Feature article writing can be an important tool in your technical copywriting toolbox. Let’s see how.

The most important point to remember about writing feature articles is that you can place an article about a product or service directly in front of the customer. Moreover, you do this using trade magazines that your company’s customers read and trust.

Feature Article Writing is About Trust

Trust is really what feature article writing is all about. We’ve all grown up reading newspapers and magazines. And, generally speaking, we believe what we read in them.

That’s why editorial advertising exists. You’ve no doubt seen editorial advertisements in newspapers or magazines. They are ads that look like they could be regular news articles except for one thing: the word “Advertisement” plainly printed above the copy.

No matter. People still read them and place a bit more credence in them just because of their format. Strange but true!

That’s why feature articles are so important. There is no word “Advertisement” in plain view. What people see is a factual and well-written article in a magazine that they trust for news and information about their industry.

So they are very receptive to what your article says about how your product or service works or how it can help with a problem. This is especially true if they have that same problem!

There is no need to exaggerate about how your product or service solved a problem that was previously unsolvable (unless it’s true!). The simple fact that there is an article about your product/service in a trusted publication provides tremendous credibility. That’s the power of feature article writing.

How to Get a Feature Article Published

Follow these basic steps to success with feature article writing:

First, determine your subject. It must be of interest to your customers. What problem can your article help them solve? Is there a customer who your product/service has helped and whose story you can tell?

Determine what magazine you want your article published in. If you are not sure, there are a number of directories on the web that list trade magazines. You can easily search by industry.

If you are familiar with the magazine, you have a good idea of what kind of articles they publish. If you aren’t familiar, locate several issues and carefully examine their content to see:

• What are the topics that are typically covered?

• What types of questions do the articles answer?

• What is the typical article length?

• Are there many pictures?

• Who are the authorities that the author quotes to answer the questions that the article raises?

• Who are the authors, business people, or freelance writers?

• Who advertises?

A thorough examination will tell you if the magazine is a good fit for what you are considering.

When you find a magazine that you are interested in, look at their web site for writer’s guidelines. These guidelines will often provide specific do’s and don’ts for getting published in the magazine. If you cannot easily find the guidelines, email the managing editor and ask for them.

The Query Letter

The next step is the query letter where you propose your story idea. This is typically somewhat formal and no more than one page in length. This is where you show that your idea offers value to the magazine’s readers. You will do this with a lead paragraph in your query that could be the lead for your article.

Then you will describe what topics you will cover, suggest a possible title, and talk about who you will be interviewing for source material and for quotes in the article. You will also mention your plans for pictures or illustrations. In addition, you will introduce yourself and say why you are qualified to write this article.

Nowadays, it is possible to query by email. I prefer that way because it is cheaper and faster. Most magazines will let you know if they accept email queries. If they do, remember to maintain the same professional writing approach you would take if you actually sent a letter through the mail.

Being a technical writer or a marketing person doesn’t gain any extra points with editors. You still have to produce a well-written query and then deliver a professionally written article. Just like you, trade magazines are in business to serve their customers.

You may find that you enjoy feature article writing. In that event, not only will your company benefit, but you will too as your broaden your writing horizons.

Product specifications provide the information that your customers need in order to decide whether to buy your product.

Depending on your industry, there are standard product specifications that customers expect when they “spec” out a product.

For hardware, these can include physical characteristics like size, weight, packaging, operating temperatures, operating altitude, acoustical noise, maintenance schedules, connection interfaces, disposal requirements, and airflow.

For software, customers are interested in software environments, compatibility with other software products, performance, features, and licensing to name just a few.

The more complete your product specifications are the better off you will be. That’s because, unless you have a long-term relationship with a customer, you don’t know what specifically is important to your potential customer.

You don’t want your customer scanning your spec and then putting it aside because something is missing. You want your customer to have all the information necessary to make an informed buying decision. In fact, your want your customer to use your specs as gold standard to measure other companies’ specifications.

Your product may be exactly what the customer needs but you risk losing the sale if your product specifications are lacking information. Why is that? It’s because you don’t know what feature is most important to your customer. If your specifications are saturated with technical information, you’re more likely to provide the answer to any question.

And they are of great value to your marketing team as well. How? Well, your product’s specifications can serve as the backbone for all your other marketing materials. You can look at each of the specifications as a feature of your product and then derive as many benefits as you can from each each feature.

When you have your completed list of benefits, determine what benefits are most important to your customers and get to work creating your marketing collateral.