Why Techies Should Learn to Write Better

You must already hate this article if you're a back end developer or software engineer. Well, how much ever you're dreading what this article has to say, please don't skip it. Writing is a crucial skill that can easily be learned. But most importantly, it can make considerable changes in your career. Here are a few tips to keep in mind.

Express yourself in a brief and concise manner so others can understand you

It's good to begin with the basics.

What is often overlooked is that sharing thoughts with others through writing can help you reach out to a lot of people and further enable them to learn from you. This is a two-way street, and you may be able to use this kind of collaboration to learn something from other people too (as mentioned in the third point above). You may even end up finding like-minded people, and could even find a new job opportunity through this more enhanced network by posting online.

Being a good writer has a lot of benefits, but you have to keep practicing it. If you don't like to write because you believe you're a terrible writer with awful grammar and a ton of spelling mistakes, here are a few suggestions:

Invest in Strunk & White's "The Elements of Style"

If you don't wish to buy a copy of your own, you can borrow it from someone you know in the marketing or communications department. This book focuses on punctuation and grammar, along with sentence structure, and more. You can also purchase the Kindle version on Amazon, which you can read on your smartphone.

Take a Coursera class or another MOOC

There are many online courses like Coursera, Skillshare and others available that provide lessons on the basics of writing. Dedicating a few hours after your work or on weekends to learn about writing concisely is definitely worth it.

Keep in mind that you aren't seeking to turn yourself into a professional writer, but rather, just want to learn the basics to be able to put together content in a coherent and meaningful way.

Make friends with writers

Surround yourself with other writers who can go through your writing and give you some constructive feedback. Perhaps there is a colleague who also writes, making friends with such people can help you find a mentor who wouldn't mind helping you to learn and grow.

Find an online editing tool suitable for you

There are several online editing tools like Hemmingway and (my personal favourite) Grammarly that can help you. Whatever you decide to use, pay attention to finding the one that coaches you on writing well rather than changing your writing style without any explanation or reasoning as to why it did so. Try out a few different editing tools or ask experienced writers the editing tool they use and why.

Final thoughts

If you're worried that you haven't reached the stage of being an expert on a topic you wish to write on, guess what? You don't need to be! You can research the topic and learn all you need to before actually starting to write.

You may also be anxious that your posts aren't good enough. Don't let perfection be the enemy of the good.  Every single writer (or human being, for that matter) makes mistakes and readers (especially devs) will probably call you out. But instead of letting this demotivate you, just go ahead and correct your errors, and in situations where what you wrote was actually correct but just not understood correctly then be sure to educate the reader about it.

Don't worry about writing in a very simple way, coming across as an amateur, or writing in a technical enough manner that most people don't understand. You will find your audience and get into the cycle over time. Just write as often as you can and in time it will become second nature.

Content Marketing Statistics That Show ROI

Why are content writers always on the go, continuously working and trying to enhance and lay out a very well executed, infrared and effective content marketing strategy? What is it all for?

Well, to begin with, in 2019, approximately 25.8% of internet users use ad blockers on their devices so as to not be exposed to them. This is going to continue to increase, making ad targeting more complex with the initiation of new privacy regulations and the use of Apple and Firefox led cookie-blocking technology. This will not only make it more complicated but also more costly. Furthermore, consumers favor content rather than advertising.

Did you know that 70% of people prefer to obtain any information regarding a brand or a company or learn something from an article or blog post rather than from a traditional advertisement?

All across the industry, good and quality content are becoming more and more vital. It doesn't matter if it's self-created content, aggregating ones from experts or using UGC, content can add a lot of exponential value to your marketing efforts.

Here are 15 content marketing statistics that will remind you why content is so essential in today's day and age.

  1. Knowing and understanding your target audience and their preferences are exceptionally crucial for content marketing. For example, just a mere 22% of millennials would like to open and look at an email from a brand that they like, while, on the other hand, 57% of people between 45 and 54 years of age do. (HubSpot)
  2. At the same time, 52% of millennials would prefer to watch a video from the brands that they support and just 25% of those between the ages 45-54 do. (HubSpot)
  3. 71% of a B2B respondent pool expressed that they evaluated a blog while they were deciding what to buy. (Demand Gen Report)
  4. It has been found that 32% of consumers going online and look over a brand's social media presence before going on their website. (Animoto)
  5. 64% of B2B respondents praised podcasts claiming they're an effective content format that would work in the early stage of the buying journey. All that it would lack would be infographics (76%). (Demand Gen Report)
  6. Today, people interact twice as much with brands on their mobile phones than on any other platform. (Think with Google)
  7. Cisco has declared that by 2021, over 80% of all its digital traffic will be video. This calls for the need of a video content strategy for brands. (Cisco)
  8. Research shows that 87% of users actually want more videos from the brands they support. (Hubspot)
  9. The platform that is exponentially increasing today in both popularity and content marketing schemes for the purpose of enhancing purchases through videos is Instagram. (Animoto)
  10. Upon being questioned about which way one would like to know the most about a new product in the market, 68% (more than two-thirds) of consumers chose short videos, with text-based articles trailing behind (15%), infographics, and presentations and pitches at 4% and finally, 3% said e-books and manuals. (Wyzowl)
  11. 65% of B2B content consumers genuinely believe that they prefer reliable content from industry influencers. (Demand Gen Report)
  12. 73% of users have let a brand or company's presence on social media affect their decision when making a purchase. (Animoto)
  13. For every dollar, content marketing generates 3x more leads. (Kapost/Oracle Eloqua)
  14. Content marketing generates more than thrice the amount of leads as compared to outbound marketing. It also costs 62% less. (Demand Metric)
  15. Calculated on an average, content marketing is 41% cheaper in relation to a paid search.

If you still feel overwhelmed about content marketing and aren't sure what you want to create or where would be the best place to distribute, you are not the only one. In fact, according to CMI/Marketingprofs 2019 B2C Research Study, only one-third of the total B2C marketers surveyed had a well laid out content strategy.

7 Content Trends for 2020

Are you in the midst of planning your 2020 content marketing strategy? The effectiveness of content marketing, the tactics, the channels and tools marketers use to create and distribute content will continue to evolve in 2020 and beyond. So, what content marketing trends should you watch out for? And how should marketers change their marketing strategy to keep pace with these changes?

Content Trend #1: User-Generated Content

According to a recent study, 85% of consumers find UGC or user-generated content more influential than brand content. User-generated content is a staple of most eCommerce websites today. Consumers tend to share their feedback and other shoppers often trust these reports about products and services. Consumers agree that user-generated content is more influential than brand content and therefore follow it more closely.

One of the studies of Instagram for tourism marketing found that UGC posts were the most engaging type of posts for tourism marketers. User-generated content is not only engaging but allows a higher volume of content creation with fewer resources.

In 2020, figure out what inspires your audience to share more content online and how you can successfully engage customers to create UGC content. This is, in fact, part of most content marketing planning processes for many brands today.

Content Trend #2: Continued Rise of Video

Video is a critical part of every stage in the customer journey. Surprisingly, in 2018, internet users watched in excess of 500 million hours of content on YouTube every day. Today video has become an essential part of every marketing strategy. And to do that marketers need the best tools in the market. From generating ideas to designing killer videos and deploying video content, there are numerous useful video tools you can use to generate interest, broaden your audience and create tons of converts, so start today. What's important to note here is that product videos don't have to be boring but super exciting to engage your customers.

Fundamentally, video is a widely preferred form of content compared to other types of content, especially when learning about new services and products. In fact, 80% of people generally switch between online search and video when deciding which brand or product to buy. On the other hand, 50% of shoppers are of the opinion that online video has helped them decide which specific product or brand to purchase.

For 2020, consider how you can make video a part of your content marketing strategy. If you’re afraid of the idea of creating a video, don’t be. Depending on your brand and audience, a simple video may just be the content you need to connect with your potential audience.

Content Trend #3: Voice

Voice content strategy is no longer optional and has become a necessity. Voice is the new interface that will soon surround each one of us in many ways and in many places. Voice content for Amazon Echo, Samsung devices and Google Home are extensively being developed by brands today. As per stats, smart speaker adoption grew 38.9% in the last year and more than 26% of all U.S. adults have access to a smart speaker. Marketers today are building voice-activated content strategies for their clients, helping them take advantage of this fast-growing consumer interaction opportunity. In fact, the voice industry has been reported to be the largest-ever growing industry - an increasing opportunity for voice content strategists, technologists, developers,  vendors and hardware platforms.

Presenting compelling voice-activated content to consumers opens an all-new avenue for engagement. It’s an opportunity that will dominate the expensive and bulky websites, as well as the social media platforms that increasingly require ad budgets to reach customers.

Till today, most of the voice-activated content created for clients was rooted in information and helpfulness. As user and consumers get more comfortable with using smart speakers for more complex applications - API-driven interactions of voice-activated content is likely to grow in 2020. A recent survey of business decision-makers by Adobe found that 91% are preparing to make significant investments in voice, and 44% plan to release a voice app in 2019. It will be interesting to see how these two elements of content and voice are converged by every brand and business - thus driving increased customer engagement using voice-activated content.

Content Trend #4: B2C Behaviors Continue to Impact B2B Expectations

According to a survey, 61% of all B2B transactions start online and 51% of customers turn to social media to do their initial research. B2C behaviors indirectly impact B2B expectations. Even B2B decision-making is heavily influenced by social media content.

When it comes to marketing to B2B buyers, many of the elements considered for the content creation process remain similar to the B2C world. The only difference is that the B2B customer has a longer buying cycle. This is governed by more money spent on a product/solution, and the more time a B2B consumer is likely to spend researching the pros and cons.

Touchpoints that are seen as traditionally B2C like social media, chatbots, augmented reality, mobile, have become even more critical in B2B, considering the complexity of the purchase decision in B2B. In 2020, it’s time for B2B focused businesses to take a few steps back and reassess how they are reaching and engaging their customers. It’s a new world and digitalization continues to disrupt everything that has come before it. Therefore B2C behaviors broadly impact the B2B world, whether it is searching, problem-solving, purchasing or consuming.

Content Trend #5: Continued Proliferation of Messaging Apps

Messaging apps will continue to generate in 2020, which will include many aspects of ‘content’. The apps come with a bunch of new opportunities for marketers. Messaging apps continue to advance, setting new and innovative trends. Messaging apps today are constantly evolving and changing the way marketers do business. Living in the digital age calls markets to stay up-to-date with the latest trends to offer customers with the best service.

With more than 3 billion consumers spending a lot of time and sharing emotions on messaging apps, consider how messaging apps will impact content strategy in the near future.

Content Trend #6: No More Random Acts of Content

For 2020, think smart and try to stop all random acts of content that never work.

Instead of continuously reinventing the wheel, you should try to create less content and make each piece of content more compelling. Many content marketing clients have adopted this approach and in 2020 many more companies will as well.

What does this approach actually mean? You need to give your audience a chance to find your content in their preferred format and channel, delivered to them in a steady stream over a period of time. You can’t simply post an article in an unplanned manner and expect leads to contact you.

Try to think about this approach. The most effective marketing and advertisements are experienced over a period of time. Always remember, it takes about seven impressions for a display ad to sink in and about 5-6 emails to warm up leads. This is also the reason why you see the same commercials over and over again. The rules of content are pretty simple.

One must stop random acts of content and instead focus on a rich, nuanced plan to create less but quality content delivered more frequently to your target audiences.

Content Trend #7: Customer Journey Mapping

More and more potential and new clients are showing interest in customer journey mapping: how to create and improve them, and how to tie them back to their content strategy. In many instances, it can be challenging for your company to get into the minds of your customers. You may wonder why a customer spends so long to get from Point A to Point B when it should only take a few seconds. This isn't something you can assume or should predict based on your internal perspective. It is where you need to understand the customer journey to enhance the physical experiences of your customers.

What exactly is the customer journey map? A customer journey map is a visual representation of the process a customer goes through to achieve a goal with your company. With the help of a customer journey map, you can get a sense of your customers' motivations, needs and pain points. Most customer journey maps start with excel sheets that outline key events, customer motivations, and areas of friction within the user’s experience. Then, this information is combined into a visual representation that describes the average experience of your customer with your business.

This customer journey map is a trend that will continue to grow in 2020, and if you haven’t done so already, try reading about a few great tips to get started with customer journey mapping.

53 Blog Post Ideas So You Never Fall Short

With this ultimate list of blog post ideas, say goodbye to spending hours thinking about what you should write next. You can also try creating a list of some linkable assets that can be used as creative backlinks.

Fit relevant topics into any of the ideas listed below for your business or blog, and you’re good to go for a long time. Ready to deep dive? Let’s get started!

Valuable Blog Posts

These blog posts are useful and are aimed to improve your audience’s life. These posts are usually informative and help your audience build a trustworthy relationship with you or your brand. So be careful with your tone and the information when you put it together.

1. Listicles

Like this article that you’re reading! Listicles are probably the most common type as they’re useful, and people love to read them. Their concise nature and added pictures and gifs with each item keeps the blog post interactive and fun to read.

Create a list of whatever you think your audience would like to read and know about. For example, in my niche, I could create a list of top 10 or 20 best content writing blogs.

2. “How To” Blog Post

A how-to post is a sort of step-by-step guide that typically intends to help people to complete a task or use a tool to do it. It’s like a manual. You can use images, videos, or audio to make it more understandable. Example: How to boil an egg.

3. Series Post

For topics that can’t fit into one post, you can divide it into a series of posts, linking them as you go forward.

4. FAQ Post

When you search for a query on Google, have you ever noticed that small ‘People Also Ask For’ snippet that shows questions with unfoldable answers? When you create a FAQ post, you also get a heightened opportunity to feature your post indirectly on Google.

Also, you can backlink to other blog posts that have more detailed answers respective to the questions.

5. Problem/Solution Post

You can find a problem (or create one), put that into the post’s title, describe it in the opening paragraph, and write the solution in the rest of your post. This post can also be framed as a how-to or ultimate guide format.

6. Ultimate Guide Post

Ultimate guide posts are comprehensive posts on a topic that covers it entirely. It can also be a tutorial that explains the topic clearly. For example, a beauty blogger can write an ultimate guide post to explain the use of different shades on a makeup palette.

7. Case Study Post

A case study is a detailed review or study of a project or process and results in a story-driven format. You can use this to highlight the success of your product or service. Example: How a baby started drinking milk again with XYZ feeding bottles.

8. YouTube Video Cut-Up Post

You can either do this for your own video or a popular video that got a lot of traction. People love to read these kinds of posts. All you have to do is turn the video into a blog post with text and images with probably a little more information than the video itself to make it informative.

You can also embed the video (if it’s yours, it’s a bonus because it will also gain more views) take screenshots from the video.

9. Questions to Ask Post

Similar to an FAQ post, this post recommends the questions that your audience should ask but generally don’t.

10. Definition Post

Definition posts don’t have to be very long; you can provide a post answering a ‘what is...’ question for them.

11. Research Post

You can publish a study you’ve conducted that can be useful to your audience. These posts can get you a lot of referral traffic through social shares and backlinks.

12. Statistical Post

The statistical post is also like a research post, only that you use relevant numbers and figures around your blog’s topic to explain it more clearly and comprehensively.

If you can’t come up with internal statistics for one topic, you can combine different statistics from different posts to make one. Just be sure to give due credits.

13. Checklist Post

This is also like a how-to post. You can create this kind of a post by giving your audience a list of actionable steps to take. The only difference is that your audience will be able to cross items off the list, which is interactive and engaging.

Fun Blog Posts

Fun blog posts have to be creative. This is an open window to be as creative as you can be with your ideas and share them with your readers or viewers.

14. Narrative Post

You can narrate your own story, which is a great way to keep your readers entertained.

15. Illustrated Post

Blog posts often require illustrations such as images, videos, gifs, and comics that can get your audience giggling and thinking at the same time. These kinds of posts can sometimes prove to be more valuable than the ones without such illustrations.

16. Meme Post

You can use memes for your post, and make a post out of them. These kinds of posts have the potential to get a lot of shares or saves, especially from millennials, who we know just love them memes!

17. Satirical Post

If you got that humor and satire, you could make people laugh and get your post shared by all of them. Anything that incites an emotion is shareable, and you get to enjoy the traction.

18. Parody Post

Parody post is also similar to a satirical post, but it is different in the sense that you get to imitate a well-known brand or person in your niche. You can turn them into a funny character and narrate their story.

Personal Blog Post

Personal blog posts can show your audience that there’s a real human behind all the content they have enjoyed so far.

These blog posts can add to your lineup and produce a different kind of variety to your content.

19. Personal Experience Post

This is like a narrative post, but one where you describe a personal experience that your audience might have experienced, too, and end up hitting the relatable factor with them. Whether you succeeded in the told experience or failed, this post will still humanize you as a publisher.

20. Off The Public View Post

It’s interesting to read about a topic that presents a different thought process than ours, because this gives us a chance to look at things that we might have missed while being biased to a certain flow of thoughts.

21. Rant Post

You can rant about a topic that your audience is currently thinking about, and discussing it can be quite engaging, especially if you make a coherent argument. However, it depends on your brand voice, and won’t always work for everyone.

22. Inspirational Post

Inspiring content is often considered engaging because we all look for inspiration from numerous sources. Inspirational posts can be presented as a profile post, a story post, a quote post, a narrative post, or anything that you find inspirational - chances are others might as well.

Lifestyle Blog Posts

Similar to personal blog posts, lifestyle posts can also humanize you or your brand. You can use these types of posts to get people more engaged with your blogs and build a trustworthy relationship with you.

23. Holiday Post

How was your holiday? You can describe your holiday, give your audience tips and tricks, and make them feel like they were a part of your holiday too. This can also influence them to pack their bags and take a break from their hectic life.

24. Behind The Scenes Post

A 'behind the scenes' post can be incredibly engaging for the most loyal of your audience. People love to see what things look like from the other side of the spectrum.

Show them how you finalized writing about a certain topic, give them an office tour, or describe a recent experience at an event - this is all good behind the scenes content for you to create.

25. Fashion Post

You can create content around current fashion trends that you love or hate or you can introduce your audience to your fashion sense by getting them to wear your brand’s logo T-shirt. This works as free promotion for your brand, along with increased sales for your brand merch!

Timely Blog Posts

People read the news to be aware, which is exactly what the purpose of timely posts is. This is essentially a source of trending information that goes live regularly.

26. News Update Post

You can choose to make a new post every time a major current event happens. It can be relevant to your audience or be a general blog. Remember that you don’t have to be the first one to write about it, but make sure that you present it in a way that people find it valuable.

27. Review Post

You can write a review post on a weekly or monthly basis, reviewing services, products, events, or anything else released in that period. Don’t just highlight the positives; the safest you can play is by giving honest reviews.

28. Trendspotting Post

You can flaunt your trendspotting ability by making a blog post of trends that you predict could soon be popular and piggyback off their increasing appeal and interest.

29. Survey Post

You can survey your audience about a trending topic through email, social media, online survey tools, or in-person and present the results in a blog post and comment on them to make an engaging, informative blog.

30. Concerns Post

If you can think of the current challenges that your audience might be facing, address them, and recommend a solution. This can be very valuable to them.

Authoritative Blog Posts

Someone else’s authority can be leveraged by promoting them on your blog, and can help you to be promoted in a similar way later on. It’s a great way to build relationships and backlinks in the future. When you do this, make sure to do some blogger outreach and let them know they appeared in your blog post.

31. Crowdsourced Post

You reach out to influencers and get a unique quote from each of them to make a blog post. You can email them and ask them to answer a question in, say, 100 words or less.

32. Blog Link Roundup

This is a great idea if you love to read others’ blogs. You can curate a list of blogs that you love and create a topic around them, explaining each with links and a brief description.

33. The Best “_” Post

For example “The Best Video Calling Apps!” or whatever you think your audience would be interested in. It’s similar to roundup but has more of a reviewer’s tone to it.

34. The Best “_” to Follow Post

The best podcasts, the best influencers, the best Youtube channels, or anything that is relevant for your audience to follow.

35. Profile Post

Have you seen those mini-profiles of influencers and celebrities in magazines? You can do a similar post for someone relevant to your audience, just make sure whoever you profile knows that you’ve profiled them. They’re highly likely to share it with their network and in turn help grow yours.

36. Interview Post

Interviewing someone and creating a blog post out of it is a great idea to get your audience to familiarize themselves with someone they might love in or out of your niche. You don’t necessarily have to call them to your office or meet them at a cafe; you can simply call them over Skype, Zoom or a similar app. And if you record a video of the interview, transcribe it and publish the video with the transcription.

37. Quote Post

You can take a topic and frame it as a question, and answer it by aggregating a list of quotes from related influencers.

38. Viral Content Aggregator Post

You can aggregate viral content around a topic and make one post out of it. You can do this on a weekly or monthly basis, and chances are that you too will get as many shares as the viral content is getting.

39. Weekly Pick Post

You can make a short blog post detailing a piece of content, tool, or a resource that might be valuable to your audience. It can be something from your site or some other site - what matters is what your audience would like to see.

Controversial Blog Post

Write a controversial blog post to pique your audience’s interest in the topic you write about.

40. Critical Post

Critical posts can get very controversial, and consequently, you have to be very careful while writing such a post. Just make sure that you’re justified and confident in your criticism of the event, company, or influencer so that you don’t end up being the loser. Keep in mind that given that this kind of post can turn out to have a polarizing topic, it can get people on your side, or completely against you.

41. Reaction Post

Have you seen those reaction videos on Youtube that gain a lot of traction? The basic element in that type of content is a personal opinion. Perhaps people enjoy seeing things from a different point of view and therefore find reaction posts engaging. You can react to a blog post, a video, a course, an event, or whatever attracts you. Embed videos or social media posts and react to it as a way of doing this.

42. What if Post

What if posts can be written by revolving around a topic stating the things that could’ve happened. Such posts can also generate debate because people think differently. You can do this by stating your own opinions and mentioning that those are just assumptions, or by providing apt facts to support your statements.

43. Persuasive Post

You can present your side of the argument to persuade your audience to think like you. If you have an argument against yours too, present that side in the same post, and people will go with what they relate more to.

44. Prediction Post

Just like trendspotting posts, prediction posts are all about predicting the future. While you discuss what you think might happen in the future, people will both agree and disagree, and your post can turn into a debated one because of being controversial in its approach.

Promotional Blog Post Ideas

You can use your blog to promote your brand. The only thing that you should keep in mind is not to annoy or frustrate your loyal readers with poorly written copies. Keep producing valuable content even in your promotional blog posts.

45. Product Tips Post

This is a great idea if you sell products or services. You can create content around tips and hacks for your products or services to make sure that your audience gets the most out of them. Writing such a blog post won’t only get you more engagement, but also give your customers a better experience of using your product or service.

46. Project Log Post

If your company is working on a huge project, keep your readers updated and excited about it by timely updating them on its progress. It will keep them aware of your new product or service without letting them forget it and also create a hype of sorts.

47. Best Of “...” Post

Make a list of the best products, services, or whatever your brand is about in your blog and introduce your readers with what you sell and why you sell.

48. Company News or Product Update Post

You can release a newsletter that shares company news for your loyal customers and give the details about product updates that have recently been scheduled.

49. Comparison Post

Comparing your product or service with other available solutions can help your potential customers with a clearer view of why they should prefer your product or services over others’.

50. Income Breakdown Post

Your income breakdown report could be an intriguing blog post. Your customers or audience could actually be interested in knowing the business model of your company, what your sources of income are, and how much you’re making. However, if you’re not interested in income breakdown, you can simply share your traffic and traffic sources with your audience.

Audience Engagement Blog Post Ideas

You can engage your audience with the following blog post ideas:

52. Challenge Post

Have your readers participate in a challenge. You can do this by participating in it yourself and sharing your experience that can get your audience interested in it even more.

55. Question Post

Ask your audience a question in a blog and get answers from them.

54. Answer Post

By promoting discussion on your own blog, you can have other people make interesting content for you. Post a question to the audience and ask them to answer it in the comments section, which you can use as raw material for your new blog.

53. Giveaway Post

You can give away something that your audience would love for free. Describe what you’re giving away and what they need to do to get it.

Conclusion

Getting ideas for your blog should not be a random process. Doing a little research can help you to validate blog topics that are already popular in your niche. You can even make a list of the ideas that you would like to write about in the future, depending on the seasons, events, and festivities.

Just make sure that your content is high in quality and not just randomly written to fit into the SEO. In fact, the best SEO practices don’t focus on exact keyword matches, but rather on semantic searches that can only be written thoughtfully, keeping relevance in mind. Don’t create posts just for the sake of it - plan, create, organize, and post. Don’t forget to interact with your audience through emails, comments, messages, and more tools.