Content Writing – How to Make Your Stories Stand Out

Content writing is often about telling a compelling story that will engage your readers. What you publish should also be consistent with your overall marketing objectives. Whether you’re writing an educational article, a case study or news about your business, you should first ask yourself a number of questions. This article suggests the right questions and underlying principles to follow when writing content.

Here are eight questions to get you started with your content writing:

1. What’s the story?
2. What message do I want to communicate?
3. What is new/unusual/important about this information?
4. How does it support our company’s strategic marketing messages?
5. Who is the key audience for this information?
6. What action/response do I hope it will trigger in our audience?
7. Where should we publish it? (If you have a range of alternatives)
8. What would somebody type into a search engine like Google to find my article?

Write down your answers and check they make sense and are consistent.

At this point, you have a choice. You can write the article yourself or ask a professional writer to do it for you.

For content writing that will be found on Google, you should also consider the following:

• You need a headline that will be noticed. If you’re not sure, take a look at SumoMe’s Headline Generator for ideas. https://sumome.com/kickass-headline-generator/
• How will people search for your article? Which keyword phrase will you embed in your writing?
• Make sure the first paragraph provides a summary of the article, such as you would see in a journal or newspaper, and which draws readers in.
• If you are posting your article using WordPress and the Yoast SEO plugin, make sure it’s not only SEO compliant but also passes the readability test. You will find it challenging to get a good score for both but it’s worth the effort as Google is getting better at finding and promoting good quality articles.
• Aim to write a compelling story and, without padding it, remember the longer the article, the better for SEO purposes. Aim for no less than 300 words.
• Make sure you include a call to action at the foot of the article. Think about what you want the reader to do next.

I hope you have found this advice useful. Call 0333 050 9053 if you would like professional help with developing your content.