10 Tips for better content writing
I know - it's frustrating.
Writing one post - after another, then another.
And waiting for the readers to come.
The comments to start pouring - but sometimes they never do.
So, what can you do to write content that really clicks with your target audience? How to write content that literally explodes [better yet, catches fire, goes kaput and crazy viral].
Okay - not all that, but how about content that really resonates with your target audience? What are the tips to writing better, more useful and more readable content?
Read on.
1. Writing what the reader wants to read about
People are busy, trying to juggle multiple things in their lives and are perennially short of time.
Would you read some random blog by a person who you don’t know - just like that, out of casual interest?
No!
We are all consumed by what concerns us in our immediate sphere of influence: our jobs, our household, our family, friends, our goals and this behavior is universal.
In case you want to make your content relevant for your target audience, write what they want to know, not what you want to write.
You need to put the reader at the center of your entire blogging experience. It's about them, what are their needs, what they want to know. It's not an exercise for you to show off your writing skills or start selling before you cultivate and nurture relationships.
You need to have an innate sense of who your target audience is and what do they want to know more about. Learn more about narrowing down your blog's target audience here.
2. Writing an informative article.
How many times has it happened that you were reading something online, didn't find enough depth in the topic, and hopped onto another site soon after, hoping to find something that is much more deeper and comprehensive?
If your user is reading your article and has to visit some other site to get more information - then you have already lost the opportunity.
Give information that is so comprehensive that your users stay on your site as long as possible. Influential bloggers / marketers routinely write content that is 4000+ words.
I know it is difficult to write that word count in case you are just beginning but then - everything in life comes with discipline and practice. You need to up your blogging output - not easy, I know, but you need to write informative content if you wish to be taken seriously as a blogger. Learn more about how to write informative content for your blog here.
3. Write frequently
You cannot write 3 posts in January, 0 posts in February and then again 1 post in March.
People love familiarity and crave comfort.
You need to be consistent in your content marketing efforts. Create a writing schedule and work on improving both your writing quantity [writing more] and writing quality [writing better]. Is writing frequently a challenge for you? Learn tips on how to write more in lesser time
4. Readability
Try to focus on readability - instead of writing grandiose words which nobody understands, write in the language that your target audience understands. Focus on getting the meaning across, instead of sounding accomplished and knowledgeable. People appreciate vulnerability and honesty much more than fake expertise.
5. Structure
The way information is consumed online is different from what it is in print. Readers browse online scanning rapidly to assess if a particular website meets their needs. Typically articles were structured with a beginning, a middle [articulation of the problem, the proposed solution, why this solution meets the needs], and finally the conclusion.
Well, not anymore.
Web consumption of content is different from other consumption experiences.
You need to highlight the most important take-aways from your article. If you don’t put out your most important information first, then the reader will have to spend more time assessing if the website is worth his/her while - instead of actually reading the content. Eventually, the reader will skip to the next site. As Steve Krug, author of the iconic book, Don't Make Me Think says - reduce the cognitive load on your users. Provide structured content, present your most important information first, and work on lucidity, comprehension and structure. Remove ambiguity and anything else that hinders comprehension.
6. Originality
Can’t stress this enough - It has happened so many times. I fire up Google looking for answers to something, and many times, the content ranked on page 1 itself is cliched, hackneyed and unoriginal. Some sites go even a step further - rehash the same content found across one or many sites to create a mashup - no originality.
Now I have mentally indexed what sites to follow and what to always avoid.
Your readers are doing the same.
Make sure to present that you (i) don’t plagiarize content (duh!) (ii) present original ideas (iii) if not, at least a fresh, original perspective on the current / popular trends.
Difficult - yeah, time -consuming - you bet it is, but payoff in the long run - most definitely.
7. Tone of voice
When I began writing my blog, I was overtly concerned that I should sound knowledgeable. To do this, I camouflaged my writing with grandiose words - didn’t help.
First, I was not writing in the tone of voice that was aligned to my readers [so they would mentally check out before they even finished reading the article].
Next, I spent so much time polishing up what I wrote that it was tiring. Finally, I am pretty sure that none of my readers actually spoke using the tone of voice that I was using.
Lesson learnt: Use the tone of voice that your readers use to talk with each other, or talk out loud with themselves. The more closer you are to their tone of voice, the better match you will be with their needs.
8. Hygiene checks
Nothing can be more disappointing in the entire reading experience than to come across an article riddled with grammatical errors [It is to me, I am quite the grammar Nazi 😎]. It is almost impossible to fathom what could have possibly prevented the author from doing the routine grammar / hygiene checks, what with the plethora of tools available nowadays.
Few hygiene checks for your article:
- A relevant and interesting headline
- No factual errors
- Copy edited, proof-read article
9. Test your content
Have you made changes to your writing recently? Better tone of voice, more readability, perhaps?
How will you know what works?
You need to test your content, constantly. Use user metrics such as traffic data [from Google Analytics], comments, clicks to understand what is resonating with your target audience
10. You
Yes, you read that right.
The final tip is about well, you - as a writer.
The final thing that you can do to be a better writer is just to be you.
Everyone has his / her own unique writing style and personality.
For example, some people are naturally good at writing in-depth research based articles. Few people believe in taking a stand, a viewpoint in their writing, yet others are writing.
Me? I am good at (or so I believe) narrative stuff, I do irony and sarcasm well (do I?). And I prefer writing about my own take on all things marketing.
Introspect about who you are as a writer. Find it, embrace it and enhance it.
Putting it all together
Let’s face it - the average reader on the web doesn’t have time.
Unless reading is a hobby, s/he just wants to go over to Google, find something that answers his queries, meets his requirements and go back to doing other stuff. In this entire scenario, it would be foolish to expect that he’d thoughtfully pick something up from each of the blogs he reads, compose a nice note and share it on social media.
So, as a writer -(i) you need to create content so good that the reader is absolutely compelled to share it (ii) make it ridiculously easy for him / her to share it if s/he wants.
Let me know in case you have any tips for writing better in the comments section below.
I know it's not easy, but hey, it's not difficult either. You can browse few other articles right here to clarify any further queries that you might have around writing.
why your text show so much small when see in priview pls improve it.
ReplyDeleteThanks Sonu for sharing your observations - will surely increase the size of the content !
ReplyDelete