• By F5 Buddy
• Content writing & Marketing

A Comprehensive Guide to Content Writing and Marketing

Content is undoubtedly the king in digital marketing and is a major driver of a successful digital marketing campaign. Website content is not only what should be creative and keyword-optimized today. From blog posts to newsletters, each and every piece of your writing should be compelling enough to prompt the readers. There are a lot of factors that work comes to play while boosting the visibility of a website. What is important to note here is that most of these factors are dependent upon the content.

In this guide, we would be describing the different types of content writing, how do they impact SEO processes and what should be the formatting of a writing copy.

Since this is a detailed guide, we have divided it into different sections, which you can navigate using the below-mentioned navigation.

1. Article Writing
2. Blog Writing
3. PR Writing
4. Classified Writing
5. White Paper Writing
6. Description Writing
7. Newsletter Writing
8. Email Writing

Our goal is once you complete reading this definitive guide, you will be aware of:

1. What are the types of content writing that could be used to boost the marketing process?
2. How to optimize keywords in different types of content?
3. How to build user engagement through different types of copies?
4. How to keep your content free of formatting-related errors.

Let’s dive in.

Different Types of Content to Strengthen your Digital Marketing Campaigns:

1.Article Writing:

Writing an SEO article is not a rocket science, but at the same time, it is also not like writing a normal one. There are thousands of articles written daily on the same topics. For driving traffic to the site, it is essential to write well-researched and grammatically correct articles that ignite engagement.

Earlier SEO content writers simply used to dump keywords in the content. But, now the scenario has been changed by updates like Panda and Penguin. Google suggest writing articles with keywords placed naturally in the content. It is good practice to use keywords in the H1 and H2 tag of your articles.

Pro tip: It is better to use keyword variations in articles.

Keyword variations are nothing but Latent Semantic Indexing Keywords, which are terms related to your search queries. By using LSI keywords, you can make your article rank for more than one keywords. Also, with keyword variations, you make it easy for Google to understand what your article is all about. In fact, Rankbrain, the latest Google’s algorithm gives more credibility to contents with keyword variations.

Other than this, it is important to make sure that content is free from grammatical errors and providing the required information to the reader.

2.Blog Writing:

Blog posts can be written for various reasons. You can use the power of blog posts to offer insightful tips, a detailed guide, checklist, check sheets, to-dos and much more. It is a good practice to feed your website frequently with scannable blog posts.

Same as articles, if you want to outrank the competition of your blog posts, it is important to target the keywords that your potential customers are searching for. It is a great idea to utilize tools like Google Trends and SEMrush for driving traffic to your posts.

Google Trends helps you determine keywords which are popular at any particular time. SEMrush is also a great tool that helps you find keywords your competitors are ranking for.

When it comes to placing keywords in your blog posts, try to add them in:

1. Title of your post
2. Headings (and even subheadings)
3. URL (if possible)
4. Meta Description
5. Image alt text

The next crucial thing that can increase the traffic of your website is a link to influencers. Try to link your blog posts to reputable and applicable websites. Researched-backed websites strengthen your blog posts more than anything else.

When it comes to writing part, make sure you are writing a lengthy yet readable post with bulleted lists and subheadings. Leverage the power of small paragraphs and short sentences. Bring into the practice of turning long-winding sentences into two. These practices help you create blog posts that are easy to read on mobile devices.

3.Press Release Writing:

Press Release is a potential tool in your arsenal. The press release can be used to boost customer confidence, broadcast your brand and skyrocket sales. Brands that are little-known can also get a chance to acquire some traffic and get their names with effectively written PR.

First, let’s go through a basis of press release writing to make sure that your target audience receives a message that you are trying to send across.

Here are some points that should be kept in mind to prepare result-driven Press Release:

1. The headline of Press Release should be announcing your news. It should be crisp and free of promotional tone.
2. Keep your Press Release short, similar to the synopsis of the book.
3. Remember to put dateline in PR, including date of PR’s issue as well as city and state.
4. The first paragraph of your PR should provide answers for 5W1H viz. Who, Where, When, Why, What and How.
5. The first paragraph must highlight the message you have included in your PR.
6. Remember to include Boilerplate i.e. 2-3 lines of information about your organization. Boilerplate is generally placed in the last of PR.
7. Try to avoid Google’s Penalty by making use of LSI keywords in your content.

Press Releases can be written for sharing general news, making staff announcement or broadcasting about any event. You can also write PR to tell prospects about your newly launched product.

4.Classified Writing:

Classified ads are cheaper means of boosting the exposure of your products or blogs. Classified ads are widely used by SEO enthusiasts and marketers for traffic optimization. Apart from promoting any product or services, classified ads can also be used to advertise a new business venture.

The success of your classified ad depends greatly upon the way it has been written. Here are some tips for writing converting classified ads:

• Title: The title is an important element of classified writing, which should be catchy and attractive. Avoid using “all caps” while writing a title for classified ads.
• Description: The description in classified ads is nothing but a short and crisp message, which explains your product or services. Try to make your description engaging enough to make buyers come with more queries.

Remember that your classified add must be free from errors and should contain relevant information.

5.Whitepaper Writing:

Whitepaper has become the most powerful tool for lead generation, branding and content marketing. Since a whitepaper possesses both the influential quality of corporate brochure and informative qualities of a magazine article, it offers an excellent opportunity of building an email list.

Learning how to write persuasive whitepaper can be a result-delivering asset for your online business. A properly crafted whitepaper can draw customers to your sales funnel.

Below-mentioned tips can help you prepare an informational whitepaper that attracts people to download it:

1. Crafting Plausible Title: The title must be interesting enough to grab the reader’s attention and compel them to read. According to statistics, a title with numbers like “3 Ways to..”, “5 Things to..” etc. have been found effective in grabbing the reader’s attention.
2. Providing the Right Amount of Content: While writing newspapers, it is important to provide detailed information about the topic. However, 7 to 10 pages are enough. Don’t overload them with details. Remember you are whetting their appetite and not satisfying their thirst for knowledge.
3.   Introducing your Business: You can opt to introduce your business in the last after presenting all the useful details to the customers. It is better to start with an in-general idea about your business rather than introducing your company straight-forward.

6.Description Writing:

While writing content for SEO, it is crucial to write for the users first and then the search engine. This statement holds the highest value when it comes to description writing. Meta descriptions should not be over-stuffed with keywords. Rather they should be action-oriented, compelling the reader to click.

A well-written Meta description can increase the click-through-rate of your page and holds more chances of turning a visitor into a customer.

While writing the Meta description, keep in mind that:

1. It should not be more than 300 characters. According to a recent Google update, the limit of the Meta description has increased from 160 characters. Now, you can write a Meta description of 160-300 characters.
2. It should clearly articulate the product or service you are offering, along with covering your keywords
3. It should be free from grammatical errors and must be written in a warm tone. Meta descriptions should be invited to make the user enter your digital front door without letting them think about it
4. It must incorporate your current offers as well as appropriate call-to-action. CTA’s have found to increase the click-through rate, thus it is good practice to mention about your offer or end your meta description with call-to-action.

The meta description is like a welcoming mat to your virtual doorway; hence it should be backed by high-quality content.

7. Newsletter Writing:

Although, people commonly send an email newsletter, still many times they fail in delivering it rightly. Email newsletters can retain more customers and convert more leads if presented correctly. Each and every company out there is flooding the accounts of their prospects with newsletters. Hence, it is important to create a newsletter that converts rather than being dependent on pre-defined templates that sit in the inbox unread or are marked as spam.

Here are a few tips that help you write effective newsletter articles:

1. Provide customers with industry-related tips or advice, you can also talk about recent developments in their industry. This will engage subscribers and they would not at least unsubscribe your services.
2. Try to make use of quotes, facts, and statistics. You can even use direct quotes from interviews. Facts and statistics add credibility to your newsletter, thereby building trust.
3. Use a straightforward and simple style of writing with active verbs. It is better to avoid jargon and sharing your personal opinion in the newsletter.
4. Try writing in small paragraphs and make use of bullets. The newsletter should contain an overview of the topic and it is suggested to avoid details in the newsletter.
5. You can use images in the newsletter, but remember to include a caption for each photo
6. Use eye-catchy headlines that make subscriber to check your newsletter.
7. Don’t be over-promotional. Maintain 9:1 ratio i.e. 90% education and 10% promotional content.

8. Email Writing:

It is wrong to believe that email marketing is dead. The importance of email marketing will continue to rise with each passing year. And, for a successful email marketing campaign, it is important to write emails that deliver the result. An average office worker receives around 70-80 emails each day, which means there are high chances of getting overlooked. Your recipient just utilizes a few seconds to decide whether your email is worth giving heed. Hence, it has become important to change your email marketing style.

Let’s check out some ways that can help you prepare to convert emails:

1. Make a meaningful and compelling subject line that prompts the reader to open the email.
2. Write to the point email. Explain the core of your email in not more than the first two or three sentences.
3. Try to make your emails short. Short emails have more response rates as compared to emails with more than 250 words.
4. Put key message and call-to-action at the top.
5. Avoid jargons, acronym, and terms that are difficult for a reader to understand
6. Proofread what you have written twice or even thrice to make sure that there is no error.

That’s It with Content Writing and Marketing Guide.

I hope this guide will help you prepare every type of content for the digital marketing process in the most appropriate manner. And, now you would be able to prepare content according to the SEO criteria that are required to be fulfilled.