As I’ve said before, overcoming perfectionism is not an excuse to publish sloppy or uninspired writing.
Content that works for your business is not only clear, accurate, and educational, it also gives insight into your values. And if it doesn’t contain aspects that make it memorable, it’s not going to work.
Of course, memorable content doesn’t automatically lead to conversions. But forgettable content amounts to time and energy you spend on work that doesn’t move prospects closer to making purchases.
Memorable content makes an impact on your audience members’ lives … and when they’re ready to buy something you offer, your product or service will be the only reasonable choice.
So when it’s time to edit an article into a winning presentation, where do you start?
Here are five smart strategies that help turn your drafts into memorable content.
1. Locate your goal
You should be able to succinctly state why you’re going to publish the piece of content you’re editing.
Identify how the article serves both your audience and your business. That statement won’t go directly in your text most of the time, but it helps influence the message you’ll communicate.
Your introduction should support your goal. It’s your chance to answer the unofficial question going through every reader’s mind when they look at the beginning of an article:
“Why should I care?”
When you present a taste of the most important information right away, it gives the reader confidence that they’ll get even more of what they’re looking for if they keep reading.
Then the rest of the article can reveal more compelling details that provide a payoff for the time the reader invested in your content.
2. Customize your message
When you have a goal in mind for a specific piece of content, it’s important to remember that other people in your niche might have the same goal for a piece of content they create.
That’s okay.
It should drive you to infuse your content with all the special qualities only you can provide.
Is there something about your topic that’s difficult for most people to understand, but you have a simple way of explaining it? Or, have you spent time mastering a subject and share your expertise in an unconventional way?
Look for creative ways to demonstrate why your business website is the best resource.
Now it’s time for one of our favorite disclaimers here at Copyblogger:
Aiming for “memorable” is not permission to be a train wreck, disrespectful, or offensive.
None of those qualities build memorable content that builds your business.
Having a thoughtful point of view that satisfies your target audience in ways that other content on other websites does not is what memorable content is all about.
It stands out because it educates in entertaining, enjoyable ways.
3. Mop up “unicorn vomit”
Unicorn vomit (noun): excessive text that lacks value.
It’s inevitable that some people will disagree with you or won’t particularly like your writing style … and those people might not be who you want to attract. What you want to avoid is turning off level-headed, engaged prospects.
If your tone or language distracts your ideal readers from your message, you’ve crossed the border into less-effective-content territory.
For me, it comes down to respect. Don’t waste your audience’s time.
To the untrained eye, unicorn vomit looks like aspects that customize your message. But as Sonia put it:
“Sometimes well-meaning attempts to give your writing life end up producing writing that’s silly, trivial, cluttered, or condescending.”
Editing is the perfect time to extract the goodness you intended and toss out the parts that may harm your credibility.
4. Cut out (but save) tangents
Context plays a huge role when determining what is, or is not, excessive text that lacks value.
The trick is recognizing when information goes beyond the scope of a post.
Some of that unicorn vomit, such as a funny or heartwarming story, might fit perfectly in another article or content series.
I begin writing all of my articles in plain text files, and I keep a section at the bottom of each one for all the unicorn vomit I cut out.
When I review those sections later, I sometimes find great sentences for future articles or even post ideas — they just didn’t work in the original places where I wrote them.
5. Streamline similar sentences
You often need to elaborate on a point to express yourself clearly, but one thing that makes editors salivate is spotting two sentences that repeat the exact same information.
The words in the sentences may be different, but the writer reveals nothing new.
Editors love these spots because our “you’re wasting your readers’ time” alarms go off.
When you edit your own writing, it takes practice to recognize the areas where you’ve repeated yourself.
Proofreading from the end of your document to the beginning can come in handy. It forces you to evaluate your words from a different perspective.
Why I chose 5 editing tips for this post
I could have given you a longer list of editing tips, but my goal for this post (see tip #1) was to provide a go-to process you could easily use the next time you edit a piece of content. 🙂
If you simply focus on these five ideas every time you review your writing, you’ll sharpen the quality of your content.
Then you can add on more steps that work for you. Share the specific ways you fine-tune your drafts in the comments below.
Reader Comments (18)
Stacey says
Stefanie, I had to chuckle to myself, b/c I am editing an article written by one of my writers, and all I’m thinking is, you said that already . . . you said that already. Don’t get me wrong, she’s good, but sometimes it takes a fresh pair of eyes to see how reiterative we’re being. Lovely reminder for us. Thanks.
Stefanie Flaxman says
That’s a great point, Stacey! It’s not that the writing is bad. It’s just … “You said that already.” 😉
Jitendra vaswani says
Hey,
I must say this is a very informative article. Editing your content the right way is very important to gain the interest of your readers, and I think you mentioned almost all the points about editing. Thanks for sharing this article.
Have a great day ahead.
Michael LaRocca says
These are all excellent considerations when self-editing, and they’re also fine reasons to let someone else read your writing before your target readers see it.
(“Someone else” can easily be you a few hours later. As long as you’ve all but forgotten what you wrote or meant to write, so that all you see is what’s in the writing itself, that’s a fine edit.)
Stefanie Flaxman says
Getting your draft finished early enough to edit a few hours later or the next day is half the battle!
Shantanu Sinha says
Hello Stefanie,
Great tips over here 🙂
Organizing our content and editing it in a wasy, so that more and more readers are being attracted to our blog.
People to take interest in those article which are edited in a good manner. I love the concept of Unicorn vomit.
Letting go the excessive sentences, which can be create over crowded niche.
Thanks for the share.
Shantanu.
Sandeep Rathore says
Hey Stefanie,
This is indeed a good read, like your other article. Editing is an essential part of any kind of writing. As rightly said by Sarah Vowell,
“I’m a big fan of editing and keeping only the interesting bits in.”
Sandeep Rathore says
And shoot me for the typo (other articles*)
Stefanie Flaxman says
Typos are quite forgivable around here, Sandeep. 🙂
Champagne says
Proofreading from the end of your document to the beginning can come in handy. It forces you to evaluate your words from a different perspective.
I am going to start doing this! This looks like it could be very helpful!
Rachel L says
Wow, Unicorn Vomit… that’s a new one on me!
It did bring to mind a blog post I read this morning – or tried to read, and gave up on. I’m part of a Facebook group which shares a blog post thread weekly. It’s been a great place to find new blogs, so I like to go through it. I clicked on one today that had a promising headline. The blog was cute and I liked the content that the author was writing about – but the writing itself was so jarring! It was excessively casual – run on sentences, lots of clumsy vernacular – very messy and disjointed. I like a casual writing style and I gave it a real shot, because I like to support bloggers. But I gave up after about four paragraphs. I reflected that the writer had basically turned me away from a blog I wanted to be interested in because of her poor writing. It’s a great lesson for me, though! I will be extra careful when writing my own blog posts.
Stefanie Flaxman says
Rachel, that’s a terrific example of why we discourage “unicorn vomit.” Casual writing can also be polished, so it doesn’t turn off interested readers. Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Carlos Lorenzo says
Five simple steps and yet essential for your editing. Sometimes imagination runs wild but content is so unpolished that you lose credibility and further reading. Thanks for your ideas Stefanie!
Morrisey says
#3. Mop up “unicorn vomitâ€? was my favorite, but the entire article is full of great advice! When I write, I tend to add a lot of extra words on my first pass through. I then go back and “clean up” areas that contain “unicorn vomit” by deleting entire sentences sometimes.
I really enjoyed your simple 5 point list and I will use it in the future. Thanks!
Emily Somple says
I loved this…I am sharing this with my staff. Thanks for sharing.
Stefanie Flaxman says
Thanks, Emily!
Bent Mikkelsen says
All great points. As a publisher that edits my own content while leaning on our editorial dept. for proofing, I have always found that sleeping on it and returning to an article the next day enables me to see my content from a new angle. its here i get the satisfaction and sometimes a good laugh at whoops: said that already!
Dennys Delgado says
This is great. I’m trying to get our whole team involved in blog writing but most are not great writers. While I am not the best either, I have to edit them so this will be very helpful.
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