In Episode 8, Gareth, Head of Content at Social INK, is talking about how to create engaging content for your blog posts and articles that you’re writing. It’s an old technique, and you may have even been taught about it in school (who remembers those days, right?).
When you’re writing an article asking, and answering questions, is a great way to help readers engage with your content. As most journalists will tell you, the key to a great article lies in the 5 W’s and the H.
Yep, that’s right, the good old Who, What, Where, When, Why and of course, the How.
We hope you enjoy the episode, be sure to subscribe and as always, let us know any feedback you might have.
Show Notes
- What are the 5 Ws and the H? [01:55]
- Who & What [02:21]
- Where [02:52]
- When [03:11]
- Why [03:21]
- And of course How [03:52]
Read the transcript
[00:00:09] Hey everyone. I’m Gareth, Head of Content at Social INK. And welcome to another episode of the all about digital marketing podcast. The podcast dedicated to Insight, News, hints and tips to help you improve your all round digital marketing game.
[00:00:25] Today I’ll be talking about questions and how you can use questions as a writing prompt to help you get started on your next blog or article. This is a technique I use regularly for both Social INK and client content. It’s derived from the journalistic approach to writing news stories.
[00:00:44] That’s using the five W’s and H. Questions are a great way to engage your reader from the very beginning. It’s a good way of signposting what’s to come later on in the article and an easy way to present all the most salient points, the useful information straight to the start. So that if they’re not interested in reading the whole article at least once they’ve left your blog they’ll have taken something of value away with them.
[00:01:11] So you kind of give them the highlights, the immediate answers, something that they can take away if they’re not interested in reading the article, they’ve taken something of value. However, you may find that by asking questions at the beginning and giving a slight indication of what the answers might be, they find an interest in reading the rest of the article and continue to read what you’ve written and therefore develop that response to those questions. So questions are a great way of either drawing people in to read your entire blog or article or at least giving them something quick that they can take away if they need to move on somewhere else. So what are the five W’s and H.
[00:01:55] These are the who, the what, the where, the when, the why and the how.
[00:02:00] Now these five W’s and H, these six writing prompts are a great way to act as a catalyst for writing to stimulate your writing but also to track your writing as you’re going through your articles or blogs. So lets boil these down and simplify them for you.
[00:02:21] Who: If you start with who, you’re looking at who is the article about, who is involved, who is this piece for? Address this early on so that they know whether the piece that you’ve written is relevant. Next move on to the what. What is the topic, what are you talking about? What are you trying to explain in your blog? Again signpost this early on so that people can either continue to read or if it means B move on.
[00:02:52] Where where can they find more information. Or if you’re writing about an event where will it happen or where has it happened or did it happen. Okay so this is another prompt that you can use early on again to signpost details that they can find out further down in the article.
[00:03:11] Again related to where is when, when is it happening. If it’s related to an event if it’s related to something that’s happening or has happened. When? When did it occur.
[00:03:21] And the final W is the why. Why is it of use? Why should they read? What are the pain points that this article, this blog is addressing and why is it important to your reader?
[00:03:33] So those are your five w’s. They kind of give you the immediate insight that you need for for any reader to either establish whether they have taken enough from this opening paragraph, this opening section, or whether they’re interested in finding out more from the rest of your article.
[00:03:52] What follows then, is the how. How can they take action? How can they learn more? How can they do something with the insight you’ve shared?
[00:04:03] By using the five W’s and an H early on and throughout your piece, you are signposting and guiding your reader through your content and addressing their questions, their needs and giving them something of value.
[00:04:15] Hope you found this nugget of information useful to you. Hope it helps you with your writing in future. Be sure to let us know how it’s going. Email podcast@christopherb270.sg-host.com and let us know how you’re getting on with our hints and tips.
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[00:05:04] That’s all for this episode of the All About Digital Marketing podcast. I hope you enjoyed the show. Thanks again for listening and catch you next time.
