When I became a content writer a few years ago, most people in my circle who were ignorant about digital marketing thought content writing was something like journalism or writing promotional content for products or services.
Well! It was impossible to explain to most people who were not familiar with the field, so I let it be.
But for all those who are looking to venture into this field, I sure have a lot to share from my experience in the field.
Most of you would have come across the phrase “Content is King”-it is true! Considering the current marketing scenario, it can be safely said that,” Content is the current and future of marketing!”
In this post, when I say content writing, I will be focusing on blog and article writing specifically.
Let’s see what it takes to be a writer
Content writing can be done by anyone who is at least a graduate. The background usually does not matter but what does matter is your command over English. You need to have a good vocabulary, great grammar skills, and the ability to read extensively on any topic. However, having a technical background does help when you need to write content on trending technical topics.
What exactly is content writing?
Content writing in the marketing world is optimized writing. You will now wonder- what is optimized writing? Optimized writing is content that contains keywords that are searched on Google for a particular topic.
The objective of content writing is to write content that ranks high on search engines. For this, it becomes necessary to analyze what the audience is looking for when it comes to the product or service that you are writing about.
This is done through keyword research which requires a background in search engine optimization.
If you are beginning your career in content writing, I would recommend that you work for a digital marketing company. This is because you are new to the field and you will the support of team members with different aspects of content writing.
You will require the SEO specialist to provide you the relevant keywords for writing.
You will also need the support of the digital marketing team and designers to create infographics and images for your content.
As a beginner, you may also find it difficult to post content on the relevant site and your team can help you with that.
Now that you have all the support in place, let me tell you about how you should go about writing the content:
Step 1: Before you begin your content ensure that you have the list of keywords with you.
Step 2: Study the website for which you are writing in detail. Get a clear idea of what your product/service is.
Step 3: Find out about your audience. It is very important to understand your audience before creating content for them. You need to understand your buyer’s journey and create content that is relevant to your buyer’s journey.
Step 4: It is essential to find out which country your client is and use the dialect that is relevant to that country.
Once you have all the above inputs, you are ready to start your content.
Step 5: The art of writing engaging content is writing it like a story so that the reader does not drift away. When you see your keywords, decide what your story will be. For instance, whether you will talk about the benefits of the product, or trends in the field, or whatever. You are the writer, so you decide what you want to tell your audience. But make sure that the keywords provided will fall in place in your story.
Step 6: Next, we come to the keywords. Keywords are what your audience is searching for. You can do a little research to find out what your audience is looking for specific keywords. The top-ranking blogs/articles on Google indicate the search of your audience.
Step 7: After you have found out what the audience is searching and decided on your story. You can start researching on the topic and expressing your story in your way.
Step 8: Make sure that you use the keywords 1-3% in your content. A few years back, Google accepted blogs with stuffed keywords. However, now content with stuffed keywords gets penalized. The art of using the keywords smartly in the content is what differentiates a good writer. It is recommended that you use at least one keyword in the introduction and one in the conclusion. Make sure to use keywords in the body of the content also.
Keywords should be used in the blog such that they blend with the content. They should be placed so that they don’t seem out of place but a part of the logical flow of the content.
Step 9: It is important to have a strong introduction with captivates the audience. The rest of the content should have a logical flow. Make sure to summarize your story. Don’t leave the content open-ended.
Step 10: When you have completed your blog, write a catchy title for the post. Try to use a keyword in some form, if possible, in the title. Make the title compelling and catchy, something related to the needs of your audience.
After you complete, make sure to read the content at least twice to ensure that it is free of errors.
It is recommended that you run a plagiarism check on the content to make sure that it is unique. Also, use grammar tools such as Grammarly to eliminate any grammatical mistakes.
Although not exhaustive, these are some tips to get started in the field of content writing. Follow them and you’re good to go!
