I’ve had a rush of new clients (yay, AI hasn’t seen me dispatched into a bin yet!), and I realised that although I write, pretty much every job is different. When people say they want ‘a bit of content’, I’m always interested in what kind.
When I say I write, people think of me penning the next wizarding world or maybe interviewing someone. In fact, I feel much more often like someone who holds out a juicy bit of content to Google, hoping it snaps it off me and puts it at the top of a search result.
Here are some of the flavours of writing you might need if you’re adding more content to your 2024 plans.
Want to attract senior people? You may need conversational content
I have a few clients who want me to write ‘interesting stuff’. I can find topics or new changes to laws, weird parliamentary updates, and tech firm press releases and make them into articles. I recently wrote about how cheese is being tagged to prevent theft. I create stories and put the business’s take on them.
I get to be helpful, critical, snarky or funny. This has to be one of my favourite jobs, and I get no brief and only hear back when a story or a post is mentioned in a big meeting with proper people in suits. I get conversations started while being under no obligation to leave my house…Perfect.
Want to rank for key terms vs competitors? You may need SEO as a science content
SEO as a science isn’t going anywhere. I will give the example of a large EU tech client I work with who is serious about ranking. They eat and sleep SEO. I am part of a content army, and a huge chunk of its vision is to rank first. They are in a very saturated niche, with many similar businesses wanting that top spot. The industry is a bit like squabbling children comparing themselves with each other.
Trying to rank on terms is the aim of this game, and they have enough planned for about the next four years. It also works. But this isn’t a churn ’em out job. This is very product-focused, detailed and insanely focused on the audience’s time.
I have to trim so much fat off pieces. I have to be tactical, avoid stuffing, and sit with pieces to ensure I value the reader’s time. There can be no waffle, links are critical, and making snappy content that becomes a featured snippet is king. There’s also a lot of ‘our product vs their product content’, so it’s VERY research-heavy, and so is their bill.
Want a search and social boost? You may need content from subject matter experts
There’s a lot of regurgitation on the web. A chimp could quickly find stats on any topic on a Hubspot blog. The art is making what you find into a story people care about; checking the stats aren’t marketing garbage or forgetting what you find and making it original instead.
A subject matter expert brief is the best. ‘Can you write about what matters in HR?’ stops being a hunt around PDFs and becomes a place to find people and ask them about their jobs. Or, I might be asked if helpdesk software actually works. How much time does it save? What is a useful feature, really?
I love these because they equal fresh content, and I also feel ethical that the piece does something good for the world. People also like it on social media, and it’s good for search. It takes more time, so you need the budget for this approach, but you’ll make me happy…so there’s that.
Want to get snippets and handy soundbites to reuse? You may need kitchen sink content
I sometimes get what I call kitchen sink content, where a client needs me to do everything…A 1500-word article with 30 subheadings covering a massive topic in one go. Yikes!
After extending the word count or managing expectations, I get started. It’s big and chunky, but I love a brief like this way more than a simple ‘write 500 words on surprising facts on annual leave’. It challenges and sharpens my mind. I have to include subheadings, make it snappy, and sit with the pain. How on earth can I distil down what teamwork is in one sentence? Honestly, I can re-write it 30 ways, and I do.
This type of job is where I am most likely to wail, ‘I can’t do it!’…and then always somehow manage it.
Want to appease stakeholders? You may need: The team of 100 content
Some people find it funny that I already have content written for release in September for one CRM provider. The bigger the business, the more formalised the approach to content, which means many revisions, waiting for others, sign-offs, approvals and such.
The upside? It works. It would work without them being a mega brand, but only the mega businesses that do content on such a granular scale. I’ve seen editors for SEO editors for graphical work and brief writers…Huge teams to get it right. In short, the care and attention pay off. I see a lot of ChatGPT social updates, and I wouldn’t dare do it on this job—more time – better outcomes.
Want to make me cry? You may need The ‘Why am I here’ content
Sometimes, I have a client who has all the keywords, the subheading, the brief, and a deep outline and has suggested a meta description.
A typical statement: ‘Don’t say this. Say that we do this, this and this.’
I wonder what I’m here for at this stage, and in many ways, this is way harder than no brief at all. Whoever is briefing me is very particular, and I must get it right. I stress over these ones and spend 4 x my time editing and pruning.
Risk of breakdown: Very high. Would not recommend
Elaine Keep
Freelance Content Writer
www.elainekeep.com
