Content writing is a critical aspect of modern marketing. It’s the backbone of effective communication and the foundation upon which brands build their online presence and reputation.
Whether it’s in the form of blog posts, product descriptions, social media updates, or email campaigns, well-written content has the power to engage and educate audiences, establish thought leadership, and drive conversions.
The content writing team at Revity is made up of skilled and experienced writers who have a deep understanding of marketing strategies and know how to craft content that connects with the target audience.
Below is a little bit about our content director and some valuable tips and insights on content and blog writing for marketing. These strategies will help you elevate your content writing and achieve a more significant marketing impact, no matter what level of experience you bring to the table.
Our Content Director
Ashlynne is a content director with a passion for writing that dates back to her childhood. Growing up, she loved putting her thoughts and ideas onto paper; as she got older, her love for writing grew stronger.
Her first professional writing job was for another marketing company where she wrote blogs, web copy ads, emails, and anything else that needed to be written. Ashlynne then came over to Revity as a content writer, where she continued to grow her skills and experience.
As content director, Ashlynne supports and manages a team of in-house and contract writers, ensuring they have everything they need to produce high-quality content.
Here are some frequently asked questions about content writing and Ashlynne’s answers.
How does Content Writing Help Businesses?
It’s a natural human thing to want to understand the story behind something; The more emotionally attached you are to something, the more likely you are to engage with it.
Content has a powerful capability to help potential customers and clients connect with you and your brand. You can make that connection with your customer through intentional phrasing, keyword research, and telling a story with your content.
That connection keeps them on your webpage longer and helps them make a purchase or an appointment, whatever that looks like for your business. Content can help guide your client through that process.
How do you Decide What Makes Good Content?
In the digital marketing space, things are constantly changing and evolving. It’s important to stay on top of those quality standards that we need to hold ourselves to. Currently, we are looking at blogs that are at least 1000 words long, also making sure to include plenty of internal links and backlinks.
While writing content, we also want to incorporate keywords: Words and phrases that people are typing into a search engine to find what they’re looking for. That helps Google recognize and say, “this person is searching for this thing, and this is the website that has that thing. Let’s get them connected”.
It’s also vital to make sure that the content is helpful, that it answers questions that people have, and that it’s delivering what we’re insinuating is on the page. For example, if a blog is titled ten ways to check to see if your car needs an oil change, you should really provide ten ways.
We want to be reliable and trustworthy in the content we’re putting out because that, among other things, is something that will keep people coming back; they know that you’re a reliable resource.
How do you go About Crafting a Tone for Each Business?
We could take two different directions when we bring on a new client.
One is if you know they have a very firm idea of who they are, what they provide, and how they want to be perceived. In that case, a lot of that information can be gleaned from their website, such as:
- How are they communicating with people through the content that currently exists on their website?
- Are they wanting to come across as powerful, informative, and authoritative?
- Are they wanting to come across as relatable, caring, and accepting
- Are they wanting to come across as being really funny and engaging?
A lot of that can be learned by just looking at their website or having a conversation with a client and asking them how they want to be perceived.
The other direction that we can take is if a client still needs to get the answer to that question. At that point, we would sit down with them and talk them through identifying their ideal customer and identifying how their product or service serves that ideal customer.
We work with the clients to nail down the phrasing so that not only is it helping them to appear in a way they want to be perceived, but it’s also effectively helping them connect with the right people.
How do you make dull content interesting for readers?
There’s no such thing as dull content. Unfortunately, what we perceive as “dull content” might be the exact information your audience is seeking.
I am not particularly interested in mold, the negative health effects of mold, and how to identify mold in your home. But for someone else, that could be what they love! Or, more importantly, to someone else, that’s the information that they’re looking for.
If someone thinks that they have mold in their home, they need to know if they actually have mold and what do I do about it. Finding helpful information is huge for them, and that’s a massive win if that’s something that we can provide for them and they find that page.
Instead of viewing it as dull and uninteresting content, we should look at it from the perspective of providing useful and helpful information in a way that’s as interesting as possible. At some point, someone will either need this information or want this information.
It’s a matter of getting over that mountain of what we as individuals perceive as dull, and understanding that’s not the case for everybody.
How does SEO play into content writing?
SEO is super important for blog writing. Content that has yet to be optimized from an SEO perspective will not perform as well as it deserves to.
SEO is what helps Google to recognize the content that you have and to place it in front of people that need it. Implementing keywords and ensuring that it’s properly optimized (on top of it being good, helpful, well-written content) is what is going to help you get that content in front of people.
The ultimate goal of content is creating as many opportunities for people to find your website as possible, which will be a lot easier to achieve with SEO.
How do you determine if a piece of content has contributed to the success of a business?
Content is a long game. Very rarely are you going to put a blog out, and it’s going to immediately blow up and get tons of views and a ton of traffic coming into your website.
Another thing to recognize is that in a sales funnel, blog writing is at the very top of the funnel. And so not often are we going to go to Google Analytics and see a dollar amount associated with that blog that shows, “Hey, here’s how much money you’ve made from this blog.”
We want to see a good amount of pageviews over time and how long the reader is on the page. How many other pages are they navigating to within the website? In this visit, where they read this blog, how many other pages are they going to, and what are they doing on those pages?
I mentioned before that incorporating backlinks into your blog is crucial; those create opportunities for the reader to navigate to other parts of your website and help them along that journey of hopefully making a purchase.
There are things we can measure to see what the success of a blog is, but the biggest thing to recognize is that it’s a top-of-funnel piece, and it’s going to take some time, and that’s okay.
What’s the most important piece of advice you would give to someone who is just starting out in content writing?
The most significant piece of advice that I would give is to start writing and do it consistently. I recommend a quick Google search to see current best practices for content writing and digital marketing and familiarize yourself with that. I also recommend learning about basic SEO best practices.
Write consistently and know your stuff. If you can prove yourself as a talented and valuable writer and show that you can do at least basic SEO best practices, then you’re making yourself pretty valuable.
Let Revity Take Your Content Writing to the Next Level
Don’t let the stress of content creation hold you back from reaching your marketing goals. Instead, let the experts at Revity Marketing take care of your content writing needs and help you achieve greater marketing impact.
Revity is dedicated to delivering high-quality, results-driven content that engages your target audience and helps you reach your marketing objectives. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you elevate your content writing game and achieve marketing success.
