In December 2016, 73.9 million blogs were published on WordPress alone. It’s estimated that over 2 billion blogs are published online each day.
With so much new content flooding SERPs, creating well-written, thoroughly researched and highly valuable content has become a low priority.
2016 saw a dramatic growth in content online. In 2016, the Content Marketing Institute reported that 88% of B2B marketers use content marketing. In order to rise above the noise and outrank your competition, you’ll need to focus on creating high quality content. If you or your team are skilled in research and writing, but feel that your blog posts suffer from grammatical issues, syntax errors or redundant words and phrases, copywriting is the solution.
Copywriting is a learned skill that improves with practice. Whether you’re editing your own work or the work of others, below are 5 tips that will help you craft clear writing that draws the attention of your readership.
1. Read backwards and aloud
These two tips will help you to quickly pinpoint grammatical and syntax errors. Reading the text backwards will help your mind to focus on each individual word, deflecting the brain’s ability to skip over words in a sentence. Additionally, reading your writing out loud can help you to process the text in a new way. This will make your blog more cohesive by adding needed transitions, pinpointing errors and shortening awkward or run-on sentences.
2. Look out for passive voice
Active verbs will clarify your writing and instantly grab the reader’s attention. Make nouns the subject of your sentences, and use strong verbs to illustrate an action. Active voice will also keep your sentences short and sweet – this is crucial in a world of ever-shortening attention spans.
3. Fact-check where necessary
Blogging can help you to build trust with your readership by establishing yourself as an industry leader. However, false information or statistics can call into question the credibility of your business or brand. Source all information and provide up-to-date and relevant research.
4. Avoid jargon
Depending on your niche and target market, readers might not understand industry-specific words or phrases, or technical jargon – and confusing the reader is the quickest way to lose their attention. For example, if you’re a lawyer who is writing blogs to target individuals in need of legal assistance, you’re going to want to avoid legalese.
5. Cut the fat
It can be difficult to examine your own writing critically. But in order to elevate the quality of your content, you’ll need to cut out all unnecessary words, sentences or paragraphs. Make the value of your products or services clear in order to maintain the reader’s interest. Ruthlessly editing your writing can help you to keep your content focused.
While business owners and marketers, among other professionals, might not have the resources to adhere to each of these copywriting practices, the value of high quality content can’t be stressed enough. Readers value quality over quantity, and a well-written blog post will ensure that they hang on to your every word and come back for more – moving them closer toward a conversion with each new post.
