Content marketing rocks today. Content writing rocks, too.
With that in mind, every entrepreneur tries to implement it to their business strategy. Content marketers have their glory days now.
However, only a few clients understand that content marketing doesn’t equal content writing. The word “content” confuses them and makes them consider every content marketer a writing guru.
Yes, content marketers know what a good text looks. And yes, they know what components it should have to reach out the audience.
But content marketing is more about marketing than content. And a good content marketer is not necessarily one who writes. He is the one who makes content meet a company’s objectives and marketing plans; he is the one who knows how and where to distribute content for attracting and acquiring the target audience, and he is the one who understands what content to use to achieve required results and drive profitable customer action.
And if a marketer doesn’t write himself, he needs the help of a good content writer.
And here the problem appears:
Everyone writes today. But far from everyone is a writer.
WHY YOU SHOULDN’T TRUST A WRITER
There are three key components of marketing: Message, Market, and Channel. And there is no power structure between them: all three are significant, and all three go simultaneously.
Just imagine a tripod. It won’t stay if one leg is broken. It needs all three.
Plus, this triangle is closed: each component “feeds” others. One component can destroy your marketing tripod. You have several variants to do that:
- right Message – wrong Market – right Channel
- right Message – right Market – wrong Channel
- right Message – wrong Market – wrong Channel
- wrong Message – right Market – right Channel
- wrong Message – wrong Market – right Channel
- wrong Message – right Market – wrong Channel
- wrong Message – wrong Market – wrong Channel
And only one variant to save your marketing tripod is:
- right Message – right Market – right Channel
As a content marketer, you control two components of this triangle, which are Market and Channel.
But it’s your content writer who controls Message. So, you should be careful when choosing the one to write for you.
I bet you know about a term such as Message-Market match. Or mismatch.
What can a mom living in a small town and selling her 500-word texts with titles like “5 Principles of Success” for $5 write you?
It was a rhetorical question. The problem is, there are hundreds of such content writers on the Web, and they write texts about marketing, management, technologies, and many other difficult topics.
Your biggest mistake as a content marketer is entrusting such writers with your customer communications.
One email, well-written and sent to right people, can bring hundreds or even thousands of dollars. It’s important to realize that the marketing psychology on the Web works the same as offline. So, you should control who talks to your clients online – John Smith considering himself a professional copywriter or the influencer in the niche, a business founder, and a CEO.
MORE THAN WORDS…
A text is not just words.
It’s an encoded mind of those who wrote it, with all their experience and world’s view. When you write, you insert your mood and your self into the text; that’s why 500 words written by one person will never equal 500 words written by another one.
500 words can change the world. 500 words can change a country. 500 words can inspire a person to leave his job and start a business. 500 words can save someone from suicide.
But someone considers 500 words nothing but the wind that blows and doesn’t influence anything.
Meanwhile, writing is a difficult skill. The financial outcome of a web text may be bigger than one of engineer or accountant work. A piece of content you publish online may appear the best seller that brings customers and helps to achieve corporate objectives and marketing plans.
HOW TO FIND A GOOD CONTENT WRITER
First of all, make sure you look for them at right places. Forget about freelance websites, places such as Fiverr, content mills, etc.
You need people who write a lot.
Two variants work here:
1) Top bloggers in your niche
You can see their performance by checking readers’ reaction: likes, shares, and comments.
2) Journalists
Not all are good but some are worthy writers. Check by the same criteria – likes, shares, comments, and views – and pay attention to the publications where they post their writings. In a perfect world, it will be a place where your target audience meets.
For example, a journalist of Cosmo would be a perfect writer for your project on clothes.
HOW TO RECOGNIZE HIGH-QUALITY CONTENT
Generally speaking, every text pursues two aims:
- a) to provoke a reader into doing something (subscribing, downloading, making an order, commenting, etc.)
- b) to build loyalty with potential customers.
High-quality content is not that written with tricky words. A pro content creator will write as he speaks. The power of his texts is not words but meaning and truth, so he’ll be able to tell a story with simple words.
Content marketers read a lot, so it won’t be difficult for you to catch a rhythm, form, and atmosphere of the text you evaluate. A high-quality text captures you at once, and it’s like an adventure novel you can’t help reading.
For content writers, it’s not easy to create such texts. Research and in-depth insight are their shadows, and they help readers see the strengths and benefits of your product or service. To succeed here, content writers should know your audience by sight.
Why?
Otherwise, a content creator will write something, spending time and money with no understanding why, what, who, or where his texts go.
Or, he will write as if he was John Smith, your client. As far as you understand, it’s a bad idea: big chances are, there are no other John Smiths among your clients.
What to do?
Share buyer personas with your content writer.
Provide the following information:
- Who is your client?
- Where is he from?
- What is his profession?
- What are his hobbies?
- What does he love?
- What does he hate?
- Where does he spend his free time?
- What problems does he have?
- Where does he spend his time online?
With all these questions answered, your content writer will know whom to write Message and what Channel you’ll use for his text to win the Market.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Content writing is a significant skill to sharpen. Persuasiveness wouldn’t go amiss for communication, even if it’s not about texts only.
So, choosing a content creator to write texts for your projects, make sure your target audience already love him.
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