“Love the writing, love the writing, love the writing…the rest will follow.” – Jane Yolen
Writing content doesn’t need to be a difficult task. In fact, we can all write, so it’s just a matter of knowing what to do to make it easy. In this post I want to share some simple tips with you that will really help with writing content that gets attention and helps you stand out from your competition.
I wholeheartedly believe that being different is the key to standing out, generating leads and boosting your business … so let your personality shine through in your writing style.
10 content writing tips to help you stand out from the crowd
- In your lead sentence, try using a tip, trick, hint, quote, statistic or fast fact (I also like a joke and song lyrics) to help you leave a lasting impression. You can also dot these throughout your content.
- You have less than 10 seconds to captivate your readers so they keep reading. That’s about two succinct paragraphs. Be creative with your words. Create wow moments and think outside the box.
- Allow your business’s personality to shine through in all of your writing.
- Make the tone conversational and build a connection. Write like you are talking to your best friend. Be emotive and engaging. Stand out!
- People remember stories, so incorporate one of your stories or from a customer into your content to make it more memorable and relatable.
- Know your target market. Think of your ideal client – who is it? Picture them while you write and pretend you are writing them a direct letter.
- Solve your readers’ problems. By knowing your target market and what they are trying to achieve, you will know what issues they face and how you can help them, so provide a solution.
- Use a testimonial on every web page…you can put them in your content or you can have one at the bottom of the page. Relate your testimonials to that specific page. I believe it helps strengthen your credibility and bring more meaning to your words.
- Make it easy for people to call or email you if they have questions or want more information.
- Smile when you write. A smile makes everything more enjoyable and happy. Your words will thank you for it.
Meanwhile, when it comes to formatting your wow words, try these tips:
- Use dot points and sub-headers to break up the block text.
- Keep paragraphs short and easy to read so that people can quickly skim.
- Break up every page with an infographic, picture, video or photo.
- Stick to a manageable 300-500 words. It’s a proven fact your readers don’t have time to read too much more than this, unless, of course, they are really interested in what you have to say. If it’s great stand-out content they won’t mind reading 1500 words.
- Brush up on your grammar and punctuation.
- Reading your content word for word out loud with a ruler underlining each line is a good way to pick up errors your eye would normally skip over. You will hear it in your voice if there is a comma missing or something doesn’t sound right.
- Left-aligned text…always. Centred and justified text can be hard on your readers’ eyes.
Whatever you do, just make it really easy for people to read your content. These tips will certainly have you on way to writing content that rocks and gets results.
Images: ”Vintage typewriter and a blank sheet of paper, retouching retro/ Shutterstock.com“
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