#1 - FIND YOUR VOICE WHEN WRITING
The importance of finding your voice within your chosen topic and clearly articulating what novel idea you bring to the table cannot be stressed enough. Find your angle, your particular slant, and your own voice. Being authentic is something people truly value, and if you can articulate your unique perspective or experiences in your writing, it can help you grow a loyal and engaged audience.
#2 – SPECIFICITY WHEN RESEARCHING
Aim for a unique angle or point of view on any piece of writing to allow you to stand out from the masses that saturate the growing market in this day and age.
#3 – KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE WHEN WRITING
What are the pain points or challenges faced by the people you want to engage with? Keep these in the forefront of your mind at all times.
#4 – BACK UP ALL KEY POINTS WHEN RESEARCHING
Use high-quality, high-ranking, trusted sources for any data that you base your work on; as a minimum. Always cite the sources you use, and always make sure you pull any headline facts from your research and highlight this clearly in your content.
#5 – LESS IS OFTEN MORE WHEN WRITING
Attention spans are shorter, meaning people are more likely to scan and skim across content. This is where complete guides come in - give readers the ability to learn everything on specific topics - but allow for easy short-read pieces as well. Make sure your content is relevant, to the point, and devoid of unnecessary words.
#6 – STAY INFORMED TO STAY AHEAD WHEN RESEARCHING
Subscribe to industry-relevant news sources to keep you up to date with any important changes in your niche. Sign-up for newsletters from the competition, along with any other thought leaders in your sector, and get them delivered straight to your inbox. Tip: BuzzSumo is a great tool to use to help you keep informed of multiple sectors and channels.
#7 – CONNECTING CONTENT WHEN WRITING
Regardless of whether you're writing blogs, PRs, landing pages, or case studies, there's always going to be an opportunity to connect the content you're writing with previously published content on your site to other content & service pages (internal linking/external linking). Make sure you find a natural way to link the content pieces together.
#8 – UNCOVER KEY QUESTIONS WHEN RESEARCHING
There are a couple of ways to discover the right questions to cover in any content pieces you are writing. Answer The Public is the first; use it to determine what questions people are asking about a specific keyword. Use it to create FAQs connected to your keyword/phrase. Second is a keyword planner tool - such as Google’s Keyword Planner, AHREFS.com, SEMRush.com or other third party solutions. Consider the People Also Ask section in Google as a goldmine for Q/A sections on your page.
#9 – PAY ATTENTION TO THE DETAILS WHEN WRITING
You rarely get a second chance to make a first impression; and depending on your industry or type of business, oversights in grammar and a lack of attention to detail could prove costly where client acquisitions are concerned.