“Pop quiz hotshot. There’s a bomb on a bus. Once the bus goes 50 miles an hour, the bomb is armed. If it drops below 50, it blows up. What do you do?” – Howard Payne, Speed.
Strong scripts, like strong blog posts (and sharks if they want to stay alive), have to maintain a swift pace.
The greatest films never seem too long to their fans. They push you from one scene to the next using suspense, surprise, dialogue, intrigue and a number of other screenwriting tricks to keep your attention.
Fortunately you don’t need an in-depth understanding of all of these techniques to know how to build momentum into your writing. You just need to remember these important points:
- Each line should build on (not repeat) the previous line
Companies get bogged down in writing by saying the same thing several different ways in a lengthy paragraph. This wastes valuable content space that can be used to reinforce your message.
For example:
“At ABC Systems we provide a fast delivery of service. We make sure that you have your product quickly and without delay. Throughout our company history our reputation is for providing a swift service to customers services to customers.”
In other words, they’re fast. But how else could we use those other sentences to build on the first?
“At ABC Systems we provide a fast delivery of service”
“You can receive products same day, or book a time of arrival to suit your schedule”
“For 20 years we have been providing [products] to customers with a 98% accuracy of delivery time.”
You can see here that in addition to reinforcing the message of “we’re fast”, the content also introduces:
- The convenience of the service (choosing their booking time)
- Building trust and credibility through the company history and track record
Look through your own corporate content. Are you repeating the same message? Or Reinforcing it while introducing other selling points?
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