Writing. It’s a lucrative skill that many people think you need to be born into. But just because you don’t call yourself writer doesn’t mean you can’t write. It just means you need a little practice!
As content marketing becomes a dominating force in every business, it’s important for business owners and marketing teams alike to know how to write for their target audience. This means creating content that grabs their attention, answers their questions and tells them next steps.
When it comes to creating marketing copy, there are a few rules of thumb that guide even us professionals through the process of creating great content. Here are 10 tips to develop your writing skills so you can start creating impactful copy.
1. Keep It Simple
Very little of your content needs to be an in-depth analysis of your business. Most of the content you create for marketing campaigns will take up limited space, such as in an email or as ad copy. That means you only have a handful of words to convey your message.
A good content writer rises to that challenge. They can craft a message that grabs the attention of potential customers and encourages them to take action with your brand. All in just a few lines of copy. Not that’s what I call quality content!
2. Make Your Customer the Hero
All of your marketing efforts should be geared toward putting your customer in the spotlight. No matter how tempting it is to tell your business history and list your accomplishments, all of your marketing writing should focus on making your customer the hero.
What does this mean? It means that every piece of content you create should explain how your customer’s life will be better with you in it. Talk about their pain points, their needs, their struggles and then mention that you have a solution.
This goes for every type of content writing you do — email marketing, web pages, you name it.
3. Speak Directly to Readers
Your high school English teacher might not like this one, but if you’re in digital marketing, then you need to embrace second person. By that, I mean writing with “you.”
Speaking directly to your reader is a more engaging way to write. It makes things feel like a conversation, like you’re really just trying to help out a friend. Marketing writers are the first people to start building a relationship with potential customers through their copy.
4. Avoid Passive Voice
To balance the scales, here’s one your English teacher would love. Don’t use passive voice. It might sound natural or be hard to spot, but passive voice will always come across as wishy washy to your readers. And no effective marketing campaign has ever been wishy washy.
Instead, opt for solely active voice in your copy. It might feel strange at first, especially if you’re not used to being direct with readers, but I promise it yields results. It’s the same principle as when crafting a call to action — when you give someone directions, they’ll want to follow.
Note: This is especially important for your home page landing pages. You want these to be concise and direct, inspiring readers to a specific action.
5. Limit Adverbs
Especially in social media posts, it can be tempting to overdo it with the adverbs. “Our organically sourced, sustainably farmed vegetables are thoughtfully harvested with you in mind.” That’s a great sentiment, but the heart of it is hidden behind all those adverbs.
Instead, try to focus on the action of your sentence. (That’s the part people care about anyway.) It also packs more power into your words and captures and keeps attention. For example, without adverbs, the above line could be: “We feature organic products from sustainable farms, harvested with you in mind.”
6. Focus on the First Line
The first line of copy is the most important sentence in all of your marketing materials, but especially for online marketing assets. People can easily leave your material and find something else on the internet, so you have to grab their attention immediately and keep them engaged.
There are a plethora of approaches you could take to creating a great opener. Here are a few examples:
- the rhetorical question
- an intriguing scenario
- immediately asserting value
7. Have a Personality
Part of establishing a brand identity is giving your business personality. The way you write and the tone in your content says a lot about who you are and helps people relate to you. So when you embark on content creation, give your pieces some pizazz.
A couple of places adding personality works extra well is video scripts and your email newsletter. Videos need to have some personality because you’re talking directly to the person. They can see your face and body language, so you need to be sure you’re engaging.
Your email newsletter is where you remind people weekly or monthly that you’re a good fit for them. It showcases your spunk and reminds customers or potential customers why they want to be partnered with your brand.
8. Clarity Is Key
As Donald Miller often preaches in StoryBrand training: “If you confuse, you lose.” No matter how much research you’ve done into buyer personas or case studies you’ve read about what your audience is interested in, if you can’t communicate your message, you will lose business.
This is probably the most important skill a copywriter needs to be successful in marketing. StoryBrand has lots of templates and courses that can help you develop this skill and start crafting incredibly clear messages.
9. Format Your Copy
This one has more to do with search engine optimization (SEO) than with writing, per se, but it’s equally important. When you craft content, especially long-form content like white papers or blogs, you need to format the copy so it’s easy to scan.
Use headings and subheadings to denote different sections of the content so people can easily tell what you’re going to discuss. This helps people quickly determine what the piece of content is about and whether or not it meets their needs.
It also makes it easier for search engines to evaluate your copy and rank it appropriately, which drives organic traffic to your website. Although people don’t typically think of headings and subheadings as part of good writing, it’s an integral part of your content marketing strategy.
10. Set Deadlines
Finally, every writer needs a deadline. This will help you keep projects on track and words flowing on the page so you never fall behind on your work. Plus, deadlines will help you plan the rest of a project, such as design and web development.
Now that you know how to write great content, you can put your skills into practice! Check out our blog about how to craft relatable content.
