It’s not a secret that college students have to deal with plenty of writing on a daily basis. Thus, in case you decide to work in marketing or want to master the art of marketing writing for your student blog or startup, you might feel like you already have some basic skills to handle it. But is it really so? The thing is that all types of writing are different. Read on, and we will tell you more!
What Is Essay Writing?
As a student, you should be well familiar with this one. Traditionally, an essay is a short piece that tells a story or presents the author’s opinion on a particular topic. In schools and colleges, this is one of the most common assignment types used to assess students’ skills and knowledge.
Crafting high-quality essays isn’t easy. It requires conducting in-depth research, collecting supporting data, and presenting your ideas in a compelling and easy-to-understand manner. Luckily, students can now easily hire a professional paper writing service with good writers to get their essays done on time and to the highest standard. This significantly simplifies students’ lives and helps them achieve greater academic success.
What Is Marketing Writing?
There is a common belief that marketing writing is all about creating website copy and blog posts. In reality, of course, this matter is much more in-depth and complicated than it can seem at first glance. A good marketing writer should be a journalist, researcher, and subject matter expert. From time to time, they even need to demonstrate a solid sense of humor.
In a more specific definition, marketing writing is the process of creating compelling copy that encourages target audiences to act and brings them actual value.
Marketing Writing vs. Essay Writing
Now that you have general definitions let’s delve deeper and discover the real distinctive features of these two types of writing.
The biggest difference by far is the use of each type of copy. Essays are most often used in the educational sector as homework or classroom assignments, as well as the part of the admissions process or tests/exams. Marketing copy, respectively, is used in the business landscape. It can come in digital and print versions and is used in a variety of resources.
The next distinctive feature is the purpose. As you should know, there are several types of essays, each of which has a different purpose. This includes:
- Argumentative;
- Descriptive;
- Expository;
The purpose of marketing content can vary in a global sense. However, the core purpose is always the same – to provide the target audience with the information they are looking for, bring value, and persuade the readers to take action. There are also many different types of such copy. It includes blog posts, long-form articles, video scripts, website content, product descriptions, and many others.
Both essays and marketing content implies conducting thorough research. Nevertheless, some structure, formatting, and other basic rules can differ a lot. Namely, content for businesses is supposed to be optimized for SEO, among other things, to ensure that target audiences discover it on the web with ease. And, unlike academic papers, there always should be some kind of call to action in it.
5 Secrets to Successful Marketing Writing
So you already know that crafting essays and compelling marketing copy isn’t really the same. If you still need to master the latter one but aren’t sure where to start, we have you covered.
In the list below, we’ve gathered some of the handiest tips that will help you create great content without prior experience.
Study Your Audience
Whether you are crafting a blog or need to drive customers for your student business, you need to get to know your audience well before you can attain your goals. You have to define who the potential visitors of your blog or website are, what they are interested in, what challenges they are facing, etc. Knowing this, you will be able to deliver content that really resonates with your audience and helps you achieve your goals.
Have the Purpose in Mind
This is the trick from essay writing that you can apply – always have the end goal in mind when working on your copy. First, formulate the overall thought or message that you want to deliver to your audience and then wrap a compelling story around that idea. This will help you keep your content focused and effective.
Solve the Problem
Great marketing content should always address the audiences’ pain points. Simply put, it should predict the problems that your target audiences face and offer a compelling solution. For example, if you are making a blog about student travel, you can assume that one of the problems facing young travelers is a lack of money. Based on this, you can craft a blog post offering your audiences handy tips on how to travel on a budget. For example, you can share resources to look for cheap flights and accommodations or offer the top affordable destinations to try. So the idea is simple – do your best to solve the problem of your readers.
Keep It Simple
This trick is used both in essays and marketing content. Everything should be easy to understand and concise. Use short sentences and simple constructions. Also, be sure to use clear and easy-to-understand language. And, finally, stick to an active voice.
Optimize for SEO
The last key secret to creating a resonating copy is to optimize it for search engines. After all, your content won’t help to achieve your goals if your audience can’t find it. Therefore, be sure to learn the basics of SEO and apply them to your pieces. Start with searching for relevant keywords and integrating them into your copy.
The Bottom Line
Crafting copy for marketing purposes isn’t the same as writing essays. Nevertheless, with the right approach and the tips from this guide, even a student with no experience should find it easy to get started. Use these tips in practice to make your startup website or blog succeed!
