Content Creation and Strategic Copywriting

Content, content everywhere! I’ve been a content creator for my entire copywriting life. Armed with this huge experience, it’s just a short hop to the world of ‘strategic content creation’.

Plenty has been written about the subject. The key things to bear in mind are to develop high quality, original content that will appeal directly to your target market. It should be created regularly and to a consistently high standard. It should appear in all the right places and build up the credibility of your company and its products or services.

How this is achieved depends of course on what you’re offering. In all cases, you should be looking to develop a reputation for excellence, reliability and professionalism through authoritative, well-planned and well-crafted content.

‘Content Creation’ Covers A Multitude…

For the most part, we’re talking about online content such as blog posts, articles, white papers, case studies and news releases – informative, well-written pieces that provide an effective vehicle for your corporate messages. Content can also be delivered with videos, podcasts, infographics, slide-shows and so on.

‘Social sharing’ using platforms such as Twitter/X, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram provides the oxygen and targeted exposure your content needs to thrive. Popular posts also make a contribution to improved SEO performance.

It should always be borne in mind, however, that the content quality should be original and good enough to warrant ‘sharing’. At the very least, it should be informative and have sufficient ‘authority’ to generate interest and respect.

Content Marketing Mechanics

For content creation to be effective, there has to be an element of strategic thinking involved. It’s essential, for example, to have an editorial calendar – a master template, if you will. This will outline the type of content you’ll be creating, for what audience, and on which editorial platforms.

By definition, a ‘calendar’ provides a time-frame. It will introduce a certain discipline to the proceedings. That’s not to say you shouldn’t be flexible and develop your own brief as time goes by. All businesses evolve – and so should your content marketing!

You Need an Action Plan!

• You may opt to do it in-house, but content marketing is notoriously labour-intensive.
• Marketing agencies may have their own copywriters – but this can be an expensive option.
• SEO companies may offer content marketing as part of an overall package, but copywriting skills aren’t their main offering.   As a result, you may be disappointed with the editorial quality.
• Copywriting agencies – especially those based in countries such as India – are geared up to producing high volumes of copy at rock-bottom prices. However, the reputation of some of these companies has been compromised by poor quality editorial output.
• Experienced freelance copywriters, on the other hand, are the most logical ‘go-to’ resource for high quality content. They won’t be geared up to providing high volumes of content, but ‘quality’ (not quantity) will always be the key to content marketing success. If you can source a copywriter (or small copywriting team) who can also implement a strategic content marketing programme, this would provide the ideal combination of services.

Buzzwords and Your Copywriting Insights

Mike Beeson has the copywriting experience you need to create content that will resonate with your potential clients. Understanding your audience is absolutely key to the success of all copywriting.

Content marketing in particular relies on creating compelling content that presents the facts in the most interesting and persuasive way. You could say it’s about telling a story – but all the best stories need a master story-teller!

It’s important to remember the commercial dimension to all this. We are, after all, talking about ‘marketing’. Preparation, harnessing the facts, meeting the brief… these are all pre-requisites to achieving what may – to an unsuspecting outsider – look like some form of miraculous alchemy!

Getting a handle on the facts – by being a good listener and perhaps doing some basic research – is always a good starting point for creating top-notch copy. Having what may loosely be called ‘intellectual stamina’ also helps in pinning down the key issues in your content and staying ‘on message’ to achieve a consistent and persuasive message.

An experienced copywriter will be able to understand what’s going on behind the facts. In other words, whatever is written will always have a CONTEXT. Valuable insights will translate into copy with its own personality and IMPACT. Your audience will be delighted when you tell them what they’ve always wanted to hear!