“Content” has become a buzzword for digital marketing businesses. In reality, it’s a very general term. It basically means anything used to communicate with people. This could mean images, texts, videos, and the list goes on.

Specifically we’re going to talk about text, and rules for writing to engage your digital customer.

Remember Ann Hadley’s formula: Utility x Inspiration x Empathy = Quality Content.

Utility means you are writing something useful to your customer. For instance, if you are writing about storage space, be sure to include the dimensions. But don’t just say, “The dimensions to this space is 5’x10’. That’s where inspiration comes in. Don’t be boring. Engage your customer’s imagination. Say the space can hold a couch, a television, and a few bookcases, for instance. This will show empathy with your customer. What would you want to read, if you were exploring storage services to fulfill a need?

Write what problems your services solve, not what your business provides

This is a crucial distinction. Many are the writers who think and write from a business-centric perspective. They’ll write things like, “We provide the quickest quote creation page in the industry.” This doesn’t really tell the customer anything, though. Write for the customer. Be specific. Tell Jake from Indiana that he can get a quote during his lunch break, in less than five minutes.

Write in active voice, not passive

Many people get this wrong. They think passive means past tense. But you can write in passive voice in present tense as well. Consider: “We can write your business page for you!” This is passive voice. The verb doesn’t do all the work. Take out the lazy “can.” And you’ll have active voice: “We write your business page for you!” Click for other useful examples.

Conclusion

With these three very basic rules in mind, your bandwidth is the limit to the quality content you can write.  But if you’d like professional writing services at your whim, contact us for a quote today!