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content marketing skills

5 Content Marketing Skills For Business Owners To Master In 2022

As a business owner, I know you already juggle numerous responsibilities – including content marketing. You might be your business’s marketing director, copywriter, and social media manager on top of everything else you do. But, no matter how talented a writer you might be, every content marketer needs a variety of skills to convert prospects into customers.

As a content marketer, you need to create content to improve sales. No matter how creative or witty your writing is, it’s not worth your very valuable time if it doesn’t profit your company. Improving the following skills will allow great writers everywhere to become great content marketers. 

5 Skills Every Content Marketer Needs To Convert Customers

Whether you’re writing for one small business or a large franchise, every content marketer can benefit from developing the following skills. So, even if you’re the busiest of business owners, make time to improve your content marketing skills and save yourself time, money, and headaches in the long run.

Looking for a team of writers who can consistently communicate in your brand’s voice? Sign up for a virtual cup of coffee with FocusCopy so we can talk about your marketing goals. 

Editing Skills

Even very talented writers still have to work on their editing skills. Make no mistake – editing is not just looking for spelling or grammar mistakes. Anybody can use Grammarly to help with that! While those errors can make a page look unprofessional, editing serves a larger purpose.

When editing a piece of business writing, you want to read and re-read the document. Is your document as clear as it can possibly be? Without clarity, you risk confusing your customers and ultimately discouraging them from working with you. 

Think about how you can use as few words as possible to get your point across. Shakespeare once wrote, “Brevity is the soul of wit.” If you want to truly impress your customers, don’t weigh down your web pages or newsletters with clunky vocabulary words or long sentences. Your readers are busy, and you’re fighting for their attention. So, get to the point! 

There’s an endless amount of content to create to promote your business, so you’ll want to train yourself to write quickly. After all, you have a business to run! So, learning to edit quickly is equally as vital as learning to write quickly.

Search Engine Optimization Skills

Most people have never even heard of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Regardless, SEO dramatically impacts who learns about your business. When your websites and blogs are optimized for search engines like Google, your website will appear higher on search engine rankings.

If you want your website to ever reach your target audience, you’ll need to brush up on your SEO skills. Even a basic understanding of SEO can dramatically influence the traffic to your website. 

Once you understand SEO, you can make small changes to your website that will dramatically affect your Google ranking. You can research keywords to create strong titles, adjust your sentences for readability, and even include helpful transition words. 

Does brushing up on your SEO skills sound like learning a foreign language? At FocusCopy, SEO is second nature to our copywriters. Schedule a meeting with FocusCopy today. 

Research & Interviewing Skills

As your business’s copywriter, you’ll have to cover a variety of topics. While you certainly know a lot about your business, you might have to write about totally foreign topics. This is completely common for the average content marketer who might write for multi-million dollar businesses one day and for a local mom-and-pop shop the next. 

You’ll want to brush up on your research skills so you can answer any questions you might have while writing. One way to find reliable answers to your questions is to interview an expert. Improving your interviewing skills will allow you to effectively collect data for your copy. 

Time Management & Organization Skills

As a content marketer, you know how difficult it is to stick to a schedule. Writing is often draining, and anyone who has stayed up the night before an essay is due knows what I mean. 

A growing business needs a lot of copy – newsletters, emails, blogs, website pages, and more. And it’s important to keep a consistent schedule. You don’t want your customers to forget about you until you manage to send out a newsletter six months after the last one. 

Creating a content calendar and sticking to it will help keep your business at the forefront of your audience’s attention. Work backward! First, plan how often you want to post a new blog or touch base through an email. After that, break down your goals into daily tasks. If you want to post a blog once a week, start drafting that blog five days (or more) before your publication date. 

Set realistic timelines and schedule enough time to consistently meet your goals. It’s okay if you have to reevaluate and change your calendar! The point is to find a schedule that works for you and your business. 

At FocusCopy, we use a project management software called ClickUp that helps us juggle all the tasks we have to do in a day. You can even use ClickUp to improve your time management and organization skills for all the parts of your life, professional and personal.

Data & Analytics Skills

After you have published your work, it’s important not to stop there. You need to evaluate what works for your business and what doesn’t.

Really, analyzing your data should be the easiest part of content marketing! But, most people don’t want to commit to the extra effort. Regardless, even if you worked really hard on a blog, it might need further tweaking. You might not be hitting the right notes with your audience, or you need to choose more popular keywords. 

Analyzing the performance of your content also helps you to make strategic decisions for future content. You can stop making the same mistakes and prevent yourself from wasting even more time in the future. 

FocusCopy Has The Content Marketing Skills To Grow Your Business

Even if you excel as a content marketer, creating every word of copy for your business is time-consuming and tiring. If you feel burnt out writing your business’s copy, FocusCopy is here to help.

Don’t spend hours of your life writing copy when you know you have a million other responsibilities. We want to grow your business with copy that accurately represents your brand and converts customers. Contact FocusCopy today to get back to running your business.

Focus Your Copy On Conversation & Conversion

Let’s Grab A Virtual Coffee With Us To Discover How To Boost Your Words

11 Tips on How To Overcome Your Writer’s Block

Picture this. You sit down at your computer, knowing you have to produce a 1,500 word blog for your marketing team. A blank page stares back at you with the blinking cursor taunting you. Nothing. 

The time ticks by… It feels like it’s been at least 20 minutes. 

Nope, only 30 seconds. 

Writer’s block is a real thing that destroys productivity and confidence. When we experience this, we start to believe that we are not the experts in our field, we don’t have anything valuable to say, or our story is not worth hearing. 

No, no, and no. 

The #2 reason why people come to us is because they love to write, but it takes them an entire day to write that same 1,500 word blog post. Or sometimes, it just never gets done. They are plagued with imposter syndrome and don’t believe that others will see them as the experts they really are. 

The main reason for this is… Writer’s block. 

What is Writer’s Block?

Cambridge Dictionary defines it as “the condition of being unable to create a piece of written work because something in your mind prevents you from doing it”.

Writer’s block occurs when you have this overwhelming amount of work to do but the motivation or inspiration isn’t there. Nothing happens when you sit down to write. It’s largely defeating and can destroy the momentum you once had for a project, a goal, or to complete a given task. 

It’s a creative slowdown. 

Why We Get Writer’s Block

So, why do we get writer’s block? There are many reasons why we get writer’s block.

Often, the biggest reason for writer’s block is the lack of inspiration or distractions in other areas of your life. When a person is experiencing a life-altering event (i.e. marriage and wedding planning, death of a loved one, physical illness, lawsuit, etc.), it can stunt our ability to process and be creative. We are in the fight or flight mode – just trying to get through the day. If that’s you, give yourself grace. Try some of the tips below to help you overcome your writer’s block and improve your overall headspace. 

In addition, the pressure to produce content or copy can often result in writer’s block. We get fearful that we’ll never accomplish it, so we submit to that fear and give up. 

Mental illness, such as anxiety or depression, makes it difficult to form complete thoughts in writing. Producing written material – even as short as a blog – is stressful to some. When that stress reaches a particular level, the brain goes back into that fight or flight mode. 

Sometimes, we experience physical damage (i.e. a stroke, brain injury) that results in writer’s block. This extreme version of writer’s block – agraphia – makes it almost impossible for the brain to translate thoughts into writing. 

11 Tips on How To Overcome Your Writer’s Block

When I get writer’s block (even a writer gets this), here are a few things that I do to move past it and overcome writer’s block.

1. Sit Down When You’re Most Creative

Sit down at your desk (or wherever you type) at your most creative time – for me, it’s in the morning (preferably before 8am). I love love love to write even before the sun comes up because everything is still, and my productivity is at its highest. 

If I have a big writing day, I’ll try to wake up between 4-5am to start writing. When you know you’re going to write early in the morning, your brain actually prepares to write. 

In addition, I even block off hours or days where I do not allow any phone calls, other tasks, or meetings to enter that time. But, I’m too busy Lauren, and people demand my response all the time. Me too! But if you are writing a blog, a book, or an online program, it needs to get done. You need to prioritize your schedule – not let others dictate what it’s going to be.

2. Put Pen To Paper

If the keyboard isn’t inspiring you, get a notepad and sit in a comfy chair. Then write on that notepad. 

You can refine your ideas when you type them back into the computer. There’s something magical about putting a pen to paper. Plus, you get away from that blue light emitted by your computer screen, phone, or tablet for just a little while. Again, it helps to break up your regular pattern – and consequently, improves your creativity. 

3. Get Outside

Overcome Your Writer's Block

Get outside and in nature – even in a city environment. There are so many benefits to getting outside, including the following:

  • It boosts your energy
  • You are more likely to move your body – increasing blood flow to your brain
  • The sun gives you Vitamin D which is essential for your bones, immune system, and blood cells
  • It reduces any anxiety that you may have over the writing process
  • It improves your sleep, helping you to wake up early easier
  • You focus more easily as greenness is proven to help improve your concentration on any given task

We could go on and on… But if you’ve been locked up in a room for days trying to write, get outside. 

4. Change The Scenery

Change the scenery that you’ve been surrounding yourself as you’ve built up your writer’s block. For me, coffee shops give my spirit so much energy, and I’ll type up several blogs in a few hours. Additionally, I’ll change what I’m sitting on and what I’m writing on (see tip #2 on putting pen to paper). 

Can’t change actual locations? Then it’s time to change up the mood. 

At a marketing internship, we often would pour a glass of red wine before writing the weekly blog. That was our creativity session!

When I am writing a lot of deliverables for clients later in the day, I’ll even light a candle, put on some cool jazz music, and put on my favorite sweater (as long as it isn’t a 100 degrees outside). 

5. Play Some Music

Put some music on in the background. You can search for writing or coffee shop playlists. Those are usually chiller playlists that don’t distract you with fun lyrics. Instead, they’ll inspire you and keep a rhythm for your writing pace. 

Often, I’ll listen to movie scores as they have an ebb and flow – allowing for my brain to breathe during slower sections then speed up during the quicker sections. In college, I learned this practice very well; I listened to the Interstellar film soundtrack on repeat for hours and hours. 

6. Walk Around And Talk

Walk around and talk into a voice memo. You’ve got the content in your head; it just needs to come out. 

When I used to ghostwrite for an entrepreneur, the “author” used to get in his most creative moments after lunch when he was sucking on a Starburst. He’d walk around the office talking, while I madly wrote down notes. I also recorded his 5-minute brain dumps – many of which you can hear the smacking of the Starburst.

The act of walking helps improve blood flow to your brain, gets the oxygen where it needs to be, and often lets you essentially walk through and overcome your writer’s block.

7. Skip and Keep Writing

If you get stuck on a section, make a note of it then move on. It’s better to keep the flow going then get stuck on a particular section. When you’re out of the writing flow, that’s when you can come back to work on that section.

Most of the time, the reason you are stuck is because you’re missing a fact or point. Be sure to read tip #9 to solve that issue.

8. Drink That Water

Be sure to drink that water. This seems so simple, but I’ve learned that when I’m hydrated, and my body has the things it needs to operate, I write more efficiently and effectively.

Did you know you should be drinking half your bodyweight in ounces? It sounds like a lot, but your body needs that amount of water to operate effectively. Sure, you may have to visit the restroom a couple of extra times a day, but that too gives you much needed time away from “the screen”.

9. Do Your Research Before You Write

To overcome your writer’s block, you must do your research before you write. If you research while you write, it’s so easy to get distracted. Eventually, you’ll end up on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Instagram, and you’ll have no clue why or how you even got there. 

Do the research beforehand. 

Like planning your day or for a big client meeting, you need to have a game plan with everything you need before you start the day or meeting. Likewise, you must have your research completed and organized before you start writing. 

10. Put The Phone Away

Simply put, put the dang phone away. Phones, to say the least, are largely distracting.

Put on the Do Not Disturb setting on your phone and your computer. You don’t need to hear the dinging or vibrating of your phone while you work. Your spouse or kids need to reach you? You can allow them to reach you even with the Do Not Disturb setting on.

Employees need to reach you? Send automated emails and/or texts that let them know you’re in a writing session. They will only have to wait for a couple hours (if that) for you to return their message. 

11. Ask Questions

Finally, one of the best ways to overcome your writer’s block is to flip the script. Instead, ask questions about what your intended audience is asking. What do they want to know most? What are their big questions? Write a whole list of questions, then start answering them. 

How did we come up with this blog? A client had a bad case of writer’s block, so I answered them with my biggest tips. 

Overcoming Writer’s Block Is More About Unblocking Your Brain

Listen closely. Writer’s block isn’t a physical block; your brain unconsciously applied the brakes to your creative thinking. Often, it’s because you are not creating an environment that will facilitate creativity and productivity. Your brain needs you to take care of it well so it can release the brakes for you – that’s why much of this blog wasn’t about writing; it was about taking care of your body. 

We have to do what’s best for our brains for it to produce our most creative and inspiring work. 

Focus Your Copy On Conversation & Conversion

Let’s Grab A Virtual Coffee With Us To Discover How To Boost Your Words