fbpx

3 Underrated Ways To Produce Great Content

Whether you are working on content for your company blog, social media posts, website redesign or guest blogging schedule, here's a look at three ways to write better...

Whether you are working on content for your company blog, social media posts, website redesign or guest blogging schedule, here’s a look at three ways to write better content.

 


 1. Focus on the writing
.

Being flexible and fast is always advantageous, but there comes a point during content creation when you just need to be a writer.
 Everything else needs to be blocked out, and you have to focus singularly on finding the right words.

You may think, “Duh. I’ve been writing since Kindergarten, dude. I know what I’m doing.” Yeah, think again. Writing a full guest article for a publication without
 pausing to edit or second-guess yourself requires talent and extreme focus. In a competitive market, we’re pretty much wired to be perfectionists. Here’s
 a radical thought, though: calm down, because it doesn’t have to be perfect. At least, not right away.

It is important to separate the process of creating content into defined steps. The first draft is about getting the ideas on paper so you can
 go ‘grammar police’ on the second one. The first draft is also about excess. If you’re anything like me, you overshoot on word count by at least 300
 words, initially. Guess what? That’s okay, too. That means you have more to choose from when you whittle down your content to the best parts.

 

2. Understand Ease vs. Ignorance

With the introduction of blogs, casual content on the Internet has become the new normal. This means that there is no room for complicated, flowery language
 that tends to fill college papers. If you can say it in one sentence, there’s just no reason to use three.

A good rule of thumb to follow is to write like
 you speak. Of course, throw out the slang and fix the grammar, but write your first draft as though you are narrating it to a friend. The easy-to-read
 language makes your content easy-to-share.

But here’s the caveat. Content should be easy for the audience to read, without assuming they are ignorant. As Anne Handley says in Everybody
 Writes, “…simple means making it easy for the customer. It means being the customer’s advocate.” In other words, the reader should feel as though the
 writer is being helpful instead of condescending.

Just be sure not to fall into the humour pit. Being funny and witty is something every writer strives for, but initial drafts are not the place for this.
 Unless the jokes are just flowing naturally out of you, don’t force them. The worst thing you can do for your content is to Google funny jokes and phrases
 and force them into your writing. Yes, that actually does happen.

 

3. Use Stories and Examples

Keeping your words simple and cutting out unnecessary fluff is necessary to keep your audience engaged, but at the same time, the writing shouldn’t be flat
 or boring.

What people love more than anything else is a good story.
 Movies, television shows, and novels keep their audience’s attention by engaging them in a character’s plights and experiences. It works well for them, and
 there’s no reason it won’t work for your content.

If you’re trying to explain a dry concept, one option is to give an example of a character encountering it in real life. Another is to write a real
 narrative about yourself or someone you know. Or you could create an explainer video to tell a customer story.

Real stories tend to be easier to make believable, seeing as how they actually happened. Plus, having to
 empathize with a person, fictional or real, is more likely to trap the reader’s attention than a textbook-like recital.

 

This article has been edited and condensed.

Swati Kumar is the Marketing Manager at SaleMove, a New York-based SaaS company dedicated to bringing the in-person customer experience online. Building a content platform from bottom up, Swati shares her experiences and lessons learned as she creates content and builds her team. Connect with @salemove on Twitter.

 

© YFS Magazine. All Rights Reserved. Copying prohibited. All material is protected by U.S. and international copyright laws. Unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this material is prohibited. Sharing of this material under Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International terms, listed here, is permitted.

   

In this article