Everyone does it. Most of us do it every day. But could you be doing it better?

Writing well is hard.

There’s a lot of noise out there – we’re all confronted with vast amounts of content every day. This means people are picky about what content they consume. It needs to educate, engage or entertain – ideally all three.

Thanks to the internet, we’ve all got the power to publish content at our fingertips. This is an amazing opportunity for your business – social media is a free platform to speak to the world. However, badly written, dull and irrelevant content squanders this opportunity.

We know that the competition for peoples’ attention is fierce. If your content isn’t providing value, it will fall flat. You’ve got to ask yourself – is the content I’m creating having any impact? 

Make your words count

One of the best ways to engage your audience is to tell them a compelling story. Take your reader on a journey to make it interesting to read and memorable. Humans are hard-wired to respond to stories over statistics. If you want people to remember your brand and feel something when they think of it, stories are key. 

Storytelling is a bit of a buzzword in marketing at the moment. It sounds easy enough. Anyone can spin a story, can’t they? But not all stories are created equal. Boring stories send you to sleep, great stories keep you hooked until the end. And no, not everyone is a storyteller. 

Being able to spot a story is a skill. The stories you could tell about your business might not be obvious and many people fall into the trap of relaying facts to their customers. Facts alone aren’t very memorable, but facts set in context and delivered with emotion inspire action. That’s the power of a story.

Having a journalistic instinct is something we can all develop. It's about being curious, entertaining and coaxing out your inner detective.  

The ability to sniff out the right angle on a story is critical. Crocstar once worked with a manufacturer of coffee machines. The machines’ USP was the quality and its durability, but the real story was that unlike their leading competitor, they always filed off sharp edges. So unlike the competition, you could open the coffee machines up and fix them without cutting your hands open – avoiding a trip to A&E.

Longer stories aren’t always better

Attention spans are short, so your content should be too. Brevity and clarity are key. Your message should be concise, clear and written in plain English. People are easily distracted and will lose interest immediately if your content is overly complicated. Make every word count. 

As well as weaving a neat and compelling story, you need to make sure all your content is accurate, grammatically correct and easy to understand. Unless you’ve got a natural eye for proofreading, chances are there will be some mistakes in your writing that might put your readers off. It’s always a good idea to get someone to check through your content before you publish it. Content with typos makes your business look amateurish. 

Why ask an agency?

Words matter – your words and the way you communicate say a lot about you and your business. If your content is going to paint your brand in a good light, it needs to be carefully considered. This takes time. 

Realistically, most businesses struggle to consistently produce and publish quality content because they just don’t have the time. This means they publish substandard content that doesn’t deliver results or feel burnt out from the pressure to continually create content. 

Outsourcing your content might be a wise move if you don’t have the time or resources in-house. A good content agency can create high quality, business-savvy and accurate content for you. They understand how to capture an audience with words and keep them engaged. They know the power of storytelling and how to wield this power.

Well-chosen words can inspire action. That might be creating trust, encouraging someone to buy something or changing behaviour. Stories are important for internal communications too – they can have a massive impact on teams and whole businesses from within. 

Great content can achieve incredible results. 

We’re here to help

At Crocstar, we’re experts in making the complex simple. Whether your audience is internal or external, we can help tell your stories better. If you want your content to count then get in touch. We’re always happy to chat – call us on 020 7183 1431 or email us on info@crocstar.com.