Written By: James Spittal
If you are new to the world of content creation and haven’t done much writing in the past, then content writing can be pretty overwhelming. Though not something you can’t master in a short while, you still need some guidance and help, which we are more than happy to provide.
This content creation guide will help you master the fine and subtle art of content writing to help you create good content that sells. Easy to follow and covering all the bases, this guide will help you nail your content each and every time.
Before the writing though here are some things to take into consideration.
Discover Your Niche
The first step in nearly every business, digital or otherwise, is customer discovery and specifying the niche which you are going to specifically cater to. This is very important and often overlooked step because if you aren’t sure about your niche, and your content is all over the place, then you won’t be able to find your specific audience, nor would you be able to write amazing content for them.
The key to content creation is always to help the customer and for that, you need to find your niche, so you can help your customers solve specific problems.
Write For Your Ideal Customer
Once you have figure out your niche, the next step is to find out your intended audience for the content. This includes finding out their age, gender, geographical location as well as behavioral patterns and personality.
While creating content, think about what are some of the main problems your customers face every day and how you can help them solve those problems with your content.
Set Specific Goals for Content
Before you begin the creation process, you must have a plan for the content. Ask yourself, ‘what am I looking to achieve with this content?’ Perhaps the answer is something along these lines; ‘generate leads, drive sales, find more customers.’
These are perfectly fine answers, but you also need to know that content creation’s end goal should always be about the customer.
Once you know your answer and the reason to create content you are one step closer to creating amazing content.
Create a Style Guide to Follow
Content is a word with multiple meanings. It could refer to articles, blog posts, user guides, reviews, infographics, video content, picture content and so on. While creating content you need to follow a style guide to keep your content and content’s tone consistent.
Your style guide is usually in part dependent upon your branding and style and helps you create consistent content. This includes fonts and colors you use in graphic content, as well as the tone of your content and the type of personality your brand has.
Content Creation 101: Tips for Killer Content
Now comes the main part. If you follow the things above you have set yourself up to a good start. Regardless of the type of content, everything you are going to write, create or compile can be divided into three main parts; the title (headline), the intro (introductory paragraph, first 30 seconds of the video, etc.), the body (main content), and the conclusion.
Create Content Like You Mean It
Keep in mind these few tips while in the creation phase:
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- A catchy, yet comprehensive title is going to pull in the reader, making them click. This is important because regardless of how good your content might be if your headlines aren’t good enough no one will click on it.
- The tone of the content is important. Targeting your audience while creating content will help you know how to talk to them. This is important because if you don’t nail the content tone, your customers won’t be able to relate. Another reason tone is extremely important is because when conveying information, you want your audience to respond the way you want⎯share, buy, click⎯and without the right tone, your customers won’t be able to connect with your business.
- Content is your main concern, so, make sure you do your research and commit to providing your customers the correct information. Don’t lie, hide or falsify information, because once trust is lost, you will lose that trust forever.
- The language you use is another concern. Talk to them in words and language they often use. Write at a basic level so everyone can understand what you are trying to convey.
Now that you have your content, you are nearly finished, but your job isn’t done yet.
- Check for factual mistakes to make sure everything you have created and all the information, data, facts and figures you have provided is correct and accurate. Your readers will take your word for it and you don’t need to give them reasons to distrust you.
- If your content is in written format then spell check or run the content through Grammarly to rut out common mistakes. Hire a proofreader, or editor, to help you edit if you aren’t good at writing. If it’s video content then you can hire a professional to help you edit it to make it more refined.
- Do some SEO, check for plagiarism before you publish it.
These killer tips will help you write powerful content and you’ll be sure to see a boost in your Web Marketing ROI. Now all you have to do is hit publish and wait to reap the results.
Author Bio: James Spittal is the founder of Conversion Rate Optimisation and A/B testing obsessed digital marketing agency, Web Marketing ROI. They help brands with high-traffic websites optimize their conversion rate using A/B testing and personalization.
