What is Content Writing? 16 Tips to Create Content Readers will Love

Content writing uses blog posts, ebooks, and other text to inform and persuade target readers to sign up, purchase, download, or engage with a brand. Learn how to use content to reach your business goals.

Content is the currency of the web. If you can deliver great content that resonates with your readers, they’re more likely to do business with you.

It’s a give-take relationship that requires companies to showcase their expertise and authority in exchange for their prospect’s trust and admiration.

Once you have that, it’s easier to earn their business.

But how do you create content that gives you these results? Hint: it requires similar steps to building any new product.

So, let’s explore what content writing is all about and how to create posts that win your target customers’ hearts (and their businesses).

What is content writing?

Content writing is the process of creating written content — blog posts, marketing emails, newsletters, ebooks, case studies — to attract a specific audience and drive a particular action (e.g., signup or sale).

The purpose of content writing for businesses is to use content to build awareness, gather leads, and increase conversions. It can also inform, build trust, and position yourself or your brand as a thought leader.

Benefits of using content writing for business

Content writing makes growing and scaling your business easier.

Here’s how:

Improves search engine rankings

Creating quality content improves your website’s SEO, making it more visible to potential customers.

Increases brand awareness

Consistently publishing informative and engaging content establishes your brand as an authority in your industry and attracts new customers.

Offers cost-effective marketing

Writing content is cost-effective in reaching a wider audience and promoting your business, compared with traditional advertising methods,

Builds customer relationships

Providing valuable information through your content builds trust with your audience and establishes long-term customer relationships.

Allows you to measure results

Tracking the performance of your content and making data-driven decisions to improve your marketing strategy is possible using analytics tools like Semrush and Google Analytics.

Increases website traffic

Creating quality content that answers common questions and provides valuable information attracts more visitors to your website.

Establishes thought leadership

Sharing your expertise and insights through your content establishes you and your business as thought leaders in your industry.

Improves conversion rates

Writing well-crafted content persuades potential customers to take action. For example, purchasing a product or filling out a contact form to gather leads to nurture into paying customers via email marketing.

Content marketing can generate a return on investment when it’s consistent and high-quality.

16 tips to attract and retain customers with content writing

Content writing can make or break your business. Get it wrong and you could hurt your company’s reputation, diminishing trust and sales.

But you can avoid this by getting your content marketing strategy right from the get go. Algorithms are always changing, but the fundamentals are always the same — create helpful content your audience wants to read.

Just recently, Google had a major leak that “revealed” what top content marketers already knew. Here are the content writing tips and strategies you can use to improve your content writing skills based on the findings:

1. Understand your audience
2. Attract your audience with compelling headlines
3. Write introductions that grab the reader’s attention 
4. Identify your brand’s tone of voice
5. Write from your perspective
6. Get insights from industry experts
7. Include helpful internal links 
8. Pick a single purpose for each post
9. Add visuals and breaks to your text 
10. Structure your content for “skimmability”
11. Make your content easy for anyone to read
12. Write to inspire, educate, and/or entertain 
13. Add a unique spin or takeaway
14. Edit and proofread your content 
15. Optimize for SEO
16. Keep your content up-to-date

1. Understand your audience

Knowing who you’re addressing in your content sets the tone, topics, and style you should write in. It makes finding what to say (and how to say it) easier and ensures your content resonates with your target audience.

Some companies think they know their audience and what they want, only to learn later that they had it all wrong. So, guessing who your prospective customers are is a time waste. Instead of putting together makeshift persona profiles, do the work by talking to your customers to learn who they are and what drives them.

Do this through customer interviews and customer surveys. There are also tools available to learn what your audience consumes online. For instance, Sparktoro is an audience listening platform that identifies influencers your audience follows, the content they engage with, and keywords they include in their bios.

Google Analytics is also useful for learning which topics get the most burn, and which lead to high bounce rates.

Using a combination of zero-party, first-party, second-party, and third-party data will give you a complete picture of your customers and how to reach them.

2. Attract your audience with compelling headlines

Once you know your audience and the type of content they prefer, it’s time to create it. And it all begins with the headline.

Your headline is the first thing your audience will see, making it one of the most important elements of your content. You need to make it click-worthy.

Here’s where your audience research will come in handy, along with the following tips to create compelling titles:

Keep it short and sweet

A good headline should be concise and to the point. Aim for no more than 10-12 words (or 55 characters). This way, it’s all visible in the search engine result pages (SERPs). For example, “5 Secrets to Perfecting Your Morning Routine.”

Use strong verbs

Verbs are the engines that drive headlines. Use active, powerful verbs to grab your reader’s attention. For example, “Revamp Your Wardrobe with These Simple Tips.”

Be specific

The more specific your headline, the better. Avoid vague or generic headlines that don’t tell the reader what to expect. For example, “How to Train for a Half-Marathon in 12 Weeks.”

Use numbers

Numbers add specificity and credibility to your headline. For example, “7 Ways to Boost Your Productivity at Work.”

Make it interesting

Your headline should make the reader want to click through and read more. Use humor, intrigue, or storytelling to pique their interest. For example, “Why You Should Quit Your Job and Travel the World.”

Keep it relevant

Your headline should accurately reflect the content of your article or blog post. Don’t mislead readers with headlines that don’t deliver. For example, “10 Easy Recipes for a Quick Weeknight Dinner.”

Ask a question

The more thought-provoking the question, the better. But ensure it’s relevant and not clickbait-like. For example, “Are You Making These Common Mistakes in Your Workout Routine?”

Test different options

Don’t be afraid to experiment with different headlines to see what works best. Try A/B testing different versions to see which one gets the most clicks.

At HawkSEM, we build online marketing strategies to attract and convert your target customers. We use audience and competitive research to learn about your market and how to position your brand. Then, our experienced content writers develop content that generates results.

3. Write introductions that grab the reader’s attention

You captured the reader’s attention with a compelling headline. Now, it’s time to follow through with an attention-grabbing introduction. The purpose of your intro is to connect with the reader (e.g., ambitions, worries, challenges) and explain why they should continue reading the post.

There are different formulas content writers use to write effective introductions. A popular one is the ‘Problem, Agitate, Solution’ formula. Here’s how it works:

• Problem: Identify a problem or pain point that your reader is experiencing. Ex: You’re tired of feeling stressed and overwhelmed at work.
• Agitate: Highlight the problem’s negative effects to make it feel more urgent or pressing. For example, your workload seems never-ending, deadlines are looming, and you can’t seem to catch a break.
• Solution: Introduce your solution to the problem and explain how it’ll help your reader. Ex: Our stress-management program teaches practical techniques for reducing stress and increasing productivity, so you can feel more in control of your workday.

Here’s an example from HubSpot:

(Image: HubSpot)

Other ways to catch the reader’s attention with your introduction include asking a question, stating a surprising statistic, or using an anecdote.

“I’m a big fan of leading with a scenario or metaphor of some kind that gets to the heart of what the piece is going to be about right up front,” says Rojewski.

“Usually when we write a piece of content, we’re trying to answer a direct search query/some question that people are actively researching,” she adds. “There’s nothing more annoying than an article clearly  written to hit a certain word count rather than answer a question.”

Ensure the rest of your content is just as engaging

After landing your introduction, ensure the rest of the post contains high-quality content. What does this mean?

Your content should:

• Be relevant to the reader and their needs
• Provide valuable content to the reader using facts, examples, and data to support claims
• Show, not tell, using eye-catching imagery
• Give in-depth detail to educate the reader so they walk away informed
• Include a mix of creative writing to tell intriguing but relatable stories

Do this in every piece of content you create and you’ll have a winning strategy that generates traffic and new leads.

4. Identify your brand’s tone of voice

Your company’s blog should have the same vibe, no matter the topic or author of the post. This isn’t to say writers can’t have a voice, but it should be in tune with the brand. For example, you don’t want some blog posts to feel overly comedic and others more serious and stuffy.

Everyone who writes for your blog — freelance writers and in-house staff — should know the brand’s tone and maintain it in every piece they write. Having a senior editor to ensure your brand’s consistency is also ideal.

So what is “tone of voice”?

It’s the personality of the content you write. Here are several examples based on real-world brands:

• Casual and approachable: Notion’s tone is clear, approachable, and empowering, making complex ideas easy to understand and accessible to a wide audience.
• Optimistic and positive: HubSpot’s brand voice is optimistic and positive, encouraging customer growth and improvement.
• Funny and edgy: Spotify’s tone is consistently funny, edgy, direct, and concise. It uses humor and sarcasm to engage its audience, making its brand voice witty and up-to-date with pop culture.
• Professional and authoritative: IBM’s tone is formal, accurate, and respectful, exuding expertise and confidence. This tone is common in industries where authority and trust are paramount, such as technology and finance.
• Conversational and friendly: LinkedIn uses a professional yet conversational tone, creating a sense of community and trust among professionals across various industries.
• Sympathetic and professional: For hospital websites, the tone is often serious, formal, and respectful, conveying empathy without being overly emotional.
• Witty and bold: Aldi’s tone on social media is witty and bold, often stirring up conversations with humorous and entertaining content.
• Straightforward and no-BS: Oatly uses a conversational tone that’s straightforward and no-nonsense, making its brand values and mission accessible and relatable.

Check out this post from Semrush to learn how to design your brand’s tone of voice (template included).

5. Write from your perspective

Don’t have a perspective on a topic you’re writing about? Then you may fall victim to copy-cat content. This is where you go to the SERPs, look at what everyone else is saying, and regurgitate it in your own words.

It’s a sure way to hurt your ranking odds.

The alternative: write content from your perspective, insights, and experiences. This will make your content original, engaging, and trustworthy — factors Google considers when deciding how to rank your content.

How to do this:

• Find anecdotes relevant to the topic that you can weave in as you write
• Think of experiences you have that can provide first-hand insights no one else has
• Pull from your brand’s internal data (surveys, marketing tools, etc.) to back up your claims
• Have a firm opinion on a topic that no one or few people have to stand apart

The goal is to make your content original while ensuring it’s valuable and helpful to your audience.

6. Get insights from industry experts

Maybe you don’t have personal experience and insights to share on a topic. That’s a-okay. An alternative is to talk to someone in your industry who does. This can be someone in-house (like I did in this post) or an expert you find on platforms like:

• Connectively (formerly HARO)
• Qwoted
• Featured (formerly Terkel)
• Social platforms (LinkedIn, Twitter/X, Reddit, Quora)
• Industry blogs (look at the author and find them on social)

Once you have an expert, pull information from them that you can’t find on Google. For example, ask about their experience with a certain tool, strategy, or event. Or results they’ve seen from using a popular tactic.

The idea is to get personal insights — like a journalist doing an exclusive interview with a celebrity — so only you have the scoop. This will make your content unique and entertaining to read.

7. Include helpful internal links

Another way to make your content more valuable is to help readers find other content on your site that’ll further their knowledge on a topic. When adding links, use relevant anchor text so readers know where they’re about to go.

For example, you can either weave it in naturally: Shoppers enjoy finding products on social media to purchase. In this scenario, the link could lead to a post about social shopping trends.

Or be straight-forward: Check out this blog post on how to use social to sell products.

Some say to use the target keyword of the post you’re linking to. Others say don’t because it’s spammy and Google doesn’t like it.

We say use anchor text that is clear so readers can decide whether or not to click. Can’t go wrong there!

8. Pick a single purpose for each post

Some topics are too broad and can lead you off the beaten path. Finding your way back to the original purpose is challenging and sometimes impossible. When writers are all over the place, it leaves the reader confused and frustrated.

Take this article as an example — it’s about content writing. While content marketing strategy is a part of content writing, it isn’t highly relevant.

So, I don’t touch on things like creating a content calendar, finding content ideas, or building your unique selling proposition (USP) for your brand. They’re relevant but would create bloat because they require further explanation and guidance, pulling away from the core topic — content writing.

When you find yourself in this situation, write content on sub-topics and link to them. This way, you can still bring them up without going too deep. I did this above when I linked to a Semrush post on creating a tone-of-voice guide.

9. Add visuals and breaks to your text

Writing content isn’t all about putting text on a page. It’s about making your content digestible and enjoyable. One way to kill a piece of content is to write a long wall of text or large blocks of paragraphs.

Ideally, you should include visual breaks, such as screenshots of tool dashboards, charts showing data, or fun infographics illustrating a point.

Either hone your creative skills using Canva and AI image generators, or work with a freelance graphic designer to spice up your posts.

10. Structure your content for “skimmability”

After writing your headline and introduction, it’s time to structure the rest of your content. This is important because it determines whether a reader consumes the entire post (especially long-form content).

Here are some tips for structuring your content:

Break up the text

Break up long chunks of text with visuals like images, videos, and GIFs. These will make your content visually appealing and less boring.

Use subheadings

Use headings and subheadings to organize the different sections of your content. This makes it easier for readers to find what they’re looking for.

Include relevant examples

Give examples that illustrate your point. This will help readers better understand key concepts and make the content more engaging.

Make use of bullet and numbered lists

Lists are a great way to make your content easier to scan, as well as highlight key points. You can use ordered or unordered lists, depending on what works best for your post.

Add a conclusion

Your conclusion should summarize the main points of your post, as well as reiterate why it matters to your readers. This will drive home your message and ensure readers remember it. And it’s useful for those who like to skip to the end.

Use a CTA

Don’t forget to include a call to action in your conclusion to ensure readers take your desired next step (e.g., schedule a demo, subscribe to your newsletter, share the content on social media platforms, fill out a form).

You can also use other elements to break up your content and direct readers to helpful resources. Amazon does an excellent job of this with it’s “Did you know” and FAQ boxes:

(Image: Amazon)

(Image: Amazon)

11. Make your content easy for anyone to read

We discussed skim-ability and breaking up content with visuals. But what about the words you use in your content? Understanding your audience will play a role here because it’ll determine what type of words you can use.

For instance, if you’re writing for a technical audience, you won’t have to worry about over-explaining concepts and jargon. But if you’re writing for a general or beginner audience, you’ll have to leave the jargon out or explain it in layman’s terms.

Nothing bores a reader like content that’s too difficult or too beginner for their taste.

12. Write to inspire, educate, and/or entertain

All content you create should inspire, educate, and/or entertain your audience. If it doesn’t, your audience will lose interest in your content fast and likely never click on your links again.

Let’s look at this further:

• Inspire: Encourages readers to achieve a goal and shows them how to do it. In other words, it’s proven to work and is actionable.
• Educate: Teaches readers practical knowledge about a subject they never knew before, so they can walk away feeling like they’ve learned a new skill or understanding.
• Entertain: Captures and keeps readers’ attention by telling stories, adding humor, sharing videos and images, and being light-hearted. If you can do this on technical topics — you’ll have gold on your paper screen.

If you can add all three elements to every piece of content, it’ll better connect with your audience and increase the odds of them returning to your site for more.

13. Add a unique spin or takeaway

We talked about originality and having a unique perspective. But you can take this further by being a contrarian (only if it’s true to your brand).

For instance, if everyone’s talking about a new tool and how it’s the best thing since sliced bread, but you think another tool is better — voice your opinion!

You can do this for a multitude of topics, including:

1. Unpopular opinions on popular tools:

• Why [Less Popular Tool] is Better than [Popular Tool Everyone Loves]
• Critical Review: The Overrated Features of [Popular Tool]

2. Debunking common myths:

• Debunking the Myth: Why [Common Belief] is Misleading
• The Truth About [Commonly Celebrated Trend] No One Talks About

3. Alternative approaches:

• Alternative Methods: Why [Alternative Approach] Outperforms [Traditional Method]
• Why You Should Try [Unconventional Strategy] Instead of [Popular Approach]

4. Underdog success stories:

• Overlooked but Powerful: The Success Story of [Less-Known Tool/Method]
• The Hidden Gems: Tools That Deserve More Attention than [Popular Tool]

5. Challenging industry standards:

• Rethinking Industry Norms: Why [Standard Practice] Needs to Change
• The Downside of [Widely Accepted Industry Standard] That No One Talks About

6. Contrarian product reviews:

• Why I Prefer [Alternative Product] Over [Industry Leader]
• A Contrarian Review: The Cons of [Popular Product] That No One Mentions

6. Productivity hacks:

• Why [Common Productivity Tip] Doesn’t Work and What to Do Instead
• Breaking the Mold: Unconventional Productivity Hacks That Actually Work

7. Contrary technology trends:

• The Future of Tech: Why [Current Technology Trend] Will Fail
• Why [Emerging Technology] Will Overtake [Popular Current Technology]

8. Health & wellness misconceptions:

• Contrary to Popular Belief: Why [Common Health Practice] Isn’t Beneficial
• Busting Myths: The Hidden Truth About [Popular Health/Supplement/Workout]

9. Controversial opinions:

• Controversial Take: Why [Common Belief] is Flawed
• The Real Deal: Why [Controversial Opinion] Makes More Sense Than You Think

As you can see, having a unique point of view also gives you powerful, click-worthy titles. A double win for you.

14. Edit and proofread your content

Quality content comes from selecting the right topics, offering a ton of value, and conducting a thorough editing process to ensure it’s error-free.

Typos and formatting issues are distracting, which may cause readers to bounce prematurely. They also make your business look unprofessional.

The way around this: editing and proofreading your content before publishing. And yes, there’s a difference between the two.

1. Proofreading requires a keen eye to spot spelling, grammar, and syntax inconsistencies. It ensures the content is clear and easy to read.
2. Editing goes beyond typos and homes in on formatting, structure, and flow. It also involves fact-checking, ensuring links work, and eliminating fluff (unnecessary words, sentences, and sections).

You can use content writing tools like Grammarly, ProWritingAid, and Hemingway Editor to speed up editing and writing processes. Writer also makes it easier for your marketing teams to follow brand guidelines by selecting what words to use and avoid, and other tedious writing rules.

15. Optimize for SEO

Don’t hit publish just yet — not until you have SEO-friendly content.

You already made it engaging and polished for the human eye. Great! Now, you’ve got to ensure search engines can find and rank your content.

Google and other search engines use algorithms to rate your posts and determine its relevance for specific search terms.

You can optimize your content by adding the right keywords in a way that flows naturally within the piece. Ideally, you’ll have a primary search term, which can be long-tail (e.g., how to create social media marketing strategy) or short-tail (e.g., social media posts).

Then, you’ll have secondary search terms relevant to the main keyword and topic that you sprinkle throughout.

Your primary keywords should be mentioned:

• In the title
• Within the first 100 words
• In the meta description
• In at least one subheading
• Elsewhere when or if it makes sense

Pro tip: While you want the keyword to be prominent, avoid overdoing it. Keyword stuffing will hurt the readability and rank potential of your content.

You can use tools like Google’s Keyword Planner, Semrush, Clearscope, and Surfer SEO to find keywords. The latter two also have content editors where you can see which keywords you’re missing so you can add them. Once your content reaches a high score or rating, it’s ready to go.

16. Keep your content up-to-date

After publishing your content, it doesn’t end there. Continue to monitor its performance and topics covered. If you see the rankings and traffic dipping six months later, or there are recent revelations since you wrote the piece, it may be time for a refresh.

Updating your content will tell Google your post is the most up-to-date and reliable.

When refreshing, change the date and include a note at the end stating when the original post was published and that it was updated.

Things you want to do in a refresh include:

• Updating statistics: Replace outdated data with the latest figures from reputable sources (e.g., original surveys and reports)
• Fixing broken links: Check all hyperlinks to ensure they’re working properly (internal and external links)
• Improving SEO: Optimize keywords, meta descriptions, and alt tags for search engines using tools like Clearscope
• Enhancing visuals: Update or add high-quality images and videos (and remove outdated memes and GIFs)
• Checking accuracy: Verify the factual accuracy of the content, especially for topics that change rapidly and are critical (e.g., health, laws, and finance)
• Modernize language: Use current terminology and a more engaging writing style (e.g., Gen Z are no longer kids)

Difference between content writing and copywriting

A few decades ago, most content was on television or in print at a library or bookstore. Today, you can tap into a vast amount of online content from a device the size of your palm.

But not all content is created equal. The written word is used in many ways, such as to entertain, engage, persuade, and sell.

“Content writing has a different focus than other forms of writing,” explains Josie Rojewski, content marketing writer at HawkSEM. “The goal of content writing is to provide relevant, helpful information and engage or entice readers to learn more about a topic.”

On the flip side, she adds the goal of copywriting is usually to try to get a person to take a certain action. Let’s take a closer look at the two writing styles.

Content writing

Content writing is often used for marketing purposes by businesses. For instance, it’s used to increase online visibility and engage an audience they wish to convert into customers.

This is a less sales-y approach to getting your audience’s attention and convincing them to buy from your business.

Content writing can be done for various forms of content, including:

• Blog posts
• Infographics
• Ebooks
• Email newsletters
• Video scripts
• Press releases
• Guides

Copywriting, on the other hand, is created with one focus in mind: to sell products and services.

The key difference between content writing and copywriting is that content writing is a less in-your-face way of selling a product or service. It focuses more on other tactics like brand awareness, credibility, and thought leadership. These are, of course, still important because they can effectively lead to sales just like copywriting.

For instance, you can write a blog post explaining how to use a CRM to improve your sales process. Then at the end, include a call to action (CTA) promoting your CRM as the solution.

The reader may or may not convert right away.

This Semrush post explains the different tools companies can use for content creation. And guess what — it promotes several of its own throughout the post.

(Image: Semrush)

It’s an educational piece that also positions its product as a must-buy.

“Content writing has expanded to include more than blog articles and web page copy,” says Rojewski.

“I’ve written video scripts, and storyboards for massive marketing campaigns, and even helped design entire brand overhauls to include more and better content for clients. I think we’ll continue to see that expansion, especially in the short-and-long-form video space.”

Copywriting

Copywriting is a direct way to promote a product or service. These typically come in different content types like:

• Pay-per-click (PPC) ads
• Promotional email marketing
• Website content
• Landing pages
• Case studies
• White papers
• Product descriptions

Copywriting discusses the product or service and how it can help or benefit the target audience. It uses the art of persuasion to convince the reader they must purchase right now.

For example, B2C (business-to-consumer) companies that sell consumable goods can dangle a promotional offer in front of their audience to increase sales.

Take this example from BarkBox:

(Image: Barkbox)

However, a B2B (business-to-business) company that sells complex software solutions can’t use this approach. The reason: the sales cycle can take months and requires the approval of multiple people.

For this reason, a content writing approach makes sense.

Now, this isn’t to say B2B companies don’t use copywriting. In fact, most use sales copy in ads, landing pages, and web page copy. But it also requires content marketing to nurture leads into customers.

If you’re wondering whether you should use one over the other, experience tells us to leverage both for best results.

The takeaway

Writing content for your business or personal brand is key to a healthy digital marketing strategy. But it’s more than just firing off a blog post and hitting “publish.”

A successful content writing plan requires consistency, which can be a struggle when you juggle multiple items on your plate.

The good news: You don’t have to go it alone. You can work with an agency that provides content writing services such as content strategy, content calendar building, SEO content creation, and overall content management.

At HawkSEM, we offer holistic digital marketing and writing services that encompasses it all: SEO writing, web content, keyword research, and even email marketing. Want to know more? Let’s talk.

This post has been updated and was originally published in May 2023.