Content Marketing Writing Tips: How to Be Clear, Concise, & Strong

Knowing how to create content is one thing. It’s another thing to know how to write clearly, concisely, and with strength in every article you create.

And when it comes to writing for marketing, you want to provide your audience with the best user experience possible. But how do you achieve this?

For starters, you must understand what it means to write clearly, concisely, and with strength.

What’s It Mean to Write Clearly, Concisely, & With Strength?

Writing clearly, concisely, and with strength is exactly how it sounds. It’s how you earn the attention of your audience and establish credibility for your business. And understanding these concepts is vital to producing consistent, high-quality content that delivers.

But before we dive into the content marketing writing tips to help you achieve this, let’s take a closer look at what i means to write clearly, concisely, and with strength:

• Clearly: Writing clearly means that you delivered on the expectations that your reader had for your writing prior to reading the article. Common mistakes that hold back clarity in writing are vague phrases, flip-flopping verb tenses, and spelling/grammar errors.
  
  
• Concisely: Writing concisely is all about helping the reader find the information they are seeking. Having a strong and easy-to-navigate format is one of the best ways to get your prospects down the page and, hopefully, clicking a call-to-action or discovering another page on your site.
  
  
• With Strength: Writing with strength means that your content is enticing enough to read all the way through. This is an especially important B2B content marketing writing tip -- those industries often must rely on dense, technical writing to get their point across. Strong verbiage and an active voice play a massive role in strong writing.
  
  

How to Write Clear Content Marketing Copy

Not every reader is going to read every single word of a business blog, product page, or email -- again, this is especially true for B2B content marketing. you write for your business. They may skip words, sentences, or even entire sections.

This is why it’s crucial for you to write clearly:

For starters, always assume that your reader knows very little about the topic or your industry. Avoid complicated jargon and sentences that’ll confuse your reader.

Other steps for writing clearly include:

• Avoid typos and other general nonsense: With spell check being built into nearly all writing applications, there’s no excuse for having an abundance of spelling mistakes. You can also use a program like Grammarly if you’re not confident in your grammar and syntax abilities.
  
  
• Be consistent: Stay in one point of view throughout the article instead of jumping around. Your reader should never get stuck for 5 minutes trying to figure out who’s who.
  
  
• Know your audience: Buyer personas and interviews provide you with the knowledge of what terms or concepts they will and won’t understand. If your content is too complicated for your audience, they will lose interest immediately.
  
  
• Create clear headlines: Your headlines should provide the reader with clear expectations for what will be in the article. Be entertaining without resorting to clickbait.
  
  
• Create strong intros: Your introduction goes hand-in-hand with your headline: It should clearly convey what’s coming up in the article and why it’s important to the reader.
  
  
• Use easy words: Unless your target audience is Harvard graduate-level, keep your language simple and easy to understand.
  
  
• Write in order: Organize your information by importance and in the order that you want your readers to consume it. The clock starts ticking as soon as your prospects opens a blog post -- how will you entice them to keep the tab open?

How to Write Concise Content Marketing Copy

It’s best not to bog down your reader with boring and useless wording and information. Many people now read on mobile and are less inclined to stick around if you don’t get to the point.

Here are some best practices to help you write concisely:

• Use bulleted lists and bolded snippets of text to make important information pop out at your reader.
  
  
• Don’t be afraid to use contractions. If you do not use contractions, then you are going to produce content that is stuffy (like this sentence).
  
  
• Keep your paragraphs short so they don’t look like a chore to read.
  
  
• Avoid using excess words. A good rule of thumb is to try and keep your sentences to less than 25 words -- or under 20 if you really want a challenge.
  
  

Examples of Concise Marketing Copywriting

Always keep an eye out for “fluffy” words and word strings that don’t add anything to the sentence. They bog down your writing and distract the reader from the information you’re trying to convey.

Here’s an example:

“In our opinion, we think metal manufacturing goes a whole lot better when the vendor is informed by you about any potential defect risks ASAP.”

This sentence can be cleaned up by removing excess and unnecessary words. Here’s a better version:

“Metal manufacturing goes more smoothly when you inform the vendor about any defect risks ASAP.”

By removing phrases like “we think” and “by you,” you create a concise sentence that conveys the information and moves the reader briskly to the next point.

How to Write With Strength

Not all your blog topics are going to be exciting and filled with wonder and surprises. It’s generally up to you as the writer to make your content interesting. Here’s some content marketing tips to help you do that:

Use Strong Verbs

First and foremost, strong verbs grab attention. Think of captivating verbs that help you to show, not tell, your point. By using strong verbs the correct way, you’ll paint a picture in the head of your audience.

Examples:

“Lunch was superb” > “Lunch was really quite good.”

“We discovered a new technique” > “We got a new process we found.”

“Her tangled, curly hair bounced freely like a rabbit” > “Her hair was a mess.”

Avoid Passive Voice

Another way to write with strength? Always use an active voice. But what does that mean? This is a universal tip for writing blog content.

You always want the subject of the sentence to be emphasized. When you fail to do this, and instead emphasize the verb, it’s called passive writing. It makes your message weaker and less engaging.

A neat trick you can use to make sure you’re staying in active voice is the “zombie” method (no, really). Try it: Add the phrase “by zombies” to the end of your sentence. If the sentence still makes sense after adding it, then you most likely used a passive voice.

Examples:

“The town was attacked (by zombies).”

“Zombies attacked the town (by zombies).”

The second sentence is a good example of an active voice because the subject, zombies, was the emphasis and no longer made sense after adding “by zombies” to the end. Here’s one more example:

“Fishing can be learned (by zombies).”

“You can learn fishing (by zombies).”

Again, the second sentence puts the noun doing the action in the subject location of the sentence, making it an active voice.

Combining Clarity, Concision, & Strength

By following these tips, the content that you create will stay engaging and entertaining -- even “boring” topics! As a result, you’ll establish authority in your industry and become a trusted source of information.

For more tips on sharpening your marketing message, check out this full guide to website and blog marketing copywriting for beginners: