Even if you’re not a seasoned writer, there is still writing that you can do for your own business’ marketing plan. At the core of your marketing plan, you want to be creating content that is informative and engaging and as the owner of a business, you should be incredibly well informed about your business. So, the technical knowledge is already there and that really is the foundation of great content. Beyond this, we’ve created all the help you could need with planning, positioning, and tweaking so that your content has the greatest effect possible for your business.
Tools Are Your Friend
Even the most experienced writers, in fact, often use tools, particularly the most experienced writers. Tools are there to make our lives easier, so if you’re struggling with something, then you should find one to help. Spelling and grammar are the obvious ones, and it’s also one of the easiest ones to get help with. Programs like Microsoft Word and Libre Office offer a built-in spelling checker and a basic grammar checker too. If you’d like more detailed corrections and the ability to write within your browser, then a great extension to download is Grammarly. This tool allows you to spell check and also help with grammar in the free version. The paid version offers advice on sentence structure, avoids the passive voice, and helps you to achieve the right tone in your writing. If you really get into your writing and are creating written content regularly, then paying for Grammarly might be a wise investment.
Outside of spelling and grammar, another huge obstacle for writers is battling distractions. You’ll first need to identify what your distractions are. For example, you might have WhatsApp notifications or emails appearing on your desktop as you write. If this is the sort of thing that distracts you, then turning off those notifications is an obvious first step, but you could also find pop-up blockers and even further website blockers. These work by preventing you from accessing certain websites at specific times of day, for example, Facebook in the middle of what should be a morning productivity session. Finally, another distraction that many people struggle to overcome is ignoring conversations, lyrics, the radio, or other words that enter their brains. Some will find the only way that they can write is in a silent room, but others enjoy white noise. Coffivity mimics ambient sounds like the hum of a cafe or a university canteen. Some people will find this infuriating, others will find it a productivity miracle. That seems to just be how the human brain works.
Always Have a Goal
We live in a world that is driven by constant content, each piece being different from the last and often devoured in seconds rather than minutes. This can make us prone to believing that we must be constantly creating clickbait and short-form content, that might just achieve virality. Whilst ‘going viral’ is good for hits, it’s actually not always good for sales and it’s also surprisingly difficult to achieve. Instead of focusing on bites of new content all of the time, try to find a reason for every single piece of content that you create. That is, have a goal in mind that is concrete and measurable.
It might be that on your travel agency website you’re struggling to get people to take the option of a full-board holiday. So, for your next piece of content you could send out an email with plenty of intriguing visual content, as we detailed here at lflus, links to hotels that offer incredible buffets, or cater particularly well to difficult dietary needs, alongside informative text about your package deals. You could follow it up with a blog post about the most luxurious all-inclusive resorts on your website. From these posts, you’ll obviously get engagement, which is always a secondary goal, but you should also see an uptick in engagement on other posts that feature all-inclusive holidays, as well as hopefully an increase in sales in this area. This example obviously applies to the travel industry, but you’ll know the ins and outs of your business and what is struggling, or what is thriving and you’d like to capitalise on.
Know Your Audience
This tip applies to every single part of marketing, but it doesn’t hurt to mention it again. Knowing your audience inside out is essential if you want to sell any product at all, but it’s also important if you want your written content to reach the right people. Sending out emails at 9 am to busy people in office-based jobs is going to almost inevitably result in those emails being deleted in the morning sweep. If you know that the majority of your clients are business people then send your emails during the afternoon lull, or even after work hours instead.
It’s not just email marketing where this strategy applies either. Knowing your audience and writing your content directly to them will affect the voice that you use in all of your content. If your brand has a particularly young audience, then a more casual tone and perhaps even some non-standard language wouldn’t be out of place. Addressing your emails with ‘Hey Bestie’ works brilliantly for the emerging social media makeup brand Il Makiage, but wouldn’t work well for a high-flying law firm. Use the language that your customers understand consistently throughout all of your marketing and you’ll seem more familiar to them instantly.
Appear Everywhere
Looking into other successful brands in your field is always a good starting point. You don’t have to copy exactly what your competitors have done, but see if they have any interesting or unique bits of copy that you could take inspiration from. For example, in the iGaming sphere, VegasSlotsOnline has created a hugely successful sector of its marketing by reviewing other online casinos. They dive deep into the variety of games that other casinos have, the security features that they offer, whether there are bonuses readily available, and all of the kinds of things that their own customer would want to know. Not only is this information genuinely useful and frequently searched for on search engines, but it also strengthens their own appearance as a leader in their field.
This approach works brilliantly for this player in this field, but you might find that being one of those sites that get reviewed works better for you. Appearing regularly on other sites will strengthen your own validity. Backlinks and outlinks both work in different ways, making sure that your site achieves both are hugely important. You could achieve this through guest blogging, reviewing, or even paid promotions.
