If someone offered you an entirely free way to increase brand awareness and generate revenue for your small business website, would you hear them out? Can content writing tips do all that?
It may take some time and effort, but believe it or not, that’s exactly what writing great content can do.
Whether you’re preparing to begin creating content for your small business website or just aren’t satisfied with your current content’s performance, producing great content is one of the most proven and cost-effective ways to attract a larger audience and bring in new customers.
It’s that simple — write great content and the results will follow.
But you know what they say, if it was easy, everyone would be doing it.
Writing great content is challenging, but so is riding a bike the first time you try. And like riding a bike, writing awesome content becomes easier and more natural over time.
One of the best ways to improve at anything is to establish and stick to a list of best practices. With that in mind, here’s 13 tips that can quickly help you learn how to create content for your small business website that resonates with your customers.
Best Content Writing Tips
Know your audience
Want people to read what you write and engage with the content on your small business website? Write content for them.
Content that makes a reader feel as if the author understands them or feels their pain can go a long way in terms of conversion and retention.
But how can you write for someone if you don’t know anything about them?
If you know who your audience is or who you want your audience to be, it’s much easier to write content you know will resonate with them.
Spend some time diving into your audience demographics and analytics and really get to know who you’re writing for. Once you get to know your customers, build your content strategy around subjects and conversations you know will be of interest to them.
Assess your current content
Once you know your audience, it’s time to take an honest look at your existing content. You may have spent countless hours on the existing content on your website and you’re proud of it. Why shouldn’t you be? You know the work that went into creating it.
But if you’re reading this article, it’s likely that the content isn’t performing as well as you had hoped.
Take a step back and try to make an unbiased evaluation of your current content. If you have blog posts, are they strong enough as is, or do you find that a lot of them could be doing more for you?
Bring something of value to the table
An easy way to entice customers to read your article or engage with your website is to offer them something valuable. Is your content relevant? Do you have unique info or helpful insight? Are you able to answer a question or solve a problem for them?
Establish the reason someone would want to read your content. The stronger the reason, the more likely the content is to perform well.
Be a voice of authority
People tend to trust experts. If you’re an expert about the subject matter you are writing about, act like it. Own the spotlight and use it to make your business or product shine.
Even better if you can make it personal. Why are you a voice of authority? Personal examples that prove to your reader you know where they are coming from and can help with their problem will build trust with your customers.
Incorporate an SEO strategy
It’s hard not to understate the value of a solid SEO strategy. With a little effort, SEO can take your writing from good to great without spending any money, making it a cheap and effective way to make your content work harder for you.
A great first step to SEO is learning how to choose valuable SEO keywords. If you want to write for your audience, knowing the keywords they are searching for can help you tailor the content to appeal to them.
There’s plenty of free training online to teach you SEO content strategies, but until you’re a master, it’s helpful to use a reliable SEO checklist that can take the guesswork out of refining your content.
Write compelling headlines
All of your content should be as strong as possible, but if you have to focus on making just one area shine, make it your headlines.
Think of fishing. You wouldn’t spend time finding a good spot, preparing your gear, and setting your lines if you didn’t bring bait you thought would entice a fish to bite your hook.
Writing good content with boring headlines is like taking all the steps to land a fish, then sitting by while all the fish swim right past your un-baited hook.
It’s reported that up to 80 percent of people read nothing but headline copy while only 20 percent will actually click through to read the rest, so your headline might be the only chance you have to draw the reader in or land a new customer.
Link to relevant content and useful resources
If you want content that is truly valuable, give your customer everything they need in one spot.
Providing links to relevant articles or sites and including helpful resources shows your reader you have kept their needs in mind when crafting your content.
Not only does this give you a chance to provide your audience with additional resources and materials they find useful, but it also gives you a chance to boost your SEO rankings and search results by linking out to sites Google deems to be valuable.
Add CTAs
A CTA (or call to action) is a prompt that encourages visitors to take a specific action that you have pre determined, like directing them to your products and services. It’s also a good chance to encourage your readers to use your business.
Adding CTAs to your small business web pages makes your content actionable and gives customers an easy avenue to explore or purchase your product.
There are many different types of CTAs and they can be easily customized to fit your business.
Add images, screenshots, artwork etc.
As the old saying goes, “a picture is worth a thousand words.” That rings true for your small business website as well.
No one wants to look at visually boring content, and good artwork can really boost your content. Not only does adding visual elements to your content make it look better, it helps with your SEO rankings.
Keep it simple
Lengthy content can do well, but only when it has something of true value to offer. Don’t write long just to write long. Be concise and stay on topic.
If you can effectively say something in 500 words that someone else needed 1000 words to convey, your article has more value in the sense that it saves readers’ time.
Make text scannable
Obviously you want your reader to read the whole article, but if you can help them out just by presenting valuable info in an easy-to-digest manner, that’s a win.
Utilize things like white space, bold headings, bullet points, or any other kind of separator to break up your text and make it easy to consume. Your customers will appreciate it.
Proofread, proofread, proofread
With 1.9 billion websites online, one way to make sure no one pays attention to your small business website is by posting sloppy content.
Nothing hurts your credibility more than poor spelling or grammar, so take your time proofing your work.
Our brains complete circuits subconsciously and it’s entirely possible for you to see content as clean that someone else reads and easily points out several needed corrections.
Try reading your work out loud to slow your brain down. Once you’re sure the content is perfect, have someone else read it.
Leave them wanting more
A good way to keep readers returning to your small business website is to give them content that leaves them wanting more.
If you know your audience and understand their pain points, maybe you know how to answer the next question they are likely to have.
You may have solved one problem, but if you can prevent them from having another problem by educating them about an issue before they experience it, you can quickly develop loyal readers and build a reputation as a proactive thinker.
Bonus tip: UPDATE
Just because your content is good doesn’t mean it will stay good. New content is created every day and it’s possible someone else may have written something better since you put out your content.
Continually checking your content to ensure it provides the most up-to-date information is a good way to keep your site from slipping in Google’s rankings.
Sometimes, you’ll need to decide if content is worth rewriting or if it should be deleted altogether.
Final Thoughts
No one starts out as an excellent content writer, but a ton of people put in the work to become one.
Writing great content is a process, and making the content on your small business website stand out definitely takes some effort. But with these tips and plenty of practice, it can quickly become second nature.
Now that you know how to write content that will draw users in, make sure you’re also avoiding the mistakes that can push them away.
And if you ever have any questions about your small business website, let us know. We’re always here to help 24/7/365.
If you’re just starting out with your small business, here is a FREE Business Startup Checklist that you can download now.
