Don’t like to write?
You’re not alone.
But you’re also about to face a crisis.
Content marketing, which has become THE marketing strategy in our social marketplace, demands a lot of writing.
And it gets worse.
Even if you aren’t interested in creating content for your followers… even if you don’t see the need to engage with your customers in social channels… you probably do want your website to show up in the search engines.
You guessed it. That takes content too.
Google’s anti-spam master, Matt Cutts, has made it clear that unique, high-quality, in-depth content is the best way to rank well in search engines.
The bad news: Marketers must also be writers
Here’s the low down…
According to Content Marketing Institute and Marketing Profs, 91% of B2B marketers use content marketing.
When you factor in B2C marketers, the numbers are slightly lower. According to a survey by BusinessBolts, 74% of marketers surveyed (both B2B and B2C) use content marketing. Of those, 61% do their own writing.
So what does this mean?
It means that in addition to all your other responsibilities as a marketer, you must also be a writer.
If that statement gives you flashbacks of your high school English class, cold sweats, or a sense of pervading doom, I have some good news for you.
The good news: It’s easier than you think
Most people think that writing is hard. What they don’t realize is that if they can talk, they can write.
I like the way Seth Godin says it:
No one ever gets talker’s block. No one wakes up in the morning, discovers he has nothing to say and sits quietly, for days or weeks, until the muse hits, until the moment is right, until all the craziness in his life has died down.
There’s a secret hidden within those words. One that all marketers should take to heart.
You see, writing is as easy as talking.
It doesn’t sound like Shakespeare or Hemingway or even Stephen King. It sounds like you. Talking.
So how do you write like you talk? Four steps:
Find your point
There are three basic rules for writing that you should never forget.
First, each piece of writing should have a point. And you need to be able to sum it up in about 25 words.
Second, you should only make one point in each piece of content. If you have something else to say, save it for another project.
Third, you need to know what your point is before you start writing. Brainstorms and research can help, or you can start typing your ideas in a document to see where they take you. But you’re not writing yet. You’re just trying to find your point.
State your point
Your point needs to be stated clearly and concisely.
In most cases, you’ll do this in your introduction, or lead. On rare occasions, you may save it for your conclusion. But somewhere in your content, you need to tell people what your point is and why it matters.
If you write short content, you can start with your point.
If you write long blog posts, special reports, or ebooks, you may start with a story or engaging idea to hook your readers and draw them in. Then state your point and tell people how it will benefit them.
Prove it
This is the body of your content.
In an ebook or print book, it’s your chapters. In a blog post or special report, it’s your sections (subheads + the paragraphs you write for each).
In this stage, you talk about your main point.
- Talk about research you’ve found.
- Tell people how you arrived at your conclusions.
- Share examples of what you’re talking about.
Pretend you’re having a conversation with a friend or coworker. Or imagine yourself talking to a new prospect.
What would you tell him or her? Talk aloud, and type your exact words.
Don’t worry about length. Long or short doesn’t matter. What matters is that you give people the information they’re looking for.
Need help structuring your article? Learn about two formats that work well in content writing.
Sum it up
When you’re done, you simply need to restate your point and let people know why it matters. Then tell them what to do next.
That’s it.
The benefit of writing like you talk
When it comes to style, you want to sound like yourself, not a clone of someone else, and certainly not a knock-off of your English teacher.
Go ahead and let your personality show. It’s acceptable to use a conversational style — which might include slang, parenthetical statements and sentence fragments.
It’s not acceptable to use jargon or technical terms that your readers won’t understand.
There’s just one problem
The only problem with writing like you talk is that talking is too “loose.”
When we talk, our ideas aren’t well-organized or clear. We feel around for the right word. We don’t get to the point. We repeat ourselves.
So here what you do:
Write like you talk. Then edit.
- Turn passive verbs into action verbs.
- Strengthen your nouns to make them more expressive.
- Remove most if not all adjectives and adverbs.
- Where you repeat yourself, consolidate and express your thought one time.
- Remove all unnecessary words.
- Remove sentences and paragraphs that stray from your one main point.
By cleaning up your writing in this way, you can sound like you talk, only better. It’s tighter and makes a more powerful point.
Better still, it lifts some of the burden of producing lots of content.
Because you don’t have to do anything special. You can share your ideas in your own way and in your own voice.
You’ll be able to express your own personality — which may actually improve engagement levels.
How about you? What are your challenges in writing like you talk? What techniques do you rely on to get more content done quickly?
