Approach Content Writing The Right Way

What is Content Writing?

Content writing, in my oh so humble opinion, is the act of creating all the necessary content that businesses and marketing needs. If you’re a content writer, then you’re writing everything that needs to be written to make business and marketing material awesome! Perhaps this answer sounds daunting but that’s the wonderful challenge and motivation to me. Some of the stuff you might write are blog articles, website copy, product descriptions, social media campaigns and copy, email marketing campaigns and copy, and a whole lot of other tasks for businesses/organizations or even your own business. 

Since content writing is a form of nonfiction writing, the best approach is treating it as creative nonfiction. When I first learned about creative nonfiction in college, I at first misunderstood using those 2 terms together. After all, nonfiction is about fact and fiction is about story, right??? Well, not quite. Writing is all about creating stories whether it is fiction, historical fiction, fantasy, magazine writing, or content writing. There is a story in everything. And when you are creating something in the form of creative nonfiction, you are adding the story element to something of fact. For instance, are memoirs and biographies ever 100% factual? Of course not. Otherwise there would be a lot of dry passages or moments that are totally inconsequential to the main story…. Are all facts included in newspaper or magazine articles? Nope! And I can testify to that! There have been many interviews where moments were long tangents, or too personal, or way off base that I just left the note right where it was (on the page) and it never made it into my magazine article….What you need to do is find the golden nugget and expand on that, build on that one piece and make magic- or rather, you make a story. 

Side note: let me add right here that creative nonfiction is not lying. You aren’t saying anything in your copy (your writing) that isn’t true. What you are doing: you’re picking a direction and using the information around you to stay on point but make the information relatable, capturing, emotional- in rhetoric, this appealing to emotion is call pathos. 

**Disclosure: this post contains affiliated links- this means that I may earn a commission from these products if you buy them using these links at no additional cost to you. This post was originally published on my primary blog, The Tiny Twenty Something. 

Ready to start writing? Get started with my Figure Out Content Writing Workbook– $20 now

Using that for Your Business

Make it Personal

Writing website copy for a business doesn’t have to be dry. My favorite challenge in creating website copy is turning basic business information into an enchanting segment in a website. Do this through conveying a business’ or organization’s values and amplifying/showcasing the significance of their services. Your primary focus in content writing is bridging the gap between your business and your customers. It is especially important to market your business through adding a personable element to everything it is that you do as a business, nonprofit organization or an e-commerce site.

An important trend that I noticed over the last 5 years as a writer is that About pages need- no, HAVE TO- be personal, conversational and packed with the details that explain your business/organization…This might sound obvious but when I first started out as a magazine intern, I didn’t realize how important that that balancing act was to the overall story of a Business profile. 

One of the most important details that I focused on when I worked on my client HazyLu was the unique, vintage quality that the owner brought to her business. Her business is incredibly personal, “the real service is bringing and keeping someone’s memory to the modern day.” There are 2 ways she sells her product: she finds vintage jewelry and then sells them from her online shop’s inventory, or clients approach her and she makes customized magnets from jewelry brought to her. In regards to the latter service, I  also developed a webpage that solely focused on what Customized Pieces were all about, to give potential clients an idea about what they could ask her to make and things to consider when choosing what to turn their family heirlooms into. I started the web copy out as “Bring your family history to the 21st century and keep them wherever you are…” 

Make it Clear

No one is going to want to read website copy that doesn’t make any sense to them. No one is going to want to read website copy that is too much like a story and doesn’t answer any questions about who you are, what you do and what you offer. Find a balance between making it personal with making sure the basic information is clear and concise. Make sure you or a professional content writer understands your business. The better you know it inside and out, the better you can turn it into convincing and interesting copy. 

When starting the writing process for your business/organization, think about explaining who you are, what you offer, and why it matters? Why should your ideal customer choose you, why should they support your cause, why buy your product/service? 

Want more advice about writing Creative Nonfiction? Check out: Creative Nonfiction, Researching and Crafting Stories of Real Life ! I read it in college and it was a total game-changer for when I started magazine writing! It’s $20 as of now, and I still read up on it from time to time. It explains Style and various ways to recognize the different ways Style changes from writer to writer. For my take on Style and how it applies to the Online world- check it out on my Tiny Twenty-Something blog! Or, wait until it’s posted later right here.

Make it Simple

This might be on the list because I have a conservative writing style, but I prefer and think that business copy needs to be simple, short, sweet and to the point. Don’t use too many adjective or adverbs, don’t go veer off into a long personal story that has nothing to do with the most important elements of your business, and don’t use too many vocabulary words that the average person won’t understand. 

One of the tips that I have often repeated is that we are a people who are lazy and we greatly enjoy having short cuts made available to us. Keeping your writing simple and short and to the point for website copy, emails or social media posts is vital and keeps them on track. You don’t want your potential clients/customers to leave your site, do you? NO WAY! 

Final Thoughts on Approaching Content Writing 

Before you start creating the stories for your website, social media posts, and emails, take the time to ask yourself some very important questions. Get it all down in writing (type, text or hand-write it), and then prioritize the information that you need. It’s okay to start really BIG and WIDE when you’e answering these questions- just get it writing down. Pull the info from your brain and migrate the info to a piece of paper. The who, what, where, why? is just the beginning… 

Finally, you will always always always be in the drafting phase, nothing about writing is ever totally complete. It will be constantly evolving over the years but don’t be discouraged by that statement, see it as the constant opportunity to grow! 

Ready to start writing? Get started with my Figure Out Writing Workbook– $20 now