Avoidable rookie digital content writing mistakes
There is no quick and painless way to write digital content for your business’s website. If you have ever written a CV, you will appreciate how difficult it is writing about yourself. What should be relatively straightforward can turn into a time and brain draining exercise. Add into the mix the complexity of optimising your content for web marketing and you can disappear down a rabbit hole.
There are writing best practices you can adopt, but the best way to hone your content writing skills is to avoid the most common rookie mistakes.
Writing digital content from the wrong perspective
The first major mistake people make with their digital content is writing from the perspective of their business. Eh? But it’s a business website, of course they are going to write about the products and services! Well, yes, but it’s not what you do, it’s the way that you do it.
The products and services you offer are available in similar forms from other companies and for similar prices. What sets you apart is how your business relates to the consumer. Remember, people buy from people. To develop the emotional connection, the content you publish should:
- Identify your customers’ pain points
- Provide solutions
- Present clear outcomes
Consumers are driven by the need for you to help them achieve their goals. Whether it’s a haircut to make them look younger or a digital marketing Christchurch agency like Digital Presence to generate sales and profit through their website, your digital content needs to be clear about how your business helps people and the outcome they can expect.
Writing for the wrong audience
You are not writing an essay for your teacher; you are writing for a specific and targeted group of people – your ideal customers. Write your content just for them; appealing to the masses is a false economy – not everyone is going to be interested in your products, so why put in time and effort trying to compel them into action? Invest time in understanding who your ideal client is and write for them.
Assuming you know your customers
Knowing your customers personally and understanding how they behave online are two very different things. You cannot assume their search behaviours and the words they use. For SEO to be successful it relies on keywords. Research is key for identifying the best keywords for writing digital content optimised for search engine marketing. SEO is not an art; it is a science, and the numbers don’t lie!
But how do you use SEO keywords? In the old days of the internet, search engines ranked websites as to how many relevant keywords were included on the website, so articles and content often made very little sense to the reader. Now they penalise websites that stuff keywords in, and reward websites for writing natural sounding, engaging and informative content. Sprinkle SEO keywords sparingly in your writing but make sure they don’t stand out!
Writing for the wrong format
The temptation is to write a digital equivalent of War and Peace – showcasing your industry knowledge with fancy pants terminology and concepts. Great walls of text are unlikely to be read, so break it up into manageable chunks to help readers skim read.
- Paragraphs of no more than four sentences ✔
- Use bullet points and numbered lists ✔
- Use language your audience will understand ✔
Remember too, most consumers research products via their smart phones before they commit to buying, so sticking to these recommendations makes your business’s website content instantly more accessible – if your website is responsive.
Digital Presence is a digital marketing agency, Christchurch based but proudly serving the whole of New Zealand. We help our clients grow their business through responsive web design, SEO, Google Ads and digital content creation. If you would like to learn more about the web marketing services we offer, get in touch today for a free no-obligation chat.
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