While content certainly doesn’t always end up as written words on a screen or page, it almost always starts with writing. Not just articles and blog posts, but video storyboards, podcast scripts, and infographic creative briefs rely on effective writing.
There’s no question that attention-grabbing headlines are vital to standing out in a sea of content, but what are the best techniques for crafting them? What are the secrets to getting and holding a reader’s attention? With all of the recent changes to search engine algorithms, what are today’s best practices for writing content that appeals to both human readers and search engines?
Find the answers to those questions and more here in seven noteworthy copywriting guides from seven content experts.
Tips for Headlines and Copywriting
How to Create Viral Worthy Content Every Time by Assist Social Media
Pauline Magnusson outlines three key principles for writing compelling, share-worthy copy, including “Be bold. While I’m getting tired of the saying, ‘go big or go home,’ there’s something to be said for the willingness to make an audacious claim online, if you have research, experience, or a well reasoned opinion to back it up.”
How to Become A Great Brand Journalist To Augment Your Content Marketing Strategy by Forbes
Jayson DeMers explains how to use the principals of journalism to write compelling brand content, such as writing a “show-stopping headline” and a great lead-in to the story: “Your piece’s introduction needs to grab your reader by the brain or by the heart strings and not let go until the last word.”
5 Back-to-Basics Principles for B2B Storytelling by velocidi
Christopher Stella shares five principles for crafting B2B stories, among them making your customer the hero (“Showcase your customer’s success, and how your services empowered them to make an impact”) and knowing your role (“You’re not the hero of the story, but your brand and services are the critical tools that set your customer on the path to heroism”).
Aliens Converge on Sioux Falls, South Dakota, in Quest of Killer Headline by Business2Community
***** 5 STARS
Lou Hoffman’s must-read guide to writing headlines combines humor with solid fundamentals in a concise package. His advice on far to take a headline: “as far as possible without losing sight of the actual story.”
Tips for Writing Search-Optimized Content
How the Google Zoo Has Forever Changed SEO Copywriting by Just Ask Kim
Copywriting for SEO has changed from the old days of “writing for keyword density ratios, including key phrases in every file name, every page name and every tag,” and Karon Thackston here supplies a concise but excellent summary of which old practices to throw by the wayside, and the new practices copywriters should embrace.
The Ultimate Content Marketing Myth by FindandConvert
Josh Smith identifies what he terms the biggest myth in content marketing—”if you post it, they will come”—and explains how to promote yourself and build an audience to draw traffic from a well diversified collection of sources.
Send the right search signals with social content optimization by Success Works
Dana Lookadoo shares five tips for generating more social sharing and search traffic for your content, such as making your posts look good (“Once you hit the Enter key to share your post on Google+ or Facebook, you want it to look attractive with an eye-catching image and descriptive text”), and identifies “the most important aspect that applies to both social and SEO.”
This was post #4 of Content Marketing Week on Webbiquity.
#1: Content Marketing Week Starts Tomorrow!
#2: 30 Remarkable Content Marketing Facts and Statistics for 2013 (and 2014)
#3: 18 of the Best Content Marketing Strategy Guides of 2013