The foundation of every effective organic marketing strategy is content creation. Whether you want to drive organic leads to your website, connect with your community on social media or stay top of mind through email marketing, you need to be able to create content to do so.

Not all content is created equal. In order for your content to be effective, it needs to be good — in other words, it needs to provide value. Valuable content drives high-quality traffic to your website, builds trust with prospective customers and is much more likely to be shared.

The one downside of content creation that actually adds value is that it takes time, and that’s the one thing most small business owners don’t have in abundance.

Here’s a quick five-step process for writing better blogs, social posts and email campaigns while also saving your time.

5 steps to writing blogs, social posts and email campaigns

Step #1. Find your topic

Often, figuring out what to write about is the most difficult part of the process. A great place to start getting ideas is by subscribing to a few industry blogs that create the kind of content you’re hoping to create.

Don’t just copy what your competition is doing. Give Google and other search engines a reason to rank you higher than your competition by adding more to the conversation. Use the topics you find on other blogs as inspiration for your own content.

Pick a topic that you don’t have to do a lot of research on — one that will allow you to write freely using your own skills and experience.

Pro tip: When brainstorming content topics, think about the keywords you want to rank for and pick topics that you can use those keywords in naturally.

Step #2. Break your topic down into subtopics

Think about the key points you want to make in your blog or email, and then break them down into bullet points. Outlining your main points like this will help you stay on track and make your content easier to write.

Remember, you don’t have to cover every aspect of your topic in a single blog. Aim to cover three to five bullet points about the topic to give your readers a quick overview rather than overloading them with information.

Step #3. Turn your subtopics into attention-grabbing headlines

Once you’ve narrowed down your subtopics, refine and rewrite them in your own words to make them mini attention grabbers underneath your main topic.

When people are looking at your site or reading your email newsletter, they’re generally scanning the content. The only things they will fully read are the headlines themselves.

Make sure your headlines are well-written and catchy. They should be exciting to the reader and entice them to read more.

Step #4. Expand on each point

The next step is to provide more information and details about each point you’re making. You don’t have to get too far into the weeds here. A paragraph or two about each of your points is usually plenty of content to fill out your blog or email.

Not only does keeping your content short and sweet help to make your life easier when creating content, but it will also help you provide a better experience for your mobile readers.

Long-winded content that’s not properly formatted can easily end up looking like a wall of text on a mobile device. Paragraph contents should wrap no more than two to three times to the next line. And headlines should wrap once or twice at the most.

Pro tip: Avoid being too promotional in your content. You can mention how your products or services tie in or solve a problem, but don’t make it the centerpiece of your content. First and foremost, aim to provide value.

Step #5. Edit and proofread your content

Typos happen, even to the best writers, as do readability and grammar issues. If you want your content to look professional, you need to make it a point to read through it after you write it to proofread and edit out any errors.

Ask a friend or teammate to read through your content before you publish it. As the writer, you’re too close to your content, and it’s often easier for someone with a fresh set of eyes to catch errors than it will be for you.

If it’s not possible to get a second set of eyes on your content, a good alternative is to read through your content aloud. Reading aloud forces you to read through your content more thoroughly than when you’re just scanning it in your head.

Bonus tip: Longform pieces, like blogs or marketing emails, that consist of subtopics can be broken down into short form pieces, like social media posts. Take your best subtopics from your content, and share them on your social media timeline with links back to your blog.

Content marketing is the key to organic success on any marketing channel, and it’s imperative to the success of any long-term digital marketing strategy.

If you’re not confident in your ability to create your own content, the content marketing team at Marketing 360® is here to help. Learn more and see our plans and pricing.