Writing successful web articles

PATH audiences generally encounter our articles one of three places:

1. Search engine results pages: Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.
2. Email inboxes: PATH Insights, newsletters, direct communications.
3. Social media feeds: Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc.

The quantity of competing information in these environments is hard to understate. On Facebook, where 98 percent of users are on mobile devices (small screens), 500 million users post daily stories. On LinkedIn, more than 2 million posts, articles, and videos are published every day. The average office worker now receives about 120 emails a day.

In environments so crowded with information, the importance of the content is not enough to get it chosen by a reader. It must also be engaging and interesting enough to catch and hold a reader's attention.

To cut through all the noise, PATH.org articles should have four things:

1. An engaging headline: The headline of the article becomes the headline in the social post promoting it, so choose a headline that will attract a reader's attention in a busy environment—and will be short enough that the whole headline appears. Generally, that means 70 characters or less including spaces—anymore than that and your title will likely be cut of by an ellipsis like...
   
2. An engaging lede: The lede of the article becomes the description in the social post promoting it, so think about how the headline and lede work together to entice a reader to click and learn more. Together, the title and lede should give the reader a clear indication of what they're going to learn, but it should leave enough mystery that a click—and a visit to PATH.org—is required to get the whole story.
   
3. An engaging hero image: The hero image of the article becomes the image in the social post promoting it, so the hero image, title, and lede should all work together as a lure to entice a visit to PATH.org from a social news feed, or a newsletter, or similar.
   
4. A well-paced introduction that drives the reader down the page: Once a reader arrives on PATH.org, they should be greeted by a well-paced introduction that quickly moves them down below the fold. If the introduction is slow or laborious, they're more likely to "bounce" and go right back to their web browser, email inbox, or social feed.

1. Remember you are content marketing: As PATH communicators, many of us have backgrounds in research and journalism, but content marketing is for a fundamentally different purpose. When we write web articles for PATH.org, we are competing for the attention of busy and overwhelmed readers. The content's importance alone does not get it consumed.
   
2. Write along the user journey: Create (or at least review) your content in the order it will be encountered by your audience. So, when you first set out to write the article, before anything else, brainstorm some possible headline+lede+hero image combinations, balancing "clickability" with effective framing. Hint: "clickability" is primarily driven by two things: (1) news cycle relevance (which we cannot control) and (2) mystery (which we can). Do not give the whole story away in the headline and lede—leave a little bit of mystery so audiences are enticed to click.
   
3. Tell a story: Always include context, problem, and solution (though not necessarily in that order). Remember that even something that may not seem like a story can have a narrative arc. Name places and characters, quote those characters when appropriate—these things add interest and hold attention. Just like with the title and lede, tease information in one section and then reveal it in the next.
   
4. Pity the reader: People are busy and overwhelmed with information. Use simple language and short sentences. Get their attention and get to the point. And always review the user journey for friction (if at any point you are slowing down and losing interest, you can be certain your audience is too).

Over the last two years, our best performing articles on PATH.org have all followed the same basic headline/lede structure.

Headline: Interesting question /OR/ mysterious statement
Lede: PATH expert explains or adds nuance

EXAMPLE 1
Headline: With new variants, will COVID-19 tests still work?
Lede: PATH scientists unpack the diagnostic implications of new variants and outline steps the world can take to more effectively surveil the virus.

This article was written in Q&A form and is based on a single Zoom interview with PATH Diagnostic's Neha Agarwal, Troy Leader, and Lorraine Lillis. See the article here.

EXAMPLE 2
Headline: mRNA and the future of vaccine manufacturing
Lede: mRNA vaccine production is fast—very fast. What does that mean for traditional methods of vaccine production?

This article was written in narrative form (it tells a story) and is based on a single Zoom interview conducted with Dr. Simone Blayer from PATH's Center for Vaccine Innovation and Access. See the article here.