What are writing best practices?
Writing best practices are guidelines, tips, and checks that help you to create the most effective, high-quality content possible — so that you stand a better chance of engaging and informing audiences, and meeting your goals.
It's wise to apply best practices in writing as much as possible, as content writing alone does not necessarily mean that you're creating 'good content'.
Why is it important to use writing best practices in your content creation?
When done well, content writing can have several beneficial effects on your business. For example, it can help:
- Build brand awareness: Publishing well-written content is an easy way to showcase your brand voice, its personality, and the benefits you offer your audience.
- Generate leads: Brand awareness can often pave the way to higher levels of lead generation.
- Drive conversions from prospect to customer: Great content sells, and 60% of marketers measure their marketing success by looking at conversion rates.
- Build community: Creating valuable educational content can foster customer trust and loyalty to your brand.
Examples of content writing best practices
Here are some best practice tips that can be applied to content created for any industry:
- Serve your audience first:
- In content marketing, your audience is your 'true north'. If all your activities serve your audience, you have a greater chance of success. So, think about what your audience needs from your content.
- You could also create content based on the Pareto Principle concept, where 80% of your content is created around your audience's needs and the remaining 20% is created for business promotion purposes.
- Similarly, think about how you can personalize marketing content so that you're always serving your readers content that is as relevant as possible to them.
- Make your content actionable:
- Content is most useful when readers and your potential customers can easily see ways to implement your tips or fit your product into their lives.
- So, whether you’re writing a how-to article or a product round-up, make it more practical by adding examples to illustrate your advice.
- Think about readability:
- Readers can be put off by text that is hard to scan. This is especially true for B2B audiences.
- Consider using short sentences and paragraphs, as well as clear subheadings and bullet points.
- Avoid jargon or overly technical language if you suspect it's not going to be easily digested by readers.
- Tools like Hemingway Editor or Grammarly can give you an idea of how readable your content is.
- Incorporate third-party insights:
- If you want your content to stand out from the cloned content online, consider using quotes from reputable third parties.
- You could also pepper your content with credible third party research and data to help you make a point.
- Use strong call-to-actions (CTAs):
- CTAs don’t always have to be sales-focused, but they should invite your audience to take the next step forward in their buying journey; whether that’s signing up for a newsletter, watching a related video, or downloading an asset.