If you have ever wondered what a featured article is and how to write one, you are in the right place. We will be going over the definition of a featured article, as well as the steps involved in writing one and how you can use them for marketing and advertising. The featured article can be a very effective tool if you know how to use it properly.
What Is A Featured Article?
So, the first question you have to answer is the definition of the term. The simple definition is an article that is focused on a particular person place or event. However, there are many types of featured articles and you will run across some that don't fit into this definition.
The Benefits of Featured Articles
In order to come up with some benefits for a feature article, you have to determine which of three perspectives you are looking at the article through. For example, there are different benefits for the writer of the featured article then for the marketing company that commissions one. There are also different benefits for the magazine that actually publishes the article.
But we will assume that for the purpose of this discussion that the feature article is being created by a marketing company for the purposes of marketing. Without getting into the difficulties in getting a feature article published that is intended to promote or market something, we will be looking at how a featured article is constructed.
Steps to Writing a Feature Article
Let's take a look at the steps involved in creating a feature article for publication.
Understand the Publication
The first thing that any writer needs to do is to understand the audience and that holds true for a marketing company using featured articles. The feature article will be the centerpiece of a magazine or newsletter in many cases, and so you have to make sure that the article that you create fits in perfectly with that publication. Find out what kind of content is usually published and whether there are any guidelines that you need to be following.
Determine Your Subject
From a marketing perspective, the feature article is a great way to promote an event do you have coming up, or a person within your company, like your CEO. You must first determine what your subject is going to be before you write the article. being able to research your subject in advance will help you build an outline, but the main thing that you want to do is find something compelling and worthy of the human interest tag to work your article around.
Do Your Prep Work
We have already discussed some of the prep work that you're going to have to do, such as researching your subject and coming up with an outline. But there may be a great deal more research do you have to do around the subject matter. You might have to do interviews, look at other articles that have been published and other interviews that the person has done person being profiled or representing the event is done, so that you don't ask the same questions or cover the same ground.
Write Your Article
Finally, you are going to write your article. If you are in marketing or advertising, you may have someone else actually doing the writing for you. However, you should check with them regularly to ensure that the article is being crafted the way that you wanted to.
Types of Feature Articles
Now we are going to look at some of the different types of feature articles that are out there. As mentioned, there are a number of different feature articles to choose from, and if you were using the article for marketing purposes, you will have to decide which of these is able to achieve your goals the best.
Personal Profile
The first type of article that we're going to look at is the one that we've mostly been discussing in this article. A personal profile is one that focuses on an individual and helps people get to know that person better. It is much better if this article is written about someone who is well-known by the public. Sometimes, these articles include interviews and other times they are just about the person.
Human Interest
A human-interest article usually focuses on some sort of issue that is currently a trending topic. Sometimes human interest articles focus on a single person as well or perhaps a group of people.
Historical Article
Feature articles can sometimes be about historical events. This will depend upon the type of publication, but a good marketing company can create a historical article for a magazine that is looking for it and find a way to work in promotion for their company.
Special Event or Seasonal
Another type of feature article is the special event or seasonal article. A feature article could be written about any of the U.S. holidays including Christmas, Halloween, New Year's and many more. Feature articles can also be about specific times a year but not a holiday. In addition, a feature article may be about a specific event – one that is coming up or has passed recently.
Instructional Feature
The instructional feature article is a how-to article that will teach people how to do something. These are quite a bit rarer than the other types of feature articles, especially when you were talking about magazines and newspapers. However, these types of articles are quite prevalent on the web and you can sometimes find them featured, depending upon the online publication.
Behind-the-Scenes Feature
The last type of feature article is the behind-the-scenes feature, which tells fans of a process or event what went on behind the scenes. Movies are a great example of this type of article but certainly not the only type of behind-the-scenes feature that a person could do.
Conclusion
The feature article can be an extremely powerful tool for a marketing or advertising person if they know how to leverage it properly. A feature article is usually the one of the ones that is highly promoted by magazines and newspapers, so you can get a lot of press coverage and viewership by creating one. But you have to create something amazing for them to accept it.
