Content creation is the headline of every new day. Be it an entrepreneur individual or an established organization, best content writing practices can attract and retain clients has become the need of the hour. It is not only economical compared to the conventional techniques of marketing but also has been proven to be effective to generate more leads.
However, if you just write anything and everything about your brand, are you sure everyone will read it? Wouldn’t you want them to actually go through your content instead of just quickly peeking and moving on?
If you expect them to do so, then you have to also make sure that the content that you provide is worth reading. How would you ensure this ‘worthiness’ of your content? Simply follow these tips!
Top 7 Tips for Effective Content Writing
- Spot your target audience
There could be a number of ideas popping up in your mind regarding what you wish to write. You need to shortlist the priority ones to narrow down to the topic you would eventually start writing. For this, the first thing to decide is who your audience would be. Like I mentioned earlier, you expect someone to read your material, right? So who would those readers be?
There would be multiple categories of people who could be an audience in the same niche. It could vary according to their demographics, interests, profession, etc. Hence, there could be a number of subjects to discuss with them. So recognize the target audience first among these various sections, for the (or a set of) topic(s) you would be planning to write about.
For example, if you are a product company, your target audience could differ from a range of people constituting that of existing clients, prospective customers, vendors, dealers and distributors, investors, etc. So if you aim at writing about the benefits of your products, then the target audience would not only include the consumers but also the product distributors.
- Analyze topics to write
Realizing what exactly the target audience would need in relation to the content you plan to provide, is a must. Conduct a small-scale research about what they really wish to know from such writings. Why would they need to get such information? How would it benefit them?
I’m sure you would come up with several such matters for content writing. There could be a gush of ideas coming in from all areas of your brain during this stage. Some could be overlapping themes as well. Begin with all these first by writing down- and I mean it when I say “writing down”- that helps the best way, trust me!
Yes, in this technological era, it might not sound so great to write down your thoughts. But it will definitely support you in the next step- analyzing which topics to write about. At the same time, if you have a team, you could do brainstorming sessions to decide the topics. Multiple brains working at the same time on the same thing could enable numerous ideas to flow in!
How would writing down help so much you ask? The ideas that you get when poured down on a paper in your own handwriting will help your brain generate further topics at the same time. You might also ditch a few. Write down! It helps in all projects in the initial stages.
After you have your list of topics, go back to recollecting how your blog would benefit the readers. Choose the most relevant subjects and prioritize them on the basis of how urgent such information could be to the audience. Weigh the pros and cons of publishing sensitive information, if any, as well. Narrow down the topics to a Top 3, and analyze the sub-areas of focus under each such theme.
- Adopt keywords and SEO practices
Any time you wish to know the meaning of a word or a phrase, the first thing that creeps into your mind is to look it up on an online Search Engine. Similarly, any day you wish to get information about a particular product or brand, you do the same thing. Thanks to technology, such information is just a click away!
So how do you think you get such information by typing in just a few words on a search engine like Google? Those few words are known as keywords. It is an SEO technique to lure more people into reading and going through the material you have to offer them online regarding your brand.
Choosing the right keywords will enable such traffic into your website or online platform. To know which those relevant terms are, do a research yourself on a search engine by typing in a few keywords related to your brand or product. The results would enable you to understand the topics in your field that are much discussed on the internet. These could be in the form of queries, or even articles and news pieces.
Incorporating them in your blog could help to bring in more from your target audience to check out your content. Some keywords might just be a single word while the others could be a phrase or even a question. When such specific terms are used, it helps in filtering the right quality of users of your content.
There is an added advantage of conducting research about keywords: it could give you more ideas into how exactly your content can be presented to the world. There would be more clarity on how to sub-categorize your blog posts as well. One thing to remember- the right keywords might form the major stepping stone to your blog.
- Create a suitable outline
Once you have decided the topic, then the next step is to plan a framework for the blogpost which will attract the chosen audience.
This is a very important phase. Why so? In the busy world of today, people choose to check out the post only if the subject is relevant to their need of the hour. It is a common tendency for anyone to first scroll down the entire blog in a jiffy to see how it has been presented. Accordingly, they decide whether it is commendable to read through the whole blog, or even partially so, or rather just skip and move on to the next one.
It is at this juncture that creating the best outline for the blog brings results. The sub-headings play a crucial role hence. Sometimes people might require only a piece of information from your blog. So creating such an outline where sub-categories of the main topic are highlighted, helps! Therefore, even for a partial reading, the traffic is ensured to flow in when such a presentation is made.
One of the best tips to build a beautiful framework of the blog with the sub-headings is by providing the headings on the top along with the introduction itself. For example, if your main topic is Baking Basics, the subdivisions of the post could include- Knowing your tools & appliances in Baking, How to measure ingredients appropriately, How to grease your cake pan effectively, etc.
- Choose an engaging content tone
Content writing, especially for blog consists of more or less three elements:
The Introduction– Setting the right tone for your content is the next criterion which decides whether the audience will choose to stay and read the whole article or rather skip to the next blog. It starts with how attractive the introduction part is. Sharing personal experiences to start with the blog is a good choice to retain the readership. It should at the same time lead to a brief idea about what exactly would be discussed further in the blog.
The Matter– The main part of the matter conveyed through the blog must be made sure not to be beating around the bush. Your strive is not for adding as many words as possible into your blog but to ensure that you reach your audience through your content. Clear and concise information will be respected, hence avoid dragging each piece of information! Provide longer explanations with examples if required, only at the relevant sections and not everywhere else in the blog.
The Conclusion– Compared to what we learnt in school regarding how to write essays, the conclusion part may not be necessary for every content that you offer your audience. You can always end it with a question to get an interaction from them. Another way to end would be to provide the hyperlink to the Contact Us section of your website for answering any queries. Hyperlinks to share your content on various social media platforms could be delivered as well.
Other Crucial Factors– An important aspect to consider in this phase is the tone of speech conveyed in the content- it can be formal or informal depending on the industry we write for. The fonts, background colors, pictures, etc. also matter depending on what theme your blog must be. Innovative and creative writing concepts should be applied accordingly.
- Craft compelling headlines
Yes, the content is the spine of the blogpost. However, if you have a strong content but not provided the right title for the matter, then how do you expect anyone to even peek into your blog?
The headline should be an attractive one, preferably with the right keywords that would bring in the traffic into your website. Be clear and specific in the title about what the blog will be offering. A title which claims to be a solution to a particular problem could be a game-changer. Using certain words and phrases like easily, instantly, in just under a minute, etc. could help the audience make quicker decisions about visiting your blog. Check out few examples below:
- How to create a website instantly
- 5 tips to improve photography skills
- Learn to operate <any product> in just under a minute, etc.
- Audit your final content
Always, always go through your content word-by-word at least twice, before publishing it. There could be chances of figuring out better words and phrases for certain terms, or even the possibility of having to remove particular sections if you find them unnecessary. There could be grammatical and spelling errors that you might have overseen, or words added accidentally to which would not have originally been required at such spots. Repetitive content could be omitted. Anything not relating to the original tone could be deleted, or even corrected as well.
A final audit could ensure that there are no flaws in the publishing part of your blog. The proofreading and editing could also be done by a team in your organization or even by your friend or relative whom you could trust the work with. Once everything is set and ready, publish it!
Following the above tips could help you in bringing out the best blogs with respect to your product/brand or service. Not every point given above may be applicable to every type of blog while there could be blog posts which become successful by incorporating all of the above only. Make sure to offer content which would keep your audience engaged. And yes, crafting the best content can definitely be a game-changer.
