3 Non-measurable Qualities That Every Content Writer Desperately Needs
You can measure engagement, likes and shares, ROI, CTR, time spent on site and bounce rate for every piece of content you write.
You can build a content plan strategy, use a software for easier distribution for your content but all of these will help you little to none to become successfull content creator if you don't have developed these three non-measurable qualities.
1. Empathy
Creating text, especially for buisness purposes, is like reading your audience's minds. You have to answer their needs before they ask, you have to give them what they want from you before they know they need it. No matter it is a how-to article, detailed product description or a simple advice to improve their lives.
You can hardly write such texts if you can't put yourself in the customer's shoes. Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of the others. And their needs, doubts, dreams or wishes.
Knowing the needs of your customers will give you the clue to propose them the right solutions and answers before they even ask you. And this will make your text engaging, useful and shareable.
2. Talent
Writing is like every other art – you need 99% work but also 1% talent. In these days it seems that everyone can write. And it's true. You open a new document and you start typing word after word.
But 1 000 words doesn't make an interesting, engaging or memorable text. The way you describe your thoughts makes it.
The way you choose your words, the structure of the text, the metaphores, the twists in the plot, all these little things your professor of literature has tried to put in your head years ago – it's actually the only thing that matters when you have to write a really good article.
You can use all the important keywords for your business, you can follow all the guidelines for “catchy” title and “put bullets for better reading”, but if you're not a talented writer, all those advices will help you produce just a sequence of words, well formatted but fairly full of meaning.
The easiest way to know if you're a talented writer is your personal facebook wall. Write a status. Sit and wait for reactions, comments and shares. If you provoke a laugh, a tear or a comment from your friends, you have talent.
And now all you need to do is sit and start working hard to master it.
3. Curiosity
The good writer tells great stories. And a great story is the one that teaches you something new or presents a surprising point of view for a thing that everyone already knows.
You need to constantly expand your circle of knowledge not only about your product or your customer needs but also for every aspect of life, society and the world itself.
If not, the result will be a text full of cliches – nothing but the same old record playing for the 100th time.
The content marketing is the king, but the talented, curious and full of empathy content writer is the God.