If you already have a sense of creating, understand the emotions behind words and practice creating content then there is no need of dictating the importance of content writing in your life. It already is quite significant because your creation is everything to you, it gives you identity & you resonate among people through your words. You only need to polish your skills and create magic through your content.

Regardless of whether you’re doing freelance work or involved in some business, the whole internet runs on content. That’s why they say ‘content is the king!’ And for creating the king, the preparations must be magnificent.

No, I’m not asking you to master all the skills in one day, but bit by bit, practice creating content out of your own niche too. Content writing is a vast field with massive encounters each day. As I said, the whole internet is about content. Therefore, it is not limited to just blogging. In fact, content creation touches various other aspects such as:

• Articles
• Product descriptions
• Website content
• Email newsletters
• Press releases
• EBooks
• Mobile app content
• Advertisements
• Video scripts
• White paper writing, and much more

These are a few different formats of content creation. Marketers use these formats to assist their leads in their buying journey. From brand awareness to final purchase, various formats of content act as a deciding factor. 

Basics of content writing:

Creating something out of nothing is not everyone’s cup of tea. It is essential to know some basics of content writing before diving into it:

• Conduct research- when you decide to buy a new phone you conduct a lot of research among a bunch of options in your price range. Both online and offline markets are filtered before finalizing the product. Similarly, it is important for the writer to conduct thorough research in his niche before finalizing a topic. After all, the content should appear well-thought-out and planned. Being factual & authentic helps to establish yourself.

• Know your business goals- Without knowing why you’re doing something, it is worthless to proceed. Essentially, have a depth about what type of format would you be using, what would be your tone of conveying the message, and what would be your final goal. The goals that are well-planned give analytical results to the audience. For example, your goal could be digital marketing, then the content may help in the advertisement.

• Acknowledge your audience- Check out the audience in your niche, know what they like or dislike. Understand that creating new content is easy but driving a well-established audience to your work requires research. Just like you researched for your content, it is important to plan for the audience that is going to receive it. Audience research could be based on qualitative and quantitative data taken from market or competitor research.

• Keyword research and SEO- after you begin writing your content it is essential that the audience & search engines acknowledge it. For this purpose, there are certain techniques that come under the umbrella of SEO. It is a proven skill that incorporates specific details like tags, keywords, titles, external and internal linking, analysis, and much more.

• Tone and style- most probably audiences interact with the writer who has a user-friendly style of writing. Sometimes, people write a plethora of articles but all are non-interactive. It is important to indulge in ways which the current situation demands. That’s why it is important to know your user base.

• Frame out a content strategy- a comprehensive content strategy plan is what you need to build for formulating the final result. The whole planning for publishing/marketing the content should be done beforehand to avoid any loopholes. What all things are needed to be kept in mind?

• Explore beyond a niche- it is easy and comfortable to write about something which you’re an expert of. But when you step out of that comfort zone to discover more genres, it is developmental for your growth. Remember that a writer’s growth isn’t about the total words he can type in one go and make money out of it. Instead, it relies upon the variety of genres he can master. This practice will not only make you stand out but also hook your readers. 

•  Modification- you can always modify your previous information-based articles. This is a strategy marketers use for advertising and journalists use for reporting. Thus, changing and learning along with it is always great. 

• Metrics- after you have posted your article, don’t just stop there. Keep an eye on the metrics too because it will show you the result. The way your traffic is generated & engaged is the fact you should not overlook. Use tools like Google Analytics to analyze your results (or ROI)

Creating is as important as curating; so implement both wholeheartedly. 

Ready to start the journey?

Arrived till here? That means you have taken note of the essential tips mentioned above. Now is the time to put your skill to practice:

• Try freelancing- at the beginning of your career, you can try writing by yourself and submitting your articles to the writer’s community. It won’t cost you anything but experience and maybe a little pocket money!

• Blogging- blogging is another form of content writing where you don’t need to write under any other company/individual but for your own self. This is the most widespread business on the internet today. But for starting a blog also, you need to make sure you purchase the domain from a genuine platform. Platforms like WordPress or Weebly may help in doing so.

• Content writer- if you have mastered the art of writing a few months then you can look for opportunities as a content writer. Content writers create content in the form of articles, ads, emails, video scripts, and other formats. This content helps to grow the business of many. You can search for the best content writing companies for this purpose. 

Outsourcing:

Outsourcing can come to help when you’re running a large business. For example, if you run a large business so there is no time for creating all the content by yourself, then outsourcing is of great assistance.

1. When you don’t have time to create enough content in a consistent manner and entertain your audience then outsourcing comes to help. For businesses, when they get more engagement in social media handles, ad posts, and product updates they need to build more campaigns. In doing so, they require loads of content that could not be done by a small team regularly. Thus, outsourcing becomes important.
2. Content creation isn’t just about writing. It needs curation as well. Suppose you’re a skilled financial advisor and can write well about the financial sector. But you don’t have other required skills such as SEO, marketing, copywriting, etc. For growing your business you need someone to assist you with these skills too. 

Tips to outsource:

• Creating content writing platforms so that individual writers/freelancers may recognize.
• Negotiate your needs with the writers so they can contribute more.
• Conduct a quality test/assessment before hiring them.
• Track their performance and guide/advise them wherever they need. Don’t be too dependent.
• Conduct an analysis about the correction and usage of proper techniques.

Musings:

Writing content isn’t an easy task as it requires research, planning, and curation before implementing your final product. But no worries because there are many ways and techniques to help you out. Stay tuned for more tips.

Good luck, happy blogging!