How to Improve at Content Writing in 60 Minutes

Anyone can write. All you need to know is the language and how to string words together to form a sentence. But not everybody can write perfectly, and learning how to write the best blog post or article is a different story altogether. With content marketing becoming one of the most important things recently, content writing skills have become mandatory for marketers to include in their resumes. 

Did you know that, on average, an individual engages with more than 250 pieces of content daily! More than half of this content is in written form, and the rest is visual media. 

In this article, we will list a few ways on how to improve content writing and strengthen your writing skills in under 60 minutes. But before that, let’s take a quick look at what content writing is.

What is Content Writing?

No matter what your business is, most of your customers are online. Thus, staying in touch with them through different digital channels is essential. Today, content writing refers to writing content for potential customers online for online marketing purposes. By promoting their brands with the help of useful content online, businesses can attract leads and convert them into actual customers. 

More than 70% of marketers use different types of content to guide prospects through different buying stages before they become actual buyers. Marketers leverage different content forms to generate brand awareness and help potential customers make a purchase decision. Since the market is saturated with similar types of products and companies targeting the same audience group, it is essential to create high-quality content for your business. 

Different Types of Content in Content Writing

Content writing revolves around different types of text-based content. Each type of content has a different set of goals and purposes that help promote the brand differently. 

Here are some of the most used formats:

• Website content
• Articles or blogs
• Product descriptions 
• Press releases
• Ebooks
• Advertisement copy
• Social media copies

All these different forms of content have the potential to reach and target a huge amount of audience. These content formats guide customers through different sales funnel stages to convert potential customers to actual customers. They require different writing skills, but the general writing rules like basic grammar, research, etc., apply to all types of content. 

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How to Improve Your Content in 60 Minutes

With the advent of digital marketing, businesses are shifting their focus from implementation to optimization. Content, now, helps in driving internet traffic and in generating leads. While the amount of content available online is increasing every day, it is also making it difficult for writers to stand out in the crowd because of the steadily rising competition in the market. Consequently, writers need to look for strategies to improve their content.

If you are ready to take your content to the next level, here are some tips for content writing that will help you improve your game further. 

Mix up your content

While video content helps generate more engagement, certain types of textual content can also generate similar engagement. To reach the maximum number of people, you need to mix up your content. While some people respond to discounts, others respond to emotional messages. Mixing the type of content available on your website will maximize the impact.

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Read, read, read

Consuming the type of content you want to produce will help you better understand the audience group and produce high-quality writing. While looking for content strategies, take inspiration from similar types of content available online. Start by reading similar articles and websites for inspiration. Once you have a clear understanding of the flow and tone of the content, start writing.

Refer to customer insight

The best content marketing strategy is driven by real customer insight. Digging deeper to clearly understand the customer base will allow you to write customer-oriented articles. Once you understand how your content will impact readers, the content creation process becomes smooth. 

Write the way you speak

When you have a clear picture of who you are writing for and have proper knowledge regarding the topic, it’s time to focus on writing quality content. Using difficult-to-understand words makes it hard for readers to get the message. First, as a writer, focus on keeping your messaging simple. For that reason, avoid using complicated jargon or, if you have to use it all, be sure to explain in detail. Secondly, if you write long-form content, try to make your content engaging and entertaining. This is one of the best content writing tips for beginners. 

Include data and facts

We cannot stress the importance of enough facts and data in your content. Adding these statistics increases the credibility of your content and proves that you have done your homework allowing readers to feel confident about your work. This also does not mean that you need to develop your own case study, but you can use original data available from various reliable sources. To make your content even better, you can use examples along with data. This will clarify your points in front of the readers. Also, using examples makes it easier for readers to understand what you are talking about. 

Use proper format

Proper text formatting has a huge impact on readers. It makes the content engaging and easy to understand. Using multiple paragraphs, subheadings and pointers breaks the content into smaller consumable pieces. 

• Use transition words
• Include sub-headings
• Try to use less than 20 words per sentence
• Use simple language 
• Have proper mic of active and passive voice

Edit and proofread

We have already mentioned the importance of SEO and how it helps rank your articles on search engines. To make your content discoverable, try to spend more time researching. Once you start investing in the quality of the content, editing and proofreading become a direct investment in the content quality. 

Some basic content writing skills you should learn for faster results

For some people writing comes naturally. Some others can write amazing SEO-friendly articles without spending a lot of time contemplating. And for some, it might be a bit more challenging. Here we some of the basic content writing skills that every writer needs:

• Adaptability

This may seem obvious, but we see a lot of content being dropped because the tone and style don’t fit the purpose of the piece or the brand culture. For example, a landing page should probably contain a short copy and be designed to convince the reader to take action, while a white paper will likely work better with more details to explain a complex problem. 

As for tone, blog posts for a scientific equipment companies that caters to medical researchers will likely be very different from posts for an organic food store aimed at a wider range of health-conscious consumers. The more styles you can learn and the faster you can adapt, the more valuable you will be as a content writer.

• A strong SEO understanding

A good content writer always has a strong understanding of SEO. A writer who knows the latest SEO trends can create better and high-quality content. Writers need to know how to craft SEO-friendly headlines and descriptions to rank on search engines. 

• Organizational skills

Organizing is more than just having a clean workspace. It is about understanding priorities. Keep a calendar, know your deadlines, and take actions based on this priorities. Prioritize the tasks you have in hand so that they are done promptly within the allotted time. Try the below quadrant to organize your work and delivering it on time. 

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• Communicate

If you have any questions about an assignment, let the client know. Writing is all about communication, so there’s no excuse for not contacting your client if there’s a problem. When writing to your customer, treat it as an official communication and review your message. Your customer will remember your courtesies. 

• Deliver quality 

Do your best to create unique quality content. Make your articles engaging and grammatically correct. Ideally, when customers need articles, you want them to think of you as an excellent writer who completes the job on time. If you want more clients and a better-paying job, consistently providing good writing will eventually get you there.

• Don’t forget to experiment

You should not be afraid of experimenting. Trying new things helps understand what works and what doesn’t. It is more about understanding your weaknesses and taking action to improve your skills. If your writing sounds monotonous to you, try introducing some variety to make it interesting for readers. 

You can improve your writing just by practicing regularly. Remember to read as much as you can, invest in proper planning as this helps in coming up with the best plan of action. If you follow the tips mentioned in this article, you will surely be able to write a great blog post in no time!

Importance of vocabulary and sentence structure

Having a strong vocabulary is important regardless of the language you speak and write. It helps in improving both writing and reading skills. 

Just like every mechanic has a toolbox full of tools, every writer should have a strong collection of words that can be used for specific purposes. Vocabulary is considered the toolbox for a writer. A writer’s toolbox should be constantly growing and filled with several new words, phrases, apt grammar, and writing rules. Good vocabulary has the power to take your writing to a whole new level. Also, having a strong vocabulary along with a command over the language helps in increasing the value of your content. 

Here are some important steps that you can take to improve your vocabulary. 

• Reading novels and stories
• Reading 
• Using English dictionary to learn new words

Writing Tools Every Content Writer Should Use to Deliver Time-Bound Content

Professional writers often use various writing tools to make their lives easy. These tools help in several things like research, grammar check, plagiarism check, etc. Here is a list of a few: 

750 Words

This is surely one of the best content writing tools out there. It encourages regular writing and coaxes you to write 750 words per day. You can write about anything that comes to your mind since this resource is a completely private space. Regular writing practice with this tool will help you to develop research and creative skills. 

• The tool appreciates your efforts while marking you for errors you make. 
• It helps analyze your article and mindset through the words you write. 
• Writing with the help of this tool will feel more like therapy than a chore, which will also help you improve your life skills. 
• Additionally, the topics you select will help you discover more about your personality and feelings.

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Scrivener

This writing tool is perfect for anyone working on a long document; it can be a novel, an essay, an in-depth article, or an extensive blog post. The main purpose of Scrivener is to help you organize your writing, research, and annotation process and to ‘see the forest for the trees’. It can completely replace your regular word processor and if you have a large amount of information to organize, this is a great tool to help you do that.

• With this document, you will save a lot of time. You will not have to check every document time and again to find a specific section. 
• Finding details using this tool is extremely easy. 
• You can break down long paragraphs into small and understandable sections and edit the entire document. 
• With this tool, you will have control of the entire document. You can also track your writing progress and accomplish the task them more quickly. 
• However, Scrivener is only available on Windows and macOS and not on Android.

Write! Pro

Unlike most other tools that help writers write more regularly, Write! is very different. The primary goal of this particular tool is to help writers concentrate. This means that the application will help cut down any disturbance or interference that might distract the writer. 

• This application comes with a dark theme that looks extremely elegant. 
• It makes working and concentrating easy. You can also save your work for the day. 
• If you switch between devices all the time, you can be left with USB sticks, Google Docs, paper emails, and other problems. 
• With Write! you will still not lose what you have written so far. However, you will have to pay a fee for using this tool. 

Copyscape

Copyscape is a great writing tool for anyone who wants to check their content for plagiarism. Plagiarism is one of the biggest crimes you can commit as an article writer, and you should do everything in your power to avoid falling into this trap. Plagiarism is a serious issue and can lead to Google penalties. 

• The tool analyzes every single similar article or content available online to understand if your content is original or if you have copied from any source. 
• Most marketing agencies and writers use Copyscape to understand the originality of articles. However, this is a paid tool.

Cliché Finder

As the name suggests, Cliche Finder helps you find repetitive phrases that are overused and don’t add value to your articles. It checks your writing, highlights clichés, and tells you exactly which lines need some tweaking. This makes it one of the best content writing tools to help you improve the quality of your blog posts. 

• It can also be extremely useful when writing an email and, therefore a great idea to include it in your email marketing strategy.
•  It is a simple tool with a very minimal design. However, it helps in analyzing your text efficiently. 

Grammarly

When talking about tools for writers, you cannot miss Grammarly. This tool comes in a free as well as paid version. However, with the free version, you will have various limitations and will not be able to make 100% use of the tool. 

• You can compose error-free emails, social media posts, and official documents with this tool. 
• Grammarly allows you to paste your work quickly and smoothly compared to other applications. 
• You can specify the exact style you want by setting tone, dominance, audience, and formality goals. 
• Grammarly tailors its advice to your needs rather than trying to offer one-size-fits-all advice. 

Readable

Did you know that the average adult reads from the seventh to ninth level? Keeping your blog posts within that range to maximize readership is important. The WebpageFX writing tool allows you to check the readability of your blog post.

• You can enter the URL of your published blog posts or directly copy and paste the full text. 
• Readable will help you analyze how readable your blog post is so that you can adjust it for better readability. 
• Also, it can help you check the readability of the content you post on social media.

BuzzSumo

Have you ever wondered which articles or content are shared the most for a specific topic? It is where Buzzsumo can help you. Just enter a keyword or phrase, and it will then show you a list of the main content. 

• You can decide if the content they will show you is from the year, the month, the last week, or the last 24 hours. 
• You can also exclude specific types of content, such as videos or giveaways. What does the list mean? If these topics have been shared, you should make a better version of them. 

Hubspot’s Blog Topic Generator

As a writer, you must have come across situations where you need to generate article headings. This is one of the best and easy-to-use tools for writers. Just enter a couple of names you want to write about, and voila, it will give you a list of topics you can work on. However, it is not perfect, and you still have to modify the titles it offers; however it is a quick and easy way to create topics from ideas of one or two words. 

OneTab

As a content writer, you constantly do a lot of research and use multiple content writing tools to write better. For this reason, many writers struggle to juggle too many tabs. OneTab is an awesome tool that helps you turn all your tabs into a list. 

• You can easily access any of these with just one click. In addition to avoiding clutter, it also speeds up your laptop by saving up to 95% of memory usage. 
• These tool tactics can help you write more articles with less battery usage. 
• Furthermore, OneTab allows users to share tabs and updates with other team members. It also makes the entire writing project easy and smooth. 

WordCounter

Each writer has his own set of favorite words, which he tends to abuse at times. The powerful writing tool allows you to identify the most used words in your content. You can use this tool to identify and remove repetitive terms from your content and refine them to match the highest quality standards. It can help you easily write content to post on social media. 

FocusWriter

It is a simple but useful writing tool for you if you want to write without distractions.

It has a hidden interface that allows you to simply type. It makes it a great place to leave your thoughts or ideas. However, it is not suitable for editing purposes. You can set goals based on time or word count. You can also set the alarms to go off after a certain amount of time. This feature saves you time by not looking at the clock repeatedly.

Using these tools, you can speed up the writing process and save time. These are some of the best tools to help you write the best articles. We have included tools for beginners as well as for experts. Which tool are you planning to use? With these tools, you will be able to improve your content writing skills. 

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