{"id":70130,"date":"2017-06-02T12:55:43","date_gmt":"2017-06-02T11:55:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/insight\/think-first-write-later-planning-makes-piece-content-great\/"},"modified":"2025-03-07T17:19:03","modified_gmt":"2025-03-07T17:19:03","slug":"think-first-write-later-planning-makes-piece-content-great","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/us\/insight\/think-first-write-later-planning-makes-piece-content-great\/","title":{"rendered":"Think first, write later – How planning makes a piece of content great"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nGuilty of indulging in churning witty phrases? It\u2019s time to reconsider your approach.<\/p>\n

Give yourself the gift of time<\/strong><\/h3>\n

When was the last time you praised yourself for thinking about something for a long time? If you kick yourself for letting your mind whirl and not putting pen to paper, stop right now. Your teachers always told you to plan your answers for a reason \u2013 it makes them much stronger. The same goes for writing great content.
\nAccording to recent B2B research, 72% of marketers said that content strategy development or adjustment was the reason for an increased success in their business1<\/sup>. But companies still fall into the bad habit of avoiding the \u2018thinking\u2019 aspect of content strategy at all costs. Whether they\u2019re pushed for time, lazy or excited about just \u2018getting on with it\u2019, forgetting to plan is endemic across the business world. And it\u2019s about time this all changed.<\/p>\n

If you only take three things from this blog, make them \u2026<\/strong><\/h3>\n

1 \u2013 What do we want to achieve?
\n2 \u2013 What do our audiences want to read?
\n3 \u2013 What are our competitors doing?
\nAt its simplest, planning is all about asking questions and getting them answered. It\u2019s decision time, where you think seriously about what you want to get out of your content strategy. Once you\u2019ve answered these three questions, you should have a unique set of aims and ideas that make you different from your competitors. Remember, successful brands are original, so never copy others.
\nWith your decisions made, you can set KPIs and think of topics to fill up your content calendar. That\u2019s the first step, and be warned, it won\u2019t get sorted overnight.
\nAnother mistake to avoid is to think the planning is done at the start. You should plan continuously by tweaking your strategy based on what\u2019s working and what\u2019s not. Which leads us on to our next point\u2026<\/p>\n

Planning in writing<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Love a book with twists and turns? It doesn\u2019t just happen accidentally, and chances are there will have been subtle clues along the way to create mystery and keep you turning the pages. Planning how you are going to write something is just as important as what you\u2019re going to write about.
\nThe average reader of a blog will stay tuned for 15 seconds and then switch off2<\/sup>. Make sure your readers stay engaged until they reach your point. Okay, it\u2019s not that easy, we admit, but we do have some tips.
\nThink of your article more like presentation<\/strong>. You wouldn\u2019t put all your points in slide one \u2013 you\u2019d stretch them out to tell the story of your point. Your paragraphs are your slides, and when you plan what each section should say you can move them around<\/strong> to let your story unfold.
\nIf you\u2019ve done your content strategy right, you should know how your article is going to answer your audience\u2019s questions. You could use these questions as the paragraphs<\/strong>. As people love to skim read, chances are your audience will open your article and jump through the various points until they find what we\u2019re looking for. If it\u2019s easy to get the answers they want, they\u2019ll stay on your blog for longer than 15 seconds, improving your bounce rate.
\nWhile we\u2019re on the subject of answers, you could set up questions at the start that you\u2019re going to answer in the article. Each answer then becomes a different paragraph<\/strong>. That way you keep them interested with what they want but manage to keep some mystery by drip feeding the answers.<\/p>\n

What next?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Let\u2019s not beat about the bush \u2013 you want to keep them on your website. Now it\u2019s time to plan the rest of their journey, which is all done through measurement. Watch where they click next and make sure you\u2019ve got something interesting for them to read there, too.<\/p>\n

1<\/sup> http:\/\/videnmarketing.com\/b2b-content-marketing-statistics-2017\/<\/a>
\n2\u00a0 <\/sup>http:\/\/time.com\/12933\/what-you-think-you-know-about-the-web-is-wrong\/<\/a> <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Guilty of indulging in churning witty phrases? It\u2019s time to reconsider your approach. Give yourself the gift of time When was the last time you praised yourself for thinking about something for a long time? If you kick yourself for letting your mind whirl and not putting pen to paper, stop right now. Your teachers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[305,314],"tags":[460,554,555],"class_list":["post-70130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-content-strategy-us","category-copywriting-us","tag-copywriting-us","tag-great-content-us","tag-planning-us"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThink first, write later - How planning makes a piece of content great<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Guilty of indulging in churning witty phrases? It\u2019s time to reconsider your approach and start planning your writing to create great content.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/us\/insight\/think-first-write-later-planning-makes-piece-content-great\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Think first, write later - How planning makes a piece of content great\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Guilty of indulging in churning witty phrases? It\u2019s time to reconsider your approach and start planning your writing to create great content.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/us\/insight\/think-first-write-later-planning-makes-piece-content-great\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Stratton Craig - Global Copywriting & Content Strategy Agency\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-06-02T11:55:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-03-07T17:19:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Blank-page-1-1024x683.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Anna Fozzard\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Anna Fozzard\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.strattoncraig.com\\\/us\\\/insight\\\/think-first-write-later-planning-makes-piece-content-great\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.strattoncraig.com\\\/us\\\/insight\\\/think-first-write-later-planning-makes-piece-content-great\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Anna Fozzard\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.strattoncraig.com\\\/us\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/1aa499016d8e89b274c832b5c5fdfffd\"},\"headline\":\"Think first, write later – How planning makes a piece of content great\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-06-02T11:55:43+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-03-07T17:19:03+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.strattoncraig.com\\\/us\\\/insight\\\/think-first-write-later-planning-makes-piece-content-great\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":679,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.strattoncraig.com\\\/us\\\/insight\\\/think-first-write-later-planning-makes-piece-content-great\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.strattoncraig.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/06\\\/Blank-page-1-1024x683.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"copywriting\",\"great content\",\"Planning\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Content strategy\",\"Copywriting\"],\"inLanguage\":\"us-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.strattoncraig.com\\\/us\\\/insight\\\/think-first-write-later-planning-makes-piece-content-great\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.strattoncraig.com\\\/us\\\/insight\\\/think-first-write-later-planning-makes-piece-content-great\\\/\",\"name\":\"Think first, write later - How planning makes a piece of content great\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.strattoncraig.com\\\/us\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.strattoncraig.com\\\/us\\\/insight\\\/think-first-write-later-planning-makes-piece-content-great\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.strattoncraig.com\\\/us\\\/insight\\\/think-first-write-later-planning-makes-piece-content-great\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.strattoncraig.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/06\\\/Blank-page-1-1024x683.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-06-02T11:55:43+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-03-07T17:19:03+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.strattoncraig.com\\\/us\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/1aa499016d8e89b274c832b5c5fdfffd\"},\"description\":\"Guilty of indulging in churning witty phrases? It\u2019s time to reconsider your approach and start planning your writing to create great content.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.strattoncraig.com\\\/us\\\/insight\\\/think-first-write-later-planning-makes-piece-content-great\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"us-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.strattoncraig.com\\\/us\\\/insight\\\/think-first-write-later-planning-makes-piece-content-great\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"us-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.strattoncraig.com\\\/us\\\/insight\\\/think-first-write-later-planning-makes-piece-content-great\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.strattoncraig.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/06\\\/Blank-page-1-1024x683.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.strattoncraig.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/06\\\/Blank-page-1-1024x683.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.strattoncraig.com\\\/us\\\/insight\\\/think-first-write-later-planning-makes-piece-content-great\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.strattoncraig.com\\\/us\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Think first, write later – How planning makes a piece of content great\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.strattoncraig.com\\\/us\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.strattoncraig.com\\\/us\\\/\",\"name\":\"Stratton Craig - Global Copywriting & Content Strategy Agency\",\"description\":\"Written Communication\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.strattoncraig.com\\\/us\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"us-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.strattoncraig.com\\\/us\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/1aa499016d8e89b274c832b5c5fdfffd\",\"name\":\"Anna Fozzard\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"us-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/55b42191d351ce473f5fececb8547ec9f7922f6dc3a1938e6807ecbed984adb6?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/55b42191d351ce473f5fececb8547ec9f7922f6dc3a1938e6807ecbed984adb6?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/55b42191d351ce473f5fececb8547ec9f7922f6dc3a1938e6807ecbed984adb6?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Anna Fozzard\"},\"sameAs\":[\"dan@dcoed.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.strattoncraig.com\\\/us\\\/insight\\\/author\\\/anna-fozzard\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Think first, write later - How planning makes a piece of content great","description":"Guilty of indulging in churning witty phrases? It\u2019s time to reconsider your approach and start planning your writing to create great content.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/us\/insight\/think-first-write-later-planning-makes-piece-content-great\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Think first, write later - How planning makes a piece of content great","og_description":"Guilty of indulging in churning witty phrases? It\u2019s time to reconsider your approach and start planning your writing to create great content.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/us\/insight\/think-first-write-later-planning-makes-piece-content-great\/","og_site_name":"Stratton Craig - Global Copywriting & Content Strategy Agency","article_published_time":"2017-06-02T11:55:43+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-03-07T17:19:03+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Blank-page-1-1024x683.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Anna Fozzard","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Anna Fozzard","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/us\/insight\/think-first-write-later-planning-makes-piece-content-great\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/us\/insight\/think-first-write-later-planning-makes-piece-content-great\/"},"author":{"name":"Anna Fozzard","@id":"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/us\/#\/schema\/person\/1aa499016d8e89b274c832b5c5fdfffd"},"headline":"Think first, write later – How planning makes a piece of content great","datePublished":"2017-06-02T11:55:43+00:00","dateModified":"2025-03-07T17:19:03+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/us\/insight\/think-first-write-later-planning-makes-piece-content-great\/"},"wordCount":679,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/us\/insight\/think-first-write-later-planning-makes-piece-content-great\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Blank-page-1-1024x683.jpg","keywords":["copywriting","great content","Planning"],"articleSection":["Content strategy","Copywriting"],"inLanguage":"us-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/us\/insight\/think-first-write-later-planning-makes-piece-content-great\/","url":"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/us\/insight\/think-first-write-later-planning-makes-piece-content-great\/","name":"Think first, write later - How planning makes a piece of content great","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/us\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/us\/insight\/think-first-write-later-planning-makes-piece-content-great\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/us\/insight\/think-first-write-later-planning-makes-piece-content-great\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Blank-page-1-1024x683.jpg","datePublished":"2017-06-02T11:55:43+00:00","dateModified":"2025-03-07T17:19:03+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/us\/#\/schema\/person\/1aa499016d8e89b274c832b5c5fdfffd"},"description":"Guilty of indulging in churning witty phrases? It\u2019s time to reconsider your approach and start planning your writing to create great content.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/us\/insight\/think-first-write-later-planning-makes-piece-content-great\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"us-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/us\/insight\/think-first-write-later-planning-makes-piece-content-great\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"us-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/us\/insight\/think-first-write-later-planning-makes-piece-content-great\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Blank-page-1-1024x683.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Blank-page-1-1024x683.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/us\/insight\/think-first-write-later-planning-makes-piece-content-great\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/us\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Think first, write later – How planning makes a piece of content great"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/us\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/us\/","name":"Stratton Craig - Global Copywriting & Content Strategy Agency","description":"Written Communication","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/us\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"us-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/us\/#\/schema\/person\/1aa499016d8e89b274c832b5c5fdfffd","name":"Anna Fozzard","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"us-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/55b42191d351ce473f5fececb8547ec9f7922f6dc3a1938e6807ecbed984adb6?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/55b42191d351ce473f5fececb8547ec9f7922f6dc3a1938e6807ecbed984adb6?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/55b42191d351ce473f5fececb8547ec9f7922f6dc3a1938e6807ecbed984adb6?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Anna Fozzard"},"sameAs":["dan@dcoed.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/us\/insight\/author\/anna-fozzard\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70130"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70938,"href":"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70130\/revisions\/70938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}