You’ve probably heard of content writing, but you might not know exactly what it is or how to get started. Basically, content writing is the process of writing text to be published on a blog, website or print material. The main purpose of content writing is to attract and keep the attention of visitors by offering them valuable pieces that could help solve problems or answer their questions.
What are the benefits of content writing?
Content Writing offers several benefits for businesses: It helps companies build trust among customers which leads to better sales; it can improve search engine rankings because more relevant pages with high-quality content will rise above those with thin text; and lastly, it brings extra traffic from Google and other search engines as well as push traffic from social media.
The possibilities are endless; it’s up to you to determine what sort of content interests your audience and how you can deliver it to them through the web, print or other types of outlets like email marketing campaigns. Content writing is not very different from any other form of writing, but there are some nuts and bolts that make the process work for digital content. Below we will discuss some basic principles involved in creating great content whether you’re blogging or beginning a corporate blog.
Determine your objective
Before creating anything, even one line of text, ask yourself why you’re doing it. What is the ultimate goal? Do you want more sales because people read an article about a product you’re selling? Do you want more likes on a Facebook page? Start by determining what you hope to achieve and work from there.
The most common reasons content initiatives fail is because the company doesn’t have a clear objective or they don’t know how to measure results, that is why it is key for your content strategy to start with a goal. In addition to helping determine which mediums will be used for publishing the different types of content, having an explicit objective also helps guide editors in writing text that readers will find valuable.
A good way of going about this is by taking a look at your competitors. Analyze their website and see if they are using any tactics similar to yours; check out their Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages as well.
Know your target audience and buyer personas
The next step is to figure out who the content will be written for: Is it for your customers or just anyone you can reach? What does your target audience care about, what do they need to know? Do they have problems you could help them solve? Who are the company’s main buyers? Knowing this information will make it much easier later on when trying to create a certain type of content.
In fact, some companies use buyer personas as their main guide, keep these in mind as you come up with new content ideas. For example, if you run an e-commerce website that focuses on baby products then a buyer persona might be a new mother who is looking for information on child development. Knowing the buyer persona will help guide you when brainstorming content ideas, and it should also be helpful when determining how to promote your content so that you reach your target consumers.
If you know what sorts of questions they typically ask then maybe you could create a list post with answers; if they love visual media try creating infographics or videos to explain ideas more quickly and effectively than text articles.
Do Your Research
Always make sure to do proper research. Many companies fail because their marketing strategies are not based on actual data; this cannot be stressed enough, always back up claims with numbers. For example, if you’re creating a list of the top 10 ways to be fashionable this summer then make sure to base it on data. Do surveys within your target demographic and see what they say are the most important things when it comes to fashion; once you have your numbers take a good look at them to see if there are any trends or patterns that might indicate why certain items or ideas seem more popular than others.
Doing proper research not only brings authority to your writing but also makes it much more likely that someone will actually read it. If you just write an opinion article filled with vague claims without giving real evidence then your readers won’t feel very inclined to finish the piece, whereas if you provide sources for every statement made then readers will know that they can trust your information and it is much more likely that they’ll give you a shot.
Decide what types of content to create
Now that you know who the content is for and how it should be useful, all that remains is deciding what type of content would work best. This decision depends largely on what mediums the company already has access to (for example if you run an office supply store then maybe videos about how to get organized might be a good idea). If you’re using social media as part of your marketing strategy make sure to utilize each platform’s unique features; don’t just post an exact copy of everything on every site because this isn’t going to reach your audience most effectively.
For example, Twitter is great for letting companies share links quickly, whereas Facebook is better at including photos and videos. Also, make sure that you’re creating different types of content per each social media platform, don’t post the same thing on all sites because this can be seen as spam by users.
Here are some examples of content formats:
- List posts
Lists are a great way for companies to provide their customers with quick answers or solutions to questions they might have. Lists are incredibly popular online right now that it is very likely that someone looking for information on a topic will type “list of xyz” into Google; writing good list posts means that users will be able to quickly find what they need and might not even bother searching for anything else.
- Infographics
Much like list posts, infographics are a great way for companies to save their customers time by providing them with quick answers or solutions in an easily digestible format; infographics can save readers from having to read through pages and pages of text just to find the information that they’re looking for. Infographics can take much longer than lists because there is more research involved as well as imagery, but it also has the potential to reach a wider audience than standard text articles.
- Visual Content
Videos and photos are great ways for consumers to consume information quickly so they don’t have to slog through long blog posts.
- Social media posts
As mentioned earlier social media is an incredibly popular marketing tool so it makes sense that companies should try their best to utilize each platform’s unique features. A company’s Facebook page might contain mostly photos with a small bit of text, whereas Twitter would probably consist mainly of links with very little additional information included.
You can use this list as a starting point for creating your own content, just remember to figure out what would actually work best for the company and then tailor it so that it fits all of these requirements. If you’re unsure about which type of content would be most useful then just ask your customers; they’re sure to let you know what types of information they would find most useful and why.
A lot of companies make the mistake of thinking that since they already have a website, there isn’t really much point in having a blog; but if anything having an official website is only going to make it more difficult for visitors to reach you. If someone is cruising around looking for information about your business or industry, being able to find it easily will ensure that they have no problem reaching out with any questions or concerns they might have which makes them more likely to do business with you.
Remember that creating great content is meaningless if nobody knows about it, so don’t forget to share it with people on social media as well as other marketing outlets like email campaigns, flyers, billboards (if appropriate), etc. Make sure that whatever you’re posting is actually something that users would actually want to see and not just the same exact thing that your company posts on every social media site. Once you figure out what works best for you and your target audience then creating good content should become much easier.
We hope you’ve found this blog post useful and informative. Regardless of your industry, content writing is an essential skill for any business owner. If you would like to learn more about content writing, or if you are interested in having us write content for your company, contact our team today!
