Looking for smart content writing tips? Like all of us! No matter which campaign you create, you need content to make it successful. The truth is, we digital marketers are content-dependent. This means that we should be able to create valuable blog posts, lead magnets, videos, landing pages, and much more. And all of them should be well written and bring real value.

However, the problem is that 95% of digital marketers do not consider themselves writers. Often they create content poorly because they have never been shown how to do it right. And almost all the information that can be found on this issue is motivational slogans. Therefore, today I am going to find out a system for writing content that gives real results.

It’s better than content writing tips

Like me, you could read hundreds of posts offering content writing tips that didn’t help at all. And so the 7-step writing process may seem like overkill. But this is not so.

In reality, there are only 3 stages of writing:

• Pre-writing. Draft where you collect your ideas.
• Writing Turning thoughts into finished text.
• Post-writing. Editing and optimization of the finished text.

The 7 steps I’m going to give you are the tasks that fit into these 3 stages. And every good copywriter consciously or unconsciously uses them.

I split them just so you don’t accidentally miss anything.

Also, the more you write, the easier it is to use them. The first few times when you use this content creation system, it may seem like you are working on 7 different steps.

But a little time will pass and you will do it automatically. When this happens, you will no longer think of them as separate steps. They will smoothly blur until the 7 steps become just one simple writing process.

So forget content writing tips! Here is the 7-step writing process that you need.

Pre-writing Stage

1. Know your purpose

Content should never be created by itself. In other words, when they say, “I have to publish 3 articles a week.” – This is not the best reason to write a blog post.

Any content that you create should help you achieve a specific business goal. For example, such as traffic, leads, sales, or ideological leadership.

Why does it matter?

Because you will make a million creative decisions when you create your content, for example:

• Tone.
• Writing style.
• How deep you go.
• Do you provide solutions or simply inform your readers about the problem.

If you know the purpose of your project, you will make decisions that will help you achieve the final result that you are looking for.

So, start with your goal. What do you want this article to do for you?

What is the purpose of your content?

2. Select a topic

Your theme is the main theme of your content. A good topic can help you reach your goal, but it should also be interesting to your audience. Because the only person who matters is the reader.

To find your best ideas, check out these 3 options:

Customer questions. If one client asks a question, you can assume that others have the same question. Your answer may become informative.

Use this approach to come up with content for each stage of the funnel.

Short and simple questions are good for blog posts or FAQs. More complex questions are suitable for longer pieces of content such as lead magnets, pdf reports, advanced manuals, or an ebook.

If you do not already know them, then you can find these questions by performing a quick search in Google or Yandex.

Hot topics. Sometimes a discussion becomes viral – everyone in your industry is talking about one idea. When this happens, you know that people are looking for more information. It may make sense to join and create an article, video, or post on a social network with your unique potential customers.

Trending content can be valuable in the short term. But usually, he has a short period of life. In most cases, you will not write long articles that relate to trends. But if you are constantly engaging in trending topics on your blog, and if your ideas make people think, then this can be a great way to drive traffic.

Search for keywords. This is a smart approach to creating evergreen content. It will help you take place in the search engines and attract new organic traffic.

For this approach, you need to find long-tail keywords with an acceptable query volume and relatively low keyword complexity score. In other words, you need to target keywords that people who are targeting multiple brands are searching for.

3. Research

The research will help you refine your idea and find data and evidence to support any claims you make in your content.

And at the moment you have already found the topic that you are going to write about. Now you need to narrow the scope:

• What do you want people to remember after reading your content?
• What are the main points you would like to note?
• What is your view on this subject?
• What do you say about this new and unique?

Ideally, you need to take a position: are you for or against something? Do you have a solution? But before you complete your idea, you should look at what other brands are saying.

Keep in mind that you are not researching to find information that you can use in your content. Your research focuses on finding information gaps that exist in other content. Therefore, your content will be more useful than anything else.

Also, we are talking about finding elements of evidence that will support everything that you are going to say in your content. For example, it could be citations and statistics, case studies, or stories.

And when you begin to research, you will find some of these elements of evidence. Write them down so that they are easy to find when you start writing.

4. Creating Your Framework

Now you know the type of content you are going to write, the topic, and the information you want to include. Now it’s time to organize your ideas in a rough draft.

You do not need a formal plan, and there is no right or wrong way to organize content. You just need to give some structure to your ideas so that your presentation is logically consistent and easy to follow.

Write down your main idea, and then list the subtitles.

Writing Stage

5a. Write Your Content

Believe it or not, this is the easiest part.

You have already done the hard work of content planning. All you have to do now is realize your ideas.

Don’t worry about starting on top and writing content right away beautifully and beautifully.

You can:

• write content out of order.
• start writing one section, or move on to another.
• rearrange finished paragraphs if you understand that they’re better in another place.
• Delete the subtitle or change it.
• Another thing to keep in mind is …

Your first project may be (and usually happens) BAD. Do not try to write beautifully. Just put your ideas into words.

5b. Rewrite and edit the contents

You have prepared your content. Your ideas come to life. Fine!

But you are not done yet.

Set aside what you wrote to take a fresh look at your content. You will be able to read it as your readers do. This means that it will be easier for you to see any erroneous logic, poor organization, or just boring writing.

At this point, you need to:

• Make sure your ideas are logically and presented.
• Correct grammar or spelling errors.
• Remove roughness in the text so that it leads your readers from the first to the very last word.

Therefore, do not be afraid to completely rewrite sections. Remove what doesn’t work. Also, add transitions and explanations. Move paragraphs or sentences. It is at the stage of rewriting that you become a “good” writer.

On the other hand, now is the time to use content writing tips that you never found useful. They are not to write better. They are for better rewriting!

But be careful not to get caught. Because it is impossible to write perfectly and there is no perfect content.

So relax and enjoy the process.

Post-writing Stage

6. Adding Multimedia

At this point, your content is ready to go. It’s time to think about pictures, GIFs, and videos that you could use to add more value.

Is there a section that is difficult to understand in one word? Look at the screenshot or video that illustrates your point.

7. Optimization

Ideally, by this point, everything will be ready. But you need to track your content so that it can help you achieve your goals.

Therefore, you need to finally make sure that your content is optimized for reading, SEO, and business goal.

You already optimized reading when you rewrote an article and added pictures, GIFs, or videos.

To optimize SEO … you need to add internal links (trackbacks to other content on your blog) and optimize for your main keyword. For this:

• Make sure you use your keyword naturally throughout the article.
• Put this word in your headline.
• Add it to the introduction of the article.
• Use the keyword in the alt-tag in your images.

You do not need to use all of these parameters, as you want to avoid keyword-stuffing (using a keyword more often than in a normal conversation). But you need to include your keyword and its variations in at least 3 of these places.

Use this content recording system for yourself!

This process may seem time-consuming, but once you get used to it, it will save time for writing content.

Best if you can plan your content. Try to go through the stage of preparation for writing, and postpone the process of writing an article and editing it for later.

This system is so flexible that you can easily adapt it to your unique writing process.

You can also check the infographics

Suggested:

3 Reasons Why Long-Reads Should Dominate Your Content Marketing Strategy.

Robin Khokhar

Robin Khokhar is an SEO specialist who mostly writes on SEO. Thus sharing tips and tricks related to SEO, WordPress, blogging, and digital marketing, and related topics.

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