Content marketing is becoming an increasingly popular marketing tactic. After listening to various podcasts and even copy writing some of my company’s blogs, I’ve learned that some things work and others just don’t. One of the things that writers run into in general is the writer’s block. In fact, at my day job, we’re running into it now.
Why is this happening and how do we get around the slump and push forward? How much should we push, but not so much, it leaves a bad taste in our mouths? I think I’ve got it figured out:
This is what our current process looks like:
- Pick a few places to highlight that seem relevant
- Write
- Proofread x2
- Publish
There are issues I already see – the content tends to be very one dimension. This is the information and let me shove it down your throat. It doesn’t tell a story and it definitely doesn’t tell me why I should go out into the wild to visit the place. Nowadays, the story is crucial to the reader. If the writer doesn’t care, why should I care? I attribute this to the dreaded Writer’s Block. So how are we working to fix this?
1. Start small. Know who the target is what people like to read. What catches their attention and what doesn’t? With some help from Google Analytics and trend analysis, we know who we want to talk to. It just so happens that our audience is around our age so that’s a plus!
2. Pick destinations that would interest different types of readers within the age group. Covering a variety of places to visit can also encourage non-adventurers to explore.
3. Learn more about the destinations. That means doing the appropriate research. This can take some time, but is extremely crucial to the story and persuasion. As a reader, this would be my expectation: if you don’t put effort into researching and writing about it, why should I even bother to read it? With this mindset, I aim to create better content for the readers. This also helps build credibility for the company (that’s a plus).
4. Plan the content. What is the story flow? If it’s going to be a list, does the list order make sense? Storyboards are not only important to videos, but also to content. As long as it is something the reader has to digest, storyboards matter. Take the time to see the content as the reader, not the writer. Pretend that reader doesn’t know what they are walking into, and more often than not, they actually don’t.
5. Write the content. This should honestly be the easier part since you have all the base points that you want to make. What is happening, why it’s happening, and why you should care. The flow of words may not be perfect, but that’s when we move onto the next step: proofreading.
6. Proofread for grammar and spelling mistakes. That only cleans up the article, but you should proofread beyond that. Does each part of the content flow with other parts? After the initial run through, let it sit for a few days and take a look again. Who knows what you’ll find.
7. You’re all set! That’s how I go about the writers block and maintain quality. At the end of the day, people want to read things that matter to them. Does your content matter to you?