One of the best ways to build credibility and name recognition while attracting your best customers is content marketing.
Sadly, though, most people think of content as blog posts—nothing more.
Don’t limit yourself! There’s much more to content marketing than blogging.
Let’s look at the big picture of what content marketing is, then we’ll review some writing tips to help you create better, more authoritative content that will attract your best customers.
What Is Content Marketing?
Content marketing is the sharing of information that’s persuasive, educational, and often entertaining—in written, visual, and media formats. In most cases, it answers questions, shows people how to do something, and adds value to your prospects and customers.
While your blog can be the hub of your content marketing strategy, content can be shared on any channel, including:
- Social media
- YouTube
- Facebook Live
- Your emails
- Amazon (books)
- Udemy (courses)
- Medium
- SlideShare
And it can be delivered as a gift to new subscribers, to drive conversions in funnels, and freely on your blog and other sites.
Why content? Because people love information. And because, when you optimize it for search engines, it can boost traffic on your website and get more eyeballs on your offers.
In fact, content is the top tactic for SEO today.
The Key is Quality
Today, nearly 9 out of 10 B2B brands use content marketing in their business.
That’s a lot of content. And much of it is being produced simply to say, “We’re doing content marketing.” Because, hey, we’re supposed to be creating content, right?
Well, yeah, if it’s good.
But junk content, produced without purpose or skill, doesn’t stand out. It doesn’t rank in search engines. So it doesn’t get the job done.
And that’s good news for the rest of us.
With so much bad content out there, it’s relatively easy to make yours stand out. (via GIPHY)
Clear, well-written, valuable content can give you all the benefits of content marketing: traffic, fans and followers, and even more sales. But it’s got to be good.
Writing Tips for Content Writers
Forget what you learn in school. Those writing lessons will get you yawns and little else.
The truth is writing an English essay and writing effective content have as much in common as hanging wallpaper and painting a mural on a downtown building.
No one cares about your wallpaper, whereas the mural gets attention. It’s unique. It stands out. And it attracts customers.
Great content stands out like that mural. It shares your ideas in an engaging way. It makes people want to read. It gets people salivating over your offers.
Forget most of the rules you learned in school. Let’s look at the writing tips that really matter.
Write for your readers
The temptation is to write about your product. But “me first” content is boring.
I hate to break it to you: No one cares about your product. They only care about solving their problems, making their own life easier.
So write from your reader’s perspective. Write about the things they want to read. You can slip in information about your product, but the focus needs to be on your reader.
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“It is true that the first rule for a writer is to hold his audience.” Gabriel Josipovici
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“The best research is talking to people.” Jeffrey Archer
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“Put it before them briefly so they will read it, clearly so they will appreciate it, picturesquely so they will remember it, and above all, accurately so they will be guided by its light.” Joseph Pulitzer
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“If your writing isn’t working, the reader will go into the kitchen and make a cheese sandwich and never come back.” Allistair MacLeod
Write simply and directly
Writing should be as natural as talking. So write like you talk.
People read to learn new thoughts or ideas, not to swoon at a beautiful turn of phrase. So don’t try to be poetic or write creative prose.
If your ideas are compelling enough and your words simple enough, your writing will all but disappear. That’s as it should be.
Make it easy for people to read. They don’t have time to weed through literary or, worse, confusing copy.
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“A good style should show no signs of effort. What is written should seem a happy accident.” W. Somerset Maugham
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“If you want to say that it is raining, say ‘It is raining.’” La Bruyère
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“Work out what you want to say. Then say it in the most direct and vigorous way you can.” George Orwell
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“Simple words are the easiest to understand. And because copy is written to communicate, short words are best — usually.” Bob Bly
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“I notice that you use plain, simple language, short words and brief sentences. That is the way to write English — it is the modern way and the best way. Stick to it; don’t let fluff and flowers and verbosity creep in.” Mark Twain
Be concise
Long copy or short isn’t what matters. What does matter is that you don’t waste people’s time.
Don’t beat around the bush. Say what you need to say and then move on.
Weed out unnecessary phrases and wordiness. As an example, use a single power-word instead of a phrase. (This infographic shows you how to replace “very + description” with one power-word).
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“Omit needless words. Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts.” William Strunk, Jr.
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“Economy of language doesn’t mean using fewer words. It simply means that every word needs to count and to represent much more than the few syllables it takes to utter.” Les Edgerton
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“Each word should be weighed carefully as for a telegram to be paid for by the author.” Ernest Hemmingway
“Above all, don’t write literature.” Colette
Start strong
Your first priority is to get people reading, so you must start strong. Even if you’re writing about something that’s been written about a million times before, try to find a fresh angle.
Treat it in a unique way so people don’t say, “Yeah, yeah, I know that.” You want them to say, “Wow. I never thought of that before.”
That unique approach starts with your very first sentence.
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“The most important sentence … is the first one. If it doesn’t induce the reader to proceed to the second sentence your article is dead. And if the second sentence doesn’t induce him to continue to the third sentence, it’s equally dead. Of such a progression of sentences, each tugging the reader forward until he is hooked, a writer constructs that faithful unit, the ‘lead.’” William Zinsser
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“A good opening should contain at least the seeds of the ending.” Les Edgerton
End stronger
Believe it or not, the last word of a sentence, the last sentence of a paragraph, and the last paragraph of your copy have more power than anything else you write.
The biggest bang comes at the end of the fuse. So if you want to emphasize a word or phrase, put it at the end.
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“Great is the art of beginning, but greater is the art of ending.” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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“If I didn’t know the ending of a story, I wouldn’t begin. I always write my last line, my last paragraph, my last page first.” Katherine Anne Porter
Tell the truth without exaggeration
Curiosity — and sometimes hype — will get people reading. But believability is what keeps them reading.
Hype will never substitute for a real, honest-to-goodness core message. Have something of substance to say. Then say it straight.
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“Good writing is true writing.” Earnest Hemingway
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“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shockproof, shit detector. This is the writer’s radar and all great writers have had it.” Earnest Hemingway
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“The difficulty … is not to write, but to write what you mean” Robert Louis Stevenson
Write with focus
Each piece you write should have one message, one purpose, and one action you want people to take after reading.
Given too many options, people tend to do nothing. So focus your writing. Decide what you want to accomplish up front. Then let every word drive that one purpose.
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“It seems to me that every book [indeed, every piece of writing] — at least every one worth reading — is about something.” Stephen King
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“I try to leave out the parts that people skip.” Elmore Leonard
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“The time to begin writing an article is when you have finished it to your satisfaction. By that time you begin to clearly and logically perceive what it is you really want to say.” Mark Twain
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“The first goal of writing is to have one’s words read successfully.” Robert Brault
Now you
What is content marketing? It’s you, your brand, publishing your own works.
Along with just about every other online business.
To stand out, you need to write the best, most engaging content online. Which means you need to package your ideas so they’re easy to read, easy to share, and easy to put into action.
Good writing is the key.
And fortunately, it’s not rocket science. The basic rules I’ve listed above are all you really need.
Keep them in mind every time you put fingers to the keyboard, and you’ll find your writing gets cleaning and clearer with each project.
What about you? Do you have any writing tips that consistently serve up stronger content? Share in the comments below.
