Here at brandcreators.com, we're passionate about helping you develop the skills you need to start your own online business.
Nowhere is that more relevant than when it comes to creating content for your website.
While there are a variety of different kinds of content that you can create, the easiest and almost always the best place to get started, is with what we call the answer post.
Essentially we are creating a post that answers a single question that a potential customer in our Market will have.
For example, “does email marketing still work” or “can I still create content that will rank in Google in 2020?”.Today, we're going to give you all of the skills that you need to create the perfect answer post to help you answer any question that your audience may have.
The Title
To create the perfect answer post we have to start with the question itself. The title of our article should always directly reflect the question that we are trying to answer. For example, if the question we are answering in the post is “ which type of berries are best for eyesight?” The title of our post should be the same as the question.
A few quick technical notes we always want to title our posts using what is referred to as the title case, meaning the first letter of every word is capitalized.
Additionally, you'll want to make sure to keep the title two around 60 characters or fewer.
While Google will still be able to read your title if it's longer than 60 characters and understand what the post is about, they typically will only display about 60 characters on the search engine results page (SERP).
Since that is all that is being displayed, it's better to keep the title to that link.
The Intro
Once we start to fill in the blanks of our document by creating the post title, it's time to move on to the introduction.
This part of the post is generally going to be about two to three sentences long and is introducing why we are reading the article or why it is important for the reader.
we're going to end the introduction by restating the question from the title of the post.
if we return to the example we were talking about above, which types of berries are best for eyesight, our introduction may look a little bit like this.
As a holistic medicine practitioner, one of the things that I am most frequently asked by my clients is how they can use food to improve different health conditions.
In fact, the most frequently asked question that I receive all the time is which berries are the best to eat if I want to improve my eyesight?
As you can see from the example above, all we're simply giving is introducing the concept and why it's important and then restating the question so that the reader knows exactly what we are going to be covering.
The biggest place where people tend to have issues with their introduction is with the reason that they are reading the article.
Honestly, it can be any reason.
If it's truly a frequently Asked question, then just say it's a frequently asked question. It’s also perfectly valid to say it's something that you're interested in, something you were thinking about, or any other reason that you could be interested in writing about the topic works just as well.
After you create your introduction, it's time to move on to the answer.
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Given this type of post is called an answer post, it should be fairly obvious that this is probably the most important part of the entire post and it's important to spend some time crafting this in the best way possible.
Essentially, what we're looking for here is roughly three to five sentences ( paragraph) that can thoroughly explain the best answer to the question.
Since we only have a paragraph, we obviously can't get into all of the ins and outs for the “ it depends” factors.
What we're going for here is a general answer to the question.
If we return to our berries example from earlier, the answer paragraph may look something like this (Note, I’m completely making this up for the example……I don’t know anything about berries and eyesight, but I have eyes AND have eaten berries).
There are a wide variety of berries that can help improve your eyesight. Among the best are things like wild strawberries, raspberries, Buckthorn berries, and chokeberries. Each of these berries, especially their more wild varieties, is packed full of vitamin A to help keep your corneas clear and vitamin C which helps to reduce age-related macular degeneration.
As you can see, what we can do in just a few short sentences is clearly and accurately answer the question in a thorough enough way that if someone only had a surface-level curiosity about the question, that we would have answered it.
Now, this clearly won't give everybody the depth of answer that they need, but that's what we have for the rest of the article.
The Hook
By now, you're probably wondering how we can create the best answer to any given question by only writing two to three paragraphs ( which is what we were ending up to this point).
The short answer is we can't and that's why we need the hook.
For anyone other than the Casual reader, who only had a passing interest in the question that they were asking, the hook allows us to transition from the generic answer to the answer expansion, where we dive into much more detail.
Essentially we're going to use the next sentence or two to transition from the generic answer to more specific details and other questions that the reader may have.
The best way to do this is to use a sentence for transition and then propose the next question yourself.
Returning to the berries example once again, we may write a hook that reads something like the following:
Now that you have a basic understanding of a few different types of berries that could help improve your vision, you might be wondering what if they aren't in season?
Using a hook in this way allows us to transition from the first question into any of the other variety of factors that people may need to know to accurately answer the question.
The Answer Expansion
After we drafted our hook, it's time to move into the answer expansion.
This is where the vast majority of the content of our article is going to reside and we're going to use it to answer all of the follow-up questions that somebody may have after we've answered their first question.
Here, we're going to expand the article by making sure that we cover three different potential areas of clarification or expansion.
Clarification of The “It Depends” Factors
If you've been following brain creators for any amount of time you've probably heard me say” it depends” followed by a long explanation of all three reasons why it depends and how you can answer the question based on those factors.
I don't do this simply because I like saying it depends, although that has become a nice inside joke. I do it because I want you to be aware of all of the variables that may influence or change the way that I answer your question.
The same rules apply when you're answering a question in a blog post. I
If there are a variety of “it depends” factors, then you should be using the first part of your answer expansion to explain why there are variables and how the reader can use those variables to reach their own “best answer”.
For example, if we were writing a post about the airspeed velocity of a fully laden swallow oh, we should still be giving a generic answer section.
That answer may read something like:
There are a variety of factors that can impact the airspeed velocity of a fully laden swallow, such as the Geographic origin of the species and age of the bird, but the average velocity of a fully laden swallow is somewhere between 40 and 60 miles per hour.
In our answer expansion section, we would then create separate sections to explain how the geographic origin (e.g. the difference between African and European Swallows) or the age of birds could impact their airspeed velocity.
“People Also Asked”
If the answer to your question in the intersection is a simple yes or no, you should still be completing the enter expansion section.
In this case, my suggestion would be to take a look at the Google search results for the people also asked or related searches sections, to see what follow-up questions might come up.
If we decide to use this strategy as long as the questions are related, they're going to be okay to include.
I’m going to return to the berries example for a second.
In the google search results, you may see something in one of those two sections in Google like “ which fruits improve eyesight” which would not be relevant because the article is specifically about berries.
However, if we were to see some questions like “are strawberries or blueberries better for eyesight” or “ are organic berries higher in vitamin A?”
We should consider including these topics in the other extension section of the article because they are questions that the reader may have after reading the generic answer in the answer section.
Ideally, we will be able to find between three and five additional sections to include in the answer expansion.
Conversation Method
If using the people also asked section of the Google search results doesn't give you the three to five additional sections for your article, another approach is when I call the conversation method.
Since you are essentially having a conversation with the reader anytime you write a blog post, it's easy to use the conversation method to start to understand what your reader may want next.
To use this method, simply ask the original question from the article and then ask the next logical follow-up question.
After all, if you give a generic answer to someone interested in the topic in real life, they're almost always going to ask a follow-up question.
If we return to the swallow example from above, if you and I were having a conversation and I asked you about the airspeed velocity of a swallow, you told me 40 to 60 miles an hour as the answer, I would likely follow up with…… does the type of swallow matter?
You can go through this exercise either on your own, or if you feel ridiculous with a friend or partner, and you will very easily be able to find 3-5 follow-up questions that you would like to include the answers for in the article.
Once we have fully answered the follow-up questions using related searches, people also ask, or the conversation method we have one more section to complete before we're done with our article.
Summary and Recap
The last section of any good answer post is the summary in the recap section. we're going to use this section to remind them of the generic answer from the beginning of the post, so that they have something to walk away with, and to link to relevant resources if we have not done so already.
Essentially, we're going to restate the answer paragraph in different words and then direct them to the next piece of content that they may be interested in.
If we return to the berries example that we were talking about above, the summary and recap section may look a little bit like this:
As we've talked about in this article, oh, some of the best berries that you can use to improve your eyesight would include the regular consumption of chokeberries and raspberries.
Beyond simply the fruit that you eat, there's a wide variety of factors that can impact your eyesight, so you may want to take a look at our full guide on all of the different fruits and vegetables you can use to help.
As you can see in the example above we reminded the readers of the generic answer and if we had another article on all of the different fruits and vegetables that people could potentially use to help, we gave ourselves a reason to link to it.
A Quick Note
Understanding and mastering the perfect answer post format is one of the most important things that you can do when you're trying to create a Content website.
These types of posts are going to serve as the backbone for virtually any site that you want to create and being able to master how to create them in as short a time as possible, while also giving the most value, is a skill that cannot be understated.
You've been struggling to create content that ranks, you may want to check out the 7-Day content creation challenge.
Chris Shaffer
Chris lives at the intersection of business strategy and growth tactics. Having consulted with dozens of different businesses (as well as building several of his own), he brings a unique perspective on what's working across the eCommerce world in businesses of all shapes and sizes.The Simple 5-Step Process We Used To Generate $64,000 In 12 Months Working Part Time On Etsy.
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