What is Content Writing?

When most people hear “content writing”, they think “writing articles”.

However, writing content isn’t just important for blog posts.

In fact, content writing is important for all types of different content formats, including:

• Video scripts
• Email newsletters
• Keynote speeches
• Social media posts
• Podcast titles
• White papers
• Web page copy
• Landing pages
• YouTube video descriptions

Or put another way:

Writing is the foundation for pretty much any content that you publish.

Best Practices

Create an Outline

Creating an outline is a GREAT first step in the content writing process.

Outlines help your content come out better for two main reasons:

First, outlines force you to put all your thoughts down in an organized way (rather than writing everything off the top of your head). Which really speeds up the writing process.

Second, outlines usually lead to a much better structure for your content. That’s because an outline lets you see your content from a “high level” that’s impossible to see as you’re writing.

Plus, because you have an outline, your final content will hit all of the major points that you set out to before you started writing.

So: how do you actually go about creating an effective outline?

Here are three main strategies that work well:

• Use a previous piece of content that did well: For example, we tend to publish quite a few definitive guides here at Backlinko.
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• So when we start working on a new guide, we use a lot of the structure from our existing guides as a base.

• Use a template: Most professional content writers work off of proven templates. Here are 5 content templates you can use to create outlines.
• Use top-performing content: Check out BuzzSumo to find popular content that you can use as the basis for your outline.

  For example, let’s say you’re about to write a guest post about the keto diet.

  Well, you’d want to type “keto diet” into BuzzSumo to see what’s already done well.

• Make It Easy to Consume and Share

  Content that’s super easy to read and share is of the keys to great content.

  You can have a post written by the world’s top copywriter. But if that post is hard for people to consume, no one will read it.

  Here are a few tips to help make your content easier to consume, skim and share.

  Keep it Snappy, Rich and Entertaining

  Whether you’re writing about content creation or cars, your writing needs to grab (and keep) people’s attention.

  Otherwise, they’ll click over to something else.

  How you grab someone’s attention depends on the format you’re working with.

  When I create videos, I use “Family Guy moments” throughout the video. These are little asides that add some humor to and spice to my video content.

• Quotable On Social Media

  According to a study that we conducted, very few blog posts get shared or linked to.

  And to increase the odds that your content ranks in search engines and gets shared on social media, add shareable quotes.

  For text-based content, this can be a statement that you highlight in your post.

  Make it Trustworthy

  For people to share and link to your content, they need to trust it first.

  And while design factors in to how much people trust your content, your writing plays a big role too.

  Here are a few tips to make your content more trustworthy.

  • Use proper grammar: If you want to improve your writing skills, a tool like Hemingway Editor or Grammarly can be a huge help.
  • Do your homework: Research and references show that you know what you’re talking about.

• Note how these bullet points aren’t topics. They’re benefits that someone will get out of reading and implementing what’s in the guide.