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How to organize a how-to story

5 steps to a stellar service story

Service stories aren’t news articles. Which means that the inverted pyramid isn’t the right structure.

tip sheet format
Step by step to a service story Tip sheets, aka how-to or service stories, work for everything from content marketing to social media to news releases. Here’s how to write a terrific tip sheet. Image by docstockmedia

Instead, use the feature-style story structure, and organize your piece like this:

Learn to write tip sheets, survey stories & more with Ann … >>>

Introduce your piece in the intro.

1. Illustrate your point in the lead. Grab attention by showing instead of telling, as in this piece on 7 steps to service stories.

When the folks at Topolobampo, Chicago’s cathedral to Mexican cuisine, wanted to sell more syrah, they didn’t put signs on the tables saying ‘Buy wine!’ Instead, they provided nifty little tabletop tip sheets on how to pair wine with Mexican food.

2. Summarize your story in the nut graph. Now that you’ve grabbed reader attention by showing, it’s time to tell folks where you’re taking them.

Take a tip from Topolobampo: Instead of always pushing your products, offer your customers news they can use to live their lives better. Tip sheets position your organization as the expert in the field and may drive more sales than purely promotional pieces.

Get the rest of Ann’s tip sheet structure. >>>

How long should your content be?

How long should your blog post be? Your mobile headline? Online paragraphs? Sentences and words?

Get Clicked, Liked & Shared, our content-writing workshop that starts April 18Learn to write readable content-marketing pieces that don't overwhelm readers — even on their smartphones — at Get Clicked, Liked & Shared, our content-writing workshop that starts April 18.

You’ll learn the most effective length for content-marketing pieces, online paragraphs, sentences and words. Then you’ll analyze your message with a free online writing tool and get tips and tools for meeting those targets.

Plus: Entice visitors to read more of your story by hitting one key on your keyboard more often. And learn to avoid using one “unretweetable” punctuation mark.

Save up to $100 with our group discounts.

Register for Get Clicked, Liked & Shared, our content-writing workshop that starts April 18