Content Writing for Marketing | How Content Can Support Your Marketing Goals

Right this second, three of every 10 of your potential customers are online. They're searching, browsing, and scrolling — and primed for online articles or posts that speak to their interests.

Recent Pew research revealed that almost a third of American adults are online " almost constantly," including close to half of those under 50. A whopping 85% of all adults are online at least once a day.

You can capture their attention with content writing for marketing. Every piece of content is an opportunity to connect your products or services with a potential customer's interests — and that's just as valuable as it sounds.

What Is Content Writing for Marketing?

Marketing content writing is the development of text-based materials that enhance a brand's presence online. It's different from copywriting, which is sales-focused and persuasive. Copywriters work more on promotional material, such as sales letters, landing pages, and email marketing.

Content writing focuses on educating and informing. Your content audiences are usually higher in the sales funnel, aware they need a solution but not quite ready to buy. The content writer's job is to catch their attention and make them aware of a company's available solutions.

4 Ways Content Writing Can Enhance Your Marketing Efforts

Content writing is a critical tool for the 21st-century marketing team. It levels the playing field, bringing potential buyers into the reach of small businesses and Fortune 500 companies alike. If you can create a blog post or video, you can reach new customers with content.

Effective marketing content also strengthens a business's relationship with existing customers. It lets the business continue to provide value after the purchase, demonstrating a customer-centric attitude.

Want more evidence? Here are just a few examples of what content can do for your business.

Improve and Increase Customer Engagement

Content writing can be highly interactive if you promote it well. It takes just seconds to share your latest blog post on social media, yet that one action can drive dozens of comments, likes, and shares.

Audiences may even share your content on social media themselves, further expanding your reach. Many blogging platforms let you easily add social media buttons to your posts. These buttons inspire people to share content that resonates with them.

The more your readers interact with your content, the more strongly they'll connect with your brand. If you track your posts for comments and shares, you can add to the conversation and keep it going.

Grow Your Customer Base

In the past year, 67% of surveyed business-to-business (B2B) marketers and 47% of business-to-consumer (B2C) marketers have connected with new customers through content, according to reports from the Content Marketing Institute.

Some of those customers wouldn't have responded to advertising. Maybe they find sales messages off-putting, or they don't know they need what you're selling.

Content works differently. Because it's educational and not persuasive, it doesn't put people on the defensive. Content drives sales subtly. It builds trust and gently introduces the idea that a company's solutions can meet the reader's needs.

Provide Ways for Your Target Audience To Find You

Content has the valuable ability to reach potential customers at all stages. By creating diverse content and distributing it across various channels, you can build your presence in the places where your audiences spend time.

Say you're an outdoor equipment retailer with a new camping gear collection to promote. You reach out to your content marketing team, who come up with several new content pieces:

• An infographic about the benefits of spending time in nature (for people who haven't discovered camping)
• A blog post about fun and safe vacation opportunities for families (to highlight kid-targeted products)
• A YouTube video on choosing the right camping gear (for new campers who need guidance)

This content strategy covers multiple channels and search intents. It lets camping gear shoppers discover you in several ways, depending on where they start out and how they prefer to consume content.

Position Your Company as an Industry Expert to Potential Customers

Consumer trust is critical in the current market. According to recent statistics from PwC, 71% of customers say they won't buy from a company that loses their trust, yet only 30% of consumers have a high level of trust in companies.

Brand authority helps you to build that trust, and content is an ideal way to establish authority. With in-depth white papers, you demonstrate a deep understanding of complex topics. Case studies show how you solved a problem for a particular client. Short blog posts give your insightful takes on trending topics.

And that's just the beginning.

How To Create Effective Marketing Through Content Writing

Now that you know more about content writing for marketing, it's tempting to start churning out blog posts at breakneck speed. Don't get ahead of yourself!

Content is only effective if it shows your brand in its best light. It needs to be well planned out, targeted to your audiences, and aligned with your overall sales and marketing strategy. These tips will help you be successful.

Develop a Content Marketing Strategy

Start by creating a content strategy that defines your goals and lays out a plan for achieving them.

Your content marketing strategy should include big-picture goals and measurable short-term objectives. Keep your objectives achievable, and link them to the type of content you plan to create.

Say you're developing a blog and sharing content on Instagram. You might set goals around getting new followers and increasing click-throughs to your website.

Then, get more specific about how you plan to achieve those goals. Create a content marketing calendar that tells your marketing team what you want to write about, where you'll publish, and what audiences you're targeting.

Know Your Customer Personas

Successful content speaks directly to readers, like a knowledgeable friend or colleague offering advice. It establishes an immediate connection between the brand and the reader.

Content like this is personal and intimate. It requires the reader to think of the audience not as a group, but as a person with distinct needs, values, and preferences.

Customer personas help content writers achieve this level of personalization. Personas are the marketing equivalent of character sketches — detailed descriptions of an individual and what makes them unique.

Each user persona represents an audience group but presents them as an individual. A persona typically includes:

• Demographics (age, gender, marital status, income, location, etc.)
• Defining characteristics (independence, creativity, analytical mindset, family focus, etc.)
• Job title and work experience
• Professional goals and challenges
• Favorite media outlets, brands, etc.

Convenient templates make it easy for content teams to create personas, even for multiple audiences. As you develop your personas, you'll learn more about your customer base and the different types of content you might want to create.

Let these personas inform your content strategy. For example, if you sell dietary supplements and realize you have both parents and non-parents among your customers, you might decide to create separate content streams for each. Remember, the more personalized your content is, the better.

Align Your Tone of Voice With Your Target Audience

Customer personas also show you how to talk to your audiences. As humans, we naturally adjust our communication style based on who we're talking to. An email to your mortgage lender won't sound like a text to your best friend — nor should it.

Content is no exception. If you read a blog by a clothing retailer whose target age group is 13–24, the posts shouldn't sound like a furniture store whose buyers are middle-aged homeowners. The clothing retailer might even forgo blog posts in favor of TikToks and Snapchat stories (also developed by content writers).

Read over your customer personas and ask yourself, How would I talk to that person if I met them in the grocery store? You can even write a sample email or handwritten note to them.

Some brands have a variety of audience personas. For example, a home goods retailer might target empty nesters, families, and college grads setting up their first apartments.

If you're in that kind of situation, look at your brand voice and think about how you'd speak to each audience. Picture your persona character in front of you and start talking to them. That language will help you start developing your tone.

Make Your Content Optimized for Search

Content is only as effective as its reach. Your primary goal is always to create value for readers, but you also want to think about how search engines will rank your content.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of tailoring your content so algorithms like Google's will rank it highly. Fortunately for content writers, Google also wants readers to have valuable and helpful content.

Google elevates content that answers a user's question best. Writers need to focus on that user intent as they outline, research, and draft content, always considering what the reader will take away from the experience.

Formatting matters, too. Web readers usually scan a piece before they decide whether to read it all the way through. Make sure your content is scannable — short paragraphs, plenty of white space, and descriptive headings.

Work With Expert Content Writers

Written content creation is a specialized skill. It requires an understanding of user intent, a thorough grounding in SEO best practices, and the ability to write in a brand's unique voice.

It's not the kind of task that's wise to outsource to a college intern or junior digital marketer. At least some of your content will be someone's first impression of your brand, and that calls for professional expertise.

You can hire content writers in-house, outsource to freelancers, or partner with a content marketing service or agency. In-house writers will know your brand best, but between cost per hire and employment benefits, you'll usually pay more.

Freelancers are efficient because you only pay for work done, but finding and vetting people takes time. There's also a higher element of risk with each new freelancer you try.

The other option is to partner with a service that screens, hires, and manages freelancers on your behalf.

Partner With Content Marketing Services

Just as you know your industry, content marketing services know the content writing process. They hire, screen, and monitor entire teams of writers, making sure each person assigned to a job has top-notch writing skills and the right subject knowledge.

Content services stay up to date with SEO and the changing rules of content writing. Their businesses depend on your content's ability to rank highly, so your interests are their interests.

Whatever your goals, they can help you find content to match. Top-notch services like Compose.ly can even help you develop a strategy and track content performance.

Create Different Types of Content

Blog posts are powerful and effective, but they're not the only type of content. A well-rounded content strategy helps you reach more people, delve into a broader range of topics, and create conversations at different stages of the sales funnel.

Not sure where to start? Consider these types of content and how they benefit your business:

• How-to guides position your product as a solution to consumers, even before they know they're in the market for something.
• E-books are long-form content pieces that explore specific topics in depth. They demonstrate your subject matter expertise and help you develop a following. Sell them or offer them as valuable freebies.
• Email newsletters help you stay top of mind with your audiences. They're a great way to offer consistent value and promote your products or services without being pushy.
• Infographics offer valuable facts in a visually pleasing format. They're easily digestible and highly shareable, which makes them great audience-builders.

Make Room for Content in Your Marketing Strategy

Content marketing writing has the potential to grow your audiences, boost your sales, and expand awareness of your brand. The investment level is low compared to what it can do — and it doesn't have to be expensive or time-consuming.

Compose.ly Managed Service makes it simple. We can help you with all your content needs, from blog posts to email writing, thanks to our team of pre-vetted writers. We can even take the lead on developing a content strategy or finding keywords — whatever you need to get great content into the world.

Let's get started — your audience is out there waiting.