What is Content Writing? Here are Some Essential Tips To Help You Publish
Content is king when it comes to building an online audience and getting noticed. Learn a few essential content writing tips to help you stand out.
What is Content Writing?
Content Writing is a process of planning, writing, editing, and publishing content via a digital medium. It is mostly done for informational or marketing purposes. “With content, businesses can attract leads and foster positive connections with their audience, ultimately pushing them down the sales funnel.” Different types of content writing include blog posts, articles, press releases, email newsletters, e-books, website content, etc.
7 Tips to Help You Publish
To make your content stand out and shine, it should be exceptional in the eyes of both the editor and the search engine. Here are seven essential tips to help you publish.
Create an outline
Before you start writing, plan a structure for your content. It will help you put down your thoughts in an organized way. Consider the reason, goal, and target audience of the article. Also, keep in mind the action you wish them to take after reading it.
Use subheadings and bullet points to make your content easy to consume and more SEO-friendly. Create a list of the arguments you want to make. It could be a rough list that you polish and elaborate on as you begin writing.
Do your research
Without research, content is like a kite without a thread. It may remain in the air for some time, but as it lacks direction, it will eventually crash to the ground. Research can help you find new and interesting angles to the story, which may not have been possible otherwise.
A well-researched article with the right facts is trustworthy and builds the credibility of your website/blog. For this, you can turn to online sources and also find out what your audience loves and prefers. Also, think from the editor’s perspective to know what the reader will gain from the text.
Keep it clear and concise
The reader should not have to squint their eyes and put pressure on their mind to understand what you are saying in the article. It should be clear to them in one read. Your arguments should be supported by data-driven facts or statistics to increase their credibility. Numbers do can catch the attention of readers but they should not be used excessively. Keeping it concise means conveying as much information as possible in as few words as possible. You should break it up into shorter paragraphs to improve the readability of the text.
Write what you know
Add a creative edge to your content with unique and engaging stories to keep the reader hooked. They shouldn’t get bored and leave in the middle. “Unique personal stories and explanations provide readers with clear takeaways and engage them in ways an outsider can’t replicate.”
You can educate the audience with your own references and how the product/service you are writing about helped you out. It humanizes your article for the reader to relate and eventually take an action.
Add value to every sentence
If any sentence you write is not teaching something new to the audience, it’s better to leave it out. This is important if you don’t want to lose the reader’s interest. Most of these people are busy and might not have time to read everything you write. Make sure they go back with something concrete and useful. Get to the point as soon as possible. Delete anything repetitive, monotonous, and vague.
Make it plagiarism free
Duplicate content can affect your website/article’s ranking on the search engines. Google gets confused with duplicate content and doesn’t want to rank it. This is why it’s better to only go ahead with plagiarism-free write-ups. After editing and fact-checking the article, paste it into Copyscape. The tool generates a report of the copied content and the source of the original for you to compare. It can help keep the content authentic and avoid problems with SEO.
Incorporate original quotes
More than facts and numbers, original quotes from experts can add great value to your content. For instance, an article on “how to manage mental health during COVID” will be more credible, with a quote from a mental health professional.
You can always connect with an expert on any topics you are writing about online and ask for a quote. Make sure you connect with a few, as not everyone will have the time and bandwidth to help you. It will make a good impression on your readers to come back for more.
Fuzia is hosting a “Writeathon” for the wordsmiths like you. Click here to participate. Also, keep an eye out for the content writing workshop that is coming your way soon.
Do you wish to add a spark to your content and take it to the next level? Read this blog to know 9 powerful tips that will make you better at content writing. You can also check out our other blogs on the website. Join the Fuzia community at www.fuzia.com to connect with some like-minded people.
Image credits: freepik