The Importance of Good Writing: 3 Tips to Keep Your Customers Reading

In his books and classes, writing guru William Zinsser offered writers plenty of tips on writing well: write clearly, use active voice, steer clear of jargon and big words, and make readers feel your enthusiasm for the topic. He also distilled the importance of good writing into one simple sentence: “Good writing has an aliveness that keeps the reader reading from one paragraph to the next.”

Good writing may seem important only to novelists, nonfiction writers, and journalists. But it’s also an essential element in your content marketing strategy. Your customers are inundated with words. Studies have shown that the typical American consumes more than a hundred thousand words a day, the equivalent of reading an average-size novel. Savvy marketers know that to rise above this deluge of words their marketing copy must truly engage their audiences. That’s where good writing fits in. Every piece of content marketing that you produce must captivate your customers. Here are three tips to help you create well-written copy.

1. Your writing style must suit the format

A comprehensive content marketing plan includes many different types of content tailored to reach a targeted audience. Web copy, marketing emails, press releases, and social media feeds keep your customers informed about your products and company. By covering hot topics and other subjects that interest your customers, blog posts, bylined articles, e-books, and white papers demonstrate your company’s expertise and industry leadership.

For your business, each of these content formats may have a different audience with specific expectations. To engage your target audience, every piece of content must be written in a style suitable for its format. For example, a Twitter post about a new product release should have a much different tone and style than a white paper examining a cutting-edge industry topic.

2. Your writing must reflect your brand

A brand is often described as a promise to customers. No matter what your brand’s promise is, it should define your company and shape every facet of your business. A consistent brand voice presents an integrated picture of what your brand can do for your customers. One of the challenges of content marketing is maintaining a consistent brand voice across many different platforms and formats. View every piece of content marketing as an opportunity to tell your customers your brand story. Make sure that each blog post, social media update, or other marketing copy is written in a consistent voice that reinforces your brand and its promise.

3. Your writing must be well-crafted

Well-crafted, high-quality content is essential for connecting with your target audiences and positioning your brand. Good writing builds trust and credibility for your business. Marketing text with even minor mistakes is embarrassing and may make your customers assume that other aspects of your business suffer from the same lack of attention to detail.

But high-quality content requires more than just correct spelling and grammar. To create compelling content that engages your customers, you need a writer, not just an expert who can write. You need someone who knows how to create content that clicks with your target audiences.

Skilled content marketing writers understand their audiences and produce copy in a pitch-perfect voice that’s also optimized for SEO. They know how to assemble hard facts and smoothly present topics both simple and complex. They know how to craft catchy and descriptive headlines, titles, and email subject lines that will grab a customer’s attention. They understand the importance of good writing and have the experience and expertise to persuade and captivate — to keep your customers reading from one word to the next.

Good writing takes time, talent, and hard work. If you need to get your content marketing plan off the ground or if your content requires a helping hand, sign up for our free editorial workflow platform today. Let us show you how our professional writers can help you produce the type of high-quality content that your brand deserves.