Struggling to know where to start with writing content for your business? Here are 10 tips to help you:

1. Be authentic, be you: People buy from people they know, like and trust. Don’t be afraid to put some of your personality into your writing so people can get to know you better
2. It doesn’t have to be an English essay – it’s for your audience: Although you need to write clearly and in full sentences, you don’t have to write in a structured, formal way. Many of the ‘rules’ you were taught at school don’t have to be followed
3. But also it’s for yourself; write what you want to read: Don’t worry that people won’t read your content – they will. The most important thing is that you’re sharing your knowledge and expertise
4. What does your audience need to know? What would really help them to understand the value of your product or service? What seems obvious to you about your business? Talk about that in your content, because chances are, your customers won’t know how things really work
5. Kill your darlings: A tip from fiction writers – edit your work! Remove any element that doesn’t add to your story or move the reader forward
6. Be brutal with your work and edit it again: Think you’ve edited enough? You probably haven’t! Go back and look at any points when you’ve wandered off-topic, and take it out
7. Don’t repeat yourself: You want to emphasise the value of your offering, but that doesn’t mean saying the same things over and over. At best that’s boring, at worst it comes across as a hard sell
8. Don’t waffle: You don’t HAVE to write thousands of words if you can explain what you do in a few hundred. Respect your readers’ valuable time and keep it short and to the point where possible
9. If you wouldn’t use words in your everyday speech, don’t use it in your writing: This goes back to point 2 – using long, complicated words can alienate or confuse your audience. Using industry-specific jargon will make them feel stupid, and if you use a word that’s new to you, there’s a risk you’ve picked the wrong one
10. Imagine that you’re writing with an inverted pyramid: A tip from the journalists! Put the most valuable information at the top and then put everything else at the bottom. That way, if a visitor just skims your blog or web page, or doesn’t read to the end, they’ve still got the key facts from the beginning

Click here to download this post as a handy tip sheet!