Content Writing Job Description- A Comprehensive Guide
We all have heard the saying that “Content is King”. In today’s time, almost every single product, service, and business is establishing an online presence. We’re constantly bombarded with and exposed to a lot of content. This content when produced and marketed gives the entity of a wider reach and higher revenue. Content Writing is an extension of this. According to HubSpot Blog Research, 90% of the marketers investing in content marketing online plans are investing the same amount in the digital channels. With the growth in the number of active internet users, the digital industry is projected to grow alongside as well. According to Technavio, the global content marketing industry is projected to have an annual growth of 16% until 2022. All contribute to increased demand for content marketing strategists, content creators, and content writers. Let’s further look into how we can make ourselves a better fit for a content writing job description.
What is Content Writing?
Content Writing entails writing, editing, and publishing content in digital format. Every blog post, targeted ad, press release, business listing, job opening, and others that are posted online are content. Content Writing is one of the strong pillars under the umbrella of content marketing. From government offices to global businesses, from celebrities to the common man, every person has the opportunity of establishing a presence in the digital world. Content writers are storytellers that can help people, brands, parties, and entities build a narrative. They can leverage a casual social media scroll or internet exploring into a revenue-generating call to action.
Content Writing is everywhere, from product descriptions on an e-commerce website to episode summaries on OTT platforms to promoting a social campaign to creating memes that personify brands. Content writing is an art that analyses data, trends, and human psychology to create a story that flows and is convincing. It might seem a little daunting at first, but whether or not you fit, the content writing job description is solely based on how willing you are to learn and how disciplined you are. It can be easily learned. To build a personal brand across social media, you need to understand the requirement and the kind of content that the audience expects. And build your posts around that.
For small businesses trying to garner attention to their product/service, you need to create content that promotes a call to action, post authentic reviews, focus on providing your best customer services, and work on feedback given by customers. While bigger brands need to focus on following more topical trends across social media, be it hilarious Twitter banter, memes with product inclusion, or collaborating with content creators with large followings. A content writing job description includes performing all these roles.
Skills Required to Be a Content Writer
Research:
A fundamental aspect of content writing is writing and researching diverse subjects. Researching the current trends in the market. Understanding audience expectations and demands of different platforms and podiums. Making listicles, infographics, business listings, and video scripts, all require deep-diving into a variety of subjects or at the very least having a jack of all trades knowledge base. It also means that you need to constantly look out for knowledge. Additionally, you should also know how to strategize your content based on your research to make it more relevant.
Reading:
Reading makes up a huge portion of the research. To write well, one must also know the perception of a reader. Whether a piece of content has flow and insight in it is also based on a writer’s reading instincts. It also teaches you how to keep the reader hooked which plays a very important part in getting ad views and website visits.
Reading not only helps you improve as a writer but also encourages inter-connecting stories and subjects, gives you a perspective on how people build stories, and helps you discover and inculcate new vocabulary.
SEO Optimization:
Content marketing and search engine optimization are intrinsically connected. Writing good content is not enough, you need to know how to market your content well, and how to increase exposure and visibility. Utilizing SEO and getting your content ranked higher across search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing, and Brave Search is one of the main demands in any content writing job description. Creating SEO-optimized content requires an understanding of SEO algorithms, including appropriate backlinks, internal linking, even keyword density throughout the piece, and much more.
Content Creation:
The Creator/ Influencer economy is on the rise. It is expected to generate INR 900 crores by the end of this year alone. Content Writing is an expansive field while written content is the primary focus of a content writer. Video content is one of the most popular ways in which people consume content. Creating content also requires you to explore diverse ways of making content and building a brand. A content writing job description is not just limited to writing scripts, it also helps you leverage social media effectively and present your content in engaging and consumable ways.
Exploring and Finding Your Niche:
Finding your niche is like finding your comfort zone in writing where you have substantial and sufficient knowledge of a subject. Finding your niche is also important to finding and pitching potential clients.
How Does One Find Their Niche?
By aligning your areas of already occurring interests and topics that you are curious about, you can explore several subjects, write practice copies and figure out what fits you the best.
Niche Subjects Could Include:
- Fashion
- Beauty
- Lifestyle
- DIY- Do It Yourself
- Health
- Nutrition
- Parenting
- Business
- Pop-culture/News
- Vernacular languages
- Yoga
Building Your Vocabulary:
Vocabulary is essential to describe anything fluently. Building your vocabulary doesn’t necessarily require you to write content that makes your reader go and google search words. It provides you with words that can better describe a certain situation, product, feeling, etc, giving you an edge to make your writing more enticing and lucrative. To build your vocabulary, start by reading anything and everything you can get your hands on. You need to read extensively to come across different words and ways in which the writer describes things to build your knowledge. Pick words and practice them throughout your day for better retention.
Grammar Accuracy:
Any piece of content you write must be grammatically sound. A copy with grammar errors gives the impression that the piece was written very haphazardly and with less concern. Learning basic rules of grammar say figures of speech, tenses, proper punctuations, and modals can take you a long way. Furthermore, you can utilize grammar checking tools available in-built in MS Word or Google docs or take the help of others tools and extensions available online.
Social Media:
Social Media has a growing relevance in the digital world. Different platforms are better suited for consuming a specific type of content. Social media helps you gain traction, build a brand, and find your target audience. Social media marketing is also a major part of the content writing job description. Social media presence is not just limited to posting pictures and videos. You can positively utilize your presence to look for job prospects, and post quality content that helps you attract an audience/ customers. Knowing the demands of the audience across platforms can help you tweak and adjust your content to optimize it.
Tools Required to Be a Content Writer
Grammar Tools:
Grammar checking, suggestions, and proofreading are very important. Tools required to enhance grammar and make your writing more interesting and readable. For Example, Quillbot, Wordtune, and Grammarly.
Keyword Planner:
Keywords are single words or phrases that are entered in search engines. Keyword Planning is essential when it comes to content marketing and search engine optimization. Spreading keywords judiciously across the content to increase discoverability and increase ranking. You can use Google keyword planner, keyword tool, or word stream.
Topical Knowledge/ Trends:
Trending topics help you gain traction. It is essential to keep up with trending subjects and align your content accordingly.
Plagiarism Checker:
Search Engines tend to flag plagiarized content. Limiting and checking plagiarism, since unethical copying of content is considered theft and can give you copywriting issues.
Who Can Become a Content Writer?
- Anyone with basic English proficiency and a thrust for knowledge can become a content writer. Even being fluent in vernacular language and having typing skills can help you leverage your content. Understanding the basics of grammar, typing, and a liking for words can also be helpful.
- Anyone looking to earn side income and grow their financial sources. Content writing can be done along with a full-time job to earn a decent sum of money. Marketers can also write content for their brands to cut costs.
- Anyone looking to seek freelancing opportunities. Anyone desiring to work for themselves, switching jobs, or wanting to take a break from working full time can become a content writer.
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Benefits of Becoming a Content Writer
Work From Home:
The COVID pandemic mobilized a lot of jobs. Usually, a content writing job description contains the option of working from home. It helps brands save costs and on the other hand, work from home opportunities help you save money since they don’t require you to shift locations. You can also restore your work-life balance.
Side Income:
It is a great opportunity to expand your financial resources. You can spend as much time as you can afford and earn accordingly. If you’re in between jobs or a student wanting to earn along with their studies, content writing is a great option for you.
Make Money Online:
Content Writing gives you a great opportunity to make money online. It helps you better utilize your internet browsing habits and social media scrolling and monetizing your skills. Your content writing portfolio will also make it easier for you to present your work to your prospects and for them to assess the overall quality of your work.
Enhance Creativity:
If you are looking to build yourself as a writer and develop your creative side, content writing is a prompt-based activity that’ll help you develop a discipline for writing. Create a portfolio to present your skills to potential readers. For writers who work better with inspiration and flow for creative writing, content writing provides them with better structure and helps them stay organized. It also helps you explore exciting topics.
Job Opportunities for a Content Writer?
With the boom of users in the digital landscape, the demand and diversity of the content writing job description have also increased. Here are a few job opportunities you can look for if you’re somebody who is into content writing:
Content Strategist:
A lucrative option for people looking to explore the content writing job even further. A content strategist is responsible for planning, creating, editing, scheduling, managing, and delivering content for a brand. They are crucial to the marketing team of the brand and they create content to drive traffic, generate leads, increase engagement, and enhance business outcomes. A content strategist can earn anywhere from INR 3 lac p.a. To 7.5 lac p.a.
Copywriting:
Copywriting is the art of writing a text for advertising or other forms of marketing. A good copy can easily seal the deal for the brand or at the very least increase its visibility. The ad jingles from our childhood that we still remember are all the words that can be credited to a wonderful copywriter. Their main focus is to bring attention to their brand and prompt the audience to call to action. Copywriting is an extension of content writing only, often content writing job description also requires you to write ad copies along with other responsibilities.
Social Media Writing:
As a social media writer, you are required to create social media content, brochures, infographics, and video scripts, respond to users, track and enhance engagement, across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. Social media writers are also required to create buzz around new launches of any product, service, or campaign. The salary of a social media writer could be around INR 4 lac p.a.and higher.
Ghostwriting:
Ghost-writing means writing a text that is credited to someone else. Some of the most famous memoirs, biographies, and speeches are written by ghostwriters. Ghostwriting can also be covered under the content writing job description for drafting a celebrity retirement, venture, and other press releases.
It requires you to not only master or develop your style of writing but also to understand your client and to become their voice. Though a ghostwriter’s income can vary as per the gig. As a beginner, you can expect INR 6lac p.a. and even more if you have enough experience or are ghostwriting a book.
Frequently Asked Question-FAQs
Q1. I do not come from a writing background, am I fit for the content writing job?
Yes, anyone with basic knowledge of computers, a genuine liking for words, and a basic understanding of language can learn content writing. Your background isn’t much of a concern when it comes to content writing if you’re willing to learn. To gain confidence as a beginner you can always join a course and start from the very basic and build your skills up. Additionally, you can look for internship opportunities since content writing is not so much a theoretical skill, you can learn better with hands-on experience.
Q2. What are the best content writing courses in India?
There are several courses available in both online and offline mediums. Ranging from 1-4 months on average. You can choose courses that suit your pace of learning. You can also find free resources to learn content writing and practice to improve.
Q3. Can I start freelancing as a beginner in content writing?
You can utilize LinkedIn to find prospective clients who suit your niche, you can also register yourself on freelancing platforms, and you can try cold mailing to brands or clients. A content writing job description is also posted on websites like Internshala, you can also look for careers posted on official websites of media houses and other brands you’d like to work for.
Conclusion
Content writing is no longer a skill that just looks good on our CVs. Thanks to the growth in the digital market, content writing opportunities are growing rapidly. It is equally helpful for anyone who wants to establish their brand or brand themselves. Hope this comprehensive guide helped you maneuver your way around content writing and gave you an insight on how to be a better fit for the content writing job description.
