Content marketing is an essential part of any successful business. Whether you’re selling products or services, you need to create high-quality content to attract customers and keep them coming back for more.
To build a thriving online business, you must focus on creating great content and distributing it effectively. You’ll find that there’s no better way to do both than through effective content marketing.
You’ve likely heard that blog posts and emails are a great way to reach your audience. While this is true, unless you are reaching the right audience with the right message, your hard work is going to be passed by. With this in mind, I’ve created a few tips for effective business writing and content marketing.
Establish a goal for your writing
Whether you are writing a blog post, a social media caption, or an email, you need to have solid goals in mind. What information do you want to share with your target audience? What action are you looking for them to take?
If you are a service-based business, you want to share the value of your brand, differentiate yourself from your customers, and get the reader to schedule a call.
If you are a product-based business, you want to educate the audience on the value of the product, the ease of ordering, and establish credibility.
Creating a content calendar or a content action plan can make it much easier to stick to your writing goals, and share relevant information, and the right message with your audience.
Not sure where to start with a content action plan? Download my free template!
Write Interesting Headlines
Your headline is your audience’s first impression; it lets the reader know what to expect if they decide to read your blog post, article, social post, etc. Titles need to be inviting to the reader, invoke emotion or curiosity, and have the right keywords. Consider solving a problem, asking a question, or sharing a theory.
Here is an example of a title and how it might be viewed by a reader:
- 10 Ways to Increase Website Conversions – The reader immediately knows what to expect with this title. Website conversions is also a keyword business owners might be searching.
Don’t Forget a Hook
Readers make a decision to stay on a webpage within 10 seconds, according to the Nielson Norman Research Group. That means you as a writer have 10 seconds to provide value or intrigue them enough to keep reading. Hooks are designed to grab a reader’s attention at the top of the page.
A hook is the first sentence or sentences after your title. Hooks could be interesting statistics, strong opinions, facts, or an intriguing questions. As you write your hook, consider what ideas, thoughts, or questions would intrigue your audience.
Use the right keywords
Keywords are incredibly important for any online business. Keywording or ranking online are referring to search engine optimization (SEO). Keywords enable people to find you through web searches. When you search for something on Google, you enter a keyword in the search bar, and Google provides a list of sites that contain that keyword.
There are lots of SEO techniques for incorporating keywords into websites, blogs, and articles. The most effective method is to utilize keywords naturally throughout the article that align with your topic. If we adhere to SEO best practices, by including the right keywords and optimizing subheadings and titles, then your content will raise in the searches.
You can research keywords for free using Google Search Console or social media. There are many paid keyword research platforms.
Keyword stuffing (using excessive keywords that don’t fit) is penalized by Google, so keep that in mind when writing your copy.
It can be easy to get overwhelmed or over analysis your SEO when writing. I’d recommend prioritizing content quality first, then going through your copy and optimizing further. This is a simple way to get your message written without overthinking the keywords. Once you get a better understanding of keywording, you’ll naturally incorporate keywords in your business writing.
STAY FOCUSED
It can be easy to go off on a tangent when writing about something you are passionate about, like your business, but with content marketing, you need to stay focused. Pick a topic aligned with your goals and make sure you stay with it. Mixing your message can confuse your audience and stop them from reading more.
One way of staying on track is to create a simple outline for longer blog posts or articles. (You probably won’t need an outline for social media captions!). Include your title, subtitles, and the elements you want to provide your audience; answer a question, provide relevant information, differentiate from the competition, etc.
EDIT YOUR WORK
The number of typos I’ve seen in company communications is scary! Now, we are all human, and accidents happen, so don’t beat yourself up too much. However, we should make an effort to prevent typos and grammatical errors in our business writing.
There are a few easy tricks for editing your own work, including reading it aloud, reading it backward, or checking it the next day. Grammarly is a fantastic free tool for editing copy in a variety of areas, including Microsoft Word and Google Docs.