7 essential content writing skills you need to learn
Beth Seaman, alumna of the Sookio Bootcamp for young digital marketers, shares some vital skills to polish up for a career in content.
Are you at the start of your marketing career? These essential skills will keep you in the right direction when you’re creating written content, the bread and butter of any digital marketing strategy. So, what exactly are these content-writing skills?
Writing effective headlines
Giving clear summaries
Laying out text properly
Using text and images together
Thinking in linking
Providing strong calls to action
Creating a proofreading network
Writing effective headlines
You may have excellent written content, but if your title isn’t effective, the majority of people won’t read it.
Most people believe that you need to develop a title before writing your content, but you don’t. You may have some brilliant ideas for a title, but when you write the content, your ideas for titles can, and will change.
Typically, the title that you end up using is the one you create after you finish writing your content. This is due to using and connecting the key words from your content into your title.
Here are a few suggestions to create an effective headline:
Pick an odd number in the title, this is seen to be more eye-catching to the reader
Ask a question in the title, this creates intrigue for a reader to answer the question
Use colons for clarity
Giving clear summaries
You’ve already captured the reader’s attention with your effective headline, but you need to make sure that you hold their attention in the introduction. You need to ensure you explain to the reader why they want to read the blog and how it will benefit them.
The more technical your content becomes, the more you need a clear, concise summary. Formal academic studies include a summary or an introduction, known as an abstract. This is so readers can find relevant information without wading through a huge, dense study. This will determine whether or not they read the remainder of the blog.
Top tip: make sure the introduction is BOLD as it will stand out straight away to the reader.
Laying out text properly
Headings, bullet points and short paragraphs make content much easier to read, just like a book.
Readers usually look for these factors in written content to find out whether they will be interested in reading more. The longer and more in-depth you’re going, the more important it becomes to make sure the writing is digestible. This is the same with short landing pages, as some need special care and attention to really grab the reader’s eye.
Here are a few suggestions for making your content readable:
Subheadings help the reader pick out the key topics within the content
Bullet points break down a sentence, rather than listing points in a sentence
Short sentences, no longer than 20 words
Short paragraphs are easier to read and catch the reader’s eye
Top tip: If you use these tips, your content will become more appealing for the reader and they will more than likely read the whole of it.
Using text and images together
By including visual engagement, like images and videos, it helps break up the content and benefits readers, as they become more engaged. Although, don’t use too many visual engagements, as this can distract readers.
Additionally, only use images or videos when it makes sense to, by ensuring they relate to the content to further engage readers. If you can, try and use your own photos to make your content more personal. Although, it has been recommended to use iStock images for more professional content.
Thinking in linking
Make sure content is linked within the blog. Intuitive linking throughout your blog creates a positive user journey for your readers.
By giving readers additional links to view, it will encourage them to click the link which will help with rankings on Google for the blog. In fact, you can attract your readers to other relatable content that you’ve written by including these links.
Providing strong calls to action
Call to action buttons should always go at the end of a page. This encourages readers to click it and go where you want them to go next.
In blogs, for example, you want to encourage readers to:
Leave a comment
Sign up to your newsletter
Share the blog
Follow you on social media
Buy your product or service through a call to action button
Therefore, you need to make sure you specifically mention what you'd like them to do, make it clear and visible.
Top tip: If you were the reader, what would you do after reading the blog?
Creating a proofreading network
Proof-reading is a key factor when writing. Of course, you can review and read your own content yourself, but it’s very easy to gloss over your own errors by mistake.
The best advice would be to ask someone, or even a network of a few people to read your blog. This will ensure that nothing’s overlooked and that there is no more room for constructive criticism when you post it.
Want to get started?
Ready to get started producing killer content? Why not start with a blog. Head to Sookio School and sign up for the Blogging course.