The growth of the web and social media has led to two segments of content that your readers like to consume. You have to master at least one, if not both, forms to write better content today.
First, the traditional big content covers big subjects thoroughly. This content comes in longer formats like white papers, ebooks, and in-depth articles. The opposite, yet also highly desired, is easily consumed, bite-sized content… which still packs more meaning, just in fewer words.
This post emphasizes how you can stand out as a writer by publishing better, shorter content. Here are 3 exercises that help you to deliver more value in fewer words.
More action
Get right to the action. Use verbs and adverbs, not adjectives. Throw away the thesaurus.
Make it count
Can you boil down your next article to half its size without losing any meaning? Force yourself to write an article about a complete idea in just 200 words. Keep only the high impact elements. Punch it up by cutting complex sentences into two shorter ones. Every single word counts.
Break it down
I guarantee that your more complex content contains multiple points that can stand on their own. Break that big article into small logical thoughts. The meaning won’t be lost because each smaller article is self-contained. Then cross-promote them as a series or related articles.
Your writing improves as you boil complex ideas into just the truly meaningful points.
Comment below… How do you write complex information using less words?
[…] Best Practices, Content Marketing I posted three ways to write better content using less words and more meaning back in March. What I didn’t elaborate on is why this approach works. The reason is your readers […]