Author Archives: Amrit Hallan

About Amrit Hallan

Amrit Hallan is a professional content writer who helps businesses improve their conversion rate through credible and compelling content writing. His main strength lies in writing search engine optimized content without compromizing quality and meaningfulness.

How to write an effective content writing brief for your content writer

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Writing an effective content brief

Writing an effective content brief

For more than two weeks I have been interacting with a client trying to understand what he really requires for his accounting website.

If you are wondering why I talk so much about accounting websites these days it is because, due to my improved rankings for phrases like, “content writer for accounting websites” I’m getting more work from accountants.

But I digress.

So, it has been more than two weeks.

Now, the client has begun to complain that the work hasn’t yet started.

The problem on my side is that I’m not getting a proper brief from the client.

What is a content writing brief?

A content writing brief can be a dedicated document, or it can be simply sent by email.

As long as there is a brief, I don’t even mind clients describing it to me on WhatsApp.

Some clients, especially agencies, sent content writing briefs even for individual blog posts and articles.

Many agencies use tools like SEMRush and with these tools, minute details about individual blog posts can be extracted based on keywords, competitor blog posts, and the number of words required vis-à-vis the competition.

Some agencies use a standardized template that asks you to follow a format something like

  • SEO title
  • One-line description
  • Target audience
  • Primary keywords
  • Secondary keywords
  • Meta description
  • Word count
  • Internal links, if any
  • Some competitor articles
  • CTA
  • Additional notes

Why is content writing brief important?

There are two types of content briefs.

One is the general brief that a client sends about the entire website.

This includes page titles, target audience, keywords and reference websites.

The other is the individual brief for blog posts, web pages and articles.

A content brief makes it easier for the content writer to focus on your core need.

It also prevents rewrites and reduces the number of revisions needed.

The content writer doesn’t miss critical bits of information because you have mentioned everything in the content brief.

Remember that when the content writer’s time is being wasted, your time too is wasted because the delivery of your content is delayed.

Before starting a project, here is the information I need from a typical client:

Clearly defined titles of the web pages

This is the site map.

Over the years I have learned that if the client and I are not on the same page about the exact titles of the web pages, it becomes difficult to write content.

Most of the client send me a bulleted list of web page titles they want me to work on.

We first mutually agree on the bulleted list and then I start working on the content writing process.

But this particular client has just told me the basic nature of his business – accounting outsourcing – and that’s it.

He keeps on saying that I should visit other websites and see how they have structured their content.

It doesn’t work that way.

Every website is unique

They have their own service descriptions.

Even if the basic nature of a business is the same – accounting outsourcing or engineering parts – people provide different sets of services and products.

No two websites are the same.

Why I need to be specific?

The clients are not paying an hourly rate.

They either pay per page or per word.

Hence, I need to be very specific about what pages I’m working on, otherwise, I end up wasting lots of time making changes because suddenly the client thinks that that was not the page he or she was looking for.

Whether I spend one hour or three hours on a document, they are going to pay the fixed rate, and hence, I need to have as much specific information as possible from them.

A list of reference websites

Most of the clients send me a list of reference websites whose content they prefer and the writing style they want me to emulate.

Of course, due to the problems of plagiarism nobody wants me to directly copy the content.

It’s just that when we have a list of reference websites, we have a clear idea of how the content flow must be and how various ideas must be expressed.

It also reduces my workload.

Finding my own reference websites is like throwing darts in darkness.

I can do that – find reference websites on my own – but then, as I have mentioned above, it rarely happens that a client pays an hourly rate.

When you are doing research, you never know how much time it is going to take.

Since the client is managing his or her business, I assume he or she has a better idea of which websites precisely represent their business.

A list of keywords

Although I provide SEO content writing and blogging services, I’m not an SEO agency.

Since most of the clients are paying for content and not for SEO research, I don’t subscribe to expensive SEO tools that are normally used for keyword research.

I’m not saying every business requires SEO tools.

If you have a good understanding of your customers, it is easier to create a basic list of keywords to target for.

As a content writer, I see keywords as a guideline for formulating language.

People use Google and other search engines in their own language.

They type the queries in the language they use in their day-to-day interactions.

The same language must be used when writing content so that it is easier for people to find it on search engines.

This is why a basic list of keywords is important.

Some writing-related guidelines

These are not absolutely necessary but there are some clients who have very specific requirements.

I have been writing content for more than 17 years now and I pretty well understand how content must be written for the web.

I know how it should be formatted for better SEO.

I know how to write content that is easier on the eye.

Nonetheless, sometimes there are certain words and terms the client wants in the content that I may not be aware of because I’m not from that profession.

For example, there must be some legal terms for a law attorney that must be used on the website.

Architects use different jargon – although I discourage the use of jargon, sometimes they are important to express certain concepts.

Then there are some words that need to be avoided.

I have another client who doesn’t want certain words to appear in his content and in the beginning, he hadn’t informed me of that.

After having worked on 15 documents suddenly he realized that the words he didn’t want on his website were appearing in the content.

He wanted those portions to be either deleted or revised.

Wasted lots of time.

A content writing brief saves lots of time

On the client side, it hardly takes 30-60 minutes to write a good content writing brief.

The problem is that some clients cannot understand that a content writer works on a tight schedule simply because the clients are not ready to pay an hourly rate.

On the other hand, they expect a content writer to work as a hired hand, which is not possible.

Two hours wasted in revisions and to and fro communication means two hours of lost revenue for the content writer.

When I had just started working as a content writer I must have wasted hundreds of hours simply because the clients didn’t give me the right content writing brief.

Now I am savvier in that regard.

Take for example the above-mentioned client whose work has been delayed by almost 2 weeks.

I’m not going to spend a few hours finding information that he should have found and delivered to me.

That’s his or her job.

Are you doing customer centric or products centric content writing

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Should content writing be customer centric pr product centric

Should content writing be customer centric pr product centric

How do you draw the difference between writing customer centric or product centric content?

I was reading this blog post on the importance of being customer centric or product centric when designing products or mobile apps, and thought that this philosophy is also applicable to content writing.

What is customer centric content writing?

In simple terms, customer centric content writing means focusing on benefits rather than features.

Features are important.

A mobile phone that comes with 280 GB memory sounds quite impressive.

This is a feature – our phone has this much memory.

What is the benefit to the customer?

You’re not going to have to delete data to make more space very soon.

Many phone users face this problem.

They go on making videos and taking photographs unmindful of the space they are taking, and then suddenly, they begin to get the warning that they are running out of space.

280 GB is a lot of space.

You can tell your customers that they can store up to 10,000 videos (depending on the length).

You can tell them that they can store more than 100,000 photographs.

They are not going to have to delete data for at least a few years.

As a content writer, you need to be the customer’s advocate.

It is the customer who buys a product or a service.

It is the reader who reads your content.

If there is no connection, the customer is not going to buy, and the reader is not going to read.

How to write customer centric content?

To be able to write customer centric content you must understand what the customer needs.

Instead of thinking about what you are offering, think about what the customer wants.

Here are a few things you can do to write customer centric content.

Use the language your customers use

Every industry has its own set of jargon.

Jargons may be important within the industry because they make your communication unambiguous and eliminate scope for contradictions and confusion.

Sometimes, something that can be explained in a couple of sentences can be explained in a single word using a jargon.

But your customers may not understand them.

Take for example if someone tells you, “Give me a hard copy.”

Most people won’t know what “hard copy” means unless they have used the word before.

They won’t be able to make out that “hard copy” simply means giving some information on a printed sheet, through a printer.

Hence, if you are writing content for a printer, instead of saying, “it gives you 500 hard copies per cartridge” you can say, “you can print out 500 sheets per cartridge.”

Write in a very simple language

Although I don’t believe in dumbing down readers, when people are quickly reading, they don’t want to spend time deciphering what your sentences mean.

When I’m writing content, as much as I can, I use simple sentences.

When I’m writing content, my intention is not to showcase my prowess as a writer or a content writer.

My only purpose is to make my writing convincing and simple so that people do business with my clients.

Sometimes my sentences contain just three words.

In a copywriting e-book I read that even if sometimes you make grammar mistakes, don’t worry.

Though, I don’t agree.

Grammar mistakes make you look unprofessional.

Nonetheless, use as many simple sentences as you can.

Avoid writing compound and complex sentences as much as you can.

Write for a clearly defined persona

Write for a person.

Don’t let it be a vague person.

Before starting to write your main content, on a sheet of paper or in a Word Doc, make a list of the attributes the person has (for whom you are writing).

You can write her age, her income, the region she comes from, her marital status, how much she generally spends on similar products and services you are promoting, how she has conversations, what are her habits, and so on.

Creating a persona can be time-consuming but it improves the customer centricity of your content writing process.

Once you have defined the persona, imagine the person is sitting in front of you and you are talking to her.

Have a conversation – use a conversational tone.

It is very important to use the language your customer uses on day-to-day basis.

Answer all the questions and fears your customer may have

Your customers may react with “so what?”

They must come up with, “what if?”

Suppose you’re promoting a cloud-based accounting software.

Think of all the questions your target customer may have.

Think of all the apprehensions.

Make a list of all the reasons why that customer may not take a decision in favor of your cloud-hosted accounting software.

Will they be able to port their existing data as it is?

Is there a steep learning curve?

Is the software going to cost more in terms of time and money compared to their existing software?

Is the software accessible on all devices?

Is it customizable?

How many reports does it generate?

How is it going to improve your accounting?

Do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages to such an extent that they should start using the software?

Why shouldn’t they use your competitor’s software?

And so on.

Think in terms of what your customer may think.

Speak in a definitive language

Instead of telling them many people are using your software, tell them 1500 people are using your software.

Don’t just tell them that yours is the best software – show them the accolades it has acquired.

Tell them stories of people who have improved their businesses or their personal lives with your software.

Don’t use vague expressions like “etc.” or “so on”.

Even if you have just three claims to make, just make those three claims and then leave it up to the customer whether she wants to be impressed or not.

Write a list of problems your product solves

Customers are more interested in knowing what problems your product solves rather than what cool features it has.

Your mobile phone has haptic touch? What does it mean?

How does it solve the phone user’s problem?

How does it give more feature to the user?

You offer storage space in the cloud?

How easy is it to upload and sync files?

Can the files be synced across all devices?

How much data can be stored?

How secure is the data on your servers?

Don’t assume solutions to what sort of problems people are seeking.

Talk to them.

Conduct interviews.

Conduct survey and polls.

Have one-on-one chats.

What is product centric content writing?

Product centric content writing is when you talk about the features and the parameters of the product without telling your customers how these features and parameters are going to improve their lives.

There is a dialogue in a Kevin Costner movie, Field of dreams: “If you build it, they will come.”

This is pertaining to the Las Vegas city that was being built, but does it hold for products?

Sometimes yes, sometimes no.

When Steve jobs came up with the idea of an iPhone people laughed at him.

It was hard to imagine a mobile phone without a keyboard.

Nonetheless, he went ahead with the innovation and the rest is history.

In such a context, you can say that sometimes the product-centric approach works.

But these are rarest of the rare events.

When writing content, you must strike a balance between customer centric and product centric content writing.

Even when you talk about features, talk about them in such a manner that they read like benefits to the customers.

How to identify good and bad writers the Hemingway way

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The Hemingway way of identifying good and bad writers

The Hemingway way of identifying good and bad writers

I have a Google form on my website for writers who want to become content writers and copywriters.

Most of the writers who submit queries want to get paid assignments from me.

Once I receive a query from them, I politely ask for a few samples, which they eagerly send.

Within the first paragraph I can make out whether I want to work with that content writer or not.

How?

I will come to this later.

So, while browsing the web for writing ideas, I came across this small but interesting blog post on how to identify a good writer the Hemingway way.

There is no detailed methodology.

The blog post simply refers to a Paris review interview that must had been published years ago.

In the interview, somewhere Hemingway says, “The better the writers the less they will speak about what they have written themselves.”

This is an interesting observation, and this can be applied to almost every field.

Let your work speak for itself.

As a professional content writer, one often must toot his or her own horn.

The trick is not to go overboard and, in the process, put off your prospective clients.

Fortunately, I have worked with hundreds of clients by now and I have a hefty portfolio.

Whenever I receive a query I don’t need to eloquently explain what wonders I can work with my content writing and copywriting services.

I simply send them a list of relevant links and they can see by themselves what type of content I have written for related websites.

For example, if someone needs a content writer for an accounting website, I send him or her the links to all the accounting websites I have written content for.

Coming back to how I decide within the first paragraph whether I would like to work with the new content writer or not.

What I’m looking for is confidence.

I look for short, crisp sentences.

They need to be authoritative and carry conviction.

I don’t like when words are unnecessary used to impress the readers.

Simple, confident language.

There must be a sense of sincerity.

Of course, there must be no typos, spelling and grammar mistakes.

When I am evaluating a content writer, I’m not looking for a Shakespeare or a Tolstoy.

I’m looking for a no-nonsense content writer or copywriter who can properly explain the business of my clients.

The main benefits of publishing a newsletter from LinkedIn

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The benefits of publishing a LinkedIn newsletter

The benefits of publishing a LinkedIn newsletter

LinkedIn these days is allowing you to directly publish a newsletter.

Wondering what is a newsletter?

A newsletter goes by email to all those who have subscribed to it.

LinkedIn has been gradually rolling out its newsletter feature in different regions and different members and now it is available to almost every LinkedIn member.

How do you publish a LinkedIn newsletter?

It is very simple.

You can read about the entire process of creating a LinkedIn newsletter on this LinkedIn link.

What is the difference between a LinkedIn article and LinkedIn newsletter?

These days you can publish content on LinkedIn in three ways:

  • The usual update that appears on people’s timelines.
  • LinkedIn article that appears on people’s timelines.
  • LinkedIn newsletter whose notification is sent via email to all those who have subscribed to it.

The grapevine has it that if you want LinkedIn to promote your content don’t simply publish a blog post on your own website and then publish the link on your LinkedIn timeline.

Instead, republish or re-purpose the blog post on LinkedIn itself as a LinkedIn article.

It is believed that the blog post that you publish on LinkedIn gets more aggressively promoted compared to the usual stuff you post on your timeline.

Also, you can get massive amount of traffic if the editorial staff picks up your blog post and features it in its regular newsletter.

A big difference between publishing a LinkedIn article and a LinkedIn newsletter is that your article is visible to your followers and connections only when they go through the timelines.

If they miss the timeline, they also miss your article.

When you publish the LinkedIn newsletter an email notification goes to your subscribers.

They can access and read your article within the email whenever they check their email.

Main benefits of publishing a LinkedIn newsletter

Listed below are a few benefits of publishing your own LinkedIn newsletter.

Share your professional insights and tips with an eager audience

People who subscribe to your LinkedIn newsletter know what they are getting into.

Here I assume that when you are naming (the title) your newsletter, you are using an appropriate name.

For example, recently when I started my LinkedIn newsletter, I named it “Better Copywriting and Content”

Hence, people who subscribe to my newsletter know that I will be sharing tips and insights on copywriting and content writing.

Why does it matter?

People who choose to subscribe to your newsletter want to hear from you.

They expect to receive updates from you, and they are eager to pay attention to what you have to say about your field.

My field here is copywriting and content writing.

I want to build a mailing list of aspiring content writers and copywriters on LinkedIn with whom I can share my expertise.

Whenever I publish a new blog post I will also republish it through the LinkedIn newsletter.

Over the time this will help rebuild my authority and presence as someone who knows a thing or two about copywriting and content writing.

You can re-purpose your existing content

On my blog I have more than 1200 blog posts.

I am looking forward to republishing some of them in the newsletter.

This will get me additional attention not just for existing blog posts, but also to my written content (in case people read it just in the newsletter and don’t come to my website).

As a content writer you need to build an audience.

Many a times it is not important that every piece of content is accessed from your website or official blog.

The message is more important than the medium sometimes.

This is where your LinkedIn newsletter can help you.

You can spread your message across a wider audience.

More engagement on LinkedIn

Although LinkedIn is a great professional networking platform, just like it happens on any other networking platform, you need to engage people.

Engagement happens when people access and see your content and then react to it.

When scrolling through their timelines in a regular manner they may miss your updates and as a result, you may miss great chances of engagement.

Through the newsletter, they receive your updates at their own convenient time (when they are checking their inboxes).

They may read the contents of your newsletter within the email or click your profile and check out your timeline.

This increases your engagement levels.

Your LinkedIn newsletter boosts your brand awareness

What exactly is brand awareness?

When people, especially your target audience, begin to recognize your brand and associate with it the service or product your brand offers.

I provide content writing services.

The name of my business is Credible Content.

The purpose of publishing my LinkedIn newsletter is to make people aware that I provide quality content writing and copywriting services, and I also share educational materials on the same topics.

Similarly, if you are an architect, brand awareness from your perspective would be that as soon as people receive your LinkedIn newsletter, they know what you are going to talk about and where lies your expertise.

This helps you establish your authority and enhances your brand recognition.

What are the downsides of publishing a LinkedIn newsletter?

The newsletter feature offered by LinkedIn is quite basic. Unlike advanced newsletter management services such as MailChimp, you don’t get detailed analytics.

It doesn’t give you demographic details of the data about the professions of people opening your email.

It gives you the views – how many people view your LinkedIn newsletter.

There is no segmentation – ability to send newsletter content based on the responses the previous campaign elicits.

Another big problem mentioned by many digital marketing experts is that in the LinkedIn newsletter, you don’t have access to the email ids of the recipients.

Personally, I don’t have a problem with that because the LinkedIn newsletter is not for building your mailing list.

It is for broadcasting your content.

The newsletter is just for reaching people’s inboxes through the LinkedIn database.

A thing that I noticed when creating my LinkedIn newsletter is that you don’t have to build your newsletter from scratch.

Within a few hours of creating my LinkedIn newsletter I had more than 100 subscribers – in a conventional newsletter mailing list, depending on how much traffic your website has, it can take anywhere between 1-5 months to get your first 100 subscribers.

You don’t need to use your LinkedIn newsletter as your primary email broadcasting tool.

Just use it as another way to broadcast your content.

How to improve your content writing in 3 easy steps

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Improve your content writing in 3 easy steps

Improve your content writing in 3 easy steps

Do you want to improve your content writing? Then these three easy steps can take you a long way.

Content writing is the process of writing for websites, blogs and other digital pieces of information that businesses may use to nurture leads and keep their visitors engaged.

As a professional content writer, I work on the following content writing assignments:

  • Main website content
  • Blog posts
  • Case studies
  • White papers
  • Landing pages
  • LinkedIn profiles
  • Email marketing campaigns
  • Social media updates

Do I work on all content writing assignments by myself?

Not necessarily.

These days I’m closely working with at least 15 content writers.

They write well.

They are hard-working.

Their English is good (most of my content writing involves writing in English).

I regularly mentor them.

You may like to read: 15 Content Writing Best Practices

Just being able to write well doesn’t help you improve your content writing

If you want to improve your content writing in the sense that you want to work on more lucrative assignments and get paid better, you need to understand one thing:

Professional content writing isn’t just about knowing how to write well. This is not how you improve your content writing.

Even English professors can write well. There are grammarians who can give you sleepless nights with the length and breadth of their knowledge.

No.

Content writing isn’t just about writing. It is a combination of various factors – inherent and acquired – that makes you a professional content writer worth paying for.

Sometimes when I tell my clients that I am working with other writers and I’m not writing all the content by myself, they become reluctant.

They come to my website.

They read my content.

The go through my blog posts.

They ask for samples and like them.

They want similar content writing.

For that, they want me to personally write for them.

It is humanly not possible.

After years of writing content, I am more interested in getting content writing assignments – as many as possible – and then making my writers work on them.

Nonetheless, when other writers do content writing for me, I go through every individual page and unless it satisfies benchmarks I have defined, I don’t forward the documents to the clients.

So, how do you improve your content writing?

Frankly, a book can be written on the topic, but here I’m going to list three fundamental steps that you can take to improve your content writing.

Incorporate these steps and you will instantly notice a marked difference in your writing. Here they are.

Define the search intent clearly to improve your content writing

The term search intent comes from SEO, but it can help you become an effective content writer.

You can read more about search intent on this blog post: What are the benefits of writing content for informational search intent?

Understanding search intent helps you understand why would people read your content?

What information are they looking for?

What is the intention of looking for that information?

Are they looking for information just to get educated and have some knowledge?

Are they looking for comparison and reviews?

Do they want to buy your product or service?

Are they still in the process of making up their minds?

These differences may be subtle and even indistinguishable to the untrained eye but for an experienced content writer, the ability to know the differences is invaluable.

Suppose your intention is to attract people who are in the process of deciding whether they need your services or not.

Suppose you provide content writing services.

They have realized that they need a professional content writer but they haven’t yet decided whom to hire.

They are ready to hire.

This is commercial search intent.

They may search for

  • Content writing services for educational content
  • Content writing services for accounting website
  • Content writer for your digital marketing company

Yes, people use longer, specific queries.

For the above-mentioned queries they are not looking for educational or informative content.

There is no need to convince them that they need to hire a professional content writing service for their business.

They already know.

What you have to do is, convince them that yours is the right content writing service for their accounting website or for their digital marketing company.

This is where you may commit a mistake as a content writer.

Instead of explaining to them why your content writing service is the perfect fit for their accounting website, you may end up explaining why a content writing service is beneficial to their accounting business.

They don’t want to be informed.

They don’t want to be educated or explained.

They simply want to know why they should hire you.

Knowing the difference can generally help you become an effective content writer.

Write simple sentences to improve content writing

I have seen this is a problem with content writers who don’t habitually speak English.

Maybe they want to prove how well they write, but they use long, convoluted sentences and expressions when a simple sentence can do the job.

Avoid sentences having multiple independent and dependent clauses – complex and complex compound sentences.

Take for example the sentence:

The late 1950s was a key era for programming languages because IBM introduced Fortran in 1957 and John McCarthy introduced Lisp the following year, which gave programmers both an iterative way of solving problems and a recursive way. (source)

Structurally and grammar-wise there is nothing wrong in the sentence, but it is needlessly long and makes a difficult reading.

It captures multiple ideas in a single breath.

I can easily write this sentence in 4 sentences:

The late 1950s was a key era for programming languages.

IBM introduced Fortran in 1957.

John McCarthy introduced Lisp the following year.

These languages gave the programmers both an iterative way and a recursive way of solving problems.

I’m not saying there is something special in these four sentences, but it makes the narrative easier to read.

The sentences are more engaging.

It is easier to focus on them.

I’m not saying that you should always write smaller sentences.

But make sure that there are fewer conjunctions and commas in a sentence.

Another tendency that I have seen among writers is to use passive voice because they think that officially it sounds good.

It does not.

Instead of saying

This has been brought to our notice

you should say

We have noticed.

Instead of writing

The assignment will be done by our outstation team.

Try to write

Our outstation team will do the assignment.

Sentences in active voice are easier to read and less tiring.

Additionally, when you are writing for the web, write in a conversational manner.

This will improve your content writing: write as if you are talking to someone sitting in front of you.

As a writer this advice may seem strange, but it actually works on the Internet.

You will notice that your writing will certainly improve when you start writing the way you talk (without abuses, of course).

Use headings and subheadings strategically

Frankly, headings and subheadings are the heart and soul of your content writing.

Many clients are aware of the importance of headings and subheadings, and they insist that you format your content using them.

Unless they are looking for something very specific, most of the people, when they read on the Internet, first quickly go through the headings and subheadings.

It doesn’t make sense to use headings in a short document.

Usually there must be 3-4 headings and subheadings in 1000-word long document.

On the Internet you have 15 seconds to capture the attention of your readers.

Your main headline or your main heading is the proverbial foot inside the door.

It must be punchy.

It must ask the right question, or it must provide the right answer.

Take for example this headline

7 silly grammar mistakes that can embarrass you

Nobody likes committing grammar mistakes.

Nobody wants to be embarrassed.

Even those who write well would like to take a look at your blog or article to make sure that he or she is not committing these silly grammar mistakes.

Even if you are a professional content writer, to improve your content writing you may want to go beyond the headline and see what all grammar mistakes are covered.

What about subheadings?

These are sectional headings.

For example, above you can see the subheading

Use headings and subheadings strategically

You use subheadings to sectionally divide your content and make it easier for your readers to skim through it.

Even if you don’t read this blog post in its entirety, by simply going through the subheadings you can make sense of what suggestions I am making.

Therefore, it is important to write subheadings in such a manner that they truly represent the information that is presented below them.

There are innumerable suggestions that I can make to help you improve your content writing, but these 3 steps can give you an instant start.

You can implement these suggestions right now and create an effective web page or blog post.