Marketing writing is not just for driving traffic and improving the search engine rankings, it’s also about providing real value.
Quality content is part of effective copywriting which builds authority and trust. This is important if you want your marketing writing to be able to attract customers and boost SEO. Optimizing content for SEO so it ranks better in the search engines is also important as market research shows organic search engine traffic is five times more effective than paid ad traffic.
The challenge here is to create marketing content that is optimized enough to make a difference. If you struggle to empower your content marketing tactics in the right manner to improve efficiency, then we have some tips that will help you.
Create an Idea Capture System
Creation of better content starts with an idea. You need to create an idea capture system that you can use to log ideas for later research about your customer’s search intent and more. It is easier than you think, just follow the steps.
Start listing you content marketing ideas
This is like keeping a log of the blog posts that you have done in the past and the ideas of the posts for the future. It will serve you in many ways like it is an easy way to keep track of what subjects you have already covered. It will also help you record the ideas as they come to you which saves time later on when you are ready to write.
For logging the ideas, you can use a notebook, an app on your phone or a notebook. Here consistency is the key to make the ideas more accessible. Online resources like Google Docs will allow you to access the log on any device.
Answer question-based keywords in a structured manner
SEO is no longer keyword-based now search giants Google are ruled by the searcher’s intent. It’s common sense, if a customer is ready to buy something, they search with intent.
Today, if you want the marketing content to be a success, you will need to address the pain points a potential customer might have. A successful marketing blog is the one that answers a customer’s potential question.
Understand search intent is one of the mandates to create an experience that leaves your customer satisfied. It gives them a sense that you understand them and give importance to their needs. When the target of each of your blog post is to answer a customer question, you are ensuring that there is no wasted writing time and effort.
Think about it. You might have months’ worth of content on your blog, but if no one is searching for those topics it will not be of any help irrespective of how much quality content is. You need to invest time in finding out the targeting and most search keyword phrases.
Create a Writing Toolbox
Copywriting, blogging, content creation or marketing writing, whatever you might call it, the process for all remains the same. The best quality content will always rank at the top because it fulfils your target customers’ search intent.
Web pages that are informative, entertaining and detail-oriented have the best success rate. No reader likes sloppy grammar or misspelt words.
You do not have to hire experts for the job, even with zero budget you can afford tools that will support your writing process.
For keyword phrases, ideas use Google’s Keyword Planner.
Use Google Doc’s ‘speech to text’ feature for narrating outlines.
Grammarly and Hemingway both are free services for editing.
Hubspot has a free and popular blog topic generator.
This is just a small list of tools available, you can learn about a lot many other tools that will add efficiency to the whole content development process.
Maintain a Singular Purpose
Web pages are rarely read in their entirety which is why content marketing writing focused on a singular purpose brings attention.
Since audience arrive to blogs looking answer for a specific question, a clear content quickly confirms that they are in the right place. This further encourages them to look deeper and follow the content.
If it’s not easy for you to create focused content, here are some steps to make things easier.
Research First
When you are well-versed in your subject, you can sit down to write without stopping. Working without interruption will speed up the writing process.
Know the Concept
You know that you have the main idea clear when you can express it in a single sentence. The main idea is the single most important information that tells the reader, what’s in the post for him.
Start with an Outline
Here you map out the supporting point for the main idea. This step is important to determine the logical structure that your article will follow.
Lead with Headlines
A header or two is the threshold before your reader either dig deeper into your blog post or jumps to another blog. Your headlines create expectations and the content must satisfy those expectations. This is why when you start writing, write headlines that definitely focus on the paragraphs that will follow.
Share an idea each paragraph
Content gets much easier to comprehend when you express one idea per paragraph. Use bullets and subheads to break your writing into blocks.
Write First. Edit Later.
Every accomplished writer is aware of this fact. Experts recommend you must write without pausing for editing or polishing your content. Just write what it feels and refine the ideas later.
According to Corey Pemberton at Bidsketch, “give yourself permission to write a bad first draft. Trying to get everything right in the first draft will absolutely kill your writing speed…. This change in workflow is one of the most important things you can do to pick up your speed dramatically.”
Edit the Content
Go away from the content after writing and come back with a fresh pair of eyes to edit the content.
Write to Repurpose
Content for blogs is just utilizing one channel, but there are multiple content marketing channels and repurposing is a powerful efficiency tool.
This approach allows to create more content with less time and effort.
But make no mistake. Effective repurposing requires strategy.
We recommend starting with top-notch content like a white paper. Now you need to write a blog post based on the same but do not just rearrange the content, try providing better answers than your competition did. You can also go ahead and create viral social content based on the information.
Content marketing remains the most powerful tool today, but it takes consistent effort and time to be a success. The key elements we shared here, if you incorporate into your writing, it will be effective and efficient.