limitation, and a template can help here.
The structure of your article template lets you brain-dump the initial thoughts on a specific topic and map out your outline with it. Then, it’s easy to research intentionally and build the article from the outline with the points you want to support.
Your business can consider one aspect because of the template instead of knowing everything possible about a specific topic.
Gain Clarity
A template gives you a writing plan for action. Without it, you end up with blurry lines surrounding the topic and just a vague sense of what you want to accomplish with the article. Ultimately, you spend more time wondering what you should write instead of on the actual writing process.
It’s best to limit how many things you work on at one time so that you get more done. Article writing uses that same concept. You should focus on what the audience wants to know what what the readers enjoy consuming (and where.) Then, craft your articles around that information.
Ultimately, a template helps you bring more clarity to the process. There are tons of templates out there, and each one serves a specific purpose.
Publish More Consistently and Have Better Content
You must publish quality content to meet your goals. This includes social media engagement, website traffic, conversion rates, email subscribers, and all the rest. Consistent content gets you closer to the goal and can help your article stand apart from the competition.
When you have an article writing template, you have a process in place for the writing and research. That means you can easily explain what you want to the reader and hit the nail on the head every year, month, or week.
If you don’t have goals in place, you’re missing out. Marketers with goals are about 376 percent more likely to be successful than those who do not.
Four Elements of the Article
It’s best to work from templates that are impactful and simple. They work well for how-to articles and other article styles and can add context and depth throughout the piece.
Here are the basic elements to have for an article template:
Headline
The headline is what summarizes what the article talks about. Effective headlines can encourage others to click to see the article and share it on various networks. They can also offer an organic reach to the audience through search engines.
Ultimately, your headline is a storefront on a busy intersection. The storefront’s job is to attract others to the store as they walk by, so it must appeal to what the person needs, wants, and is curious about. The headline isn’t any different. It must be interesting and helpful so that the reader wants to invest time and attention to what you wrote in the article.
The elements of a powerful headline include:
- Word balance – Use a mixture of uncommon, common, power, and emotional words.
- Length – It should be optimized for click-throughs and visibility on social media and search engines.
- Type – You can experiment with various headlines, such as how-to, question, or why headlines.
- Clarity and readability – Make sure it’s simplified for easy understanding and reading at a glance.
The ultimate tip here is to write more headlines to get better at it. When you write 25 headlines, the first third is packed with the obvious ideas, and the second third offers momentum. Then, the third provides more innovative and unique ideas.
From there, you can choose the top five headlines in your list and check them against the elements we listed earlier.
Introduction of a Few Sentences
The introduction is the bridge between the core of the article and your headline. It’s there to explain what you are likely to talk about and should be interesting. Many people try to capture the reader’s attention by telling a story, but you can also present arguments in other ways.
Expand on Your Initial Headline Promise
Go back to the storefront example from before. The introduction for a headline is equal to when you walk into a hardware store and see four different aisles you want to check out.
If the introduction doesn’t match your headline, it’s like you’re walking into the store thinking it sells hardware goods but find out it’s a coffee shop!
The readers want to see the ideas outlined in the body that are shown in the introduction. That’s why you can talk about recent events or make up a story that portrays those ideas. Whatever is written here sets the stage for what’s to come.
Tease the Reader about the Delivery of the Promise
Are you sharing tips, contributions from experts, step-by-step guidance, or industry news about current events? Whatever you portray, it has to make the article credible, and the intro is the best place to start this.
You may want to consider a TAS (Thesis, antithesis, synthesis) approach to your article writing and intro. This includes:
- Thesis – Present your status quo or the idea that’s widely held or currently accepted
- Antithesis – Point out the problems with that thesis
- Synthesis – Share new viewpoints that resolve the problems and fix the last two paragraphs to show your points as the best.
This approach reduces the complex arguments into a three-paragraph structure. Plus, it also gives a voice to the doubts of the readers and addresses their objections to help you make your point.
You know best what your readers like, so feel free to expand the elements or change them based on the audience for which you’re writing.
When you run across an intro you like from somewhere else, analyze it. That way, you can find out how they work and craft your own.
Body Content
The body of the article is what the reader came to see. This is how you deliver on the promise from your title and intro.
Ultimately, the best way to write this part is to use sections, and each one must tie back to the tease in the intro. Each section of the article should have a subheading. In a sense, it’s a standalone idea that can naturally flow from the last one. With that, though, it must set the stage for the next one.
Each article section must include:
- Three points. If there are more, you should create a new section.
- The why of that section and how it relates to the articles’ topic
- Research or examples to support the points
- Takeaways for the reader, such as actions they could take or knowledge they can use
When you focus on making three points, you ensure that the article sections are easy to digest. That also makes sure that they’re impactful because you’re considering the core points instead of adding as much information as you can. This confuses the readers and hides the value of your story.
The three-point limit doesn’t mean that you can only share three pieces of information. Add as many ideas as you want and discuss them in-depth. Just remember that they should support those three points.
Here are some examples you can use in the sections to support those things:
- Screenshots
- Statistics or links to research
- Custom images
- Original examples
- Resources like videos, books, talks, podcasts
- Quotes from relevant people
A great example comes from Toggle. One of its articles shows three main sections. Each one is supported by links to appropriate research and graphics to tell the story.
From there, it supports its arguments by focusing on each point. Instead of going off-topic, you create a paper that focuses the arguments in such a way that people can’t ignore them.
Conclusion
The conclusion of the article gives your reader that sense of closure they crave. Here, you can reinforce your main points within the article and help them to know what to do next.
There are different styles to use to write the conclusion:
- Simplicity – You can nudge the reader to use what they learned in the article. An example of this is to ask them to share the information or save it for later use.
- Summary – You can list the takeaways as bullets to remind them of the main point of the article.
- CTA – Drive attention to your high-value CTA. An example of this is to ask them to sign up for your email list or trial.
- Engagement – Point to the other relevant resources and encourage social sharing with your articles. An example is to include “related posts” or add Facebook or Twitter sharing buttons.
The Best Article Writing Template
When you grab your article writing template, you get a head start when writing the next article. Here’s how to use the first section to help you define the article:
Topic Summary
Describe the topic of the article in a few sentences. This is the start point for everything you do in the post. For example, this blog post shows users how to achieve [a goal] with a [downloadable source.]
Keyword Data
What do the readers type into the search engine when searching for articles like yours? Make sure that you list the primary keyword with other word variations and focus on keyword density and search volume where possible.
Headline Options
As you write more headlines, you become better at them. With that, you get more options to work with. List the best ones here.
Angle and Writing Style
You can tackle one topic from different angles. For example, list of tips, beginner/advanced, step-by-step, product-focused, case study, interviews, different takes on accepted stances, comparisons, and more. Use this to choose the right article topic.
The second section of your template covers the rest of the elements of the article, such as the intro, body, and conclusion.
Before you begin writing, use your template to build an article outline first. Start with existing knowledge and make a note of how everything fits together.
You can ask yourself if a particular bullet point is broad enough to stand alone in a section so that you can build it out. Otherwise, it’s a supporting piece of information.
Then, you can look things up based on the angle. Do you have to use industry experts for contributions? Should you create screenshots that support the claim you made in your outline?
As you do your research from other written works, add information that’s worth it to keep in your outline. Some resources lead you to new ones, which can give you ideas for more sections or points.
If the section begins expanding to more than three points, it’s time to create a new section.
Then, you can build the main points for the intro and conclusion. Many writers like to craft the intro after they’ve written the body, but that’s up to you.
Tips to Boost Efficiency with Content Writing
Here are a few more tips for more efficiency with your content writing:
Plan Each Piece on Your Editorial Calendar
Creating consistent content without an editorial calendar is similar to driving without a steering wheel. The calendar offers you tangible deadlines for creating each post instead of providing written content whenever you have the chance.
That way, you keep your word to the readers, and they know they can count on you for fresh content. Plus, an editorial calendar allows you to:
- Run and plan coordinated campaigns and themes to build on your business and marketing goals
- Balance and manage the team’s workload for more efficiency
- Share the content marketing progress and efforts with the higher-ups
Conduct Topical and Basic Keyword Research
You should spend time to understand the words and phrases that the target audience uses to search for the topics you’re writing about. If you’re not sure where to start with your keyword research, here are some pointers:
- Define the core term and modifiers
- Use free tools to find keywords with low competition and high search volume
- Analyze to find out if the keyword ranks for product pages or articles
- See if the search results have huge websites, such as Wikipedia, which could be hard to outrank
- Focus on keyword intent
You should also ensure that you’re researching your topic. Consider other articles that have reliable sources and use them in your post.
Have an Editing Checklist
Writers should have an editing checklist to make it easier to proofread and edit the articles. Here are a few tips:
- Remove any passive voice
- Read the article aloud to check syntax, flow, and writing voice
- Remove any unnecessary words
- Shorten paragraphs and consider different sentence lengths; one-word sentences work well
- Remove any unnecessary adverbs
Conclusion
Now that you have a template, feel free to start writing for your audience. These how-to tips can help writers in any field or business craft something amazing.
If you’re not sure you can do it yourself, feel free to hire us as your content writers. We are here to help! Refer to our services whenever the need arises!
