Helen Savage, Director of Blog Write and copywriter to the glazing industry for over 20 years, offers some top tips for writing longer pieces that help develop a brand’s thought leadership.
Short pieces of content in your marketing mix are valuable for getting your company name seen multiple times, but long form content such as blog posts or feature articles for trade magazines give you the chance to delve a little deeper. They help to establish you as a leader on a particular subject because you have more space to prove your expertise.
The trouble is, longer pieces take more time to research and write, and even a seasoned marketing pro can suffer from writer’s block from time to time. So, here are a few tips that might help get you started and keep the words flowing.
1. Have a plan – For longer pieces it’s helpful to start with bullet points. Map out what you want to say to make sure there’s a sensible flow to the whole piece. You may be perfectly confident in everything you want to say but pouring out what’s in your head onto the page, without planning the structure first can be a costly mistake.
2. Just write – Once you have your broad structure, start writing. Some people feel the need to agonise over every sentence to make them word perfect as they write and end up writing nothing as a result. When the piece is finished you will edit it anyway, so just make a start.
3. Get your facts straight – Whether you are writing a business profile or an issues-based article, facts and figures can provide context. For example, if you are writing about a bi-fold product launch, can you find some statistics about the continuing trend for bi-folds? Context explains to readers why it’s important that they read on and builds authority for your brand.
4. Be useful – It can be tempting to make your copy all about you, but the most interesting copy offers thoughts, opinions, advice, or market information that are useful to your target audience. Perhaps think about one person – someone you would really like to work with – and write for them. What would they like to know? What would make their lives easier?
5. Edit. When you’ve finished the first draft read the piece through multiple times. Check for spelling and grammar mistakes, but also make sure it flows well. Sometimes you get so caught up trying to get just the right phrase you lose sight of the fact it isn’t relevant to the overall argument.
Writing longer pieces can be a daunting task, especially for smaller businesses doing it for themselves or busy marketing departments trying to juggle their workload, but if you plan carefully, remember who you’re writing for, and edit it objectively, you will be well on your way to building credible thought leadership material.
For more top tips about copywriting for your business or creating and maintaining a business blog, visit blogwrite.co.uk/blog
