TEREZA LITSAContent Marketing Manager

at Hubbub Fundraising

15 WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR CONTENT WRITING

Effective content

It’s a content-driven world

Image: iphonewalls.net

1. WRITING PROCESS

2. CREATIVITY

There’s no perfect

topic

Image: teepublic

3. ATTENTION SPAN

The average human attention span is just…

8 seconds

A goldfish has an

attention span of

9 seconds

4. TYPES OF CONTENT

IMAGES

65% of people are visual learners

INFOGRAPHICS

Infographics are shared 3x times

more than any other

visual content

I

VIDEOS

Image: Loozrboy, CC BY-SA 2.0

Videos will account

for 80% of all internet traffic

by 2019

GIFs

There are more than

150 million original GIFs

Making a blog post visual

5. LENGTH OF CONTENT

Is long-form

content dead?

(not yet)

The average blog post in 2016 was

1054 words

6. STRUCTURE

Allow your text to breathe

Test content on all

devices

Bullet points

Not all bullet points

improve structure

7. FORMATTING

Images relax the readers’

eyes

Headings help you organise your content

There’s no right

and wrong way of

using them

H1 to H6

Headings can also improve

your search rankings

8. CONTENT GOALS

What do you want to achieve with your content?

thought leadership

awareness promotion engagement conversion

Call-to-action

9. HEADLINE

It’s the first impression that counts

What makes a great headline?

clarity brevity relevance emotional appeal

Don’t try too hard

CoSchedule’s Headline Analyser

10. LANGUAGE

Simplicity

Avoid passive voice

Avoid using unnecessary adverbs

No more buzzwords

Image Credit: Gavin Llewellyn

Be consistent with the verb tense

It’s easier to be confused in longer sentences

Stay away from common mistakes

Image Credit: Someecards

11. SEO

SEO?!

It’s useful to create

“SEO-friendly” content

Increase the chances for an image to be discovered

file13435.jpg optimisation-seo.jpg

TitleAim for relevance and brevity

HeadingsHelp search

engines discover

your focus keywords

Keywords

Use them in the right context.

Meta-descriptionHow do you

describe your content to

your readers?

12. READABILITY

Image: Found Animals Foundation, CC BY-SA 2.0

Factors affecting readability: - reading ease - writing style - comprehension - language

Pick the right font

Allow enough space

Use simple writing

Image: Jegi, CC BY 2.0

Avoid long sentences

13. SOCIAL OPTIMISATION

Think of the headline

No more stock photos

Adjust the description

Add sharing buttons

Encourage likes and shares

How Medium encourages shares

14. THINK LIKE A USER

Stop thinking like a writer

Use Google Analytics to learn your audience

Bad user experience can kill good content

Mobile optimisation- structure - buttons - images - forms

Responsiveness- usability - accessibility - performance

Conversion rate

The user experience honeycomb by Peter Morville

15. TOOLS

Hemingway

Grammarly

Buzzsumo

Readable

CoSchedule’s Headline Analyser

Writefull

StayFocusd

TAKEAWAY

Checklist to improve contentWriting process

Content types

Length

Structure

Creativity Headline Language

Readability

SEO

Social optimisation UX

Formatting

Unlock new opportunities

ENJOY the writing process

Follow: @terezalitsa

Message: terezalitsa@gmail.com

Read: www.terezalitsa.com

Thank you!