Hello Friends, Welcome to learnvern.
In the last unit we learnt what creative writing is. We also tried to understand the fundamental differences between creative writing and content writing.
Also with the help of a small example, we tried to understand the difference between the left brain and the right brain.
So come friends, let us begin our session today. In this session we will learn how to develop content creatively.
Right?
What all are the best strategies available through which we can create good content and through which we can also look at aiming higher engagement as by reading that content or consuming the content, our audience will engage with us in a better way.
The very first thing you need to know is - the content you plan to write is for whom.
Who is your target audience?
Are they males or females or
Are they teenagers or
Are they the senior citizens? or
Are they housewives?
Are they kids?
You will have to find an answer to this question by yourself and only research can help you in finding an answer to this.
So what do you need to know?
Which question are you finding an answer for?
You need to have an answer to the following questions:
Firstly, Who is my target audience?
Who are they?
You need to be very clear for whom you are writing the content.
What is their gender?
Then secondly you need to know what they do?
Are they employed or are they unemployed?
Are they youth?
What is their nature?
Knowing all these is very very important for you.
Then the third point is where do they Live?
Do they live in metro cities?
OR
Do they live in Tier-1, Tier-2 cities?
OR
Do they live in Tier 3 cities?
OR
In villages?
Where exactly do they live?
All this is very important for you to know and to understand as the preference of the users change with the cities they live in.
Maybe a shirt’s pattern that is trending in metro cities might not be accepted as a fashion in tier 2 or tier 3 cities.
Similarly, a fashion that has emerged well in tier 2 or tier 3 cities might not get accepted in metro cities.
Something that works well in Rajasthan might not work well in Gujarat.
And something that works well in Gujarat might not work well in Maharashtra.
So it becomes very important for you to know where your target audience is based.
Do you want to make a regional level content,
Do you want to make content in marathi
Or in punjabi
Hence it is imperative to have the answer to the question - for whom are you creating the content?
Also the next important question for which you need to have an answer for and that is
Why will the audience read your content?
What is the value addition you have ensured in your content that the audience will spend their valuable 10 seconds, or 20 seconds in reading your content.
It is important that you have an answer to these above question.
Are you driving any value?
That value can be anything.
It can also be that you have published a creative meme and it resulted in entertaining the end user. Thus the end user got some value by reading your content. Maybe it resulted in laughter, and thus it led the user to forget his stress for a few minutes.
This is also called value.
It is not necessary that if your content is related to factual information or statistics only then will it drive value.
No, this is a wrong notion.
The objective of creative writing is that you understand your audience.
In Fact the first rule of writing is to know your audience, is to know who are you writing the content for and why should they read your content.
If you are able to answer all these questions that means you can consider 50% of your work as done
Right?
As you would have understood by now what do your audience want, what do they like, where do they comment the most - thus you can consider 50% of your work as done.
The next important thing is Presentation.
How are you supposed to present your content?
In that, the first thing is :
“Publish the content your audience needs and wants”
So you need to publish such content that your audience is searching for or the content that audience needs to consume.
Then comes, how do you present your thoughts, your content to the audience.
In this the first important point is “be human, be honest, and be transparent”
All these will position you as an individual writer.
You should be honest while presenting your content, you should not exaggerate it. You should report it, the way it is. You should approach and take up any paragraph or writing assignment with honesty and with transparency.
The next important thing is “Tell Stories”. Users like stories a lot.
So share stories with them.
Infact, Storytelling is an art.
Storytelling is of high importance in advertising.
If you watch any youtube commercial, any video of 3 to 4 minutes may be of Bajaj or any big brand, it is important to have storytelling as a part of the video by which you can engage the users till the end.
Hence, ensure to involve storytelling in your creative writing.
Give them something extra, something exclusive.
For example, if you plan to sell something. Let us say an e-book then give it for free for sometime or give 50% discount on it. That is to do something extra, something different,something exclusive. This will let the users feel that they got some benefit out of it.
Next important fact to understand is that the corporate related jargon or heavy words should be used the least. Keep the language simple and straightforward. Because if you use more corporate jargons or scientific terminologies then it will make your content piece complex and the users won't follow and will find it difficult to understand. So this is important for you to understand while writing content.
Then lastly, Quality is better than quantity.
Whether you write 2 articles or 4 articles or 10 articles, you need to ensure that you are offering well researched content and qualitative content to your readers.
So do not run after publishing more articles or posts. Do not think that my Instagram should have more posts.It is not the number that matters.
Always run after quality and not quantity.
This will ensure that your users get the best content and thus they will be associated with you for a longer time.
Let us understand with an example, how will you begin your paragraph?
The first example I have here is:
“I heard my neighbour through the wall”
Now this is a dry and uninteresting example.
If I want to write the same in a creative manner, how will I do?
The neighbour behind us practised scream therapy in his shower almost everyday.
Your brain added 2 words: scream and therapy.
Right?
Please understand, you need to think here psychologically too.
Brains like curiosity.
So if you add some new words in your brain or some curious words; you will make your brain curious. This will definitely help me, to push myself a step forward, towards creativity.
So in this way try to script creatively.
As you can see below, the second sentence catches the reader’s attention.
Who is the guy who screams everyday while taking a shower?
Why does he do that?
How does he do that?
Let’s keep reading.
So psychologically you binded your user onto a different angle altogether.
And the user will want to read more and know more about it.
Make your starting line interesting by which readers are inclined to read more and go through the rest of the content or the whole blog.
Here, I have given a few examples of headlines which if you use will bring in a lot of attention and engagement to your blogs.
First thing is:
“Promise Something”
You would have seen subject lines like:
“Top 8 tips to optimise your LinkedIn profile”
Top 3 tips or
Top 5 tips,
7 ways,
9 ways
So promise something.
Promise your readers that by reading this blog you will have this benefit.
If you are able to convey that in your title itself then the user will definitely open it and would want to read more about it.
Second is:
“Be Plausible”
“Answer what is in it for me”
As i had mentioned earlier that when you promise something also inform the end users what is in stored for them.
“Be intriguing”
“Be relevant”
“Be useful”
And
“Be specific”
If you follow all of these, then the CTR on your headlines. CTR means “click through rate”
That means:
The number of people viewing your blog and
The number of people clicking on the blog
So the CTR will definitely increase if you keep in mind all of the above while writing headlines.
Now a few top headlines using which you can start your blog, you can put them in your linkedin articles, you can add them in your facebook post too and you can make use of them in other social media platforms too, also in email marketing.
- 10 mistakes to avoid - again take your mind towards curiosity. Which are those 10 mistakes that I should avoid?
- The secrets of dash dash dash - the secrets of wealth creation or the secrets of equity markets, the secrets of becoming a best digital marketer. So again these all are related to curiosity. In our upcoming slides we will discuss these at length.
- 5 ways to…
- This fourth one is very interesting. The tips for dash the pros don't want you to know. Your brain will automatically start processing and thinking what are those 5 tips that pros don't want me to understand. So it is like when someone stops you from going somewhere or doing something, but your inner feelings urges you to go there or to try that. So you will move a step further ahead, either your email will open up or your article will open up, thus the user will take a step forward.
- Why I never…
- Ten lessons from
- Why you need to know about
- Top 10 best, funniest, weirdest, worst
- 5 reasons
- 20 things you might be missing
All these are the examples of impactful headlines that you can begin with.
Before moving on to the best practises of creative writing, I would like to share a personal example with you. I was reading a research report and there it was mentioned that if you use odd numbers in your headlines or titles then your CTR becomes sky rocket like 3 ways, 5 ways, 7, 9.
So if 3, 5, 7, 9 are present in your title then your CTR comes little more as compared to the odd numbers.
You can experiment this in your blog or youtube channel where you experiment by making use of odd numbers. And check whether your title is receiving more clicks. So just try this one small experiment on social media channels.
Now let us talk about the best practises for Creative writing.
The very important best practice is to avoid writing long stories. If you wish to write any content then divide it into small small paragraphs. This is your first tip and also ensure that the paragraph does not exceed more than 2 to 3 lines.
You may check these blogs like Neel Patel, backlinko.
They are the top bloggers of digital marketing in the entire world.
Their blogs are read the most.
You will see how they have made use of the user experience.
How well spaced their blogs are.
And how have they presented their blogs or content to their users.
Next tip is - use very simple language, avoid complex terminologies
The next tip is - make use of heading and bullets. This will enhance the readability of your content. So this is also a useful tip.
And lastly, also the most important tip is - make use of call to action
If you are writing a social media post then ensure to add a call to action that you wish the user to act upon.
If you want your user to download an e-book then you will write “download now”
If you are running a lead generation campaign then you will mention “get quote” or “request a call back”.
So when you make use of such call to actions, the user is sure to consume the entertainment related content and along with that just because of the content he may also act upon by performing a call to action.
As I had shared with you earlier about email subject lines, here I am sharing a few examples. Let us talk about curiosity. So curiosity has the following subject lines
- This is embarrassing but dash dash dash
- Still doing it the old way? - On hearing this the first thought that comes to mind is maybe there is a new way to do it. So what is it, let me click open and check.
- Don’t buy this from amazon - so what is the user trying to say that do not buy from amazon. Why did he say so
- Finally! Facebook releases dash dash dash - What but?
- My gift to you - what is the gift I am going to get
Infact in this email personalisation is also included.
Nitin, here is the gift for you - such subject lines are also trending these days.
- Inverted web analytics
- The ideal length of everything online
All these are curiosity related subject lines. I thought these will also be of use to you so I have included them as well.
The urgency scarcity related examples for tag lines or subject lines
- I am closing it down
- Terms and conditions 2016 closing soon
- Your 7 figure plan goes bye bye at midnight
So such subject lines can also be portrayed creatively.
Such subject lines you can make use of in your LinkedIn articles too.
The most important rule of social media is 80-20 rule
20% content that you create which is a promotional content then 80% content should be created which is non - promotional.
Always remember this.
You need to understand that if you are managing a social media page or if you are managing an instagram account, people aren't visiting you to know your products or services, rather they visit to educate themselves, to engage themselves or maybe to get entertained.
IF you don't fulfil these needs of theirs then they may not visit you again.
So always keep in mind that the amount of promotional content or product centric content or the sales driven content should be less. And the amount of non-promotional content should be more.
If you have any queries or comments, click the discussion button below the video and post there. This way, you will be able to connect to fellow learners and discuss the course. Also, Our Team will try to solve your query.
In the next unit we will see how brands are creatively writing and presenting in social media. With the help of case studies we will understand how creative writing works on social media.
That is all for today. Thank you!
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