Social Media Optimization or SMO is not a tool but it is today’s internet culture. With the Social Media Optimization sites on internet, people have got a good platform to become more social, more interactive and more communicative. What is SMO? Social Media Optimization doesn’t only allow discovering and reading the content and information but also encourages you to share the knowledge what you have. It is no more a one-way process but is a two way communication..
What is SMO?
(You have to Watch this Great Video on Youtube Now!)
If you want to be one step ahead of your competitors, the first thing you need to do is to get yourself acquainted with some of the best social media marketing trends that will turn 2020 into a big milestone for your social media accounts.
According to statistics by eMarketer, the number of social media users in 2020 will pass 3 billion users, corresponding to about 80% of global internet users.
Taking advantage of such a massive audience is your best card to boost your brand visibility and increase your profit beyond measure.
To give you a hand, let’s see the best social media marketing trends to help you plan your social strategy this year.
1. The age of dynamic post-click landing pages
You might have heard about it before, but personalization is of paramount importance for a successful social media marketing strategy that will turn your Gen Z and millennial audience into engaged social media followers.
With the rise of “one-size-fits-all” ads, though, the average consumer is hesitant to click on Instagram or Facebook ads and engage with their corresponding post-click pages due to the lack of personalization.
You need to find new ways to reach and engage with your audience, taking into account what your target audience wants to see rather than what you want.
After all, statistics show that 51% of consumers expect that businesses will be able to anticipate their needs and make relevant suggestions to them by 2020.
Dynamic landing pages, in this case, are a powerful form of personalization that takes into account your followers’ behavior to deliver specific elements corresponding to the individual’s specific needs.
If you want to create a landing page that will be highly-personalized and match your ad groups, then you should start with simple things like including your visitor’s location to increase the relevancy of your messages.
Here’s an example from HouseKeep’s dynamic landing page:
Also, keep in mind that in order to create such landing pages you need to use an exceptional landing page builder that supports the creation of dynamic landing pages.
2. Social media eCommerce is a must
Understanding your audience’s needs and finding ways to fulfill them in the fastest way possible is what this year is all about.
What’s already out there to help you achieve it, is Instagram’s shoppable posts function, something that was popular throughout 2019 and is slowly going to turn into a major trend in 2020.
Especially when you start a new online store, giving your audience an easy and fast way to communicate with you and at the same time complete their purchases is a new reality that every company should embrace.
As complex steps and numerous new pages can discourage consumers from completing their orders, giving a fast way to fulfill their needs without leaving their favorite social media network is a core aspect of social media marketing.
Getting smart with your customer lifecycle marketing endeavors by offering your potential customers convenient solutions is one of the most exciting social media marketing trends this year.
3. Virtual influencer’s popularity increases
Whether you already know about it or you are just about to find out, virtual influencers are one of the most incredible things that happened in 2019.
While these CGI influencers have been around for some time now, the rapid changes in technology and graphic improvements have given us an upgraded version of them that is hyper-realistic and almost believable.
As one of the most incredible things of social media marketing, virtual influencers have come a long way to establish themselves as true social media personas who have achieved higher engagement rates even compared to real worldwide influencers.
As consumers’ love for unique experiences and content that will pique their interest and curiosity keeps growing, virtual influencers keep getting more and more popular, especially with the technology-loving Gen Z.
Here is one of the most popular virtual influencers, Lil’ Miquela, back in 2016:
And here’s a recent post from her collaboration with Samsung. Can you spot the difference?
4. Video content is the king of social
As we progress in a more technologically advanced era, specific forms of content are going to be favored over others.
Video, in this case, will continue to be the most powerful form of content to engage your audience with your products or services.
As Cisco predicts, by 2022, 82% of all online content will be in video format.
What this means, is that you have to find clever ways to deliver your video content, either in the form of an amazing story that will awe your social media followers or a short video post that will be able to land numerous comments, likes, and shares.
With video content attracting consumers’ attention a lot better than a simple image post, it’s no longer a matter of if brands use it in their Facebook or Instagram strategy, but a matter of how well they will use it to engage with their audience and make them spend more time on their profiles instead of their competitors.
Video content is about to be the next big social media marketing trend to dominate the social media landscape and help you power up your customer retention efforts by showing your loyal followers exclusive content that will inspire them.
Here is a great example of KetelOne’s Instagram stories:
Delivering content that will truly speak to your audience is a matter of how creative and authentic it is.
However, planning and having a regular posting schedule can be a tedious task that requires a lot of time and effort.
To give you a helping hand, you should consider taking advantage of various tools to maximize your marketing team productivity to help you save valuable time and supercharge your social media marketing endeavors.
User-generated content has been around for some time now and while it’s nothing new, it’s still one of the most popular social media marketing trends that numerous brands have used to boost their conversion rates.
The popularity of user-generated content comes from the authenticity it can give to the brands using it compared to sponsored content.
As a powerful marketing resource, user-generated content that highlights the positive aspects of your brand, and other customer’s great customer experiences, will drive purchase intent.
According to statistics, 80% of consumers consider user-generated content a factor that influences their buying decisions a lot more than the content businesses create.
Since UGC is the best way to boost brand credibility, more companies will leverage the power of social listening to unearth the most valuable pieces of content to differentiate their brand and product/service from their competitors.
Here’s a post with an amazing recipe featuring Kitkat’s newest Kitkat flavor:
6. Amazing customer service
For B2C companies, customer service has been a wild process of exchanging a chaotic number of emails between representatives and customers.
While emails have always been an efficient channel of communication, it isn’t suitable to give answers to small customer queries and problems that need an instant solution.
Social media networks, on the other hand, can truly turn into amazing customer service channels to answer your customers’ questions, give them faster, more targeted answers to their problems and help you grow your business in the most cost-effective way.
Here’s how customer service can be made easier with a simple Twitter comment from Chipotle:
Answering simple queries like these through Twitter clears any possible misconceptions about the brand and allows other users to look at the comment and answer numerous other similar questions.
Leveraging the power of direct messages also offers you the chance to deliver more personalized and direct customer service to solve the customers’ problems and make them feel valued.
Here’s a direct message example from Casper:
7. New marketing possibilities
Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, Snapchat and Twitter are some of the most popular social media networks for users to communicate with peers, engage with their favorite brands and gather information about things that interest them.
However, newer social media competitors have made their appearances in recent years like Periscope and Meerkat (now Houseparty) in 2015 and Tik Tok in 2017.
While not every single one of these newer social platforms has managed to reach the top, Tik Tok added 188 million new users last quarter, growing by 70% from Q1 2018.
As the new fun video-sharing social network, Tik Tok has a massive young audience that makes it the perfect place for B2C marketing, especially for brands targeting a 16-24 audience.
Here’s how well Chipotle’s Tik Tok video has performed so far.
Wrapping up
To plan your social media strategy, you need to get yourself acquainted with some of the biggest social media marketing trends that will dominate the landscape and change the way users interact with your brand.
So, now that you are aware of what the future holds, be ready to take any social media challenge and turn your accounts into a massive conversion tool to get your business to higher heights.
Guest author: Marilia Dimitriou is a Creative Writer working for email marketing software Moosend. Her passion for writing has made her find new ways to combine the art of Creative Writing with SEO Copywriting. When she’s not writing articles, you’ll find her enthusing over marketing tech and automation.
Do you feel like your website is converting as much traffic into customers as it could be?
Conversion optimization or conversion rate optimization (CRO) could really take your website to the next level. It’s truly amazing how just a few small tweaks to your website can 10x your results from the same traffic numbers.
Despite how simple and easy it may sound, there are a lot of websites trying to achieve good results following the basic steps towards conversion optimization. Yet, many fail miserably, because, when it comes to conversion optimization, the devil really is in the details.
In order for you to apply CRO principles, you first need to understand where you already stand in terms of your website traffic, what is working for you and what is not.
While the general guidelines can be accessed anywhere, it takes more than that to achieve true success with CRO. If this wasn’t the case, everyone would have done it by now.
Having worked with many websites on CRO, it is safe to say that there is no universal method for it. If you’re a website owner that is trying to optimize your content, you need to understand, in great detail, your strengths, and your weaknesses in order to make the best of CRO and get results quickly. This is exactly the reason why there is no one-size-fits-all approach.
Here are 5 things many websites get wrong about CRO and how to change it for better results.
#1. Knowing what CRO actually means
You’ve heard the term, you know about its importance, but you would be surprised by how many website owners have no clue what CRO actually means. CRO is a crucial tool for keeping your business alive and thriving. CRO specialists can take your business and increase the revenue, the clicks, basically whatever you’re looking for in a matter of weeks.
For those still confused about the definition, CRO is a system that helps your website to increase the number of visitors that actually take the desired action on your webpage. This may sound like the easiest thing, but clearly that is not the case.
The definition is pretty simple, that much is true, but the countless ways to achieve what the CRO specialists try to do with websites is extremely complicated and requires more than a basic understanding of how the marketing works.
We all want to maximize the number of people who actually take action when visiting our websites. The same goes for any business. We want to maximize the engagement, but also to achieve maximum productive engagement. We want to increase the percentage of people who, upon visiting our website, do the desirable action we’ve set out for them, be that subscribe to the weekly emails, purchase the product you’re offering or click on the desired link.
The mission of every CRO specialist is not to increase the number of visitors you get but to increase the ratio of those who actually purchase or click on your product. Conversion is a word used to describe the number of desirable actions, it doesn’t necessarily mean the inflow of money.
It could mean people visiting and liking your page, taking the time to click a link and learn more about your services. It does not have to be focused around a financial goal, but more often than not it should at least lead to one.
#2. Optimizing for mobile devices
You would think that every business wanting to achieve long-lasting success would make sure that the mobile-friendliness of their website is among their first priorities.
But even the most successful companies in the world often neglect the mobile versions of their websites, driving away thousands of clicks and purchases by inconvenient setups. The importance of mobile devices is no big news, but somehow big companies still manage to prioritize the desktop optimized versions over the mobile ones.
This is one of the worst things you can do for your business and it could cost you many opportunities. It’s understandable why so many companies neglect it because they think that it won’t make the actual difference when the company is just starting up, so they often save the mobile update for later when their business is much more stable. In reality, this approach completely neglects the importance of mobile devices.
A consumer’s tolerance for inconvenience has significantly dropped in the last few years. If your website isn’t accommodating the customer, no matter which device they might be using, you are way more likely to get them to click away and lose a customer.
Not optimizing your website for tablets and phones means that the customer will need much more time for the page to load, increasing the likelihood of them abandoning your website pretty early on. This is why it is crucial to have mobile-friendly versions, even if you’re not getting as much traffic as you would like. Creating a mobile-friendly version is an investment you make towards your business, that over time could even bring you more than 50% of your sales.
Even if investing time and energy into developing a mobile-friendly version seems like a waste of time, when you’re in the beginning stages look at it as a separate avenue for you to grow your business in.
#3. Understanding the 4Ws of conversion
When trying to increase the number of people who engage in meaningful activity on your website, besides offering convenient web design, you should also consider a different branding strategy. Now, I don’t mean hiring a new marketing team or spending too much money on additional ads. The whole point of conversion optimization is not to increase your visibility necessarily, but to increase the number of visitors who will actually take the desired action.
The percentage of people who purchase or click a link won’t change by much by just increasing the visibility of the product or a website. What needs to change is not the number of people who visit, but the amount of those who take action.
Here are the 4 questions your website should give a clear answer to if you want more meaningful engagement from your visitors: What do you do? Why should I care? Why should I believe you? Where do we begin?
When you don’t provide the most sought after information, in the most visible place at your website, you’re greatly lowering your chances for those looking for the answer to stick around.
As mentioned above, consumers don’t have the patience to spend too much time looking for the answers about the website or the service, they would rather engage with a company that gives them everything they need to know, and easily.
You need to play to your strength on your website as well. You need to analyze what people are looking for and put it at an easy to find place, more so, make it the most visible part of your website. This is one of the top priority things you should be doing to increase meaningful engagement.
Any CRO specialist will tell you that in order to increase your conversions, without necessarily turning the whole website upside down, you just need to prioritize the things that are working for you and to make them the focal point of your business and website. This does not mean that you will only focus on that specific aspect of your business, but it will become the reason why people who visit your website will also stay engaged and actually click on something you want them to.
This is the easiest and probably the cheapest way to get the results that you want. This is why knowing your audience is so crucial to increasing conversions because it allows you to know just what is working for you and what you should be focusing on less.
When it comes to why someone visiting should stay at your page or purchase something, you have to make it very clear upon the entrance. Consumers need to understand what you are offering, what is unique about it that they won’t find anywhere else, and why they should trust you with their time and money. People should have a very clear idea of what sets your product apart, and why they should make the purchase on your website and not somewhere else.
This is also a relatively cheap way to increase your conversions since, as a website owner, you should know better than anyone what your strengths are and why they matter. Don’t shy away from building your website off of your best features and focusing as much as possible on their unique characteristics.
#4. Focusing on legitimacy
This is more geared towards the websites that are less known and are just starting out since larger companies have already earned the trust of their customers. But if the opposite is the case, you should be placing your legitimacy as a high priority message that you need to deliver to your customers.
It is one of the four fundamental questions that you need to answer as a client, when it comes to your website. There is no shortage of scammers and stories about them so when a new visitor enters your website, they are much likely to think of you as illegitimate than to trust you instantly, because that’s just common sense at this point.
Make sure that you work on conveying the message that your website is to be trusted, but keep the middle ground as to avoid looking more like a scammer. Create a sense of security on your webpage that won’t take away from the fun and engaging parts of it. You don’t have to make it the centerpiece of your website, but make sure that the consumer can easily be assured that the website is safe.
#5. Creating a sense of urgency
This is one of the oldest tricks in the book and we’ve seen it a lot within the cosmetic industry. The story goes something like this: you launch a product, you advertise it heavily, make sure that as many people know about it as possible, but when the product actually launches, you announce that it has sold out within an hour, or a day, whichever seems more realistic.
This technique creates a certain type of urgency in the customers like they absolutely need to have it since it seems to be selling like hotcakes.
So by the next time the company announces a restock there’s a high chance that they will actually sell out of the product. This is a marketing technique that isn’t too complicated and there are many ways to do this right.
When we create a sense of urgency by exploring how badly the customer actually needs a product we increase our chances of making a sale. This is for the website and business owners alike to create a sense of necessity around this product even if it is something as unnecessary as makeup. You need to make sure that the visitors know just how valuable the product is, and it’s not that you need them but in fact, they need you.
Make sure that you make that clear from the very first second the client lands on your website so that your efforts don’t go to waste if the visitor only lingers for a few seconds before closing the page. That way you get to immediately not only let them know what you are selling but why the visitor should make the purchase while there is still time.
Conclusion
CRO is easy to understand but can sometimes be hard to achieve. With these tips, you now know the basics and where to start for your website.
The good thing about CRO is that you can actually do it yourself. With the general knowledge of your audience and what they respond to you can make it much easier while maximizing the number of people taking meaningful action on your website.
CRO can be the final step towards launching your website to a higher level of success and to achieve the engagement that most companies can’t even dream of. It might seem like a daunting process if you’re unfamiliar with it, but when you get started, as long as you know your business well, you should be able to set out a successful plan of action.
Guest author: Konstantin has been in marketing and advertising since 2011. After leading marketing efforts of one of the largest financial brokerages and an innovative b2b fintech company, he decided to go solo and is now focusing on consulting financial companies on how to drive the best results from their digital marketing efforts. Next to this, Konstantin has been showing interest in the recent regulation of the most competitive industries – finance and iGaming. Stalk him on Quora or connect via LinkedIn to learn more.
There are many writing tools and tips that promise to help you increase your writing output. And some of them are really effective.
But sadly, a lot of them also disappoint and confuse us even further.
If you are struggling to reach the next level – welcome to this post – you are not alone. A few years ago, I was in the same shoes, and on a daily basis, I see budding writers unsure of their next move.
To eradicate the lack of guidance, today we will see in-depth instructions and strategies on how you can break into the next level.
With these 27 strategies, you will be writing content that clients and readers can’t stop gobbling up.
Let’s get started:
1. Do solid groundwork
When you are starting out in writing, you are super pumped to crank out words that help you get clients, build your brand, or even just get your voice heard. I get it.
While there’s nothing wrong with enthusiasm (in fact, enthusiasm is one of the best traits of a successful writer), at the same time, you need to polish up your basic writing as well.
Elements like – grammar, punctuation, readability, and sentence structures.
And, to help you cover those, I’ve got just the resources:
“The Elements of Style by Strunk And White”
This small book is crammed with information to help you with your grammar and spelling.
You can also grab Grammarly if you think your grammar will take time to improve.
You can even go as far as to hire a proofreader to eliminate the bugs if you have the money.
For readability, you can pump your writings through WebFX, HemingwayApp and Readable and size them up to make them user friendly.
2. Read voraciously
Agreed – reading isn’t a direct writing practice, but it helps you improve eventually.
When you read a piece of writing, your brain subconsciously starts absorbing the nuances – the stellar words, sentences and frameworks used.
Every great writer’s path is paved by observation of the works of masters. Which means, there’s no way around this.
So, go ahead, take some time out and read amazing writing every day. And you will see your vocabulary expanding and improving over the course of time.
In this case, there are no shortcuts.
3. Put sentences under the microscope
Good writing equals to beautiful sentences parading together.
And if you want to put out high-impact writing (who doesn’t, right?), strengthening your sentences is inevitable.
And here’s the good news for you – you don’t have to create such sentences from scratch.
A ton of books and blogs by amazing writers can help inflate your arsenal.
If you prefer learning from only freelance writers (good move if you’re writing for web), you can follow Bamidele Onibalusi, Carol Tice, Jorden Roper, and Kristi Hines.
And when you encounter their work, press pause and observe. Because this is where the magic happens.
Read it out aloud. Again and again. Hand-copy it and you will burn it into your brain.
When you do this, you rewire your brain to write better.
Ask yourself – why is that writing so powerful?
Do you find it crisp and punchy?
Does it pack an amazing analogy?
Do you see abundance of power words?
Keep taking notes, and in time, you will be armed with a lot of writing power to express yourself.
4. Burn great writing into your brain by hand-copying
Did you know hand-copying does wonders to improve writing?
So much so that I decided to write an entire point on this.
Despite the solid improvement, most budding or intermediate writers don’t embrace this. And even if some do, they tend to give up soon.
I’ve personally found this painfully hard to continue. It just feels tempting to replace handwriting with reading.
But as I continued the pen and paper anyway, the rewards started to show.
So many sentences and words entered my brain so deep, they come out as I speak. And you can do the same.
First, it might not make sense or show effect. But continue for 3 days and I guarantee you, you will be experiencing solid improvement.
French psychologist Stanislas Dehaene says:
“Although typing is the easier option, learning becomes much more effective when you copy it by hand.”
You will find hundreds of such science-backed researchers advocating how hand-copying can improve your chops. So go ahead and do it.
Just about all famous freelance writers use outlines to save time, increase flow, thereby, the overall quality.
A basic outline has three parts. Let’s see them below:
Intro – This welcomes your readers and introduces the topic. Tells them what your piece will cover, how it will benefit them, so they read on.
Meat – This is where you provide all the value. Tips, examples, analogies, citing other resources, personal opinions, images, videos, and everything you think will bring value.
Ending – Here, you wrap things up. Square off with a recap followed by a call to action. You can also ask a question if you want.
6. Take off your editor’s hat when writing
Editing when writing is a serious issue for us writers.
Writing and editing require entirely different approaches.
Doing them together will slow you down, damage your momentum, and cause self-doubts eventually.
Sure, writing and editing are both very close-looking, manual work.
However, the first draft is about jotting down ideas and thoughts. Sort of vomiting on the page.
And editing is more of constructive/analytical work.
If you do them together, it is like switching gears up and down constantly. Hampering your speed.
You are better off pressing the accelerator.
The editor’s hat equals to road bumps when drafting the first draft. So avoid it.
7. Keep your writing dead simple and breathable
Michael Brenner from Marketing Insider Group touched on this as well.
Avoid ‘utilize’ when ‘use’ would do
Avoid ‘close proximity’ when ‘near’ would do
Avoid ‘facilitate’ when ‘help’ would do
Use longer words only when you need to express something more specific.
Because your brain takes time to process complicated words.
For the same reason, keep your sentences snippy and digestible.
Here’s another tip:
Convey only one thought in each sentence. More will increase complexity and create confusion.
Here is a brutal truth I realized very late:
No client or reader clapped an eye about the tongue twisters or tooth-breaking words I knew.
They only cared how my writing could benefit them. So yes, stick to simple language.
And in order to keep the article breathable…
You can break down the writing into chunks, use bullet points, and keep a lot of white space.
And when you kill these distractions, it prevents your readers from exiting.
8. Trash corporate language
Derek Halpern explains this well in this video:
Unfortunately, in business writing, readers don’t usually care if the writer is an amazing scholar.
You have to connect and resonate with the audience. Striking a human bond is crucial for impactful writing.
Simply put – throwing in complex words suck out the resonating power of your writing.
So, go ahead and eradicate:
Fluff words and sentences
Unnecessary adjectives
Complicated terms
Lengthy text blocks
Because these things take up your readers’ attention.
Let’s consider a comparison:
First scenario:
“Do you want to pocket an extra $10K every month importing products that you like? If so, read on. By the end of this premium report, you will have all the resources you need to build your personal importing empire.”
Compare that with:
“If you are extremely desired to acquire another additional $10k each and every month through the import of wide-ranging products that suit your taste, pay utmost devotion to this premium report delivering confidential, one of the kind information that’s not available elsewhere.”
Can you spot the difference?
Regardless of the reader, short and simple words always work better.
Also, use specific words to avoid ambiguity and express exactly what you want to. You can use verbs, nouns, pronouns, and names. Because being more specific means less processing for the reader.
For example, avoid writing:
Wanting to obtain an aesthetically appealing physic?
Write:
Want another 10-20 pounds of solid muscle in a year?
“Want to brush up your copywriting chops? Not to worry. I’ll make you a cutting-edge wordsmith – slicing through any reader’s barriers and make them read every single word on your page”
Compare that to:
“Are you on the lookout for drastically enhancing your copywriting qualities? I will aid you in your endeavor. You will comprise and one of the kind set of skills that we empower you to get over about all objections coming from the readers, and drive them fanatic regarding your service”
Which one do you find effortless? The answer is obvious, right?
The first text leaves the second one biting the dust.
Can you guess why?
Because the second text is full of fluff words and unnecessary adjectives, ultimately, fogging up the message and idea.
Which goes to torture readers when reading, instead of spoonfeeding the message.
So, stick to what George Orwell says:
10. Frontload your sentences
Another amazing tip from ExpressWriters here:
Frontloading means starting your sentences and paragraphs with the “meat” of your writing – in an active voice.
It helps your writing capture attention.
Before:
The lamp was broken by John
The bat was swung by Carl
The books were thrown away by him
After:
John broke the lamp
Carl swung the bat
He threw the books away
Before the changes, the sentences were passive and the essence was very deep down.
After frontloading, they look more crisp and straightforward.
When you write this way, the reader can easily understand.
As writers, our job is to connect, resonate, and communicate with readers using words. They should be able to glide down the text effortlessly.
Frontloading is all about that.
11. Seize space in your reader’s brain
Ever thought of hijacking space in your reader’s brain? Sounds amazing, right?
It is.
If you can hack their attention, you can engage them better.
But the question remains – how do we do it?
Here’s how – by engaging the following senses:
Touch
Taste
Sight
Smell
Sound
If you can hit these senses with your writing, you can evoke powerful feelings that resonate with people.
Let’s compare usual writing with writing that engages those 5 senses.
Usual writing:
“Our content writing program will make you an incredibly powerful writer. We deliver you everything you need to write engaging and exciting content.”
5 senses added:
“Our content writing program will have you shooting words that smack the readers into paying attention – eyes wide-open. We will arm you with everything you need to keep them glued to the screen until you wave them goodbye.”
In these scenarios, both paragraphs give the same message.
However, the second is full of emotion-evoking, vivid words that break into your reader’s head, command attention, and keep them reading.
12. Use analogies over cliches
SmartBlogger dedicated a stellar guide to the use of analogies.
Cliches are everywhere. So much that they don’t move your readers anymore.
Cliches draw out yawns from your readers and cloud your writing voice, style, and personality.
Sure – it is normal to jot down a lot of cliches when creating your first draft. It’s completely fine.
Just don’t let those cliches sneak into your finished piece – replace them with powerful analogies.
Ever heard the quote – a picture portrays a thousand words?
Well, analogies are pretty similar. It helps you highlight similar points between two stories.
They help you compress ideas and ‘paint’ them out. Making your writing more appealing, engaging, and unique.
Let’s compare again.
Before:
“We writers must break out of our comfort zones to get better.”
Analogy-packed:
“Just like caterpillars smash out of their cocoons and transform into butterflies, we writers must also crack open our comfort zones to level-up our writing.”
Analogies command attention, paint mental pictures, and deliver bland cliched messages as original, unique ideas.
So fit them anywhere you can in your writing.
13. Write conversationally with empathy
Enchanting Marketing explained this in detail. I highly suggest you give it a read.
If you write as you speak, you will engage much better.
Imagine talking with your best friend in Starbucks across the table.
You are not writing to an audience anymore. You are discussing with a friend who you trust with your life.
So normally – you will go the extra mile trying to explain it the best.
This mindset sets you apart from the generic-sounding writers.
Maybe that generic voice settled in you in school, or when you used to write formal papers in an office.
And if you’ve been writing that way so far, I hope you will start making it more talkative.
Use ‘you’ and ‘I’ spontaneously because that helps you connect with your reader.
Sure, that might be a bad idea for college essays, but audience-focused business writing craves that.
Maybe in school or office, you were taught to use the word “one” in such scenarios. For example:
“When one starts writing, one faces many hurdles.”
Please avoid this approach because it is old-fashioned, bland, and just not cordial.
You can put it like this instead:
“When I started out in writing, I faced a lot of hurdles. If you are also a budding writer, you will have them too.”
Stick to everyday language and cut bigger words wherever possible. Here are some examples:
Question = Ask
Profession = Job
Conundrum = Hard task
Unless you’re writing for a very niche audience that requires certain jargon, simple writing will have the most impact.
Lastly, if you are using acronyms, spell them out when you mention them.
Bottom-line: optimize your writing’s user experience as much as you can. And again – you can learn that by following industry-leading freelance writers – Carol Tice, Bamidele Onibalusi, Kristi Hines and Jorden Roper.
14. Hire an editor
Yes, I already mentioned editors before but it deserves a separate spot.
As you already know – the first draft almost always comes out garbage.
Sure, you can polish up your draft on your own, but it’s hard to find flaws in your own writing. You are just too close to it.
And that’s why – in the writing world, editing is seen as a brutal task. Sure, you can utilize Stephen King’s drawer method.
However, you don’t usually get such long deadlines in freelance writing – you have to move fast.
Therefore – an editor with a fresh set of eyes will help you understand your strong and weak ends in writing.
15. Invest in an editing tool
We freelance writers can always use a second opinion.
Sure – hiring a professional human editor is much better, but if you are not ready for that, you can start with a tool.
So – if you are concerned about your grammar, spelling and style, you can latch onto Grammarly. Veteran freelance content marketer Chintan Zalani strongly advocates you try out its premium version. Because as you keep writing, it will help you brush up in many aspects.
16. Write like it’s your job
Imagine you are a plumber or a car mechanic, and it is your first day at work.
You won’t just break in and perform jaw-dropping mendings, right?
Of course not. Because in every career, you come in a newbie. You get better over the course of time.
Writing is no different. You just have to keep doing it to improve.
So:
Write when you want to, write when you don’t.
Write like it’s your job and keep doing it every day.
Whatever happens – you don’t feel confident enough in your grammar, or punctuation, or some other aspect of your English – keep writing.
Look up words and use them if you need. Google translator and thesaurus are your friends.
Even native English speaking writers always rely on Google and a thesaurus when writing.
Just keep plodding, day after day, and soon you will become a professional.
17. Use verbs that force readers to pay attention
Verbs have a massive impact on how alive and impactful your writing is.
Using the perfect power verbs can light up your writing. These are mainly emotion-evoking words that complement persuasion and arrest attention.
The best verbs have only 1 or 2 syllables. For example:
Smash, stomp, destroy, hail, unleash, lash, and so on.
Let’s compare two scenarios now.
Without power verbs:
The children managed the house
He got very angry, very quick
With power verbs:
The children supervised the house
He exploded in anger
Astonishing change in the impact, right?
Sprinkling power verbs throughout your writing makes it much crisper, persuasive, and powerful.
Look at these 700 + power words from OptinMonster to grow your arsenal.
The points he made are extremely practical, so I urge you go through them once.
Many writers do shallow research. Sure, that’s normal when you are starting out.
But over time, you need to be willing to go the extra mile to find accurate information.
You might have to dig through law reports or medical studies to find valid insights and data.
You might have to email around people to confirm facts.
So be prepared for that.
Take information from valid sources only. Trust official government sites, university researches, and industry-leading blogs only.
If a lot of mediocre sources are saying the same thing, take everything with a pinch of salt, and dig further.
Because anybody can publish anything on the internet today. And even make it go viral with shady tricks.
So it is hard to distinguish accurate information from the fake.
Also, see if the information is recent or not. A study or survey dating 10 years back might not be relevant now.
In-depth research comes real handy for such cases. It is also essential for technical writing (that tend to pay decently).
So yes, as your writing career progresses, emphasizing research is essential.
19. Edit brutally
That’s a famous saying in the writing world. It means to edit your unfinished piece mercilessly. Regardless of how hard it is to erase the parts you gave birth to – you have to edit them mercilessly for the sake of the highest quality.
Because nobody ever writes a perfect first draft.
That first version is for letting your thoughts run wild. Simply slamming down everything that crosses your mind.
Once you are finished jotting down ideas, take a break. It can be 30 to 60 minutes. Or even a few days.
The longer you can afford to wait, the better. Because stepping away for longer helps you find flaws in your writing more properly.
After that, come back with a sword.
Not a literal one, of course. More like an editing knife.
And edit.
Keep rewriting, omitting and adding parts on that piece as you see better.
Do multiple edit rounds. By the time you’re in round 3 or 4, your writing will start shaping decently.
20. Write actionable content
Actionable content means information that can be implemented easily. ‘How-to’ guides, for example.
For companies, it helps generate more leads and conversions, thereby, more clients and higher ROI.
Here are some ways to make your content actionable:
Pack as much authority as you can
Add images and visuals
Inject personality
Don’t just advise, explain how to do things
If you can master creating actionable content, you can market yourself as an ROI-focused content writer or marketer.
And companies are willing to pay high rates for that.
21. Master your headlines
Your headline must reel the reader in. It can make or break the reading stream.
So it’s crucial to write effective ones.
Whether it is your blog, social media, or Google search results, headlines represent you everywhere.
Research the audience and pick headlines that have performed well in the past
Utilize proven headline templates
Jot down several headlines and pick the one you find most attractive and use it
Add the most mouthwatering benefit in the headline
Mention the topic you are addressing
Form it as a question
I hope this helps you understand which headlines perform well, so you can tailor yours accordingly.
22. Join a community of writers
If you have been a solo freelancer for some time, you can tell how lonely it can get.
And as humans, we crave connection. So loneliness can wear us out mentally.
Besides freelancing, if you don’t have a balanced social life, you might want to focus on that now.
Go join a writing community. It can be online or offline. Or both.
Surround yourself with writers on social media. I suggest you join these Facebook groups:
Writing Revolters
The Copywriter Club
The Gary Halbert Copywriting Club
The Content Marketing Lounge
Roam around there, question, read, comment, connect, applaud – be a part of the community.
Connect with the right people and you will start feeling the support.
Personally, I’ve found a ton of kind and humble people there. Many from very successful writing career positions, who are willing to help. Go check it out.
23. Conduct detailed research on your readers
Where do your readers hang out?
What kind of content do they enjoy?
What are their biggest struggles?
What stresses keep them awake at night?
Roll your sleeves up, go out there and research.
Talk with customers, use surveys, polls, study high-performing content and copy to understand the audience better.
24. Learn from bad writing
Ever wondered how bad writing looks? How about learning from it?
Think about it…
When you are reading a stellar piece of content, it smoothly flows into your head.
But in terms of bad writing, it is hard to understand. Bad writing stumbles you when reading.
You can tell it’s not professional right away. Even people from other lines of work can spot bad writing.
The sentences are bloated. The flow is crippling. Punctuation is off. It makes the readers yawn.
Observing such pieces comes with a clever benefit. It increases your writing skills.
Because we tend to be around so much compelling written content, we might start comparing and questioning our capabilities.
25. Cultivate your brain with words
Did you know every professional writer is a voracious reader?
I know I was – often printing out quality writing and studying it carefully.
Circling and underlining words that lit me up.
That being said, did you know if you go through a strong reading session, the part of your brain responsible for receptivity of language charges up?
Well, scientists from Emory University have proved that.
So, why not go ahead and read for some time before you start writing next time?
26. Have a deadline
June Whittle shared some great advice on her article on Writers in Charge:
Nothing moves work like the urgency of a deadline.
Because without one, you will continuously want to scrutinize your content. And the right time to publish will never come.
But under pressure, most people tend to get it done.
Imagine a boss assigning you a presentation to be finished in 2 hours. Either you do it, or you’re fired.
In that situation, you don’t have the liberty or comfort to slack.
Apply that rule to your personal projects.
However, commitment is going to be important. And it is difficult to follow through.
If you’re suffering with that, you can get someone to hold you to account. It can be a family member, a friend, are some business mentor.
27. Start moving, keep moving
This might sound irrelevant at first, but please bear with me.
As you may have already experienced, writing isn’t an easy task.
It is a continuous creative battle for your brain to carve out quality words that compel readers.
To combat all that stress, you need to take good care of your mind and body.
That’s where exercise comes in.
Many of my writer friends rely on workouts to boost and keep up their creativity.
Research also shows that exercise lights up your neurons and turns your brain on.
When I’m stressed but have more writing to do, I walk for 20 – 30 minutes.
It helps me calm down, refresh my mood, and clear my clouded mind. It can do the same for you.
I’m not asking you to do anything rigorous. Simply getting your body moving by walking, or jogging, or even stretching can help.
Just get your blood pumping and you will have the capacity to write again.
Closing thoughts
Lastly, don’t try all these techniques at once.
Pick 1 or 2 and stick to them for some time.
All these practices are like building muscles.
Keep nurturing them and you will see substantial improvement eventually.
How do you go about improving your writing?
Let me know in the comments below.
Let’s talk, share, and communicate ideas.
Guest author: Mehedi Hasan Shoab is a freelance content marketer helping businesses skyrocket. Want him to handle your work? See his website here.
