At its heart, writing is an art form. While based on communication, the ability to twist words and turn phrases has long been an attractive skill. Writing creatively in the technology marketing space has its challenges. Marketing itself has been tremendously impacted by technology and the ease it brings to communication. With that ease has come a lot of traffic to fight through, creating a demand for high quality content that is both properly researched and contains original thought. Collaboration is key when brainstorming blog ideas, and developing eye-catching titles is important, but how do you start once the onus is on you to create the piece?

Almost all research these days begins with Google. You’ll want to search your blog title and any variations that will help you identify relevant articles. Find a minimum of 8 relevant articles to begin your research. Be sure you’re using reputable sources and the material is not outdated. Statistics published more than a few years old should not be used in most cases, unless you are citing a shift in view or activity.

This allows you to learn about the subject so you can form your own ideas. Rather than copying someone else’s work, you'll want to educate yourself on the topic prior to beginning the writing process. This not only helps with your current piece, it will give you a solid knowledge base for future articles on similar topics.

Some of your subheadings will combine into each other as you write so you want to have more than you need. This helps you to develop the flow of your article and to stay on topic. Utilizing an outline will help you maintain continuity throughout your piece. A quality outline will also make the writing go more quickly.

Once you’ve broken your article into workable sections, you’ll want to search for articles that explain the importance and relevance of each subheading as it pertains to your overall theme. This technique will give you more specific insights into your proposed solutions and will add depth to your writing.

When performing your subheading research write an opening sentence under each subheading that introduces the reasoning for its inclusion in your article. Again, this will help the flow of your writing and ensure a strong opening to each section that will grab the attention of your readers.

Cycle back to the beginning of your work and complete writing each section individually. Be sure to link to any references, relevant industry articles as well as your own web pages and blogs. This will protect you legally, keep visitors on your website and help with your on-page SEO.

Your introduction should be attention grabbing and set expectations for the rest of your piece. Essentially you want to summarize your article and create enough intrigue to get them to click on it. In most cases your introduction will be used in your meta description as well as social media posts. Being the most forward facing aspect of your blog other than its title, a good deal of work should be put into making it right. Your conclusion should reinforce what your article is meant to teach, and validate your solution. Many times your conclusion can be incorporated under your final sub-heading.

While not every section needs to be exactly the same length, you want to avoid drastic disparities with a single blog post. This will make your format more attractive and your content easily digestible. Many people skim articles and optimizing your formatting to make that easier will help you develop loyal readers and potential customers.

Including a small paragraph at the end of your blog that introduces your company and its services will help you build brand recognition while distributing content to the far reaches of the web. Make it known who you are and what you do but avoid being overly self-promotional. Include keywords and direction on next steps. This paragraph will serve as the introduction to your call to action.

Proofreading and editing is essential in creating a polished piece. While you always want to proof your own work, it is  best to have a second set of eyes go through your work. It can be difficult to catch your own mistakes and what makes sense to you, may not be universally understood. You also want to ensure your format and design make it easy for the reader to digest and is optimized for skimming. Once you’ve reached this point, it’s time to find some high quality images and graphics to highlight your work and get to publishing.

Founded in 1990, Winn Technology Group is a leading provider of global, multi-channel marketing solutions for the technology industry.   For both direct and channel sales, Winn supports demand creation, account-based marketing, channel management, digital marketing, social media, teleprospecting, lead nurturing, event marketing, database services, and inbound response management.