Content Suite: Written Text
When we talk about content marketing, often people go straight to thinking about written content and with good reason, it’s still a powerful tool.
These days written content should form part of your content suite — along with images and videos — to ensure you have all bases covered with sharing your message.
Written text can include anything from blogs, to ebooks, to the text in a social media post. With written pieces, you often have more time to get your point across, and this gives you a good opportunity to really show your expertise.
The Art of Storytelling
The entire content suite should work together to tell a story, but in many situations, it will be the text component where the detailed information lives. Use your words to entertain, educate or inspire your audience and you’ll be more likely to keep their attention and stick in their memory.
Give yourself time when building your brand. You can’t release a bunch of content and expect everyone to know your story immediately. You also don’t know which particular piece of content will resonate, so be sure to release a decent amount with a consistent message.
Each piece of content should be valuable as a standalone piece, but it should also make the reader want to know more about your business or learn more about what you’ve got to say. Not an easy thing to achieve!
Direct People Towards Your Content
Double down on your marketing by repeating the messages from your written content in other formats like video and images. Take one point from your written content and share on social media with a link back to your longer article.
There are a number of benefits to this; you get more traction from your content, you get to promote your content more, but most importantly, you get to capture the attention of those who may not usually gravitate towards a written piece of content.
You also get to see how your audience is reacting to your content, and measuring results should help direct your future marketing efforts.
Tips for Better Written Content
We’ve all got different opinions on the kind of writing we prefer, but the below tips work as general guidelines.
1. Use subheadings
Often people will be scanning the text for something that interests them. Help them out with signposts.
2. Write for humans
Don’t write for bots, but keep SEO best practice in mind when publishing online. That includes making sure you use keywords and phrases appropriately, as well as using header tags correctly.
3. Keep the platform and purpose in mind
Headlines and hooks are still important when getting people to click your articles from social platforms or emails. Hashtags might help your exposure on some social media platforms, but can make actual articles seem clunky. You will need to tweak your copy for each use to ensure it presents well.
4. Use white space
Don’t be afraid to hit that ‘enter’ key. It makes articles easier to read and increases the likelihood people will keep reading.
5. Increase the volume
As with all content related to marketing, you probably need more than you’re currently producing, so be consistent with the release of new pieces.
