Advice from Content Pros That Might Change the Way You Look at Content Writing

This is a guest post written by Lauren Wiseman.

Every business’s marketing efforts revolve around good content because that is what, besides products/services a brand offers, keeps current and attracts new customers. Many people would be surprised that book writers don’t necessarily make good marketing content writers. Be that as it may, content writing is a discipline onto itself and if you wish to be good at it, take a look at some pieces of advice that content pros have singled out. 

Train your brain

Regardless of whether you are writing a book, a magazine article or a copy for a marketing campaign, creativity is one of your most essential skills. Everyone who has to produce a creative piece of writing knows how difficult it is to force creativity. Not everything you produce will be outstanding but you can make (almost) everything to be of quality.

The more you write, the more quality your writing will possess because, at one point, quality becomes a standard. If you want to get to this stage, although it sounds contradictory to the very notion of creativity, you need a routine. This routine means training your brain to write at a particular part of the day, for a particular time. The consistency brings structure and quality to your writing and this is what allows for certain pieces to shine brighter than others.

Read, read, read

Besides training for consistency, to sharpen your writing skills, you need to read as much as you can. Reading will distance you from the everyday abbreviations and slang that we use while communicating with our friends and (sub)consciously feed your brain with complex language constructions and extensive vocabulary. Even if it is a book or an article unrelated to the topics you generally write about, you can still benefit from reading. 

In addition to that, reading other marketers’ writing, as well as their pieces of advice on writing content is of immense importance. You can always learn a thing or two or get inspired in ways you haven’t expected. You can learn about the methods they use, put your own writing in perspective, and actively work on improving your approach to writing.

Look beyond

This piece of advice refers to those that are bilingual or possess exceptional knowledge of another language besides their native. You can brush up your knowledge of the local culture, revive some old friendships and allow all of those elements to become your everyday tools. Prolific writers who are experienced in marketing and have these additional skills can approach writing in other ways as well.

For instance, those language skills may come in handy if the company you work for decides to expand. Simply translating the content won’t do because marketing messages have specific intents that need to be preserved in the other version. This is why many businesses choose transcreation because their marketing content won’t be translated word-for-word but the style, emotions, culture, and intent of the original copy will be adapted to the target audience. With your specific skill set, you can expand your area of work-related interest.  

Take notes constantly

Inspiration is everywhere around us: in the conversation at the grocery store you overheard, as well as in the manner a puppy expresses happiness. Writers, as well as other people who use creativity to pay for bills, know this very well and even find themselves dreaming of engaging ideas they can use for their work. 

This is exactly why you should make a habit of jotting down any idea or situation that you find inspiring and interesting. Good content ideas can be elusive and as soon as you think: ‘Oh, that’s such a good idea, I need to remember it’, it will already be forgotten. A little notebook or your smartphone – whichever your weapon of choice is, just make sure you have it on you always, even on your bed stand. 

Make the headline pop

The first appraisal of your content by the audience will be on the visual level and they will check if the text is divided into readable chunks. This is because most people won’t waste precious time reading something whose composition is loose and hard to read. However, the first piece of, for instance, a blog article they will assess in the sense of the content will be the headline and if you don’t make it striking, you might lose them.

The best manner to prompt your audience to continue reading the content is to evoke an emotional reaction. So, you might try using emotional adjectives such as effortless, painstaking, fun, free, incredible, essential, absolute, and strange. Also, if you have some key takeaways that you would like to point out, you should consider adding numbers to the headline in combination with words such as reasons, principles, facts, lessons, etc.

Wrapping up

From training your brain to leveraging the power of a good headline, content writers have a lot of strategies at their disposal to take their writing to the next level. Whichever elements you decide to incorporate, what’s important is that you are consistent and hard-working because that is what brings about results. Read as much as you can, work on your style, and write down every single idea that pops to your head – and you will have achieved success.

Author Bio:

Lauren is a regular Bizzmark Blog author that has many articles published with the main focus on clients who want their brands to grow in the fast-changing and demanding market. Her personal favorites are successes of small businesses, startups, and entrepreneurs. She goes through life with one strong moto – Kindness, always.