Sharpen Your Content Writing Skills

Focus on Client Needs The whole point of writing content for your clients is to provide value whether on their website, via their print marketing materials or on a billboard.
#1. Know their needs – spend time with your client obtaining relevant industry information, current marketing materials and noting their business insight into the industry (if it’s unfamiliar) and lastly, their company’s goals & desires.
#2. Know & Convey How Your Services Can Make Their Company Better – Be clear yourself and then convey to the client the benefits your services can provide them.  Most importantly here is to establish a trustworthy relationship with them by making sure they know that:

  • they have a professional who has the talent and experience to fulfill their needs.  Provide references and previous examples of your work if needed.  AND
  • by connecting that experience & expertise to their content needs and how you can improve their professional credibility and financial line.

Stay Focused! – We may have our own ideas about a particular industry, political topic or the like, but you are being hired to do the job THEY want you to do.  You have been hired to write about this client’s business, needs, ideas and standpoints-not your own.  No matter how well you may write, you need to keep your writing focused on their area of expertise, products and/or services.

The Key to Keywords
#1. Remember to talk & write in the same industry language of your customers. A good tactic to employ here is to do some keyword research.
#2. Figure out how your customers (and their competition) think and how to write from that same level of expertise.  See more from one of my previous articles http://bit.ly/Nsuub4 .
#3. Use a business based thesaurus.  Here you will find other related words for a particular term that will showcase your assumed business prowess as well as increasing your clients SEO success.

I hope these few tidbits have been helpful.  I’d love to hear what’s in your content writing toolbox and what tools you employ that I can add to sharpen my own content writing skills.