More often than not, writers get stuck in a rut. They use the same tactics over and over again.
They try to tweak their previous tactic for better results. However, tweaking one word can make it much less effective or powerful.
The best way to achieve success is by being consistent. When you write, you have to live your life. You can’t put that experience on hold while you sit down at the computer to type.
You choose which experiences to share and which to keep private. Which stories to tell and which to leave unsaid.
Consistency is important because people know you are hiding something if you always change what you say. Also, consistency grows confidence, authority, and trustworthiness. If you want others to look forward to seeing your content, they need to see you writing consistently.
Even if you are an expert in your field, that doesn’t mean people will listen to what you have to say. It is your job to know how to communicate with others.
Your writing should be focused and direct, without attempting to confuse or intimidate them. Confidence helps get your message across, as does specific information about the subject.
If you can learn to focus on the positive aspects of your topic, and emphasize those points, then you can use confidence tricks to make it more appealing.
Focus on the benefits of the action you want readers to take vs what they actually lose by not taking this action. For example, state that they will feel better/smarter once they fill out their contact sheet instead of saying, “they won't feel like doing anything again”.
This way they will still believe in the positivity of creating something from nothing, and also because they just wrote down a list of changes they wanted to make, so now they're going to do these things.
Another common mistake that results from not paying attention to words is getting cute with font size and style. The text can become very attractive, but your audience will start to lose focus when reading it.
The reason for this is simple – people do not read anymore. A couple of years ago, you would have received half a dozen emails right away if you attempted to send email marketing without actually saying anything new.
Now, you are just asking for trouble by being promotional instead of informative. Your readers (or subscribers) want to know what you want them to do next — they want the motivation to write about their experiences.
They also want to feel like you care about their lives enough to listen to what they have to say. So apart from telling a good story, what else does a writer need to convince those around her to take action?
She needs to be able to capture someone’s imagination. Writing with clarity means choosing relevant language and refusing to sacrifice grammar or punctuation in favor of emotion.
A story is only as strong as its weakest link. When you edit yourself out of the writing process, your work becomes weak. It loses strength until you put back what holds value.
Even if you are hired to create content, make sure that your articles, blogs, etc., are as personally designed as possible. Your writing should be focused on what matters to you and your readers.
This includes their lives, their goals, their dreams, etc. It also means that your writing must be easily read and understood by everyone, including yourself.
If you write about issues or problems people face every day, then the chances are that you’re going to put something in here that someone else can use. You also have to remember that this is marketing material, so keep it persuasive, informative, easy to read, and targeted.
People don’t buy products or services they cannot understand; well written copy will help bring them closer to achieving their goal. Take some time to think of different ways to say the same thing. Then stand back and see how the message has changed from one way to the other.
The most important element here is persuasion. How close are you being to your desired action (the sale)? Write like you mean it.
Whenever you are asked to write content for someone else, whether it is about helping them with their writing or editing their work, you need to be very consistent in your style.
You should share similar values and opinions, and voice some of the same references as they do. This way your content will have a flow that is comfortable for the reader.
If you aren’t producing quality material this will hurt your brand and make people reluctant to read what you put out. You want people to trust you and believe you so don’t rush into publishing something sloppy.
Polish things up until they glisten. Give yourself time to perform at your best. People can tell when you are rushing stuff.
It’s not good to give things away for free, then hit them with a price tag. It sets off warning bells for most consumers.
Content marketing is a huge part of staying ahead these days. If you want to use content to grow your business, there’s no better way than by combining forces with social media.
Put your content on other platforms and drive traffic back to your website from those places. Most bloggers find one place to host all of their content posts.
Not only does this keep everything together, but it helps you build a network of blogs and websites that you can maintain long term. Nothing is more discouraging than having multiple sites built mostly for our own personal use!
Clickbait is provocative marketing copy that aims to get readers to act immediately on a web page or email. It can be interesting, but it can also be frustrating because you know there’s something tempting about it.
You may have seen your share of hard sell pop-up ads when you do an online search. Or maybe you visited a website and saw a headline that caught your attention. Clicking this headline would result in getting quick access to the content behind it, including a long article or a video.
While some clickbait can be ignored, others demand immediate action – such as putting up with annoying popup ads or purchasing a product right away.
It is common practice among bloggers and journalists to use clickbait for their articles. However, they usually label the blog post “clickbait” and hide the button so people don’t want to buy the product anymore. They just want to read the story!
In the past, before people had access to social media platforms and computers, there was only one way to get exposure — by making waves in your community.
By being “controversial” or “breaking news,” you were given the spotlight for days because everyone wanted their issue heard.
Now, we have Twitter and Facebook, where you can reach out to thousands of followers and friends and wake up every morning with an audience who wants to hear what you have to say.
More and more, people are turning to social media to find entertainment and motivation. We are giving away our ideas and coming together as communities not just physically, but also online.
So how do we know if what we write is going to be successful? How do we know that people will read it?
We don’t; this is why copywriters earn so much money. It takes time to build a readership and connect with people.
But anyone can create content and put it online, which makes writing business content a low-paying job. Business owners understand this and pay little bit more for quality content because they know it will help them sell their products and services.
Even if you are writing about an area that is familiar to you, but you’re able to create new ideas, then they are still unique. Your experiences and your observations can be very helpful. You can also look into other people’s experience with regard to a subject as well.
You want to use your own thoughts and opinions? Why not?
That way, no one will know what you have written about. Also, people may trust what you have to say because it is coming from a reliable source (you).
Content creation isn’t just going out and creating something without any skill or knowledge of what you are doing. Anyone can publish a book these days (the tools are easy), but professional content creators understand the value of writers and skilled editors.
Professional content creators will hire others to write articles, books, etc. If you don’t know how to write, you can always get help from someone who does know how to write.
There’s a reason that people refer to “the Law of Finished Projects” – it’s because starting is hard, but finishing is easy.
When you have a project to complete, no matter how small, your brain can make it seem much larger than it really is. You see everything as a task or responsibility, when in reality there are ways to cut down the size of things and simplify tasks.
You want to get something done? Here are some tips for you!