Tag Archives: Content Writing

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

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

Leave a reply

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

Leave a reply

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.

What is topical authority in content writing? How to write topical authority content?

Leave a reply

Building your topical authority

Google is constantly looking for authoritative content. When people search for information, Google wants to provide them with best possible search results. This is achieved by topical authority. What is topical authority?

There may be two definitions, one by Google and one by your readers or users.

If you want to improve your search engine rankings, then topical authority means your authority and expertise in a particular niche or topic. For example, I would like to have a topical authority in the field of content writing and online copywriting. What do I do to achieve that? I try to cover as many topics as possible pertaining to content writing and online copywriting.

As you may know, content writing and copywriting for SEO isn’t just about writing content. There are many factors involved such as

Quality of content
Search engine optimization of content
Writing keyword-centric content
Writing content based on search intent
Frequency of content writing and content publishing
Writing topical, relevant content
Writing style
The authority you have already garnered
Pillar pages and topic clusters
Topical authority

Even these may have subtopics: search intent can be of different varieties such as informational intent, transactional intent, commercial intent, or navigational intent. It goes on and on, and you can keep writing on these topics and subtopics to increase your topical authority.

Why topical authority is important for SEO?

To rank you higher, Google wants to know if you have authority in your chosen field. It wants to know your content density for the topic you have chosen to write about.

Suppose you are an SEO company, and you know that content writing is important for search engine optimization. Therefore, you write a web page describing the benefits of high-quality content.

I have a similar page: benefits of high-quality content. Now, your web page may be excellent, but it is just a single web page dedicated to content writing on a website that is dedicated to SEO.

On the other hand, my page on content writing resides under a website that is dedicated to content writing. Who is supposed to have more authority on the topic?

Of course, if your SEO website already enjoys massive authority then this authority may also trickle down to the page on content writing and consequently, your page may rank higher than mine, but when it comes to topical authority, my page will have a higher authority over yours.

Is topical authority an SEO jargon? As per Google, topical authority is the perceived authority over a niche or a broad idea set, as opposed to authority over a singular idea or term.

What does that mean? Coming to the above content writing blogging example, if you are a digital marketing company and you also provide content writing services and you have published lots of content on content writing, you have authority over a broader niche. On the other hand, being a content writing website (a subset of digital marketing), when I publish content on content writing, I have authority over a single idea or term. In this regard, the digital marketing company has an edge over my website.

As you may already know Google uses artificial intelligence to rank links. Your topical authority signals to Google that your website has a deep understanding and a vast knowledge of the topic. If Google already considers your website a topical authority, then it is more likely to crawl quickly and rank your links higher.

Why should you focus on improving your topical authority?

Not many people are aware that in 2018 Google changed its algorithm, putting more emphasis on the topical authority of a website. Before this, news publishers had an advantage over smaller publishers due to the vast amount of content they have. Now, it is more about a narrow niche.

This way, a national newspaper publishing a gadget review isn’t going to hog search engine rankings if there is another website solely focusing on Gadget reviews publishes a gadget review.

The advantage is that you can focus on your niche instead of worrying about bigger publications inundating search results simply because they have swathes of content.

There are multiple benefits of improving your topical authority. Some of them are listed below:

You will have scores of topics to write about.
Your visitors will find every possible information they need on your website or blog itself.
There will be more content for you to share on social media.
You will have more content to re-purpose.
You will generate a library of information which will be favored by Google.
If people want to link to your website or share your links, they will have plenty of opportunities.
You will be covering and capturing more keywords.
Google will index more content from your website, increasing your presence in the process.
When Google is looking for answers, it will find them on your website.
When Google wants to display additional information, it will find it on your website.

How to build the topical authority of your website?

You can begin by preparing a long list of primary, secondary and long-term keywords that are relevant to your website. These will give you plenty of topics to cover.

You can ask your customers and clients what questions they would like to put in front of you before deciding to do business with you.

You can write case studies and white papers.

When you write blog posts and web pages there are many subtopics that you lightly touch upon. You can extract these subtopics and write complete blog posts and web pages on them, with further details. Later, you can link to these blog posts and web pages to increase the value of your existing blog posts and web pages.

You can either use external tools to track your keywords and what content other websites are publishing on those keywords, or you can do it manually. You can maintain an Excel sheet of the top blogs in your field. Then, once a day, you can quickly visit these blogs and see what new content they have published. You can either aggregate the content or get new blog post ideas from them.

To build your topical authority you need to

Write quality content over a long period of time on your chosen subject.
Primarily focus on creating E.A.T. content – Expertise, Authority, Trustworthiness.
Cover as many topics and subtopics as are available.
Strategically link to different topics.
Put in effort towards improving your search engine rankings by paying attention to SEO content writing conventions.
Maintain buzz on social media networks.
Increase your visibility.
Seek feedback and input from the peers.

Regularly coming up with topics to increase your topical authority may be difficult in the beginning, but once you get into the groove the topics will come to you naturally. Otherwise, you can always hire a professional content writer to write and publish content for you.

Looking for insightful blog posts on content writing, and SEO copywriting? You will find them on Credible Content Blog. Updated almost daily. Fresh, unique perspective.

Tag Archives: Content Writing

What stops your content from improving your search engine rankings?

You are not choosing the topics your readers want

You are choosing topics that are too competitive

You are not publishing content with greater frequency

You are not using your keywords properly

You are publishing thin content

Your Google click-through-ratio is low

Your bounce rate is high

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

What is a content writing brief?

Why is content writing brief important?

Clearly defined titles of the web pages

A list of reference websites

A list of keywords

Some writing-related guidelines

A content writing brief saves lots of time

Are you doing customer centric or products centric content writing

What is customer centric content writing?

Use the language your customers use

Write in a very simple language

Write for a clearly defined persona

Answer all the questions and fears your customer may have

Speak in a definitive language

Write a list of problems your product solves

What is product centric content writing?

How to identify good and bad writers the Hemingway way

What is topical authority in content writing? How to write topical authority content?

Why topical authority is important for SEO?

Why should you focus on improving your topical authority?

How to build the topical authority of your website?