It’s that time of year again. Yes, you guessed it, the planning stage. Getting things in order. This is the time to pen New Year’s resolutions, probably only to ditch them by the 12th of January. Mine start with the ceremonial unlocking of the childproof kitchen cupboard, the dark place where my husband stores our cache of promises from the past five years. These impertinent little pieces of paper are released like a rabid animal on the 2nd of January to reflect on while enduring the obligatory second day of a New Year’s Eve hangover. 

I recently wrote an article for a B2B client and it struck me that being creative, or in fact being a good writer isn’t enough in this line of work.

Having sound business acumen is often overlooked in the creative professions. There’s almost an expectation from some clients that a writer will probably be a socially inept, brooding character with a penchant for drinking excessive amounts of tepid whiskey. Wow, I’ve just described myself. No, I really haven’t. (Honestly). But there can be a preconception that writers are oddballs with strange habits, but as long as they get the job done, it’s ok.

Dare the mention the sales funnel in certain company, and you will almost certainly open up a Pandora’s Box of debate. From dissension and provocative statements about the death of the model, (metaphorical tombstones swimming before your very eyes: “RIP simplistic and harmonious marketing to certain sales trajectory.”) To old-school salespeople trumpeting its attributes, probably panic-stricken at this notion, senselessly waving funnels pilfered from the kitchen whilst communicating to the outside world on oversized typewriters by candle light.

Back in the real world, people generally agree that the sales funnel is a useful tool. Is it defunct as a modern B2B business model? No! It’s a massive oversimplification but we all know that, right? 

It’s all too easy to lose momentum in the face of a challenging project. The term bandied around in these unfortunate circumstances is [cue ominous music and lots of echo] Writer’s Block. And while this depressing syndrome has claimed many victims and undoubtedly has a lot to answer for, there can be another, less histrionic and impressive problem. The cheeky little culprit is often just down to a lack of structure.

This is a little like going down the rabbit hole, talking about writing a good blog, in a blog. It has the problematic effect of shining a light on said post. But enough self-retrospection (although this aside does neatly tie into the first point, below), this is about writing a successful, clickable and shareable blog. Among the many factors to consider, these five key points reign supreme: