by Karen Petrauskas | Dec 15, 2018
It’s not difficult to work out that if you write well, people will want to read what you’ve written. But writing well doesn’t come naturally to some people and some find it hard to put pen to paper (or fingers to keys!) to express what they want to say.
If you’re new to content marketing and are looking to engage more with your audience, you need to concentrate on creating content that speaks directly to your reader. So let’s focus on the writing aspect of content marketing, how can you improve your writing skills?
Create powerful headlines
This is the first thing that your reader will see when your post or article appears, your headline is the most important part of your content. Grab the attention of the reader, and they’re more likely to keep reading the rest of what you have to say.
Within your headline highlight the most important concept of what you want your reader to know. Rather than padding out with ‘waffle’ be blunt and to the point. Many people skim read and when people are using mobile devices whilst on the go, they will only pick out content that hits them hard with something that will give them value. Stating that in your headline will give them curiosity and the desire to read more.
Make your writing easy to read
If you’re using Yoast SEO in your blog posts, it will let you know whether your article is easy to read. This is a great start when you first start blogging or writing.
Next, take time to read through your content and see how easy you find it to read it. As we mentioned, many people skim read so it’s a good idea to lay out your writing in a way that allows the reader to just take out the bits they need. This comes with your headlines, but it also comes with the way that it’s laid out and presented. Big chunks of text with no space for breathing can be hard on the eyes. Neatly titled sections allow eyes to skim through much easier. Adding in images to your content breaks up the text too. Although this isn’t part of ‘writing’ it shows that you are thinking of the reader when you’re putting your content together. Images and visuals can be as powerful as a good title, so use this within your writing to create breaks and demonstrate what you are talking about. Presentation should always be good.
Ensure correct grammar
Editing as you write is not a great idea, you may lose track of what you’re writing about or lose momentum and miss the point. Our advice is to just write, write and write and then afterwards go back and check for spelling and grammar. Take time after you’ve finished to edit and make amendments, even ask for a second pair of eyes if grammar is not your strong point. You could even use an app to check this for you. We can recommend Grammarly which is a great tool to get both spelling and grammar correct. 
Proof read
This is part of the above point but always proof read everything you write. This goes for your blogs for sure, but it also goes for all content that you are producing, whether it be a Facebook post, a quick tweet or even the hashtags in your Instagram posts. If you have spelling mistakes within your content, it looks unprofessional and like you haven’t had the time to check correctly.
When it comes to your social media posts, if you have time, create a marketing calendar each month where you can schedule or draft all your posts ready to publish – then you can go back and proof read them all to ensure they are correct. Or you can send them to a friend to check for you.
Get into the habit
Writing is like anything and the more you do it, the better you will get. Practice makes perfect! If you’re blogging or writing a lot of articles it’s a good idea to get into the habit of writing. If you can manage a little every day, it will improve your writing skills. The more you write and the more frequent you get into the habit of writing, the more natural it will become for you.
Benefits of writing daily…
- Writing can make you happier
- Writing leads to better communication and understanding
- Writing gives you an outlet to share expression
- Writing leads to better learning
- You’ll actually be surprised at how easier it becomes the more you write!
Don’t fill for the sake of it
People are busy and they want to read the necessity, grab what’s valuable and then move on. If you spend ages writing about something that’s not providing value or adding sections that are not relevant to what the article is actually about, you will lose your audience. They are there to read what the title says it’s about – not what you had for lunch! Longer articles are not always better. A short, to the point and valuable blog post is much more effective than a long, drawn-out article that hardly touches on the point in question.
Use your proof-reading time to take out any filler content which will make your article much easier to read and more appealing to your audience. 
Read lots
If you’re wanting to write for other people, it makes sense that you read lots yourself. This gives you an idea of the type of content that you enjoy reading and the type of content that your readers with similar interests will enjoy too. You should be passionate in your writing and have good understanding and knowledge of the topic that you are writing about. Reading and researching provides this back up and resource for your own writing. Always take notes – this is a great habit to have as often you’ll have a whole load of notes that you can put together to create worthwhile reading.
Try subscribing to websites that you enjoy reading from and bloggers that can give you advice on the topics that you love to write about. You’ll gain lots of inspiration and valuable ideas that you can utilise in your own blog posts, help you learn which style of writing you want to aspire to and then help you to create killer content that everyone loves.
At the end of the day we are all unique and have our own style of writing, but keep in mind that when you’re writing for an audience, you are writing for them! Be unique in your style and create your own story telling ways, be inspirational and motivational where you can to give your readers something to take away from your posts. And most importantly, check everything more than once and ensure that it reads well, spelling and grammar are correct and that it tells the truth. A key to good writing is providing value – nail this and you’re well on your way!
Here at KJP Creative we love writing. We write on behalf of a number of clients across a variety of industries. If you’re looking to add good content to your online marketing but simply don’t have the time, ask us about our Content Marketing packages, we’d love to help. Get in touch today!
by Karen Petrauskas | Nov 30, 2018
Are you wondering how to write social media content that creates conversions? Do you want to create copy that people can’t wait to share? There is a knack to writing sales copy but to achieve that you’ll need to follow some basic steps. Your efforts in social media want to maximise the ROI for your posts and create content that speaks directly to your readers in order to see results.
Be your brand
You are the voice behind your brand. Every business has their own tone of voice and their own way of communicating with their audiences. When users scroll through their social media feeds, they should be able to recognise your brand immediately.
When you understand and know your audience, you can write your copy tailored to them. Know what tone of voice they like and respond to, grasp the words and call to actions that they engage with, and run with this throughout your content.
Ad copy length is important
Whilst writing a blog can be hundreds of words, a Twitter post cannot. Each post needs to reflect the platform that it is being posted on and content tweaked to reflect the audience that will be seeing the posts.
Sometimes 5-10 words can say much more than a string of sentences that may make people switch off.
There are different trains of thoughts on whether short copy or long copy is best but at the end of the day, if you test both, your audience will help you decide what works best for your business. Split test your posts and ads to try different methods.
The most important thing is that you want your audience to respond and engage with your copy, so listening to them will give you the upper hand.
Split testing can be expensive if you’re a smaller business with a small budget (and competing against larger organisation), but it’s still worth trying a few examples to see what works best – every business is different.
Mix content
No one can argue that great visuals convert but having great copy to go with visuals pushes you to another level.
If your visuals are great but your grammar or spelling is awful, your business will look unprofessional and shoppers will pass you by. If you’re not great at the written word, ask someone to check over your copy. There’s absolutely no harm in doing this, in fact, we encourage it to ensure that ad copy is professional and correct. You wouldn’t send off a job application without checking for mistakes, so why send out social media content that is incorrect?
If you create a social media calendar and schedule all posts in that calendar, another pair of eyes can look over that calendar prior to posts being created. A simple Excel spreadsheet is a cheap and easy way to achieve it.
Also, an image shows what you’re talking about, but the copy or text will give the call to action and tells the user what to do next. This is an important part of the sales funnel. Create great content but don’t give a call to action and users will find somewhere else to go after they’ve finished with your content.
Sell but don’t sell
You don’t want to come across too pushy in your content or posts. You’re there to offer value to your readers by giving them something they can take away and utilise. You can incorporate your sales into the way you speak. Remember to keep this within your tone of voice and branding, so that your readers who already know and love your style will listen.
If you’ve already built up a relationship with your audience, they will be used to the way that you write, the way that you approach subjects, and the way that you come across when you have something to offer. They’re loyal customers because they like your style. Stick to that in all your copy, allow your personality to come through with whatever it is you are promoting.
Be mindful of ‘how’ you speak
If your content is full of lots of CAPITAL letters and exclamation marks, you sound and look like you are shouting. Does this way of speaking portray your brand correctly? Is this how you would speak to someone you were talking to face to face?
Be mindful of how you come across in your social media content, whether that be sales copy or everyday posts, your manner is important to your audience.
Be mindful of ‘who’ you’re speaking to
Understand your audience. We say this in so many of our posts but that’s because it is so important. You wouldn’t speak to your family in a way they didn’t like or relate to. So why do it with your audience? And each audience is different. If you’re creating content for your Facebook followers, the tone of voice and relationships are going to be different to those you connect with on SnapChat for example. Just bear in mind who you’re trying to reach and create beautiful content that they will love.
Trigger emotions to get an effect
Research has shown that posts and content that trigger emotions have a higher reaction rate. Use headlines that outline positive outcomes or create curiosity and you will gain more traction than other posts. Being able to make a reader say WOW after they’ve read a post is a great achievement and will usually result in reactions or shares. Our emotions drive us to share with others, we want our friends to experience the same feelings as we do and by sharing content that heightens these emotions, we feel a sense of satisfaction and clarity and is a dominating factor when it comes to sharing social content.
Make your headlines count
If you’ve not got a great headline, you won’t get the interaction you desire. People read a headline before they see the content below, so if your headline does not grab the attention of your reader at first glance, there will find more opportunity further down their news feed for something that will.
Headlines are a vital part of your sales copy. You need to make an impression, you need to add value, you need to offer something they are interested in. Does your headline tell the reader why they should continue reading? Are they compelled to take action or to engage? Ask questions that will get their attention. If you’re not happy with the headline that you’ve come up with, try again, and again. It doesn’t matter how long it takes you to create the perfect headline, it matters what the headline says when it’s published and how it’s going to impact a reader.
Cut out what you don’t need
People are busy and the increasing use of mobile devices and wifi spots at every corner facilitate society being able to grab snippets of information and then move on. Waffle within your content will not sell. Truth and fact, to the point, will. Therefore, within your headline and content, you need to be precise and deliver what your audience wants to hear, not everything that surrounds it and engaging them in a journey that will allow them to learn more about you and your business and to discover what they can get from you or your content.
Tell a great story
Readers love a great story and will engage better with a story that is worth something than a post that’s created just to fill a gap for that day’s content. But stories don’t have to be long and boring, they can be mixed up with video and images, they can be portrayed by keywords rather than sentences. Remember you are trying to dig into emotions and your story doesn’t have to be a stand-alone piece of content, you can make stories into so much more by creating regular content, content blocks and using your imagination to interact with your audience.
There are many ways to create the perfect social media content for your business and the above are just a few to consider. Always use your analytics tools to steer you in the right direction and to know your audience better. Understanding your audience is key to engagement and conversions on social media. By utilising analytical tools, you can see what works and what doesn’t, saving time, money and resource.
Get your copy correct and you’re flying!
Great content and social media is our thing here at KJP Creative – if you’d like help putting together content that will convert for your business, get in touch and let’s see your social media energised.
With expert knowledge and experience, KJP Creative can get creative with any type of business, no matter what industry you are in. It’s in our nature to be creative (hence the name!) and that’s what we love to do! We are positive that we can create great results for your business, having received nothing less than 100% positive feedback from all our clients so far, we’re not ready for that to dip anytime soon. Get to know us, let us get to know your business and allow us to become your voice within your online channels.
