What are the Content Writing Roles and Responsibilities?

 

Introduction

The content writing industry is expanding at a  very fast rate across the globe. The pressure to SEO compatible content is increasing in the ever-increasing number of content writers. A skilled content writer focuses on creating data-driven, factual content. Almost all industries like Travel and Tourism, Education, Healthcare, Boutique, Culinary, Real Estate, Finance, and others have joined the list of clients looking for good content. As the demand for good content writing increases, it lays more emphasis on the roles and responsibilities of content writing. So, let us make a checklist of content writing roles and responsibilities here.

Content writing: Ready, Steady, Go!

“Just write every day of your life. Read intensely. Then see what happens. Most of my friends who are put on that diet have very pleasant careers.” – Ray Bradbury

Do you want to become a content writer? Or already a content writer but want to hone your skills and be clear about your roles and responsibilities? Understand content writing better? Join the Club.

• Start the way you plan to go. You will be better prepared if you attend a training program. A lot of training programs are available of which the content writing course programs offered by Henry Harvin writing Academy are one of the best. It has internship and assistance for placement too.

• The next step is to decide whether you want to be a Freelance content writer or a full-time employee.
• Empower yourself by creating a personal blog and start writing on topics of interest or trending topics.
• Keep improving on your content and skill set. This will help you improve the traffic on your blog.
• Read, read, read.
• Research on keywords and connect to the reader through your writing

High-quality content is a product of focused research, organized approach, analytical thinking, time-consuming effort, language skills, creative presentation, SEO, knowledge of the reader, and factual content. These are the most important content writing roles and responsibilities. All your efforts will fall in place if you have a defined purpose for the topic you select for writing. Fulfilling the purpose is most important for good content writing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YS96IEO-Q0A

Content Writing: Purpose and types of content writing linked

“To be momentous, create content with purpose.” – Russell Sparkman

Do you ask yourself the 5W + H questions before you start the first draft of content writing? What are you writing? Are you working towards the expected outcome? Why are you writing this particular topic? When do you have to submit the completed draft? Who asked you to write? Whom are you writing for? Where is it to be published? How are you going to approach the subject?

The role and responsibility of content writing are to have clear and specific answers to the questions asked above to set the purpose, the objective, and the goal or outcome. The 5W+H (what, when, where, who/whom, why +How) method will lead you to the purpose, target audience, timing, and approach.

Most content writing is divided into two categories based on the purpose and audience.

Some types of content writing are long-form and some short form. You need to select a type of content writing based on the purpose. 

Long-form –  

Long-form content has 1,000 — 7,500 words. It gives information on a lot of complicated subjects through a strong source of writing. This type of content is suitable to provide valuable and authentic information to the reader. It works well with SEO.

Short-form–

Short-form content is less than 1,200 words in length. It is quick and easy to read and understand and covers a specific area of a topic.

Some types of content writing are long-form and some others are short form. You need to select a type of content writing based on the purpose. 

Types of Content writing and their purpose

The purpose, client’s need, and the target audience decide the selection of the type of content writing.

Blog Posts

These are the most common long-form content writing type and the purpose is to get top ranking for the website through SEO. Another purpose is to give freedom of expression to the writer. Sometimes blogs can be short-form content too.

Newsletter/Emails

As a short-form content, Its major aim is to establish the customer’s loyalty to the brand by establishing a personal connection.

White paper

This is a long-form of content writing that is used as an educational tool by an industry expert and helps in gaining the trust of the reader or customer.

Infographics

It is short-form content and can be used to present facts through visuals, words, graphs, numbers on one or two pages, to gain the trust of the customer. An excellent example is the presentation of a comparative study of all products of an organization.

Ebooks

Its purpose is to educate the reader or customer by giving a detailed long-form write-up about the product or topic.

Product descriptions

Its objective is to showcase and promote a product and attract the customer.

Website Content Posts

Getting customers is the main purpose of this type of content writing. Make the landing page a binder for the rest of the pages.

Case Studies

Case studies as a long-form, help in increasing conversion rates so are built around the challenges faced by a customer and how the solution was given.

Social Media Posts

The purpose is to promote writing, product, business to a larger audience through different writing styles. This is short-form content.

If the purpose and type of content are clear, the content writer gets a focused direction in his or her writing. He or she has his bag of skills to refine the craft of content writing.

Content Writing: Writer’s Bag of skills

“The easy, conversational tone of good writing comes only on the eighth rewrite.” – Paul Graham

Are you being true to the topic? Do you simple words or want to show off your word power? Can you imagine your audience with you while writing? Where did you get the data, is it real?

The protagonist of content writing is the writer and the reader is the director. So, as in any film, a lot of responsibilities lie on the shoulders of the writer.

The Writer’s Talent

Writer and Reader Handshake

• Bring your uniqueness and out-of-the-box approach to the topic. Be true to your original thinking and creativity.
• Make use of tools like Keyword Cluster and Text Optimizer to plan and structure the content.
• Be very sure of your target readers. Have a constant conversation with them while writing                 
• The reader knows more than you and is smarter so leave some gaps in the content for them to fill. So, be careful of the truth of the factual information. You don’t have the freedom of a creative writer.
• Maintain a partnership with your reader and look at the writing from his or her mind space.
• Draft, redraft, edit and proofread.

Spin a story

• Good content is not storytelling, but you can make an effort to tell your story well.
• Create an action in your storytelling either through questions or through sharing personal anecdotes and drop them right into it. Imagine the curiosity of the reader if you start your story with something like “I am going to share a secret with you which no one else knows”.
• Connect your story to incidents of the day-to-day life of the reader.
• Your story should connect with the geographic and socioeconomic attributes of your target audience.

The Craftsmith

• Whether you are writing in English or any other language your tone and voice should be clear, confident, and fulfill the purpose. It makes it easier to connect to the audience.
• Learn to diversify content so that it can be reformatted across different platforms and audiences.
• Ensure that proper research is done by you before you start drafting the content. Make sure that the sources of information are reliable.
• Keep adding to your knowledge and skills by checking on the latest trends in content writing.
• Be careful while using the double-edged sword of humor and wit. It should neither undermine your content nor leave a bad taste for the reader.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mmFcnLFu34

Freelance /In house content writer and the client

A Freelance or In house content writer needs to be clear about his or her responsibilities like-

• Understanding the needs of the client or organization
• Be aware of the ongoing research on the topic
• Know the expectation of the clients on the number of leads to be produced.
• Stay within the budget allotted for the content production.
• Work on the guideline given by the core business objectives where your content fits.
• Check if it is acceptable to share the content across a larger audience
• Learn how to use the online and offline tools the company or client has adopted for content production
• Take a higher-level role if the client or company expects and create strategic content marketing ideas.
• Keep analyzing the performance of the present content to tweak it if required and send forward an improved version
• Coordinate with other members of the organization in every stage of content writing.
• Moderate the feedback as per the policy of the client or organization.

   Content writing: Language skills

“Here’s everything you need to know about creating killer content in 3 simple words: Clear. Concise. Compelling.” –  Demian Farnworth

How are your language skills? Are you able to replace big words with simple words? Do you depend heavily on Grammarly? Can you express, communicate and connect with the audience?

Honing your language skills, especially writing skills is a responsibility you have towards content writing. The following checklist will help you do that.

Writing skills

• Allow the tone, positioning, simple consistent language to support clear communication skills.
• Have an impressive opening paragraph that hooks the reader to your writing.
• Adopt a distinct writing style
• Have short paragraphs
• Be careful with punctuation
• Create attractive headings, subheadings and titles

Grammar and wordpower

• Have a strong hold on grammar, metaphors, and visual imagery
• Attract audience through correct English usage
• Use tools like Grammarly, Hemingway to check for errors
• Use simple words and sentences
• Do not use adverbs
• Use articles, prepositions and conjunctions appropriately
• Use proper link words, connectors between words, ideas, and paragraphs

Your writing skills and use of language help boost SEO.

Content writing: Search Engine Optimization

“Write so that people can hear it and it slides through the brain and goes straight to the heart” – Maya Angelou

Do you find SEO the most difficult of all your content writing roles and responsibilities?

Search Engine Optimization is the expert ability to reach the first page of search engines in an organic listing. It is a process that involves several techniques. It helps in optimizing the web content related to the brand and getting your webpage to the top of the organic list.

The following features of your content help in SEO-

• The Written content
• Title tags
• The Page URL
• Images and videos
• Effective Keywords
• Internal and External links

Content Writing: Know your keywords, subheadings and images

“Writing isn’t about using big words to impress. It’s about using simple words in an impressive way.” – Sierra Bailey

How to identify the words or keywords which attract readers to your writing? What are the keywords which suit SEO? How do you pick on images and videos which are relevant to the topic? Do you know how to come up with creative subheadings?

A set of content writing roles and responsibilities, the following three features play a major role in not only uplifting the quality of the content but also attracting the audience to your writing. They add colour to your writing!

Know your Keywords

Understand the facts and importance of selecting the correct keywords. They help you with the URL and get the reader’s attention. They support the trending of your blog or writeup too. The various Analytics tools available can help in preparing your content writing in trending. Some of the best tools to find keywords are –

SEMRush

 All content writers find this tool very useful for keyword research, especially new writers. If you give the URL, it will give you keywords in their ranking order relevant for that website. Experts in the industry recommend this tool.

Google keyword planner

It is a free tool and one of the best in providing deep information on keywords search. It gives an overview of how the keyword is behaving on all search engines. It is a favorite among bloggers.

Spyfu

This tool allows you to compare different websites and keywords. This helps you identify the most searched keywords. It fulfills SEO goals.

Serpchat

Along with all necessary facilities, the unique facility this tool provides is that it can personalize the results based on the region, language, etc

Adword Keyword planner and Keyword Keg

These two tools are for YouTube content writers and are very popular. They personalize the search languages, regions and are more effective than their competitors.

Next responsibilities are the choice of subheadings, images, and videos

 

Headlines/Subheadings

• Create awesome, original headlines and subheadings
• They should be self-descriptive about the content
• Make use of font sizes H1 to H4 to differentiate headings, subheadings, and subtopics.

Use of images and videos

• Select images and videos which set the context and supplement the written content.
• Place them between two paragraphs or two subtopics
• Ensure that images and videos don’t overpower the written content.

So now it is about the additions, deletions, and corrections before presenting the final draft.

Content Writing: Edit…Edit…Edit!

“Write drunk; edit sober.” – Ernest Hemingway

Are you tired, now that you have finished writing? Don’t want to revisit your masterpiece? Or do you feel too lazy to edit your writing?

One of the most important content writing roles and responsibilities is editing/ proofreading. The reader gets put off by a poorly written piece more than a piece of writing that has no focus on the topic. Do you need help?  These days you have a lot of free and paid services and apps available online that help in editing. They cover a range of features of editing and proofreading. The following choices are a small sample of the vast number of options available –

Webspellchecker

This online program helps with all sorts of corrections. It not only corrects but also allows you to retain the original draft of the content.

Ninja Essays

It is an online content writing and editing services company. They employ highly qualified professionals as editors and proofreaders.

Slick Write

This is an online spellchecker. It helps in spelling corrections, grammar, punctuation, structure, tense forms, and other features of clear content writing.

Help.PragTracker.com

It helps in error-free content writing and makes sure that the content is free of plagiarism.

Bloggism, Sibia proofreading, Scribendi

These three services are quite popular not only in India but in various parts of the world too.

The sometimes stressful content writing responsibilities are the timelines and deadlines.

Content writing: Meeting deadlines/timelines

“You don’t have to reinvent the wheel; you just need to share your unique perspective on why the wheel is important.” – Page on power

Call for the freelancer who thinks time and the content he or she is writing must stretch to accommodate every new idea. Do you struggle to understand how much to retain and how much to leave out while fulfilling the purpose? A full-time employee of a client or organization who is working to meet deadlines? Are you working on more than one project at a time?

In content writing roles and responsibilities meeting deadlines, deadlines are set based on the topic and the nature of the assignment. The topic could belong to the writer’s niche or could be a different, typical, and complex one. So, the team or writer, or organization has to emphasize proper planning and structuring of the writing phases. There has to be a tacit understanding of the what, who, whom, why, how, how much, how far, and how deep the content is to be written. This planning and clarity help in meeting the deadlines or timelines.

Last word

“If the content is King, context is God.” – Gary Vaynerchuk

Though the roles and responsibilities of Freelance and In house writers vary, there is not much difference in the role and responsibilities of content writing by either of them. Both have to bring the same skills and the job profile of a content writer to the table. They are expected to display ethics, accountability, authenticity, and commitment to content writing and the audience in equal parts. According to a survey in 2021, India is the largest freelance content writing market in the world. It takes care of English as well as the local language audience. Almost every organization employs at least 2 content writers as full-time employees.

So, are you well-equipped to start the ride or add more value to the ride in content writing you are on? Do answer all the questions posed here- it will help you in self-assessment.

All the best!

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