As an editor, I’ve worked with countless freelance and in-house writers over the years. Based on that experience, here are some of the most important pieces of advice I can offer any content writer:
Know Your Audience Inside and Out
One of the biggest mistakes writers make is not thoroughly understanding their target audience. Before you start writing, take time to research who will be reading your content. Figure out things like their demographics, interests, pain points, goals, and any other psychological and behavioral insights you can uncover. The more you understand about them, the easier it will be to speak directly to them in a way that interests and engages them.
Craft Compelling Headlines
Your headline is one of the most important elements of any piece of content. It’s essentially the first impression your readers will get and largely determines whether or not they’ll continue reading. Take the time to brainstorm several headline options and test them on others to see which generates the most interest and clicks. Aim to make your headlines clear, compelling, and promote reader curiosity. Avoid vague or ambiguous headlines that don’t tell the reader what the content is actually about.
Get to the Point Quickly
Readers have short attention spans these days. You need to hook them quickly by getting straight to the point in the opening paragraphs. State your main idea or thesis right up front and let the reader know the key takeaways or benefits they’ll gain from continuing to read. This establishes relevance and gives them a reason to invest more time in your content. Dragging on an introduction without making your main point clear is a surefire way to lose readers.
Support Claims With Credible Evidence
Any factual claims, statistics, or expert opinions included in your content need to be properly attributed and supported with credible external evidence. Readers will immediately tune out if they sense you are making unsupported or questionable statements. Provide links, citations or quotes from trustworthy sources to validate your perspectives and arguments. Lack of evidence damages your credibility and the trustworthiness of the information.
Use Easy to Digest Paragraph Structure
Keeping paragraphs reasonably short (3-5 sentences on average) helps content be easily scannable and non-intimidating for readers. Start each new paragraph with a strong topic sentence that clearly establishes the subject or focus. Use clear logical transitions between paragraphs to flow ideas together seamlessly. Avoid overly long, complex paragraphs that are difficult for the eye to follow. Proper paragraph structure promotes readability and comprehension.
Keep Language Concise and Scannable
Readers don’t want to waste time plowing through dense blocks of text. Your writing style should value brevity and scannability. Use simple, direct language over complex multi-syllable words whenever possible. Remove unnecessary fluff, filler words or repetitive phrases. Allow skimming by making sure each sentence and section carries its own informational weight. Break up pages of text with visual elements like headers, subheads, bullets and emphasis formatting to guide attention.
Incorporate Engaging Multimedia
Text alone can be a slog for many readers. Multimedia assets like relevant images, videos, infographics, diagrams and charts make information more visually engaging and memorable. They allow different elements to reinforce each other. Don’t just haphazardly insert multimedia – make sure each visual or multimedia asset serves a clear contextual purpose within the writing. Done right, multimedia transforms dry text into interactive storytelling.
Always Apply SEO Best Practices
Any content needs to be optimized for searchability if you want it to be discoverable. To your writing, incorporate targeted keywords within natural-sounding text. Write descriptive meta descriptions and titles. Include relevant internal and external links. Guest post, link out, and get other sites to link back to boost authority. Use SEO tools to evaluate and improve optimization. While quality reigns, SEO helps ensure your writing finds the readers who need it most.
Solicit Constructive Feedback
Getting feedback from others is invaluable. Ask trusted colleagues or editors to proofread your work and provide honest critiques. Don’t take criticisms personally – view them as opportunities to strengthen your writing. Pay close attention to any points multiple reviewers independently flag. Iterate based on insights. Feedback helps identify and remedy any weaknesses before publication so your content can have maximum impact.
Promote Your Published Content Strategically
Having great content is useless if no one reads it. Spread the word about your published pieces through social sharing, email marketing and other promotional methods. Highlight data-backed insights in bite-sized graphics or videos on social platforms. Target link placements strategically. Consider paid promotion options if budgets allow. Tracking and optimizing promotion is as important as optimizing the content itself.
Thoroughly understanding audiences, crafting compelling headlines and introductions, supporting claims with evidence, keeping things scannable, incorporating strategically applied multimedia and SEO best practices, soliciting feedback, and promoting finished pieces are among the most essential elements of effective content writing from an editor’s perspective. Following proven advice like this can help any writer produce consistently high quality, impactful content.
Andrew Stroud