Marketing Psychology: 5 Tips to Win Hearts (+ Examples)
Marketing is all about human behavior, so it makes sense that having an understanding of psychology could improve the way we approach marketing initiatives....
Read MoreBuild your content writing skills. Develop good content. Win the trust of your audience. Here’s how.
Here, you’ll find:
Content is the currency of the web. If you can deliver exceptional 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 business).
Content writing is the process of creating written content to attract a specific audience and drive a particular action.
In other words, it’s writing with a business purpose (e.g., to earn leads and conversions). It can also be used to inform, build trust, and position yourself or your brand as a thought leader.
Just a few decades ago, most content you found was either 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 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:
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.
Source: 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 is a direct way to promote a product or service. These typically come in different content types like:
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 need to make a 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:
Source: 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.
Content writing can making growing and scaling your business easier. Here’s an overview of how:
At the end of the day, content marketing can generate a return on investment. A HubSpot report shows marketers that blog are 13 times more likely to see positive ROI.
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. Here’s how to do that.
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 they had it all wrong. So guessing who your prospective customers are is a time waste. Instead of putting together makeshift persona profiles, put in the work by talking to your customers to learn who they are.
You can do this through customer interviews and customer surveys. There are also tools you can use to learn what your audience consumes online. For instance, Sparktoro is an audience listening platform that identifies influencers your audience follows, 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 first, second, and third-party data will give you a complete picture of your customers and how to reach them.
Once you know who your audience is 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.
At HawkSEM, we build online marketing strategies that will attract and convert your target customers. We do this using audience and competitive research to learn your market and the best way to position your brand. Then our experienced content writers develop content that generates results.
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 lay out 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:
Here’s an example from HubSpot:
Source: HubSpot
Other ways to catch the reader’s attention with your introduction include asking a question, stating a surprising stat, 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 that was clearly written to hit a certain word count rather than answer a question.”
After landing your introduction, make sure the rest of the post contains high-quality content. What does this mean?
Your content:
Do this in every piece of content you create and you’ll have a winning strategy that generates traffic and new leads.
Now that you’ve written your headline and introduction, it’s time to structure the rest of your content. This is important because it’ll determine whether a reader consumes the entire post (especially if it’s long-form content).
Here are some tips for structuring your content:
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:
Source: Amazon
Source: Amazon
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. Yes, there’s a difference between the two.
You can use tools like Grammarly, ProWritingAid, and Hemingway Editor to speed up both processes. Writer also makes it easier for your teams to follow brand guidelines by selecting what words to use and avoid, and other tedious writing rules.
Don’t hit publish just yet — not until you’ve optimized your content for search engines (aka search engine optimization).
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:
Pro tip: While you want the keyword to be prominent, avoid overdoing it. This is called keyword stuffing, or it’ll 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.
Writing content for your business or personal brand is key to a healthy digital marketing strategy. But it’s not as easy as 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 project 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.
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