What Does a Professional Content Writer Do?

Everyone is a content creator nowadays! It’s a great time to be alive! But there are more ways than one to interpret the term ‘content writer’. Sure, lots of people can come up with a witty caption or express their personal feelings and beliefs eloquently in a post, but that doesn’t mean everyone has the necessary skills and education required of those who can write professional web content.

Source: 4 Funny Memes for Content Writers

Professional content writers aren’t simply writing keyword-stuffed blog posts from the cushy comfort of their own home. They’re trained to conduct thorough research on a topic, think outside the box to find unique angles and reliable solutions to common problems, and produce engaging pieces of content that satisfies both the reader and the Google search algorithm.

Does that mean that I, as a business owner or CEO, can’t be in charge of my own content production? After all, I know my company and target audience better than anyone else. Of course you do, but content writing is a different type of expert knowledge. If you’re building a house and you know exactly what you want it to look like, you’d still leave the design plans to architects and the construction to certified builders.

Source: The 25 Best Freelance Writer Memes You’ll Ever Encounter

In order to achieve the desired content marketing goals (like boosting your SEO and online visibility), your content needs to be relevant, thoughtfully structured, well-written, reader-friendly, and optimized. As you can imagine, getting it right requires training, skill, and experience. If you’re busy running a business, you should really consider hiring a seasoned content writer or content writing team rather than learning how to write content from scratch.

By delegating this important task, you get to save time and focus on the big picture. Still not convinced? Here’s what a professional content writer will do for you.

The Top 10 Responsibilities of a Professional Content Writer

1. Researches the Best Content Writing Practices in Your Industry

Content writers start their projects by studying the competition’s top-grade content related to a specific topic or keyword in your niche. This helps them identify the most effective content structure (headings and subheadings; bite-sized data vs. chunks of research), the typical length of the content pieces (word count), the type of information that competitors include (educational info, practical tips and tricks, stats, etc.), and the most commonly used writing style (formal vs. conversational).

Gathering this data ‘pushes’ content writers in the right direction and allows them to produce valuable, entertaining, and action-oriented content, content that can keep pace with and eventually edge out the competition.

2. Gets to Know Your Target Audience

Seasoned content writers are well aware of the fact that various target audiences call for different tones and approaches. That’s precisely why they try to learn as much as possible about the demographic(s) in question. Geographic region, gender, age, income, education, marital status, religion, profession, preferences, niche, and personality traits are some of the most important characteristics a professional content writer takes into account when building the buyer persona, i.e. the ideal customer. This is usually done in collaboration with the client.

3. Structures the Content

Most experienced content writers have a habit of creating an outline before they begin writing. Our talented writers swear by this practice because it allows them to visualize the final draft and helps them boost efficiency. What’s more, a well thought-out structure helps a writer ensure that every word in the text offers value to the reader. A good outline means knowing the exact ingredients for a top content piece rather than experimenting and winging it.

4. Writes an Attention-Grabbing Intro

Seasoned content writers know that time is precious for everyone, including your readers. It’s common for site visitors to leave if the opening doesn’t capture their interest (by generating curiosity about a specific problem, situation, or trend). A skilled content writer will come up with an enticing beginning, a hook that convinces readers to fully immerse themselves in what the author has to say. These professionals use engaging opening statements like intriguing questions or solutions to problems that grab the reader’s attention and provide answers that keep them on the hook. Speaking of…

5. Fills the Main Body With Relevant Info

One of the most significant responsibilities of a content writer is building the main body of the content piece with useful and insightful information. The type of info depends on the specific content format. For example, how-to guides contain detailed instructions, pro tips, and quick tricks. Listicles, on the other hand, are made up of great ideas or tried-and-true solutions to a particular problem. Everything that a seasoned content writer writes is in service of answering the customer’s query in an organic and satisfactory manner.

6. Makes the Content Reader-Friendly and Shareable

Professional content writers make sure that the content they create is easy to read and understand. To achieve this, they take advantage of various practices, and they:

• Use headlines and subheaders;
• Organize the text into short, bite-sized sections that are easy to digest, remember, and find (each section is a separate idea or thought);
• Use clear and concise language;
• Integrate keywords, key phrases, and tags;
• Create captivating captions for audio and video; and,
• Incorporate FAQs when suitable.

With the help of these methods, content writers make content pieces scannable for readers, too.

7. Uses Proper Grammar and Punctuation

Since every piece of content will be published online and exposed to countless discerning eyes, following the rules of the English language is a must. Content writers use proper grammar and punctuation as a way to improve the quality, readability, and, most importantly, credibility of a content piece. In fact, grammar and spelling mistakes give people the impression that your website is not professional. Writers know all too well that just a few minor grammar mistakes can ruin the content and chase off the reader.

8. Includes Links and References to Make the Content Piece Trustworthy

Professional content writers are trained to look for newspieces, studies, reports, and stats that back their points and legitimize the content piece. This signals to the readers that the author has done their homework and knows exactly what they’re talking about. Content writers also use internal and external links to help the reader deepen their understanding of a certain subject.

9. Edits and Proofreads

Source: Writing Memes

Once the writing is complete, content writers go through the text to fix grammar errors, improve the readability level, and make improvements in general. Fine-combing and proofreading is a crucial part of every professional content writer’s job. A second pair of eyes, however, can be extremely helpful in this stage of the content writing process, which is why we assign a professional editor to each of our clients.

10. Adds Killer Multimedia

Content writers know that people are visual creatures. They add complementary images, illustrations, videos, GIFs, memes, and other types of multimedia to make the whole reading experience more enjoyable, which will get readers to stay on the site longer.

Let Professionals Take Care of Your Content

As you can see, content writers do so much more than writing. This profession requires a unique set of skills, just like any other. And if you wouldn’t build your home all by yourself, why do that with your business website?