To write is human, to edit is divine.
― Stephen King.
Every written content piece must go through two vital steps: editing and proofreading. Well-edited and clean copy goes a long way in creating the right impression among target customers. In this article, let’s look at some quick and dirty tips for creating flawless content that converts first-time readers into loyal followers.
1. Check for Structural Issues
A vital part of a content piece is structure. Make sure that your blog post has a definite introduction, sub-headings, and a conclusion.
Plus, editing is the process of checking the effectiveness of a content piece. After reading the article, the target audience should get a definite take-away from it.
Another brilliant editing technique is to check for fluff. Hence, you need to omit sentences or phrases that add no value to the readers. Remember, good content marketing editors make each word count.
2. Align Content With Your Editorial Mission
An editorial mission statement talks about your brand’s core emotions so you can infuse them into your branded content. Plus, it tells you about your key target audience. And lastly, the editorial mission statement represents the purpose of branded content.
As an editor, you need to ensure that the content syncs with your editorial mission statement. Use this vital document as your gold standard when reading through a content piece and marking digressions.
3. Check for Style
Whether you’re following a recognized style guide like the AP Style Guide or you have created your own, make sure your content piece adheres to its rules.
You can lay down specific grammar, capitalization, and punctuation directives in your style guide. Plus, you need to detail stuff like how to use dashes, numbers, and acronyms in your text.
Once you have set down the basic instructions, it’s easy to follow a consistent style throughout your branded content.
The whole purpose of a style guide is to use it as a reckoner to rectify irregular content formatting.
4. Move on and Check Facts
As a content marketing editor, it’s your responsibility to offer factually correct information to your readers. So make sure to add the respective sources to any facts or statistics you’ve mentioned in your content.
Also, you need to ensure the credibility of the sources you’re using—the ideal way is to quote a statistic or a fact from its primary source.
If you’re communicating about an upcoming event, make sure that the event’s date, day, and time are correct. Next, you must verify any names of people, places, or companies and their respective spellings. Lastly, you must ensure that all hyperlinks are working and redirecting readers to the intended pages.
5. Proofread the Copy
Next, you need to check your copy for grammatical errors, including punctuations and spellings. Finally, you should work on tightening your manuscript and making it concise and easy to read. It’s essential to ensure that you’re not repeating words, phrases, or information in your content piece. A quick way to proofread your content is to use a language checker like Grammarly. Another fantastic way to spot copy errors is to proofread backward.
6. Check for SEO
Search engine optimization makes it easy for readers to find your content. It improves its chances of getting a place in Google’s search results. Make sure you’re using the relevant search terms in your content.
An intelligent way to get your article to show up in Google’s ‘People also ask’ section is to try answering user-specific queries.
Plus, you should link authoritative external resources in your article. External linking provides additional value to your readers and works well for SEO. Don’t forget to link to other blog posts from your site. Internal linking is a great way to offer readers quick access to useful information. SEO editing is necessary to get the optimum search visibility for branded content.
7. Shorten the Call-to-Action
The idea of a call-to-action is to write copy that converts readers to subscribers or customers. The best way is to keep the call-to-action concise—two-to-three sentences at the most.
You need to edit this part of a content piece to ensure you’re not annoying readers by harping too much about your product or service.
Final Thoughts
Editing and proofreading are vital ingredients of quality in content marketing. And great content goes a long way in influencing the audience and converting them into long-term customers. So, before you publish any content piece, make sure you spend enough time and energy editing and proofreading it.
