Content writing is a written form of marketing intended to convert web traffic into engagement and then ultimately into conversions. It’s not designed to sell directly but rather provide a solution to a problem or answer a question that your target audience is interested in. This service is all about writing fresh and engaging content for your websites or blog. You might have a busy schedule and require someone who can produce the required content for you at a higher speed. This is where I come in, as I take of creating relevant topics for your website and write crisp, persuasive and persuasive content that is SEO friendly, which ranks high on Google pages ensuring more traffic flow to your site. Content should be interesting, but also informative. It should give the reader a reason to keep reading, and entice them to continue your line of thought. It can be short or long, depending on the purpose it is being used for (more on that later).
What is Content Writing?
Content writing is the process of writing, editing, and publishing content in a digital format. Content writers will often write blog posts and web pages, craft social media posts and email marketing and even work on press releases and video or audio scripts. It’s a varied field that touches on many different areas of digital marketing. Content writing is a form of inbound marketing designed to attract an audience to a specific company, product, or digital location. Content writing often forms the foundations of every digital marketing strategy, as emotive content is necessary for everything from blogging and SEO strategies, to email and social media promotion.
What does a content writer actually do?
Some content writers focus specifically on a certain aspect of content production, such as researching and writing blog posts optimized for search engines. Other content writers might provide a host of different services related to the production of engaging, relevant content. The fundamental role of a content writer starts with understanding the target audience of the company they’re writing for.
Some of the tasks a content writer may be responsible for include:
Keyword research: While some companies have separate SEO experts responsible for keyword research, content writers can also assist with this task. They can help with pinpointing potential terms and phrases you should be using in your content. Some will also give you guidance on things like long-tail and semantic keywords.
Publishing and outreach: Content writers will usually be able to upload their content to various platforms. This could mean adding posts to a WordPress site and scheduling them. Many professionals will also help with the creation of a content calendar, so you know exactly when to publish and promote each piece of content. Certain content writers can also assist with outreach to other guest blogs and publications. The exact work done by your content writer will depend on who you hire. As the content writing marketplace grows more saturated, many professionals are offering bonus services to increase their opportunities for attracting customers.
Content production: Perhaps the most important role of a content writer is actually creating content. These professionals create everything from blog posts to web pages on the behalf of a client. Some will offer things like edits and updates for free with their work. You may also be able to request ongoing metrics to see how content is performing.
Proofreading and editing: Again, this can be a task completed by a separate person in your marketing team. However, some content writers do all of their proofreadings and editing themselves. This could mean you need to pay for additional hours of service, however.
Content strategy: Content writers can work solar or with content marketing specialists and assist you in developing an end-to-end content strategy. This could involve determining what kind of blogs, eBooks, listicles, and whitepapers you should develop and publish. Your content strategy might include a plan for social media and email marketing, or video creation too.
Types of content writing
There are different forms of content writing. Let’s look at some of them in more detail to find out exactly what’s required from these types of writing:
- Blogging. Blogs are often a central part of a strong content strategy. They can be used to communicate a variety of ideas related to your area of expertise. Blogs are generally less salesy, and more of a way to build brand authority and awareness. The latest posts show up near the top, followed by older posts at the bottom.
- White papers. Writing a white paper requires a deep dive into a specific subject, often in technical details. The aim is to educate readers and demonstrate how a problem is solved. Each PDF guide or report covers a specific subject area or solution to a problem. When you help your audience with this problem, you establish your thought leadership and expertise. Writing such types of web content would require not just a good writer, but also a designer. The writer should be able to produce top-notch content, while the designer will ensure the content is presented in a visually appealing manner.
- Emails. Another key area of content strategy is email marketing. There are few better ways to reach your customer base than with a well-written email that encourages engagement with your business.
Social media posts: Social media is a big part of our lives. It’s also a big way for businesses and customers to connect and interact with one another. In an industry report by Social Media Examiner, 85% of all marketers surveyed indicated that their social media efforts have generated more exposure for their businesses. By posting interesting content regularly on social media, you can influence and build a relationship with your target audience. From Facebook and Twitter to LinkedIn and Instagram, there are a number of different social media platforms, with their own formatting and visual specifications. That’s why the ability to write engaging social media posts for each type of platform is in high demand. Writing for social media is a type of content writing which involves scribbling short paragraphs, blurbs, or rants (along with attention-grabbing visuals). Their purpose could be to show a brand’s authentic side, promote an event, share inspiring ideas, or extend an offer.
Tips for great Content Writing
These are some basic content writing tips that should apply to any content strategy:
1. Always do your research: Research is important for content for a variety of reasons. First, you need to research to determine who you’re writing for. The best content writers cultivate a specific voice to speak to a certain audience. The more you understand your customer, the more you can connect with that person on an emotional level – generating conversions. It’s also important to research any information you’re going to be writing about. Factual, credible information is key in content production, even if the content you’re writing is primarily for entertainment purposes. Studies show that if a brand generates fake content about products or services, around 59% of customers will immediately stop buying from this company.
2. Write unique and original content, and go above and beyond what you find online: After Googling relevant topics, including “content writing tips”, I begin creating an outline using some of the information I find online. However, your piece will never rank if you just copy-and-paste the same information that already exists online — and, even if it does, when your readers catch on (and they will), they’ll lose trust in your brand as an authority within the industry.
3. Edit and optimize everything you write: Most content writers don’t publish the first version of the piece they write. Taking the time to read through every eBook or article is crucial. Remember any grammatical error or unusual sentence can confuse your audience and send them running in the opposite direction. Often, it’s helpful to have a separate proofreader on hand when creating content, because they’ll be able to examine your work from an objective perspective and spot things you’ve missed.
4. Consider how you can attract an audience across a wide variety of platforms: While SEO is critical for ensuring your content ranks on search engines like Google, it’s not the only opportunity for distribution. To reach a wider audience, it’s helpful to learn how to write content that performs well on various platforms such as Instagram, LinkedIn, or email. Plus, you might be a content writer whose sole job is to write newsletter content or social media copy, depending on your business needs. To ensure your content reaches and inspires audiences regardless of the platform they prefer, it’s vital you consistently consume content via email and social to pick up writing tips specific to those sources.
5. Master the key components of content: Every piece of content is constructed with a series of different elements. For written content, there are certain components more important to capturing and converting customers than others. For instance, you’ll need Head-turning headlines. Headlines determine whether your audience will bother reading the rest of the article, eBook, or any other content you produce. If your headline isn’t engaging, readers will just hit the back button. Engaging headlines are thought-provoking and interesting.
6. Keep Your Website Fresh and Up to Date: One of the first things people do after they hear about a company is look up its website. Your website is your business card, so be sure to make a good first impression.
- Refresh your content from time to time. Add some new relevant information such as new stats and trends or new product details.
Update your outdated banners or CTAs. Replace them with relevant offers to reactivate your content marketing funnel and improve your conversion rates.
Make sure the copy performs well. Underperforming copy may need more examples, tips, and practical details.
Repurpose your content. You can try a different format for this content, such as creating a video and incorporating it into the page.
Optimize internal linking. Add links pointing to new articles in blog posts with related topics.
You should also regularly review your content strategy to ensure that your web copy has the desired impact on visitor journeys through your website.
7. Grab Your Reader’s Attention: It is the headline that gets people to click and start reading great content in the first place. The same goes for a compelling email subject line. Without one and your newsletter will be left unread. There are whole master classes dedicated to writing great headlines and subject lines, but a few well-aimed tips can wipe years of hard trial and error off your plate:
- Controversy, questions, humor, shock-and-awe, contrast, uniqueness, and emotion are all big attention-grabbers in headlines. But also note that numbered lists outperform regular titles. In fact, according to our research, they get 80% more traffic.
- At the same time, your H1 must be descriptive of the content – and unique. Not only will the content be clear to the reader, but to Google too. Ultimately, articles and guides that deliver on the headline get a higher quality score than content that does not.
- But it’s not only about headlines. Don’t forget the images. Make sure to select photos or illustrations that stop the thumbs on social media. Without a picture to tell your story to, you’ll go unnoticed.
8. Keep Your Audience’s Attention: Your content should always focus on providing valuable, relevant content to a reader. The rest of your job is optimizing that content for readability, originality, usefulness, and even shareability. So how do you keep someone interested?
Before you start writing something for someone, imagine they are sitting across the table from you.
- What do they want to know?
- What are their questions, doubts, objections, or misconceptions?
Your buyer personas will be seriously useful now. Write these ideas as bullet points and focus your attention on writing an outline that’s for them – and not for anyone else. By keeping their needs in mind, your message will chime loudly. And remember, while longer posts do tend to outperform shorter ones, your goal is not to write a novel. Rather, it’s to produce a comprehensive, valuable piece. Do aim for quality content over quantity and let the topic dictate the length of your writing. Finally, think about what you want your reader to do once they’ve finished your piece. Do you want them to sign up for a reading list, download a guide, or head over to your eCommerce store? Your calls to action (CTAs) should be clear, consistent, and concise throughout each piece of content. Add too many of them and you will have a hard time measuring your content’s success.
9. Segue into appropriate and relevant calls-to-action: As a content writer, your job isn’t just to create good content (that’s what novelists are for). It’s also to ultimately convert those readers, listeners, or viewers into prospects and customers. As such, it’s vital you learn how to appropriately include relevant CTAs throughout your content, particularly if those CTAs can help your readers learn more about the topic at hand. These in-text CTAs direct YouTube viewers to explore other HubSpot offerings, including HubSpot Academy social media courses. The CTAs aren’t jarring or off-putting — instead, the content writer did a good job ensuring the CTAs were relevant and truly valuable for the viewer. When you’re creating your own content, it’s important you ensure you’re consistently directing your audience to various business offerings to convert those viewers into prospects and, ultimately, consumers.
10. Tell the reader why what you’re writing about matters to them and their daily lives: Consider, however, how critical Excel is for certain functions. Excel can help a company’s financial department analyze year-over-year performance to determine how much budgeting a marketing team will receive in the upcoming year. That budget contributes to critical growth, and the business’ ability to reach and convert new customers. Without it, the marketing team won’t be able to increase brand awareness as effectively as they’d like — and the business will suffer, as a result. When you recognize that Excel can actually be tied to a person’s job security, it suddenly becomes much more fascinating, doesn’t it? Content writing isn’t just about creating pretty sentences. It’s also about telling a reader why a topic should matter to them, and how your content can help them become better in certain areas of their lives — be it work, family, health, or travel. Now that’s purposeful.
Conclusion
Content Writing is a writing that is designed for the web. It may include content marketing, copywriting and editing, journalism, public relations, technical writing and other types of communication. Content writing could also be considered a form of marketing. It’s also a means of having your message be heard, read, and understood by your audience. Content marketing is one of the best methods for getting customers online today, which is why it has taken off in recent years. We can help develop content that makes you stand out from the crowd. A good content writer is someone who can write in a way that effectively communicates ideas and information to the reader. A strong eye for detail, as well as a thorough understanding of grammar and punctuation, are important in this field of work.