You’ve sunk hours, hope and a half-dozen cups of Peet’s French Roast into a 950-word thought leadership article on your area of digital health expertise.
But the LinkedIn Pulse piece, which you wrote to share insights and position yourself as a leader in your field, has sparked almost nothing. Single-digit likes, no comments and no shares.
According to esteemed editor Trish Hall, author of the recently published “Writing to Persuade,” you may be one of the many “smart people who undercut themselves.”
How so? By not following some of the fundamental rules that transform an article or blog from mundane to much discussed.
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Only 18% of executives rated thought leadership pieces as excellent or very good, according to a 2019 Edelman study.
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Hall knows what she’s talking about. She was a copy editor at the Wall Street Journal and spent two decades at the New York Times. For part of her tenure at the Times, she was in charge of the op-ed page.
In her new book, which I dog-eared throughout, she covers everything from the 15 principles of persuasive writing to four common mistakes.
I’ve boiled Hall’s book down to these seven points to follow when writing a thought leadership article:
1. Surprise, always
No one wants to read what Hall calls the “painfully obvious.” The type of regurgitated article that drives your audience to cast their eyes elsewhere and think less of you — the exact opposite of your reputational goals.
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46% of executives said thought leadership had decreased their respect for an organization, according to Edelman.
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Instead, Hall hammers on the need to find a surprise approach. Look for a unique or contrary point of view, perspective or twist to a top-of-mind problem for your target audience. As Hall states, “You must add a new idea to the conversation,” tell a different story, set yourself apart.
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“Originality is critical because people will ignore ideas and stories they have heard before.”
– Trish Hall, Author, “Writing to Persuade” |
Say social determinants of health (SDoH) is your audience’s current top-of-mind problem, and you’re a telemedicine company.
If you already know what you want to say, check that your competitors haven’t already said it. Next, ask yourself, “Does my perspective make the reader look at SDoH in a new and more helpful way?” If it does not, then you need another approach.
If you don’t know what you want to say on the topic of SDoH then read what’s out there and look for a gap. Maybe you have an unexpected client story or some surprising data that addresses this gap? Readers crave the unexpected.
2. Respect the reader
Yes, you know who you want to reach with your article. But do you know enough about their values, current state of mind and the problems that haunt their sleep at 3 a.m.? What’s keeping them awake is what they’ll read about.
Hall says that by thinking about and listening to your audience before you write, you are showing them respect. She says this will increase your odds of winning them over.
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“If you want to persuade people to listen to you, you need to listen to them first. You can’t possibly influence them if you don’t know how they feel.”
– Trish Hall |
The best thought leadership articles focus on your audience and what new things they can learn, coupled with what you feel strongly about within your area of expertise.
3. Limit your scope
At Rock Health Summit 2019, Dr. Atul Butte, Director of Bakar Computational Health Sciences Institute and Distinguished Professor at UCSF, advised digital health startups that “the more vertical you can get the better.”
The same applies to your thought leadership articles; you want to limit your scope. Why? Because comprehensive articles often contain sweeping generalities that disengage readers, according to Hall.
By covering a narrow area instead, you can delve deeper and your audience can more easily get their arms around the message and takeaways.
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“Focus on one or two big ideas.”
– Trish Hall |
4. Be specific
Generic copy does not grab readers.
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“If you make your point vivid – a twist in language, a startling idea – people will pay attention and be less likely to zone out. If you write in generalities and fail to use concrete, tangible details and images, your work will fall flat.“
– Trish Hall |
You want the reader to quickly see and absorb what you’re trying to say by adding color and details to information with specific, real-world examples.
To illustrate her point, Hall praises this first sentence of an article submitted to the New York Times by a former hedge-fund trader:
“In my last year on Wall Street my bonus was $3.75 million – and I was angry, resentful.”
The precise amount makes the sentence more powerful than if he left the description at “my bonus was substantial.” Readers can see $3.75 million but not “substantial,” which is relative and vague.
The trader’s first sentence also meets Hall’s surprise-the-reader criteria. The sentence hooks readers to want to read more because we don’t expect the treader to feel “angry, resentful,” and we want to find out why.
5. Tell stories for memorability
“Facts won’t convince people,” Hall writes as she presents research and studies to support her statement.
Not that facts aren’t necessary, especially surprising ones that support your ideas and provide credibility. People, however, believe stories more than facts. Neuroscience shows that our brains are wired for stories, and we’re more likely to remember them.
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We remember information when it’s weaved into narratives “up to 22 times more than facts alone.”
– Jennifer Aaker, General Atlantic Professor of Marketing at Stanford Graduate School of Business
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Because stories are emotional, Hall says they “draw people in.” Although she notes the effectiveness of injecting personal experiences into an article, she also argues that by tapping into an emotion of your audience, such as frustration or apathy, you can better engage them.
6. Start strong
Parachute in! Hall recommends that you ideally grab the reader in the first sentence, setting up the problem or gap straight out of the gate.
She suggests starting your article with the answer to this question about what you’re writing: “What is the most interesting thing?”
If you do this, Hall says you will “pull readers along with you” and decrease the likelihood that they’ll ditch your piece.
7. Ax the jargon
Sure, jargon can be helpful as shorthand. But at best, jargon adds nothing fresh to a sentence. At worst, jargon masks.
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“Meaningless jargon leads to misunderstanding and hype. And it allows broken systems to thrive.“
– Christina Farr, Technology and Health Reporter, CNBC |
To remove jargon from your writing, scour your sentences for phrases that you wouldn’t use in conversation. Hall recommends sleeping on what you’ve written and to review it as soon as you wake so “you can be your own editor.”
If you follow all of the above points, you increase the chances your thought leadership article will resonate with readers, enhance your reputation and elevate you above the crowd.
After all, high-quality articles that influence key decision-makers are hard to come by. Remember, only 18% of executives rate thought leadership pieces highly. Thanks to Trish Hall’s tips, you can be that 18%.
