By: Sarah Ashley
Content Manager at The Business Growers
How To Write Effective Content, From a Copywriter
Make your marketing content stick in the minds of your dream audience.
Are you someone who strives to create impactful and valuable content? Writing effective content is no easy feat, yet it’s essential if you want to reach the right audience.
Whether you’re writing SEO-optimized copy or a creative blog post, there is a method to it all. Let’s explore what it takes to write content that will captivate your readers.
Every Word Counts
If it’s obvious, don’t say it. Every word counts when writing compelling content. Use strong language that has a purpose and either contributes to a conversational dialogue, educates, entertains, explains, or urges. Avoid “filler” phrases, such as:
- Is sure to
- Make sure to
- Look no further than
- In order to ensure that
- At the end of the day
Those example phrases don’t hold any meaning and simply consume valuable space within your content. Nix them.
What’s Your Content Intent?
There is a difference between writing content just for search traffic versus building a dedicated reader base — people who are genuinely interested in what you have to say because of how you say it. Before writing a piece of content, ask yourself, “What’s my goal?”
If you aim to build a reader base, not every blog post you create should be written specifically for search volume. For example, Forbes isn’t famous because they write keyword-heavy content; they write content people can’t stop reading because it’s centered around conversation, community prestige, and quality.
On the other hand, if your content marketing goal is purely about numbers, you’ll favor an SEO-heavy strategy. These people might not become dedicated readers, but they will learn about your business and know you exist, potentially becoming a lead.
Companies with the most prominent digital presence create an effective content marketing strategy that balances SEO-heavy content with conversational, story-esque posts.
Bonus Tip: Writing to sell a product or service compared to sharing a relatable story involves vastly different word choices and syntax.
Formatting Matters, Even on Social
Though generally overlooked, formatting is a key aspect of writing effective content. Formatting covers everything from text length to the text’s visual appearance, and it holds a heavy weight in blog posts for SEO purposes and readability. However, formatting also matters in your social media posts as it affects readability, engagement, and attention retention.
Formatting Tips for Blogs
- Mix up visual elements with graphics, lists, or indented quotes.
- Keep paragraph lengths at four lines or shorter.
- Use the H1 style for blog titles.
- Use the H2 style for primary headings.
- Use the H3 style for subheadings.
- Formatting Tips for Social Captions
- Write captions specific to the social platform’s standards.
- Keep paragraph lengths short at two to three lines.
- Use emojis for visual flair and to direct the eyes’ attention to a link or call to action.
Leverage AI — a Little
With the onset of ChatGPT, AI has seeped its way into nearly every industry, and you’d be hard-pressed to find a job role where AI wasn’t useful. The same can be said for content writing and copywriting.
As a marketing professional and writer, my perspective is less ecstatic than most: you can’t solely use AI to write effective marketing content — at least not yet, given ChatGPT’s current evolution.
You do not want to use AI for writing entire pieces of content, simply copying and pasting text as-is. If you do, you will risk sounding like everyone else because there is only so much variety in ChatGPT’s output. Instead, use AI for brainstorming, gathering inspiration, testing your thoughts, and compiling pieces of information.
B2B Content and Copywriting Done Right
The Business Growers understands the art of exceptional copywriting and content writing for B2B tech businesses. Schedule a free consultation with our CEO, Laura Johns, to see if we are the best fit for your tech company’s long-term growth.
