Writing Like a Content Marketer

You remember college term papers.  It was terrific, hand-wringing, teeth-gnashingly tough to sit down and pound out a 15-30-page paper on a topic that you may or may not have cared about. You were busy citing vast quantities of other works so you could stop sweating the idea that your professor may accuse you of plagiarizing.  It was a tough world. 

And then you became a marketer. "What?" you asked, incredulously.  "I have to WRITE???!"

Marketing writing is an entire hop, skip, and a big jump from those old college term papers.  You just have to remember a few key things:

1. Find your story.  Whether you know it or not, your company has a story to tell.  That story might be about great customer service.  It might be about how you always keep up with the latest technology.  Whatever the story of your company is, figure it out.  And then tell it.  Tell it on your website and your blog.  Tell it in your advertising campaigns.  When you know the story you can bring it to life.
   
   
2. It's not about you.  I know...it's a tough concept to grasp sometimes.  But the people who are buying your product want to believe that you KNOW THEM.  They know that you have a product or a service that they need and they need to know that you're thinking about them.  So you can write about your company...but write about it in a way that helps your readers know that you're writing with THEM in mind.  Tell them how you can solve their problems.  Tell them why you want to. 
   
   
3. Think about your medium.  Writing a blog is different from writing your company's web content.  Likewise, writing a whitepaper is different from writing an ad.  Whatever it is you're writing, keep in mind that people will subconsciously think about it in different ways.  Change your tone to suit your medium.  You can be light and even playful in a blog if it suits your buyer personas but a whitepaper is all business.
   
   
4. Write to be found.  It's a tough world out there in search engine land.  You can be the Dickens of the marketing world but if no one can find your content then you might as well be writing in your own journal at home.  Be sure that you use keywords relevant to your buyer personas in your writing.  This shouldn't be tough to do because the topic should organically generate those keywords for you.  But if you look back and realize that you don't have a single keyword on that web page, you probably want to re-think it..and re-write it.
   
   
5. Write like you talk.  I realize that it's really easy to throw in those voluminous utterances contrived specifically to electrify your devotees.  But let's just assume that they know you're smart.  They want information and they don't want to have to wade through enormous piles of verbiage to find it.  (See point number 2.  It's not about you.)
   
   
6. Enjoy the process.  Marketing writing shouldn't be stressful.  Just use your company's best voice to speak directly to the people you want to reach.  If it helps, pretend to be someone else while you do it. Don a "marketing hat" and pick up a quill pen.  Whatever it takes, just relax and tell the story.  You know all the good parts, I promise.

So what?  Writing is an important component of any marketing campaign.  You won't be able to sell your products or services if you can't communicate their value to your prospective customers. 

If you want to read more about how to improve your marketing writing skills, please download this free guide from Hubspot.