How to Align Your Content with Your Goals
Have you ever looked for a recipe online, finally found one that sounds just right, and then watched yourself age in real-time as you scroll ENDLESSLY through a story about the author’s great-grandmother’s berry patch and that time they found a penny in there, which was just after the war because there were still rations on butter? Of course you have. We all have. The internet is terrible.
The art of copy and content writing is a delicate one. You need to engage your audience with a story, and have enough content for search engines to actually find you, without churning out useless guff that bores your audience to death and completely undermines your brand.
The knack is in knowing what kind of words you need, and which kind of person to write them. Onwards.
What kind of content does my business need?
There’s a difference between copy and content, although we tend to use the words interchangeably. But, not all writers do both, and ‘content’ has founds itself lumped with a kind of icky reputation thanks to vacuous influencers and endless articles about one weird trick to rid yourself of belly fat. Well, rest assured that your belly is just fine how it is, but you may still be confused about copy vs content, so here’s how to figure out what you actually need.
What is copywriting?
Copywriting is a specific type of marketing writing, designed to sell a product or service. With roots in advertising and pure marketing, copywriting often describes a specific product, letting would-be buyers know about all its rad features and how those features will change their life/make them a better person.
Here’s an example of a piece of copywriting I did a little while ago for my client, Simon Wright Jewellery. You’ll see it’s short and focussed, using some descriptive storytelling but mostly focussing on the product and service.
Your business’s About and Home pages are also a kind of copywriting, because they’re designed to give useful, to-the-point information about what you do, and so are the many emails you get encouraging you to buy an Epic Pass, sign a petition, or donate to the Children’s Hospital.
What is content writing?
Content writing is a lot broader. It’s about how you tell your brand’s story – who you are, what you value, and so on. Content writing is more about communication and relationship building than sales, and could be likened to journalism or public relations.
Content writers really understand your organization’s audience and can tell a story that engages, inspires and helps to build a positive relationship between them and your brand. Content is NOT clickbait - while it may not always have a specific sales goal or call to action, good content is about affirming your reputation and brand, helping your audience to solve a particular problem, or being useful to them in some way.
For example, I recently wrote a blog on how to get fitted for ski boots, for my client PlusSnow, an online retailer for plus-size ski gear. PlusSnow doesn’t sell ski boots and has no plans to, but they know that a lot of their customers have a hard time finding boots that fit, and being taken seriously by boot-fitters, so this article was designed to help their demographic with a specific challenge. Although it’s not about sales, the article helps build positive brand association and brings traffic to their website. Plus, it’s just a nice thing to be helpful to your customers without it needing to be a money-making exercise.
So do I need a copywriter or a content writer?
Ultimately, your business should be producing both copy and content. It’s about aligning your writing approach to your business goals. And knowing when you should be outcome-led (buy our awesome stuff/donate to our cause/change how you do things) versus when you should focus on softly-softly relationship building, showing your organization’s personality and generally being a decent citizen.
Not all writers do both, as I said, so it can be a good idea to build a stable of creatives who can help you achieve your content goals. For example, although I can and do write copy, I don’t have a background in advertising, so when clients need to have a big impact with very few words (campaign taglines or email headers for example), I call in the experts I know to take the reins. And likewise, they’ll call on me for longer-form content that wins hearts and minds.
Does my business need to blog?
Yes.
While the internet might seem to be mostly porn, shitty GoPro footage and things your doctor doesn’t want you to know, content is still king. And queen. And gender non-specific ruler of all kinds.
Why?
First, because SEO. Regular blogging improves your website’s search engine rankings and helps the little Google creepy crawlies find key words that your customers are looking for.
Second, blogging is an opportunity to demonstrate your expertise in your field. You might be the very best ski guiding company, biodiversity nonprofit or prosciutto providore going around (if you are a prosciutto providore, please get in touch for important business reasons definitely not related to snacks). And while you might be the best, you certainly won’t be the only. So blogging is an opportunity to show what you know and to make it very clear why people should want to do business with you. By helping your customers solve their challenges, you’re building a relationship where they will want to come to you in the future because you know things and you make their lives easier.
OK, so you need to blog. Got it. How do you do it well?
I blog about the outdoors and sustainability because it fulfils me creatively and personally, but it also lets you know that this is the kind of work I do and that I have skills and experience in this area.
How to write a good blog post (or newsletter or email or social post)
Given the internet is full of the many terrible things we mentioned earlier, it’s important that your content doesn’t get lost in the swamp. Here are some tips for writing a blog post, or any other content, that people will actually want to read:
Keep it real. Your content should have an authentic voice that gives readers a really clear sense of your organization’s personality. It can help to imagine your organization as a real person at a party. What are they wearing? Are they a social butterfly or a wallflower? Are they formal or chill? Are they four drinks in and bugging the DJ to play Lady Marmalade? You’ll see I like humour – it makes blogging fun for me, and works with my easy-going but hot-dang I’m good at stuff brand. But your business might be really serious - perhaps you deal with difficult topics or you need to convey a high level of professionalism, so you’re going to want a tone of voice that reflects that. And note that a good writer, a bit like an actor, should be able to switch voices at the drop of a hat.
Audience first. Always. Start by asking yourself, what problems is my audience trying to solve? What questions do they have? What would make their lives easier if they knew that thing? Being helpful is what keeps people on your page, and coming back time and again.
Keep it short. 500 to 1000 words is a good benchmark. Long enough to convey your expertise and please the SEO overlords, not so long that readers need to have a little snoozle in the middle.
Tell a story. Use anecdotes, analogies, emotive language. Human brains are hardwired to remember and respond positively to stories, so this is a great way to make your content sticky in amongst all the clickbaity stuff. Want to geek out with me on the science of storytelling? Check out this brilliant Ted Talk by David JP Phillips. It’s really worth 16 minutes and 45 seconds of your time.
Halp I don’t have time for all this
Running a business is hard work. Like, so much work. Most businesses are busy doing the actual, important work of their organization, and finding the time (and someone with the right skillset) to do things like write blogs, newsletters and social posts can seem impossible.
That’s what people like me exist for. If you’re a sustainability-led organization and you know you need to make word things happen but you just don’t have the time, drop me a line. I’m always happy to chat, whether it’s about copy or content, a specific project, or you just want some guidance on how to connect with your audience.
Think you need a writer but you’ve got no idea what to look for? I got you. Here’s what to look for when you need to hire a writer.