Are You Making These Writing Mistakes?

Content marketing has been proven to work and is one of the most cost-effective methods of reinforcing your brand impact. As a business growth tool it is invaluable, but if you want to take advantage of improved lead generation and improved online visibility, then your content needs to be of high quality. 

There are a number of mistakes that amateur or inexperienced content writers’ commit regularly, and if your content consistently fails to hit the mark, then you may be repeating the same mistakes. If you want your content to become more professional and to work for you in the best way, then you need your writing to be perfect. Below are some of the more common errors, and how to avoid them.

Overselling

Your content has one real function, and that’s to create a relationship between a customer and your business. It can be very easy to overlook this essential element and focus solely on selling your products. There are plenty of examples where you can see this, where clicking on an article leads to nothing more than a full-on advert for a product. Treating your content as nothing more than a potential advert is the fastest way to persuade a reader to bounce away from your site and look for the information that they need elsewhere. Concentrate on providing value rather than the hard-sell, and your content will become much richer and effective as a result.

Call-to-Action absence

When someone decides to read your content, you are going to want to extend their interaction with you. It can be small actions that you want them to take, such as reading another article or signing up to a newsletter, but whatever you think you need, your call to action is of paramount importance. Establishing more of a relationship with your audience is the primary focus of content marketing and failing to include some simple calls to action means that your content is providing less value to your business.

Weak headlines

If your headline is simply an afterthought, then your writing is incomplete. It’s no overstatement to say that the headline is the most important writing you will do. Recent studies have shown this to be truer than ever, with the revelation that three out of five people share content based solely on the headline. When 60% of your audience are looking no further than your headline, then you start to realise its importance. Concentrate on making your headlines as shareable as possible, but always ensure that your content itself, be it an eBook, 500-word article, or lengthy blog post, flows naturally from the headline and is what a reader will expect to see from the headline alone. Make your headlines compelling, and your shareability will improve.

Lack of imagery

It can be easy to get swept up in the writing when it comes to content, but you should always remember to include imagery. It is one of the big mistakes that content writers make. While the writing element is important, your visual element should be there to complement your words and guide the flow of the writing. You can use visuals in any number of ways, but it should always support the validity of your content and be visually appealing. Content that has an image every 75-100 words is shared a lot more often, so it’s increasingly important that you use the right visual elements to strengthen your writing.

Basic spelling and grammar

If your content is riddled with spelling errors and grammatical mistakes, then not only will readers struggle to understand what you’re saying, so too will search engines. Your audience will bounce quickly if your content appears unprofessional, and Google will assess you negatively as well. The goal is always high-quality content, and that means addressing your writing skills as well as the nitty-gritty of the content subject itself. Luckily, there are a number of online tools that you can make use of that can improve your writing skills, with both Grammarly and Hemingway being popular options. Never post a piece of content that you have not taken the time to proofread, and your writing will naturally improve as a result. If you want to have a high level of credibility and make it more likely that customers will return, basic spelling and grammar are essential.

Writing for yourself

Not understanding who you are writing for is one of the top mistakes that content creators commit. If you don’t know your audience, then you don’t know who you’re writing for! This is why it’s so important for a business to do thorough market research before they start their content marketing strategy. Your audience needs to be defined, and the more that you know about them, the more that you can tailor your content to appeal to them. While this is rarely the role of the content writer, it is such an important element of the writing process that any company that has failed to identify their target demographic will suffer across every department. Your content will be one of the first to suffer, so make sure that time has been spent on identifying your audience and evaluating their needs. The smart content marketing strategy will help to satisfy those needs.

Lack of keywords

If your business has taken the time to assess and analyse the most industry relevant keywords to use, then your content will be much more effective. Some businesses make the mistake of assuming the most obvious keywords, and neglect to consider the variety of ways that an audience in need of your product or service will find you. Doing a full keywordKeywords are the words and phrases that potential customers might search for to find your business. analysis is vital, and there are a variety of high profile and respectable online tools that can help you identify both single keywords and long-tail keywords. The use of these keywords may not improve your writing skills, but they will have a positive impact on your online visibility, which is the end goal of any content-focused strategy. Avoid keyword stuffingKeyword stuffing is a technique that attempts to give pages higher rankings in search engine result pages by inserting the same keywords over and over again. (which is overusing the same keywords), and make sure that they are not just present in the content itself, but are also used in the meta tagsA meta tag is a structured data element that appears in the head section of a webpage. and titles that you are using. Make sure that you keep a tight rein on your keyword use, as you want your written content to flow without forced keyword use for the sake of it.

Content damaging websites

You can have the best content in the world, but if consumers can’t find it, then you have wasted your and their time. Your website needs to be organised so that people can find what they want, and search engines too. A search engine will penalise you if it finds your site difficult to navigate, and the weaker the user experience, the less likely that anyone will return. Make sure that your quality content is uploaded to a website that has a fluid user interface and is easily navigable, and your content will have more impact. Ensure that you have relevant internal linksHyperlinks, also known as links, are the connection points on a webpage that take you to other webpages. and that every page leads fluidly to the next. Commit to regular site checks, so that your content does not get lost in the mists of the 404 error.

Repetition – repeating repeated repeats

Using the same word over and over again is one of the most common errors that writers make with their content. Sometimes, this cannot be avoided, and the deeper into a subject you go, the more likely that it is you will repeat the same words and phrases. If you’re writing about cryptocurrency, then you’re going to end up repeating the words Bitcoin and blockchain. However, very often the reason that writers repeat the same words and phrases is that they are struggling to explain and communicate, and as a result tend to add fluff and filler to otherwise quality content. This is why you should always do the maximum amount of research into a topic before you start writing. Use a thesaurus if need be, and always read your finished article out loud to help you spot those overused words.

Weak or zero conclusion

Your headline is supposed to grab attention, and the body of your content is expected to satisfy an audience need. Far too many pieces of online content stop abruptly, with either a complete lack of conclusion or one that is nothing more than an unsubtle advert. Your conclusion is vital because it is the key to satisfying your reader. The best way to write your conclusion is always to use the ‘so what?’ principle. Assess how you want people to feel about the content that they have just read, and guide their next action. A good conclusion will make people want to engage with you, and that can have a very positive effect on your online presence. While you concentrate on your headline and the body of your work, always give some extra thought to how to satisfy your reader with a well- thought out conclusion, and your overall content will be much stronger as a result.

From start to finish, creating strong and valuable content is often a matter of planning. Knowing what you are going to write is essential, and will help to prevent these costly mistakes. The more time that you take getting your content right, the more impact you will have with your content marketing.