The essentials of writing excellent content
Are you beginning to wonder about how effective content writing is? Maybe you’ve written some outstanding pieces that received only a lukewarm response. All those long hours of research on problem solving for your niche, then writing, editing and polishing posts for a handful of shares. It’s a bit worrisome, isn’t it?
That’s because there’s a popular misconception about writing great content. The actual writing of the content is only half of the formula for success. You can write absolutely brilliant posts that are on topic, providing top-notch solutions for your audience – but if you don’t have a strategy for how to consistently produce and market it, it’s not going to do you much good.
So, today we’re going to focus on the entire picture, not just one segment of it. Let’s start with some of the primary elements of writing excellent content for small businesses, then cover the basics of strategizing for the digital marketplace.
Content must be Scannable
It’s important to remember that the majority of people searching online are looking to be educated, informed or entertained – and they want answers now. They’re not settling in for a relaxing read, they’re hunting for solutions.
So, compelling online content needs to be scanable to quickly answer the readers’ question: “Will this post provide me with the education, information or entertainment I’m looking for?”
To achieve this, you must provide the most important information first, with the supporting details and background information coming second. In this way, if they only glance through your first paragraph they can easily ascertain if your post is going to give them what they’re looking for…
