5 Content Writing Tips to Make You A Better Marketer Now

1. Start With Good Keyword Research

Here at CoSchedule, we require prospective guest blog writers to provide a keyword in their pitch. 90% of the time, it’s evident they have no real idea what we’re asking them for. This is not only extremely disappointing for us, but it’s also shocking to think how their own stuff must be performing, whether that’s for their own company or their clients.

In simplest terms, keyword research entails:

1. Using keyword research tools (like the Adwords Keyword Planner, Moz’s Keyword Explorer, or another option) to discover which terms people search for on Google (and to a lesser extent, Bing, Yahoo, and other search engines).
2. Incorporating those keywords into your content.

2. Understand Latent Semantic Indexing

Once you’ve got a grasp on basic keyword research, the next step is to dig into latent semantic indexing. It’s a term that describes the process search engines use to understand how words on web pages are related to one another.

In practical terms, it means it’s important to incorporate secondary keywords that are related to your primary keyword throughout your content. This can help your content rank for a wider array of longtail keywords, and thus drive more traffic back to your site.

3. Spend Time Writing Detailed Outlines

Few things will help you save more time than writing strong outlines. They help you figure out what you’re going to say before you actually write your content.

Here’s what you should include in a basic outline (assuming you’re writing a blog post or web article):

• Your primary keyword.
• A brief description of your topic and the problem your content will solve. At CoSchedule, we call this section WIIFM, which stands for What’s In It For Me? Put yourself in your reader’s shoes, and ask yourself, “Why would I read this?
• A brief description of the target audience for your post.
• Ideas for potential content upgrades (more on those later).
• A step-by-step breakdown of your content’s structure.

Here’s an example of our own outline template:
WIIFM:
[Insert Post Description + State the Problem This Post Will Solve]
Keyword(s):
[Insert Keywords Your Post Will Cover]
Outline:
Introduction

• Subpoint 1
• Subpoint 2
• Subpoint 3

Subheader 1 (Subpoint 1)

• Detail 1
• Detail 2
• Detail 3

Subheader 2 (Subpoint 2)

• Detail 1
• Detail 2
• Detail 3

Subheader 3 (Subpoint 3)

• Detail 1
• Detail 2
• Detail 3

Conclusion
Feel free to adjust this to suit your needs.

4. Get Into Your Competitor’s Heads

Competitive research is extremely important for any content writer to understand. Before you can write the best stuff possible on a given topic, you need to know what’s already out there. This is where BuzzSumo comes in handy.

Don’t let your competitive research stop there, though. Get your hands on as much of your competitor’s content as you can. Then, make note of the following:

• What kinds of terms and industry lingo do they use?
• How would you describe their voice and tone? Are they serious? Funny? Authoritative?
• What kinds of content are they creating in the first place? Blog posts? Print collateral? Email newsletters? Find out where they’re at and what they’re doing there. Then, do better.

5. Or, Try Narrating Your Outlines Using Speech to Text in Google Docs

If you want to get your thoughts out of your head and directly onto the screen, try narrating your outline instead. Google Docs makes this easy using its Speech to Text feature. Here’s how it works.

Open Google Docs and click Tools:


Then, click Voice Typing. You’ll then see this icon appear:




Click that guy, and you’ll be able to speak into your computer’s microphone to type. If you’d rather let your thoughts flow free before writing, this can be a great hands-free way to loosen up your creative muscles.

What do you think makes you a good marketer? 
 
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