Lists top the list of content marketing pieces that get shared
If David Letterman taught us one thing during his tenure as host of Late Night, it’s that people love lists.… Read the full article
Story types
Sample tip sheet: Silver Anvil winner shares tips
PR pros get attention with how-to stories
When PR pros at the U.S. Green Building Council needed to round up resources in their Green Apple Day of Service, they didn’t write stories telling volunteers to get donations.… Read the full article
Crack the case
How to organize a case study
A colleague in health system marketing counsels his case study writers to “Get the patient to the hospital.” Wrong! When it comes to case studies, it’s about the client’s problem and results, silly, not your solutions.… Read the full article
Why tip sheets?
Service stories get read, shared, used and acted upon
How-to information is the No. 2 type of content that gets retweeted, according to research by Dan Zarrella, viral marketing scientist for HubSpot.… Read the full article
How to create a tip sheet
7 steps for writing how-to articles
When the folks at Topolobampo, Chicago’s cathedral to Mexican cuisine, wanted to sell more syrah, they didn’t put signs on the tables saying “Buy wine!” Instead, they provided nifty little tabletop tipsheets on how to pair wine with Mexican food.… Read the full article
Tip sheet format: How to organize a how-to story
5 steps to a stellar service story
Service stories aren’t news articles. Which means that the inverted pyramid isn’t the right structure.
Instead, use the feature-style story structure, and organize your piece like this:
Introduce your piece in the intro.
… Read the full article6 tips for writing lists
People look at 70% of lists they encounter online
Think of your bulleted lists as the celebrities of your blog posts, web pages and other pieces.… Read the full article
Quotes on list writing
What writers and others say
“Love them or hate them, informational posts presented in list format are easily digestible, and allow for an efficient transfer of your value proposition to the reader.”
— Brian Clark, founder, Copyblogger
“In the spirit of Ethan’s neurosis, we made a drywall list of keyboard buttons we would like to see: PLEASE, THANK YOU, FUCK OFF, DIE, OOPS … MY MISTAKE, DO SOMETHING COOL AND SURPRISE ME.”
― Douglas Coupland, author, in Microserfs
“Nearly everyone loves reading top 10 lists.
… Read the full articleThree types of list stories
Choose from definitive, listicle and framework lists
Not all list stories are created equal. BuzzFeed’s Jack Shepherd lists three types of lists for Nieman Lab:
- Listicles.
Top 10 reasons to write listicles
They’re the most shared type of content
From the beginning to the end, our lives are a series of lists. We start as an entry on a short list of baby names and end trying to fill a bucket list of experiences.… Read the full article