Simple tips for writing content your customers will love

You are passionate about your business or product. You could talk for hours about how the idea came about, how you developed it, what your product does, who you’re going to approach for funding… You can win people over with the force of your enthusiasm alone, right?

Then it comes to writing content for your website, brochure, press release, etc. You need to translate that excitement into words for people who don’t know you, and you might never speak to. Here are some easy content writing tips to remember that will keep you on course.

“Good writing is good conversation, only more so.”

Hemingway offers the perfect advice for you with this quote. Write as if you are in conversation with your reader.

Think about your customers, or potential customers, and imagine the tone you would use with them. Do you need to be formal and authoritative? Easy, fun… silly even?

Writing content this way offers a chance for people to get to know you without any hard selling. When you’ve finished writing, read it aloud. Any odd or “sticky” or pompous phrases will leap out at you immediately.

And a good conversation is not one-sided. Talking with passion will have you standing on your own pretty quickly if you completely forget about the other person. Which brings us to…

What’s in it for me?

Here’s where you’ll need to put your enthusiasm aside and switch on your imagination instead. Your reader doesn’t care (much, at this point anyway) about your back story. They care about their problems and how they’ll fix them. Write in a way that makes it clear you’re the solution.

Let them know what’s in it for them. How will you and your product make their lives easier, safer, cheaper…? If you’re a start-up, this is probably an easy task. You know what prompted you to design and create what you have, and you probably have a fair bit in common with your customer.

Now scan your writing and make sure that everything you’ve included is a benefit to your reader in some way. “Carbon-fibre wing nuts” might be an important and expensive part of your design but probably have much less appeal than “super-easy adjust…”.

There’s room for a little you

Of course, you don’t have to miss yourself out entirely when you’re writing content for your business or product. Talking about yourself – especially if you have an unusual, surprising or emotional story to tell – will give customers a chance to get to know you and feel connected.

Establishing yourself as knowledgeable or an expert in your field will help to build trust in your brand. Offer advice freely, share what you know, and you can do this organically. You don’t have to hit your reader with a CV or list of qualifications to demonstrate that your advice is reliable.

The magic word is…

As you’ve probably gathered, the magic word is pretty simple: “you”. When you’re content writing for customers and potential customers, the focus has to be on “you” (the customer) and their needs, rather than “I” (the seller/provider).

Advice varies, but if you use eight to ten “you”s for each of your “I”s, you’re in good shape.

Whatever you’re writing, keep in mind that you are talking to a real person who is nodding and blinking back at you, who is contemplating everything else they need to do today, who is watching their budget, who is in a hurry. This should help you stay on track with words and tone, and increase your chances of writing content your customers will love.

And, if you need some help with your content writing, please get in touch with me.