The 3-Act Structure for Plays and Blog Posts

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The three-act structure dates back to the days of Aristotle, Gabriel Pereira reminds readers of Writer’s Digest. In Act I, the status quo is revealed, describing the world in which the story is going to take place. This first act sets the tone and gives the story a reason for starting at this particular place and time. At the end of Act I, there is either an event that shakes things up for the character, or a choice the character must face.

Act II is usually the longest of the three acts, Pereira explains. Here subplots and supporting characters can be added. It is in Act II that the character makes a choice and changes his or her outlook. By the beginning of Act III, the character has reached his/her lowest point, and, by the end, readers get a sense of closure and resolve.

One function of any marketing blog, of course, is to provide valuable information to consumers highlighting the benefits to be gained by using a certain product or service or by following a certain plan. But writing for business needs to draw attention to the “flip side of the calculator”, meaning the costs of waiting to take action. In your blog post, “Act II” might be a good place for the post’s first CTA (call to action), showing readers how to put what they have learned to use.

While the three-act design is by no means the only possibility, Pereira admits, many works of fiction do follow that design because it has a clear beginning, middle and end. “Done well, it takes the reader on a satisfying journey.”

The three-act structure has great relevance to the order in which information is presented in effective blog posts. Online readers will have landed on your blog because they are interested in finding information on your topic and possibly making a purchase. They need immediate confirmation that they’ve come to the right place. To that end, according to blog mavens Shel Holtz and Ted Demopoulos, key words and phrases should be among the first words in your blog title and then reappear in your first lines of the post. Then, at the “back end”, (Act III), the “pow” closing statement should tie back, we teach at Say It For You, to the opener.

Of course, when it comes to content marketing through blogs, the reader’s “journey” isn’t over at the end of the post. As writers, we can do well today what we may not have done so well yesterday or the day before.  Since blog posts typically appear in reverse chronological order, I explain in Say It For You training sessions, your best blogs will be the ones searchers see first!

The three-act structure can work well for both plays and blog posts!

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How Not to Write a Letter or Blog Post

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“When you write a business letter to a stranger, never keep to the point,” is Anna Stevens Read’s tongue-in-cheek advice to authors. “Indulge in lengthy discussions – for all you know, the person may not have the average amount of intelligence.”

While dripping in sarcasm, Read’s piece actually emphasizes a number of important points which content writers of every ilk would do well to heed:

Keeping to the point
In a sense, focus is the point in blog content writing. At Say It For You, we firmly believe in the “Power of One”, which means one message per post, with a razor-sharp focus on just one story, one idea, one aspect of your business, geared towards one narrowly defined target audience. Decide up front what your point it, then stick to it, is our advice to content creators.

Respecting readers’ intelligence
Over-explaining is symptomatic of authorial insecurity, K. M Weiland tells book authors.  As a corporate blogging trainer, I agree. We have to assume our online readers are a) intelligent and b) by definition, interested in our subject. The University of North Carolina’s Writing Center is saying much the same thing, telling students to write their essays in a manner that treats their instructors as an intelligent but uninformed audience.

Addressing “what they want to hear”
“Do not ask yourself what your friend wishes to hear. If her interest is in clothes, describe your houseplants.” Uh-uh. At Say it For You, we teach that, in addition to having a focused topic for each blog post, writers must have a specific audience in mind, choosing the best evidence for that target audience.  Smart blog content marketers know there are many subsets of every target market group, and that not every message will work on every group. Is the viewpoint you’re presenting relevant to a current need or conversation or trend?

Providing variety
“Never think of variety or of what kind of letter you last sent in that direction,” Reads quips.
In blogging, as we continue to write about our industry, our products, and our services, we’ll naturally find ourselves repeating some key ideas. But it’s the different examples we use – of ways our company’s products can be helpful or the ways problems are solved using our services – that lend variety to our blog posts. In addition, variety can be offered in sentence and paragraph length, and in the layout of the post itself.

Careful use of humor
“These directions, faithfully followed, will soon save you from the nuisance of writing letters,” Reads humorously summarizes. As a blogging trainer, I admit to having mixed feelings about humor in business blogs.  While I’ve no doubt about the power of laughter to forge connections, humor has to be handled with care not to offend.

No, it’s not funny…..Keeping to the point, respecting readers’ intelligence, and providing variety – those are the very skills successful content creators must master.

 

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Blog To Add To What They Already Have

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Sales people who upsell and cross-sell say doing that adds up to 30% to their revenue, Sophia Bernazzani of Hubspot relates. Cross-selling, she explains, encourages the purchase of an “extra” in conjunction with the primary product, while up-selling offers an upgraded version of the product a prospect has just agreed to purchase.

This very wisdom can be applied to online content marketing. In fact, “after-the-fact” online selling is a perfect goal in creating blog content. By tying the “extra” benefit to something online prospects have already demonstrated is important to them (as shown by the very fact they’ve arrived at your blog!) you can demonstrate how adding a service or product (or downloading a usage guide) can enhance the benefit of what they already own.

“The typical sales process involves several stages, beginning with the pre-approach and ending with customer service,” Libraries explains in the course “Customer relationships and Selling Strategies”. The four basic sales strategies, the article goes on to explain, include:

  • script-based selling
  • needs-satisfaction selling
  • consultative selling
  • strategic-partner selling

In an after-the-fact (up-selling) situation, the presentation (the blog post) “shows how the offering satisfies the needs identified earlier”. The blog post reviews the FEBA (feature, evidence, benefit, and agreement), reaffirming the wisdom of the prospect’s choice of the existing product or service, showing how the added information, service feature, or product will enhance the benefit.

“Having a larger number of choices makes people feel that they can exercise more control over what they buy. And consumers like the promise of choice: the greater the number of options, the greater the likelihood of finding something that’s perfect for them,” Sheena Iyengar and Kanika Agrawal assert in The Art of Choosing.

Can business blogs help potential clients and customers make better, sometimes complex, decisions? A possible path to achieving that precise result, we have found at Say It For You, involves suggesting questions readers can ask themselves while choosing among many options for adding to products they already own or to services they already use. (Do they want greater ease of use? Better functionality? Additional future capabilities?)

Use content marketing to show how your product or service helps customers use what they already have!

 

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Blogging to Pitch, Query, and Propose

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Reading Amy Jones’ fascinating article “Pitch vs. Query vs. Proposal” in Writer’s Digest reminded me of the sales function of blog marketing. Just as writers need to capture the attention of editors, we aim to convert our clients’ website visitors into buyers. Not to strain a synonym or wax overly philosophical, book writers need to first capture the attention and interest of the editors, with the ultimate goal to reach readers. To capture the attention of potential buyers, business owners and professional practitioners need to capture the attention of an appropriate segment of web surfers, going through the “filter” of a search engine. ….

But, do blog posts lead to purchases? Pamela Bump of Hubspot cites the firm’s 2021 executive Marketing Leadership Survey: Asked “Have you ever purchased something from a company after reading a blog post from them?”, 56% sais “Yes”; 20% of marketing leaders described blogs as “one of their most important channels for hitting goals.

the Pitch
In the pitch, Jones advises writers, tell the editor or publisher why you are the best person to write about a particular topic for of that publication. In other words, show at you and that publication would be a good match. The parallel in blog marketing? Make it easy for search engines to understand what you do, and where you fit. No, Pat Ahern of inter-growth.co, says, people searching the web aren’t ready to pull out their wallets, but answering a question of our target audience can be the first step in them checking out our blog.

the Query
A query, Jones goes on to tell writers, say, takes the form of a letter to an agent or editor accompanied by a sample or excerpt from the novel or article. “If you’re a plumber, remind readers when and how to winterize,” Marc Prosser of SCORE advises business owners. In other words, establish your authority in your field. By sharing your expertise, you’re building customer loyalty and demonstrating a “match” with common search terms.

the Proposal
Having stimulated some show of initial interest in your article or book, Jones now tells writers, you are ready to create an actual proposal, detailing the “product”, showing evidence of need for need for a new approach to the topic, and some actual “specs” of your manuscript. Blog content writers can share valuable information about both the features and benefits of their products and services, adding testimonials from former and existing clients.

Blog to pitch, query, and propose!

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Using the Power of the Imperative Tense in Your Blog

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In a tutorial article “Make the Most of Your Gatherings”, Property Brothers Drew and Jonathan make the most of the power of the imperative tense: “Go in with a game plan,” they advise. “Set up a drink station.” “Layer the lighting.” “Build a charcuterie board.” “Encourage play.” Even their party planning advice is offered in the form of “orders” – ” Personalize a playlist.” “Turn off your tech.” ” Keep the menu simple.” “Send a sweet follow-up.”

“The imperative mood in English is generally used to give an order, to prompt someone to do something, to give a warning, or to give instructions,” the American & British Academy explains. By its very nature, an imperative is directly addressed to someone, grammarphobia.com adds. Tanya Trusler of ellii.com lists five common uses of imperative verbs:

  • parents telling children what to do
  • teachers giving instructions to students
  • employers giving instructions to employees
  • people in authority, such as policy officers, telling other people what to do
  • rules, guidelines, and laws

Since, at Say it For You, I’m fond of saying that teaching is the new selling in blogging for business, presenting how-to-lists and tutorials has become an important aspect of content creation. With no apparent end to the technical information available to consumers on the internet, our job is to help readers understand, absorb, buy into, and use that information.  One way to empower customers to make a decision is to help them understand the differences between various industry terms, as well as the differences between the products and services of one business compared to those offered by another. The Property Brothers’ article demonstrates how using “soft” imperatives to offer valuable tips can be a skillful way to serve up advice.

One tip for using the power of the imperative without creating “who-are-you-to-tell-me-what-to-do” resentment involves explaining the reasoning behind the “order”. In an article in USA Today, George Hobica discusses the exhortation given to airline passengers to “Place the mask over your mouth and nose”. If the reasons behind instructions given to passengers (to receive enough oxygen flow, both mouth and nose need to be under the mask) were made clear, Hobica says, people would listen more.

Use the power of soft imperatives in your blog!

 

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