For a while now, I've received messages from a number of people telling me to teach on how to write a compelling content that will catch their audience's attention. Hence, reading to the end.
Most of them confuse content creation and content writing to be the exact same thing, but this isn't so. Content creation is like the general topic of a subject while content writing is a sub topic.
Let me clarify this, a content creator is someone who makes a living from creating content for brands and his/her personal use.
Content creation is wider because it includes:
•Text content( Headlines, body copy, bullets)
•Blogs, articles and so on.
•E-mail marketing
•Videos & photographs
•Slides
•SEO
•Graphic designs
•Anything consumable and/or shareable (not just words), etc....
Whereas, Content writing is like a niche of content creation. A content writer is someone who writes content for brands or personal use. Examples of content writing include: Copy writing, story telling, blogs post, articles, social media post, eBooks etc.
And since my content creation niche is on content writing, I'll be elaborating more on content writing.
N/B: A content writer is expected to be very creative because content writing is a very wide niche on its own.
I'll go ahead and share 9 skills every content writer is expected to have.
√Self confidence: Now you're wondering why I included self confidence as a skill right? But you should know that without being a confident writer, your written works won't even make it to the public. Besides, no body wants to do business with anyone who isn't confident in his/her craft. If you're not confident, you'll be selling your self short.
√Strategic thinking: This where thinking outside the box plays out. It's your responsibility as a content writer to think of every possible way you can sell what ever your audience is willing to buy.
√Be creative: Being creative doesn't mean you must always come up with the original idea. Being creative also includes your ability to create something unique and new from an already existing body.
√Ability to research: Whatever section of business you're into, research is very vital. Mostly for content writers, researching is like the flour in your cake, without it, your work is incomplete.
√Understanding brand voice: Not every brand requires the same content, it's your job to know & understand what a particular brand is looking for and figure out ways to deliver.
√Know how to write succinctly in a way that entertains, inspires, educates and persuades the reader.
√Have a keen eye for design: This isn't only about pictures, it is about readability too. There's no point crafting a good content with a terrible style and structure. It confuses your readers/ audience.
√Be a consultant and not just a writer: Understand that any content you're creating has to be better than what you were assigned. Find out ways to improve and trim off unnecessary fat until the content is tight.
√Have a passion for writing: This might not work out well for some people but personally, I'm a passionate writer and if you're not willing to suffer for a particular thing, you might lose interest in no time.
Hope you learned something today