Being a content writer for the past few years, it amazes me that even today, many people are not aware of what content is and what the work of a ‘content writer’ is. In the business world, a world full of competition, exceptional marketing is the only way to stand out in the crowd.
There are many ways of marketing your or your clients’ brand or organisation, but maybe, I am old school and I believe that content is the first pillar. Keeping aside social media marketing, search engine optimisation, PPC, and SEM, I think content writing is the most effective marketing tool.
A lot many young journalists are stepping into the media industry as content writers and I personally feel that saying that “if you know how to write, then you can be a content writer” makes for an unjustifiable statement. I think many of us deserve a clarification on what content writing is.
Writers Vs Content Writer
The term ‘content writer’ is used casually and anyone who knows how to write claims to be a content writer. However, there is a lot of difference between a writer and a content writer. Here, I put forward some of the important points that one must keep in mind while differentiating between the two. Also, if you are planning to become a content writer or a freelance content writer, then you must know these:
- Content Writing and Copywriting: Not everyone is a content writer. The term is specifically used for writers who write website content. Again, copywriters and content writers are very different. Copywriting is more about making sales rather than being precise about increasing sales. While content writing doesn’t just focus on sales; the main task of a content writer is to concentrate on providing correct information.
- Writers and Content Writers: Mostly, writers are referred to as those who write books, magazines or manuscripts or their digital versions, but content writers write for other digital platforms. In fact, before you become a social media marketer, it is an added advantage if you know about content writing. They almost go hand in hand, in case of social media marketing, copywriters are in demand, but I believe content writers fit the profile better.
- Requirements: Copywriters usually fail to write long-form, but content writers can easily meet such requirements.
- Language: One thing I think makes a major difference between a writer and a content writer is the language they use. Usually, the kind of language that is used in a book is a little complex and twisted, whereas in the case of content writing, the approach of writing is straightforward. It is actually better if you do not use difficult terms because the more lucid the language, the more efficiently it will cater to a larger audience.
- How to write: Being a content writer for so many years, one more thing that I have noticed is when you’re writing a book, you can write it as a writer, but if you are writing content, then you have to write it as a reader. The whole purpose of digital writing is that your audience must stay on your page and read. So, you need to write like a reader only then your writing would be read.
Why Is Content Marketing Required?
If you remember from earlier, marketing used to be offline and it used to be geographically limited. But now, with the investment in the digital world, marketing has become more convenient. Gradually, digital marketing has become the new trend and now, content marketing is the safest way to market your products and brands. The advantage of using content marketing is that you are able to promote your product without directly advertising it.
Consumers and audiences have changed in recent years. They avoid anything that is over-advertised. Hence, for optimum or sufficient marketing, you must choose the content marketing strategy to market yourself subtly. But there exist some more challenges, the algorithm of Google is changing every year, so you need to be very versatile while writing on Google.
Skill Set Required For A Full Time Or A Freelance Content Writer
Apart from the fact that a full-time content writer will have to do regular office work while a freelance content writer gets the liberty to choose his time slot to work from home, everything else is the same. I mean the skillset of a full-time content writer and a freelance content writer is the same.
Grammatical Error-Free And Minimum Spelling Mistakes
As not just a content writer but also a writer, it is our responsibility to deliver text without grammatical or spelling errors. Anyone can read your content and from anywhere across the world, so your spellings must be correct, and once it is published, then it is hard to take off anything from the media platform.
Plagiarism-Free Content
This is another important thing that one must keep in mind — any plagiarised content that gets published on your platform gets negatively marked by Google. The quality of your content is considered poor if it is plagiarised. Hence, it is the responsibility of the writer to give plagiarism-free content.
I hope this piece of information has been useful, and keeping in mind the condition of employment in 2020, I believe that digitalisation is only going to increase further. Thus, the demand for content writers will not go down in near future, so you can prepare yourself for the position of a content writer or freelance content writer.