Here’s an example of the power of content writing:
Every day Mani types some keywords into the search engines to find ideas for growing her small-scale business.
She owns a restaurant. She usually searches for various things, from recipes to customer satisfaction to marketing. When she isn’t working, she just wanders around and picks random advice until the day she comes across a particular blog about Women Empowerment.
Now, something is happening. She reads and enjoys every bit of content.
This is what makes the blog special:
- She reads people’s stories about how they started their business
- There is even a community for asking questions
- The blog post is ultra-specific and discusses what women go through when starting a business
She bookmarks the blog. This is too good to read once or twice. It’s too powerful.
So she returns and spends time reading every post — every single one of them. Some are bad, but the majority are good for her. So, she memorizes the title of some of the pages.
She digs a little bit more about the author of the blog. They are two married women. This doesn’t really matter, but then it makes sense.
Meeting Her Tribe
One day, when she’s attending to a customer, she notices one of the customers is reading the same blog.
“Is that not The Women’s blog,” She asks.
“Yes, it is.”
They talk about their favorite content, and then they talk a little longer about the entire blog.
The other woman owns a small shop and finds the blog helpful. She has paid for a convention that is happening next week. The authors of the blog are the hosts.
Mani hasn’t thought about the convention. But what does she have to lose? She brings out her phone and pays for the convention right there. She’s happy to be part of this.
Things have shifted from being customers and restaurant owners to people who enjoy reading this particular blog. That’s a new identity. They are members of the community.
Here is an important content writing tip:
People Like Us Read Stuff Like This.
We belong here.
People like us do stuff like this.
People like us buy things like this.
There is no more powerful tribal marketing connection than this.
More than features, more than benefits, we are driven to become a member in good standing of the tribe. We want to be respected by those we aspire to connect with, we want to know what we ought to do to be part of that circle.
Not the norms of mass, but the norms of our chosen tribe.
Seth Godin’s blog
What Differentiates the Best Business Content Writing?
Millions of blogs are on the internet, and many are still coming.
Everyone is different in one way.
The ones raking in good profit usually have an active readership. Not only because they write good posts. That’s important. Not only because of SEO. That’s important, too.
It’s a lot of things that all add up together, and it starts with asking one question:
If this is a community, who do we want in there?
Then… What do they want?
Then… How can our content serve them differently?
Sometimes, it is because the creators have been around for quite some time (because doing something like content writing for business for years — experimenting, learning, and relearning — can teach you a lot about writing for a specific audience.)
These are two blogs that cover mostly the same topic, yet they are so different:
- Problogger
- Smartblogger
Do you know why? It is the style of writing. The word choice. The author. The template. The color. The topics.
Even if the two blogs write the same topic at length and send you the draft, you can tell which belongs to A and not B.
But okay, that’s an extreme example, and I’m guessing you’re getting bored.
Let me ask you this:
Do You Read Forbes?
My former boss does. My clients do.
But I rarely do.
I source or read most business-related posts at CNBC, HBR, and sometimes BusinessInsider and Inc.
Why?
Because people like me read stuff like that.
On the other hand, my former boss talks about Forbes and shares their quotes and links to articles with his business associates.
Why?
Because people like him read stuff like that?
This is where a business excels with content creation. They say stuff like, we write like this because our audience is millennials struggling to start a business.
This is where your content writing targets the right people who will buy products or ask for more. That’s when you recommend a product, and the readers check it out.
It is hard to practice. Isn’t the idea to write, publish, and follow SEO?
No, it’s not.
During a content writing job interview, many business managers say, “Do you understand SEO?”
Well, yes, many content writers do, but if you’re a business owner, you should ask more questions.
Other important and specific questions:
Do you understand brand building? Let’s say your blog is for female millennials. Ask: can you name five typical challenges facing millennials trying to start a business? Have you worked with millennials before?
Or don’t worry, we usually interview millennials, so we urge you to familiarize yourself with what they read and talk about. You can start with what we’ve published.
We’re getting somewhere with those questions, and it is leading us on the path to creating a powerful community.
Want An Example?
A great example is when I was asked to talk about a smart home appliance I have.
That manager knows exactly who they want in their community.
“Content writing” is the term, but in reality, a lot is going on behind creating content that can’t be defined or explained to outsiders.
When building a business audience through content writing, the purpose is to write for those who will remember you when they need you.
Good luck to those attracting my grandmother to coding classes.
So, who do you want in your community? Have you ever been in their shoes? How do you classify them without using their skin color or geographical location?
What are people like them trying to read?
This post is another sub-post on the topic: Know your audience.