Industrial and Manufacturing Marketing Blog

Content Creation Made Easy

Are you struggling with creating content? If you are not a professional copywriter, coming up with new content regularly can be a difficult task.

Most people get writer’s block or their brains freeze up while staring at a blank screen. However, to be successful in your online marketing, you must come up with fresh and interesting content regularly. Otherwise, your traffic will dry up and the hard-earned readership will lose interest.

How do you overcome this challenge?

Content creation doesn’t have to be hard. Just follow my 5Rs of content creation and things will start to flow a lot more smoothly.

1. RESEARCH

Even before I open up my trusty word processor, I head over to Google’s Keyword Tool. I use it to research key words/phrases that people are using to search for answers to their particular problem.

I start with something related to a subject that I’m interested in writing about and get ideas from there.

For example, “content creation.” That led me to other popular search terms like blog content creation, content creation help, online content creation etc.

Without first researching your ideas, you’ll find yourself running out of topics to write about and/or guessing what your readers would be interested in learning. You’d be surprised how many different ideas and variations you can get from your initial thought after doing your research.

Google is not the only source of content ideas. Visit popular forums and read what questions people are posting there, things that are related to your topic.

Bottom line – better content comes from better research.

2. REARRANGE

Creating an outline first is how I always start my content creation. It helps me to get my thoughts organized, rearrange ideas until I feel good about the flow of my content.

Then I expand the bullet points into complete paragraphs. An outline also creates a roadmap as I progress from chapter to chapter until I finish my report or eBook.

3. REVEAL

Adding a personal experience helps to humanize your content. No one likes to read text that sounds like a sermon.

Share customer stories or provide examples to make it more interesting and help your readers connect with their own situation.

A picture is worth a thousand words and can quickly simplify a complex concept that otherwise would take you many words to explain. Studies have shown that people retain information quicker and longer when you engage their visual senses.

4. READ

If you are going to edit your own content which is not a good idea, then read your text aloud. I print my copy and then read it back to myself. This forces me to read every word rather than allowing my mind to autosuggest words that are not there.

Don’t just rely on the automatic spelling and grammar checker. For example, no software in the world can flag the error between their and there. Here are some more common mistakes; lose and loose, it’s for its and further vs. farther.

5. REVISE

Our brains have two parts – the left side is analytical and the right side is visual and tends to see the whole picture. Use both sides of your brain when writing content but one side at a time.

Let the right half of your brain start writing as the creative juices flow. Don’t interrupt it by stopping to correct errors (other than obvious typos).

Once you have your first draft completed, allow the left side of your brain to take over and start being critical and analytical as you go over your copy.

Rearrange words, paragraphs and may be entire chapters until you feel comfortable how each paragraph and chapter flows into the next respectively. This is where you need to wear your editor’s hat rather than be the creative writer.

Don’t be afraid to tear apart your initial outline if you think it will improve the product. Just be careful that perfectionism doesn’t stop you from launching your masterpiece altogether.

I realize the above 5Rs may seem a bit daunting at first. Let me assure you that with some practice, all this will become very natural and you’ll be creating content like a professional copywriter in no time at all.

Achinta Mitra

Achinta Mitra calls himself a “marketing engineer” because he combines his engineering education and an MBA with 36 years of practical industrial marketing experience. You want an expert with an insider’s knowledge and an outsider’s objectivity who can point you in the right direction immediately. That's Achinta. He is the Founder of Tiecas, Inc., an industrial marketing consultancy in Houston, Texas. Read Achinta's story here.
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