Promise Headline

Before your prospective client spends 10-15 minutes of their time reading through your article, explain to them how you intend to help them through this article.

Use these questions as guidelines to this section:

• What is the result this article will help them achieve?
• How will reading this article help them in their business?
• At the end of this article, what will they be able to do, or know?

This section should make your prospective client think “This article is relevant to me and can help me — I want to read on.”

Problem Headline

Now that they want to learn more, use this section to describe the problems that they are facing.

Use these questions as guidelines to this section:

• What is your prospective client struggling with that would make them read this article?
• What would make them nod their head and say, “Yes, this sounds like my situation” as they read along?
• How can you describe their problem in a way that they engage with and understand?

This section should make your prospective client think “{Your Name} understands the exact problem I’m facing, I want to read about how to solve this.”

Method Headline

This section is where you write out your process or your teaching points.

Make a list of 3 to 7 teaching points to make up the bulk of this section. This section should be the largest part of your article. Each teaching point should be part of the promise — once the reader has read all of them, they should have a strong understanding of what you want them to get out of reading your article.

This is where you get a chance to demonstrate your expertise.

Use these questions as guidelines to this section:

• What methodology, framework, or system can you lay out to educate your prospect on their problem?
• How does your expertise apply to achieving the result or understanding outlined in the promise section?
• Can you show your prospect how to achieve this result? If so, do it in this section.

This section should make your prospect think “Wow, this is a well thought out piece. I’ve learned a lot from {Your Name} — they are certainly an expert on this topic.”

Action Steps

You’ve explained your promise, the problems, and your method — if you’ve done a good job, your prospective client wants to learn more, or take action.

Use these questions as guidelines to the end of your article, the next steps section:

Now that your prospective client has read this article, what should they do next?

• If your prospective client wants to do this themselves, what should they do? If they want to hire an expert to do this for them, what should they consider?
• Do you have any resources or content that you can give them in exchange for their name and email address that would help them achieve this result faster?
• Write out specific instructions for what they should do next to achieve this result. At the very end, feel free to include “Call-to-action” inviting them to speak with you — not a sales pitch, but let them know you are open to a conversation to help.

Encourage discussion by asking a question at the end of your article, and tell your reader to share their thoughts in the comments below.