How to write marketing promotion soft articles? Sharing ten thousand words of useful information!

Note: This article is about 14,000 words long and takes 20 minutes to read, but it is full of useful information, covering all aspects of soft-text writing, marketing, operation, and promotion. At the end, it also includes some of the author’s thoughts on soft-text marketing. If you have different opinions, you are welcome to discuss.

What does soft copy mean ?

Soft articles are text advertisements that are different from "hard advertisements". The subtlety of soft articles lies in the word "soft". They allow users not to be restricted by compulsory advertising and allow for "soft promotion" in the form of text, thus providing both reading experience and embedded information.

In this process, we pursue the communication effect of gentle rain and gentle action. You may finish reading a soft article without realizing that you are being "marketed", but the information about the brand and product has quietly invaded your mind. This is the power of soft articles. While hiding their advertising attributes, they can also convey their promotional information in a way that is easy for users to accept.

Whether it is telling brand stories, leveraging hot events to bring in goods, or targeting the pain points of public demand to output product highlights, soft-text marketing is a very common method that has helped many companies achieve brand exposure, build market awareness, pave the way for the smooth launch of products, attract brand traffic, create topics, and even fight crisis public relations battles. The value and effectiveness of soft-text has also begun to gradually grow in the increasingly vast mobile Internet. It is hard to imagine that there is no brand or company that does not actively use soft-text marketing to fight market battles. What we will discuss next is how to make this battle more beautiful.

丨Why has soft-text marketing become a mainstream marketing method?

There are dozens of marketing methods under the branches of the modern marketing system, but soft-text marketing has always been the leader and has always been the most basic and widely used marketing method. The reason can be summarized as "cost-effectiveness". It is simple, useful and low-cost, so it is naturally respected and loved by business owners from all walks of life.

In today's fragmented era, people's tolerance for marketing information is getting lower and lower. From the long-standing traditional media era, no one has the patience to watch the 5-minute advertising shorts interspersed between TV series. When faced with marketing information, people are more inclined to skip or fast forward.

The emergence of soft articles makes them easy to post, produce and read. Users can just skim through the parts they are not interested in. The time they spend is controllable. They can collect, share and jump around. Users have full autonomy, and their patience and reading experience are also based on the content.

Moreover, soft articles are not necessarily linked to conversion rates. They are more reflected in helping brand public relations - establishing brand recognition and building a brand influence structure. They can greatly reflect the company's social credibility and market influence and increase the company's credibility. This is in line with the overall strategy and planning of the brand and the company. Especially in crisis public relations, soft articles are also a good helper. Not only does they have a moat built by word-of-mouth accumulation, they can also quickly and widely clarify rumors and reverse the public's impression of the brand.

At the same time, compared with producing an advertising short film and promotional video, the production cost, delivery cost, and operating cost of soft articles are much lower, and the conversion effect and coverage are quite considerable. Therefore, many small and medium-sized enterprises will choose soft article marketing when they have limited budgets. In addition, it is becoming more and more common to achieve precise delivery of soft articles through different channels and big data. These have led to the increasing popularity of soft article marketing. Especially with the advent of the self-media era and the emergence of many KOLs, soft article marketing has entered a new stage of development.

In an era when hard advertising is prevalent, soft articles, with a more scientific and reasonable input-output ratio, are favored by large and small companies and have become a marketing tool. But at the same time, after a large number of low-quality and vulgar soft articles flooded the market, consumers began to feel psychological fatigue. However, the emergence of the self-media era has enabled the continuous production of high-quality soft articles with creativity and highlights. Excellent creators have emerged in an endless stream, like mushrooms after rain, allowing "soft article marketing" to once again appear in front of the public with a strong attitude. Therefore, soft-text marketing can be said to be the most vital form of marketing.

What is a good soft article? ——Can make people "get high"

Different from traditional advertising, which aims more at "exposure", soft-text marketing aims at "conversion". It forms cognitive output through soft-text, captures the mind, and makes users think of your brand or product when making user decisions.

It is different from the "self-promotion" product introductions in Taobao stores, which is hard to believe when you look at them. In this era, users' judgment of products has shifted from the merchant side to the user side. They trust the evaluation from the user's perspective more. Therefore, the reason why Taobao's order-brushing model is still popular is that compared with merchants, users trust users who belong to the same interest camp more, and the angle and site of soft articles are based on the user's perspective.

You must have received various sales calls, such as "Do you need a credit card?", "Do you need a large data usage package?", "Do you need swimming and fitness?"... but your first reaction must be to refuse. Rejection is the nature of customers. When the audience is faced with direct and blunt promotional information, their first reaction is definitely resistance.

But a good soft article does not have obvious signs of promotion, or the "marketing attributes" are not obvious, which will not cause resistance and disgust among users. At the same time, through carefully laid copywriting traps, users can't stop reading, and even accept all the information the author wants to implant, thus realizing the user's psychological process from suspicion to trust, and even triggering user self-propagation - I think this article is interesting, and I want to let people in my circle of friends (WeChat group) take a look.

Use entry points that users are interested in, such as current affairs, gender emotions, parent-child education, etc. to successfully attract users' attention, and then output information that is useful to users, such as information that can become social conversation topics, information that can enable users to learn skills, information that can comfort users' emotions, etc., touch users' emotions through soft articles, and ultimately achieve conversion.

To make people "addicted" is not simply to incite emotions, create conflicts and magnify cracks, but it is based on deep social insights, knowing what different groups think, what they are interested in, angry about, what they love, what they despise, and what they support, and knowing their language system and expression tendencies. Only then can we guide users to pay attention, to try, and to consume. Only by making vertically segmented soft articles for different groups can we arouse users' resonance and love. It has long been impossible to become popular on the entire Internet and reach all walks of life with just one soft article.

丨Soft article skills: title chapter

“A good title is half the article” makes sense. An excellent title is equivalent to the facade of the entire soft article. It determines whether users click on it or are interested. It largely determines the lifeblood of the article. However, writing a title is often quite difficult and requires long-term training, rather than relying solely on "title party" to quench thirst with poison.

Because clickbait is damaging the user's reading experience. For example, you see an article titled "When I opened Shawn Yue's phone, I found the ugliest scene in human history", but the content of the article is that Shawn Yue is promoting marine environmental protection. The two are related, but the associations brought about by the title are completely opposite. The form of clickbait will only gradually lose the user's trust. When users see this account post an article again, they will definitely not click on it again.

It is true that clickbait is an excellent way to intercept traffic, but in the long run, it is by no means the right way, and it may even cause great harm to the entire soft-text ecosystem. Therefore, the use of clickbait should be done in moderation, and using it appropriately to attract users' attention is also a way.

Here, I share more than 20 ideas for writing titles:

1. Digital Title

"Ten unknown historical secrets, there is always one you can't imagine"

"Teach you how to increase your monthly salary from 3,000 to 30,000 in three months"

The advantage of numerical titles is that they are straightforward and simple. People are more sensitive to numbers and can more easily intuitively feel the core of the copy, leaving a deeper impression. At the same time, it makes the soft copy more convincing and credible.

2. Leverage Title

"He was invited by Wang Sicong to attend his birthday party, but now he is in this situation"

"The Longest Day in Chang'an is a big hit, but I miss the delicious food there"

The logic is that as long as you can make a connection with celebrities, internet stars, hit dramas, popular variety shows, etc., you can take advantage of the traffic. At the same time, since taking advantage of the trend is free after all, it is inevitable that there will be too many people trying to take advantage of the hot spots. Therefore, it also requires posture and level. Forcing connections and awkward remarks will only make readers feel "deceived" or even disappointed.

How to take over hot topics and naturally transition to the message you want to convey requires, on the one hand, an accurate entry point and, on the other hand, mature writing skills.

3. Revealing and warning titles

"Warning: These foods should never be eaten during weight loss"

"Uncovering the secrets of how freshly graduated college students can rise to the top in the workplace"

This type of title can satisfy people's curiosity and desire to peek, and attract clicks. For example, it reveals the secrets of the black industry, industry secrets, celebrity gossip, and warns everyone about improper practices in health, fitness, maintenance, and parenting. It can also make users click to watch in a panic.

4. Questionable title

"How to choose infant formula?"

"Don't know how to choose a 100-yuan headset? Just look here"

This type of title is suitable for SEO optimization, which is convenient for users to search and view. If done well, it can bring high exposure.

5. Use Internet buzzwords

"I am in such a difficult situation! God, please save me!"

"I've confirmed it from the look of my eyes. It's a street style of Mori girl"

The flexible use and adaptation of Internet buzzwords can increase the fun index of the title and quickly attract the attention of netizens. If used properly, it can also be a way to be witty and appear lively, fashionable and attractive.

6. Useful information sharing

"Practical Tips丨Advanced Guide to Xiaohongshu Platform Operation in 2019"
· “Share丨How to quickly heat up a relationship between two people”

It is concise, clear and targeted, and can quickly attract interested audiences. There is no need for fancy titles. Just keep it simple and have a strong purpose. The article's substance is also clearly visible.

7. Adaptation of famous sayings and quotes

"Gold will eventually run out"

"Rich people eventually marry"

It is a flash of inspiration to adapt famous quotes, proverbs, buzzwords, and ancient poems to add interest and spirituality to the title, and the title alone can make readers smile.

8. Minimalist Title

"Tencent is no longer great"

"In the era of strategic investment, the battlefield of giants"

In the title, a minimalist three-paragraph structure of "subject, predicate, and object" is used to outline the core of the article description. The language is not only refined but also precise enough. Of course, this type of title requires extremely high writing skills.

9. Associative Title

"It turns out that we have been deceived by our parents for so many years..."

"The day after I chased the school beauty, she left..."

Use curiosity-inspiring titles to arouse readers' associations and attract them to click to read and find out more. Just seeing the title is enough to arouse people's imagination. Good or bad associations are not important. As long as a contrast is created in the content of the article, making the readers have a "never expected" feeling after reading, the "routine" will be successful.

10. Conclusion Title

"It turns out that these were all rumors. Today I finally understand!"

"The human brain is only developed by 10%? Fake!"

The conclusion is used to put an end to the entire article, establish the article's point of view and core expression, and be direct and clear, quickly attracting audiences who are interested in the topic.

11. Provoking war and conflict

"The Hard Life of the Bachelor Next Door"

"I won 5 million, but I can't be happy"

By creating titles that are contradictory, conflicting, and with different concepts, it can cause readers to feel difficult to understand, resist, and disagree with the title, making it seem like the title deserves a beating, and can attract readers to click on the content to see if it is true. But at the same time, such titles should be used with caution to avoid provoking disputes and causing social conflicts.

12. Reverse thinking

"Money is earned by lying down"

"I'm so smart, I'm sure I won't achieve anything great"

Breaking the rigid thinking patterns and thinking in reverse about the commonplace and seemingly concluded views and things can often lead to novel and creative conclusions. This kind of thinking is intuitively reflected in the title, which can quickly attract the reader's attention and even surprise the reader.

13. Exaggerated titles

"20-year-old people, 60-year-old body"

"If you don't buy a water purifier, you will live at least five years less"

"My boyfriend said these 10 things and I wanted to beat him to death every minute"

Exaggerated titles are a double-edged sword. On the one hand, they can quickly attract traffic, click-through rates, and sharing. On the other hand, they can easily cause controversy. Therefore, when writing a title, you can be appropriately exaggerated, but not too much, and certainly not touch the moral bottom line, or even engage in moral kidnapping, causing readers to be disgusted and resist. At the same time, you must also be familiar with the platform's title review rules, otherwise it will easily be shot down by the platform. For example, "If you don't forward this, you're not a Chinese..." and "Shock! Titles such as "A woman sold her body in public on the street for money, and the photos have been leaked" which are exaggerated, have content that does not match the facts, and use moral kidnapping should be strictly prohibited.

14. Metaphorical Title

"Choosing a foundation is like choosing a husband"

"This Chinese version of Black Widow is so beautiful that it makes people drool."

Many things in life are mostly similar. The advantage of using metaphors is that they can make unfamiliar things appear familiar. In this process, the metaphors should be appropriate, suitable, and lifelike, rather than being used indiscriminately. For example, Mimi Meng’s "Patriotism is like bestiality" is a typical example of a wrong title.

15. Create golden sentences

"Some people you think are crazy, but in fact, they are a mirror"

"The only way to relieve worries is to get rich quickly"

Golden sentence titles are striking, impressive and unforgettable, because golden sentences mostly carry profound insights, thoughts or ridicules. Such golden sentence titles are mostly based on fixed sentence patterns such as "You thought...but actually...", "It's not...but...", etc. They can quickly write titles with unique viewpoints and strong impact.

16. Problem Solving

"Eight training methods to quickly become a devil muscle man"

"Summary of five application essay skills for MBA early interview"

Many audiences have rigid needs, such as key skill points, life skills, exercise elements, emotional guidance, etc., and this problem-solving title can directly respond to the needs of the audience, present a strong interest attribute, and attract readers to click to read and share.

17. Rhyming titles

"No matter how big the suitcase is, it can't hold a home"

"Laughing and wandering, getting fatter day by day"

"If you keep thinking about it, you will definitely be very depressed"

Rhyming with the same number of words, structure, and tone can make the title catchy and easy to read, which can quickly attract readers' favor and facilitate the dissemination and sharing of soft articles.

18. The surprising title

"Burn yourself and burn others"

"Nothing is difficult in the world as long as you are willing to give up"

Dramatic turns can often increase the appeal and artistic effect of soft articles, bringing about an unexpected "divine development" and making readers feel delighted as if "the light bulb in their minds lights up instantly."

19. Story-type titles

"Five years ago, I was a homeless person living in the park."

"How I Successfully Failed a Company"

Humans are naturally interested in stories, especially bizarre, strange, true, absurd, inspirational, and legendary stories. They also gain self-satisfaction by peeking into other people's life stories, and story titles can attract readers very well.

20. Emphasis Heading

· “I love you so much!”

·“Guangdong people are so so so so so fun!!!”

This method is more useful when targeting young groups. In the social context of post-95s, the repeated use of various abbreviations is the norm, such as "ah", "ha", "good", etc. This simplest way of emphasis is also popular among young groups.

21. Summary Title

"The Chronicle of Internet Social Networking: Internet Events Are Like a Rainbow"

"The ultimate strategy for big brands to tell good stories"

The main idea of ​​the article is highly refined and summarized, which is concise and powerful, and can also show the depth and verticality of the article's content.

After summarizing and analyzing more than 20 ways of drafting titles, I would like to share with you the experience accumulated over many years of copywriting. After all, the author has taken too many detours, but it is a good thing that only after taking so many detours can we get on the right track.

Don't be alone and die drilling headlines.

Normally, there must be more than one title for a soft article, including several alternative titles, not to mention the situation where you are not satisfied with any of these titles. At this time, you should call colleagues together to conduct a brainstorming session to discuss how to draft an excellent title and analyze the advantages and disadvantages of each title, including factors such as risk, focus, acceptance, and ultimately determine a better title.

A person's power is relatively limited, and it is normal to think hard but get nothing. It is better to open the door to new thinking and creativity through communication, and get inspiration from the collision of other people's views, rather than lying in ambush at the workbench and thinking hard, which is inefficient and difficult to improve the quality of the title.

Good titles take time to create.

The importance of titles has been emphasized before. When new readers are unaware of the quality of your content, they will largely judge whether to click on it based on the first intuitive impression given by the title. Therefore, it is worthwhile and necessary to spend time thinking about the title.

Coming up with a title never takes a minute. Thinking more, refining the title, or approaching it from another angle may produce completely different results and achieve a qualitative leap. The gap between a 1-minute headline and a 10-minute headline may be more than 10 times.

Articles with 100,000+ views all have a good title.

In the self-media industry, some of the top accounts will set up special title groups to control and discuss the titles. If you put in the effort, you will naturally reap the rewards. It is rumored that Mimi Meng will decide on 100 titles for each article with interns and then put them to the advisory group for voting.

So you can see that the soft articles of the top public accounts always appear more eye-catching and dazzling among a lot of pushes. Even if you only look at the quality of the title without looking at the source, you can know which big account it is pushed from.

A good title is an essential part of successful soft-text marketing, and can maximize the value of the soft-text content. All of the above title "routines" can be used flexibly, and even different routines can be used together. Over time, writing a "10W+" title will no longer be a difficult task.

What is the appropriate number of words for a title?

Different platforms have different rules for the number of words in the title, but it should not be too long or too short. A title that is too long is not conducive to sharing because only half of the title may be displayed due to the word limit. A title that is too long will also make the audience lose patience to read. A title that is too short may lack necessary information and elements, fail to attract readers' attention, and fail to express the core theme of the article. Therefore, the recommended word count is 16-23 Chinese characters. Of course, this is not a hard and fast rule. If you have a good title, it doesn’t matter if the word count is a little less.

SEO title optimization

In addition to normal titles, there is also the "SEO title". Some companies will do SEO optimization for soft articles to make it easier for audiences to retrieve information about related brands or products on search engines. To put it bluntly, SEO titles are for search engines (such as Baidu, Sogou, and 360), and are very different from the writing rules of "normal titles" - you only need to set simple sentences around keywords. For example, for a soft article about a certain brand of Bluetooth headsets, the keyword is "Bluetooth headsets", so the title can be set to "Which brand of Bluetooth headsets is good?" In this way, users can easily see this soft article when searching for Bluetooth headsets.

丨Soft article skills: content: tiger head + phoenix tail + bear waist

The emphasis of an article lies at the beginning and rises to the end. A good beginning is called a "tiger head" and a good ending is called a "phoenix tail". Just like the ancients writing poems, they pay attention to the beginning "well-crafted" and the ending "lingering sound".

Because in a soft article, the first thing readers see is definitely the beginning, and the beginning determines whether readers will be interested and continue reading. Therefore, you need to think carefully about how to write the beginning part in order to attract the reader's attention and "seduce" the reader to read on step by step. It must not be dull and boring, but must be colorful and eye-catching enough, while also laying the groundwork to lead to the following text.

It is recognized in the industry that the beginning is difficult to write. You need to have a clear idea of ​​how to lead the whole article and how to connect the following text. Next, I will share several ideas for the beginning.

1. Quote from classics

When writing a soft article, you can look up relevant famous quotes, proverbs, allusions, cases, etc., and put them at the beginning of the soft article. This will make it easier to retain the audience and form an impression that the author has a wide range of knowledge and high academic accomplishment. It will subconsciously increase people's trust in the article, and it will make the main idea appear profound while making it clear.

2. Rhetoric

Skillful use of various rhetorical devices is a basic ability of copywriters. An appropriate rhetorical opening, derived from the use of metaphors, metonymy, personification, exaggeration and other devices, can add a lot of color to the article.

3. Opening with the Spring and Autumn style

The Spring and Autumn style of writing, namely "subtle words with profound meaning", is a kind of language art invented by Confucius. It can be reasonably used at the beginning of a soft article. The author does not directly comment on whether something is good or bad through the depiction of details, but the readers can feel which is better or worse from the "implied praise and criticism" in the text, thereby conveying the author's subjective thoughts in a tactful and subtle way.

The opening of the article in the Spring and Autumn style of writing usually starts with a detailed description of a task, the leak of internal information or the "disclosure" of relevant people, and then develops step by step to reveal the follow-up of the soft article. This writing style allows readers to feel involved, participate in the thinking of each link, and form their own "judgment". Of course, this "judgment" is exactly what the author wants to convey.

4. Fine brushwork and line drawing

Fine brushwork and white drawing can be used in soft articles involving characters and events. The beginning of the article starts with the character's general environment, such as living environment, psychological condition, emotional life, etc., and focuses on depicting a certain aspect of the character's personality. This can create a good literary tension and arouse readers' interest in continuing to read.

5. Humor and witty jokes

Human beings have never resisted humor and wit, which is the most appealing stepping stone. Whether it is adapted or copied, starting with a joke can quickly establish the reading tone and central idea of ​​the entire text, greatly attract the reader's attention, and make reading a pleasant thing.

6. Get straight to the point

When describing an event that has a high level of attention or popularity, this straightforward approach can be used to quickly clarify the main idea, characters, time, place, plot, etc. of the article. If the event itself is not very popular, this way of opening is certainly not recommended.

7. Create suspense

Creating suspense at the beginning through imagination and speculation can arouse the audience's interest in continuing to read, commonly known as "keeping the audience on edge". It gives readers room for imagination. At the same time, as the content of the article continues to unfold, readers will want to find out more and more to verify whether their speculations are correct.

8. Create atmosphere

In some soft articles about product launches, new product introductions, new store openings, exhibition openings, etc., the atmosphere will be created at the beginning, implicitly setting off the scene with constant flow of people, large crowds, high atmosphere, high expectations, and panic buying, which can make readers feel the popularity of the products, brands, and activities.

9. Take advantage of hot spots

This type is the most commonly used in self-media. It usually starts with popular variety shows, hit dramas, hot events, major news, etc. to lead the attention, or explain, evaluate, or discuss, and then extend to the information that you want to implant through a certain detail in the hot spot. This idea is also the most common.

The beginning of a soft article reflects its attractiveness, while the ending reflects its value. If a user reads an article with great interest but finds that the ending is bad, he or she will feel disappointed with the entire article. Just as Xie Zhen said in "Shihua of Siming", "The beginning of a sentence should be like a firecracker, with a sudden and clear sound; the ending of a sentence should be like the sound of a bell, with a lingering clear sound." The "should be like the sound of a bell" here means that the poem should have a profound charm to induce deep thought and aftertaste. So how do you write the ending of a soft article?

1. Third-party blessing perspective

This kind of thinking is most commonly seen in soft articles about corporate news such as product launches, corporate exhibitions, corporate charity, and new store openings. At the end, good wishes and hopes for the future will be expressed from a third-party perspective. This type of soft article will have significant effects after reaching a certain scale and coverage.

2. Thought-provoking method

The key point of this technique is to create space for reverie and deep thought at the end, leading readers to look forward, hope, and reminisce. The so-called lingering sound lingers in the ears for three days, and the deliberate blank space can make people savor it endlessly and leave a deep impression. This is also an interactive technique, which guides readers' thinking, allows readers to use their imagination, thinking and creativity, and form an emotional resonance with the author.

3. Express your emotions

It is also common to use lyrical techniques to end the entire soft article. At the end of the article, the author reveals his true feelings, expresses a certain emotion, and expresses it with inflammatory copywriting, which allows readers to feel the author's emotional waves and form empathy, and this empathy can largely carry the product's implanted information. In this process, be careful not to say something without substance or act pretentiously, as this will only move yourself.

4. Diffusion of thinking (divine turning point method)

This method is more difficult to operate, but the benefits it brings are also more substantial. In short, it will amaze readers. The divergent ideas or surprising twists of thought that appear at the end of the article often make readers exclaim at the author's broad imagination and high talent, and give readers a "sense of satisfaction", so they can make readers spontaneously like and repost the article, accelerating the self-propagation and fission-like exposure of the article.

5. Calling method

When there is positive energy worth promoting in the article, or when the three outlooks are discussed and after generating recognition, you can call on readers to do the same at the end of the article. This kind of leadership, similar to that of KOLs, gradually outputs values, viewpoints, and behavioral guidance worthy of emulation, gradually forms appeal, and can provide a more convenient soil for future product promotion.

6. Connect the beginning and the end

In a soft article with a general-to-specific-to-general structure, the beginning and the end usually echo each other, with the topic introduced at the beginning, arguments and statements made in the middle, and the topic mentioned again at the end to bring back the core theme. The advantage of this is that the logic of the writing is self-consistent, the structure is tight, the reading experience is complete, while at the same time it highlights the theme and deepens the impression.

Yan Yu said in "Canglang Poetry Talk": "Couplet lines are easy to come by, but concluding lines are hard to come by." Jiang Kui also said in "Bai Shi Poetry Theory": "An entire article depends on the ending." Both of them indicate that an ending is difficult to write. Even though there are several routines mentioned above, in actual operation, you still need to choose to use them according to the specific situation. Of course, it is OK to use them at the same time, and use whichever method is best.

Having talked about how to write the beginning and the end, let’s now share what “chest and waist” is. It means that the content of the soft article should be full and powerful. The key points in writing it are the following three.

1. Strategic ability like a captain

You must be as strategic as a captain and have a clear plan for the entire soft article, how to lay it out, how to introduce the main point, from which angle to approach, and how to gain trust. All of these require precise strategies to guide you.

For example, if you write a soft article about medical beauty and you approach it from the perspective of good service, then you need to know how to stand from the perspective of your own organization rather than making wedding dresses for your peers. Or if you start from a technical perspective, then your strategy can be to express complex professional terms in a simple way to the audience, to eliminate the public's sense of alienation, increase trust, and make everyone believe in the professional capabilities of your own organization. At the end, at the same time, advise consumers not to choose medical beauty institutions randomly, but to choose trustworthy ones to avoid pitfalls. Selling worries can also help with precise conversions.

2. Headhunter-like insight

You must have a clear goal and know which audience your soft article is targeting, then have a deep insight into this group and dig out the main material.

Different segments have different ways of thinking and expression systems. Find out what they are thinking and understand their collective context. Then think deeply about what they need, explore the corresponding pain points, and use that to your advantage. Insight is essential in this process.

For example, a soft article about mechanical keyboards, after realizing that the consumer group is mostly otakus who are keen on games, and otakus are naturally interested in parameters, the soft article explained the various parameters of traditional keyboards in an easy-to-understand way, and threw out the slogan "Mechanical keyboards are lipsticks for men" to encourage them to consume mechanical keyboards and form a sense of superiority and pride. Sure enough, the conversion rate was quite high after the soft article was launched.

3. A sense of intimacy like a close friend

At a time when homogeneous soft articles are prevalent, resonance like that of close friends is a powerful weapon. Soft content marketing is not a place to show off your fancy words, nor does it need to shock people. Instead, it is about speaking from the heart, perceiving the needs of the audience from their perspective, and using this to sell selling points. Every word is for the needs of consumers, making consumers exclaim "This brand understands me too well, buy it!"

The benefit of a close friend’s perspective is not only to inspire resonance, but also to cultivate consumption habits. Once a brand resonates with its audience, it can guide consumers’ thoughts and tell them what habits are better. For example, a soft article about electric toothbrushes, after demonstrating through professional endorsements and example verification that electric toothbrushes are superior to traditional hand brushing methods, gradually gained recognition from readers, and then "educated" consumers to develop good brushing habits, so that consumers would not only buy electric toothbrushes, but also replace their brush heads every three months.

The content of soft articles is always "soft" .

As for the content, soft articles should appeal to consumers’ eyes, ears and brains.

Soft articles are disguised in various forms, such as industry revelations, interviews with people, news articles, forum posts, and evaluation reviews, so that users do not see them as advertisements and are not easy to reject, making the audience "soft-hearted";

The benefit of soft articles is from the perspective of close friends, rather than being exaggerated and fooling around like a shopping guide in a shopping mall. It recommends to you from the perspective of a friend to make the audience "soft-hearted";

Finally, soft articles can present a clear product portrait and create a sense of trust and professionalism, allowing users to deeply perceive the "goodness" of the product or brand and achieve "brain softness".

Some soft articles are so "soft" that you can't even tell they are real. For example, some brands will publish some industry knowledge, in-depth interpretations, and useful information sharing in professional forums. The brand is not mentioned at all throughout the article, but the author information and signature are there, which can also produce the effect of soft articles. Their professionalism can also enable target users to establish brand awareness and promote brand exposure, such as this article of mine.

The era where content is king is not far away.

In this era of rapid traffic, everyone is doing quick and easy work, including the phenomenon of pseudo-originality in soft-text marketing.

The advantage of pseudo-originality is that it has a short production cycle. Compared with the speed of original articles, the fastest is one article a day, the slowest is one article a week, while for pseudo-originality, it is normal to produce one article an hour. Pseudo-original content is created by collecting all kinds of information on the Internet, integrating it illogically, forcibly implanting information about their own brand, bragging about it, and then widely distributing it on various self-media. There are so many of them that anyone with a discerning eye can tell that they are soft articles.

The production cycle of original soft articles is indeed much longer, but the quality of their content is indeed qualitatively different. The era where content is king is not far away. The right way is to stick to the original intention and create better and more sophisticated soft-text content.

Only by producing content that is valuable to users and can solve their needs from the user's perspective can you be recognized by users. Only by continuously outputting high-quality content can you make the endless traffic stop, pay attention to you, respect you, gain trust and build reputation. In the foreseeable future, content will remain the foundation of soft-text marketing. Only high-quality content can trigger the dissemination of valuable information, allow users to pay for their time, and gain stickiness through value recognition.

丨Layout and typography

The layout of the soft article should also be as reasonable as possible, pursuing consistent views, self-consistent logic, orderly chapters, coherent paragraphs, and mutual echoes. Different soft articles also have different layouts, such as progressive type, mystery and suspense type, parallel list type, general-specific-general type, inverted type, shot editing type, etc. Different layouts are suitable for different types of soft articles and need to be used carefully.

When it comes to soft articles with large volume and many viewpoints, pay attention to the use of multiple compound titles in the typesetting, divide the content of the article, and summarize it with corresponding subheadings. The subheadings are listed in parallel, and the main headings are progressive. The logic or viewpoint of the article can be presented with a clear main line, which can greatly improve the reading experience of the article.

丨Channel, platform, release

If you want to present soft articles to the public, you need a bridge, and this is when the role of "channel" comes into play. Different channels correspond to different platforms and have different publishing rules.

Channels can be roughly divided into: industry media, local media, portal websites, self-media, forums, blogs, SEO, Baidu news sources, etc.

There are many platforms, with many different types, the most well-known ones include Weibo, WeChat, Douyin, Baidu, Toutiao, Sohu self-media, etc.

When we are promoting soft articles, we still match the corresponding delivery channels according to different promotion strategies and purposes, and the channels required by different content are also different. It is best to choose Baidu news sources or channels with high reprint rates and high weights. At the same time, we should also pay attention to some popular professional and vertical forums now to ensure that soft articles can achieve a better coverage effect.

丨Soft Article Marketing Planning

There are two levels of marketing planning. The first is strategic planning and the second is time planning.

First of all, soft articles should be unified with the overall market strategy of the brand. When formulating plans, they should be determined based on factors such as the company's strength, industry environment, and marketing style. We must clarify the direction and then plan the topic. In some soft articles, the three elements of topic selection, title and content are indispensable. At the same time, considering the delivery and paid promotion of soft articles, it also depends on the specific situation.

In terms of time node planning, most marketers will have the reference of "marketing calendar". In addition to sudden hot topics, there are also important solar terms, celebrity birthdays, anniversary, etc., and relevant soft article planning is also needed.

丨Software Marketing Tips

1. Operation: No interaction, no marketing

In today's media environment, interaction has become a necessary operation for brands to conduct marketing. If the soft article is published on a platform with high interactivity, such as official accounts, Weibo, etc., you must pay attention to the importance of interaction in comments. Among the public accounts, some top large accounts have even responded to comments of 90%. At the moment the public accounts were launched, the operators began to work busy, screening selected comments and replying to comments, interacting with readers in a timely manner, either being smart, making fun of them, or responding to questions.

Interaction can greatly increase readers' enthusiasm for participating in brands, maintain stickiness to brands, and even establish private domain traffic for brands.

2. Pictures: More attractive than text

Few people can read the soft articles of the whole text. Low pixels and inexplicable enough picture matching will also make the brand unsatisfactory. The importance of picture matching is self-evident. It can not only effectively divide the text sections and improve the reading experience, but also the information conveyed by the pictures will be easier to penetrate into the readers' minds.

Think about it carefully, no 100,000 article you have seen has been working hard on pictures. Taking time to find pictures, buy pictures, edit pictures, and even make your own pictures can add a lot of color to the article. The pictures occupy a larger section, more eye-catching, and more intuitively convey information. Some authors even express the text or part or all of them on the pictures, making the whole soft article more attractive.

3. SEO : Appropriately layout keywords

If the article wants to do SEO, the layout of keywords in the main text is particularly important, which can facilitate users to see this soft article faster when searching for related keywords, which is conducive to the soft article obtaining greater ranking weight in search engines such as Baidu.

4. Paid promotion: Choose the most cost-effective

Traditional paper media

In the era when paper media declined, its communication strength was far less than before, and it did not have the ability to communicate secondary. However, some print media also have a certain influence, especially the bosses of small and medium-sized enterprises, who like the honor of being "surpassed by major mainstream media". In addition, articles on paper media can also be reproduced by online media because there are content usage agreements signed with some portal websites. In terms of price, most of them are charged according to the number of words, ranging from 1 yuan to 20 yuan per word. Of course, there are also charges for the entire layout.

· Portal

For soft articles posted on portal websites, it is best to purchase services that have display and portals on the homepage and channel pages, rather than those that can be posted on the four major portal websites for a few hundred yuan. This kind of soft articles without links can only be found by entering most titles in search engines, and the actual effect is very small. If there are soft articles on the home page or channel page that display the entrance, it will be more valuable, but the effect will be better. Because many editors of small and medium-sized websites lack news and will directly reprint news from the portal website, so as long as the soft article is soft enough, it may trigger wider dissemination.

Social media platform

It is quite common to cooperate with KOLs on Weibo and official account platforms. It allows big Vs to help reprint or trust endorse, and even let big Vs try products to write review experiences, and comment on the pros and cons from a "neutral" perspective. It can form a higher conversion among the fan group. Of course, the quotation will also be higher, tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of yuan, depending on the number of fans, interactions, and platform.

In addition to these, there are other paid promotion channels that are not commonly used, such as top media, which do have good results under professional and reliable media endorsement. Of course, quotations of hundreds of thousands of yuan often discourage many customers, so they do not make too many recommendations.

丨Ten Thoughts on Soft Article Writing

1. Avoid self-interest in soft articles

Soft article writing is not about how good a product or brand is from the perspective of my own, but about telling them why they can choose this one from the perspective of users.

In this process, we must "be down-to-earth, speak human words, and be emotional", and do not use empty, stiff and emotional written terms, such as using less adjectives and adverbs. Such as “This razor is very useful” and “This sofa is super comfortable and enjoyable” are all failed marketing tactics.

Therefore, you can use more data to speak, use quantitative content to give the other party a clear concept, and you must stand in the user group, enter their hearts, and convey real pain points of needs.

There are also copywritings that Ant Honeycomb has used. Let’s take a look at the difference:

· Dear, 12,346 Mafengwo netizens will follow Sanya’s travel with you. Here are many real and exciting Sanya travel guides for netizens. Click to view.

· It must be full of surprises when taking friends out for fun! There are many wonderful travel notes of Sanya written by couples after they come back (with links). Hurry up and study.

The former has only a user click rate of 3.7%, while the latter is above 60%, which has a very considerable conversion effect. Therefore, express it more from the user's perspective, rather than writing it down in one go, only touching yourself.

At the same time, the core purpose of soft articles is to allow users to understand your product, not a venue to show their talents. Therefore, try to avoid uncommon words and secret opinions. The language can be beautiful or straightforward, and it is best to reach the point of "My mother can understand it."

In addition, share an idea. After writing the soft article, share it with someone who has never been exposed to this product at all, see if what he understands and accepts is what you want, and then make changes. If the other party is confused or has no selling point at all, then this soft article is a "self-satisfactory soft article".

2. The logic of a good soft article is to sell identity and trust

Nowadays, more and more soft article promotions will seek cooperation from KOL. The reason is that KOL has a high degree of trust among the fan group, so it can play a good role in selling goods. The same is true for a good soft article, which can establish recognition and trust with readers, create emotional resonance, and allow the audience to experience a sense of intimacy and desire to consume in reading.

With fewer and fewer soft articles talking about themselves, "soft articles that are not like soft articles" are becoming more and more popular. Perhaps the whole soft article does not usually mention half of the brand, and promotes a lifestyle, value concept, and universal viewpoint. However, this kind of soft article can gain the favor of the audience and arouse public opinion discussions, and the associated brands will also be noticed. This idea of ​​"get recognition first and then gain trust" has gradually become popular.

For example, in the forum, a water purifier company has long exported professional knowledge about water purifiers and told the public how to choose the right water purifier on the market, but does not mention its own brand at all. Later, after a long time, when many consumers who were paying attention to water purifiers saw these articles, because of these pertinent and practical articles, they eventually became familiar with the brand and became more and more popular with the brand, and many people were able to place orders.

3. If you want to fission, you must have sharing value.

It is definitely of interest to share soft articles. After all, if you post them on Moments, you are afraid of interfering with others, so you will forward them based on your interests. One benefit is that forwarding soft articles can obtain substantial rewards, such as coupons, free order coupons, full discount coupons, lottery red envelopes, etc.; the other is implicit rewards, which can be divided into news value, learning value, entertainment value, and sharing value.

The first three values ​​are altruistic, while sharing values ​​is selfish, so the energy is the greatest in promoting self-propagation. For example, if this soft article is forwarded, it makes me appear humorous, tasteful, temperamental, and knowledgeable, then most users will spread spontaneously and form fission. Sharing value is relatively general, but it is also the most advanced form.

Therefore, when we want to fission, we have to set sharing value, and different groups have different value orientations. For example, the focus of the lower-level group is more on material benefits such as discounts, discounts, cash coupons, cash rebates, gifts, etc.; the middle-level group is on spiritual interest factors such as decency and style; while the upper-level group is on self-worth and experience.

The reason why Xinshixiang's "I bought 30 air tickets to wait for you at the airport: Escape from Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou after 4 hours" was crazy about the screen. It not only highlighted the psychological state of young men and women in first-tier cities, but also made the white-collar workers itchy, and also sold their literary and artistic feelings. They were full of pretentious style. They successfully helped the public account to repost over one million articles and gain more than one hundred thousand fans.

4. The essence of soft articles is still advertising

No matter how soft a soft article is, it cannot avoid its commercial nature, pursue low cost and high returns, pursue brand exposure, create momentum for new products, and establish brand awareness. Therefore, there is no soft article without any brand implantation in the whole text. You can find a way to hide all marketing information and make the distance between the soft article and the news only a line, but there must be a detail that can make the audience pay attention to your brand or product, gain good impressions, or make it look familiar, as long as you can convey a certain message and form communication, it is worth it.

5. Popular soft articles often have " golden sentences "

For example, in Jiang Xiaobai's soft article, "In those years, goodbye is real, and frequent contact is fake", "Childhood is interesting, and wine comes with adults", "The long river of life, treat wine as a song", and golden sentences are frequently published, so they can quickly ignite the circle of friends.

The deep reason for its success is that Jiang Xiaobai approaches young people in the way of young people, and through soft articles, he conforms to the life attitude and concept of life of young people, making young people keen on actively spreading the culture and values ​​represented by this brand.

Even Mi Meng, who was banned, has a wrong value orientation, but she really has not lost in creating golden sentences. For example, "Stop talking, there is no talent in this world that you are not appreciated", "You don't like me? What a coincidence, so do I." "What kind of thing are you, I'm just like that."

Therefore, you still have to "immerse" your soft articles. What group are you writing about? Go to the circle they are in and chat. After a long time, you will become a group. After knowing their love, hate, likes, mental outlook, catchphrase, and way of dealing with the world, and then summarize them in an excellent copy and express them in the soft articles, which can trigger the spread of the circle and achieve a hit.

6. Good soft articles can not only meet demands, but also create demands

How soft articles drive brand sales is mainly divided into two ways.

The first one is "I need it, you just happen to have it." One thing that allows us to take the initiative to understand is the "necessary needs". When writing soft articles, you should highlight the pain points, so that users can understand what they are missing, and then tell them that they happen to have it, and it is also very good.

The second type is "I didn't need it at first, but I started to be interested in what you said." This means creating demand, or discovering hidden demands. Consumers themselves have many potential needs, which may not be known by themselves, but through soft articles, they can realize what they can get, such as becoming beautiful, becoming thinner, becoming fashionable, becoming wise, and becoming happy.

In Maslow's hierarchy of needs, when people no longer worry about the underlying needs such as food, clothing, housing and transportation, a psychological demand will gradually emerge. This need will be hidden deep in the hearts of the people and is difficult to detect, and even the person involved themselves do not know it. Based on deep insight, tapping into consumers’ potential needs and realizing marketing through soft articles is the key.

In soft article marketing, Gaoming brands are increasingly focusing on building a beautiful consumption scenario outside of the attributes of urgent needs and creating users' virtual desires. These are related to social status, psychological superiority, ideal self-image, beautiful emotional experience, and lifestyle, which can make users unable to stop.

Related reading:

1. How to plan product portfolio strategy for marketing promotion?

2. Marketing promotion: How does fission marketing achieve market “fission”?

3. Brand marketing promotion, 6 common psychological effects!

4. Crisis and challenges of marketing promotion in the first half of 2019!

5. Marketing and promotion skills: turn the masses into a “mob”!

6. Marketing and promotion skills | The marketing of Uniqlo’s co-branded T-shirts that were snapped up!

Author: 404 Tenant

Source: PR Home