Thinking you can’t do content marketing, because you’re not very good at writing.
One of the biggest problems, most people have in starting out, is that they believe they can’t write, and therefore blogging won’t work for them. They then ask other people in their company to write a blog article. These people either balk at the idea, because they feel they can’t write either, or they only write sporadically.
But anybody can write. Let me tell you a personal story.
When I was in high school, and that was a looooong time ago, my English teacher had basically given up on me. After all, I was the QB of the football team, and what did jocks know about English?
BUT, I had to pass two English exams to get into University, English Composition and English Literature. If I failed one of them, I had to repeat my entire final year of high school. I got 50% in English Lit. and 55% in English Comp. I believe they put these two exams on a Bell curve.
Keep in mind that these final exams were given and marked by the Province, not my teacher. So these were all supposedly “impartial” markers, or as I like to call them – judges.
I thought I would never have to write anything of consequence again. At least I was hoping I wouldn’t. But as you know, life has a way of making you do things you thought you could never do. So, when I first became a salesman with IBM, I had to write.
I had to write introductory letters, internal memos, proposals, etc. And a very strange thing happened. The more I wrote, the better I got at it, and I actually started to like writing.
The one thing I found out was that if we write the way we converse, instead of how English is taught, it makes it a lot easier. And the people you are writing to, understand it a lot better too.
So, I started writing a lot, and of course with the Internet, my website, social media, etc., I needed to write to get my message out. Now whether you like my writing or not may be a personal preference. But I do get a lot of reads on my articles and a number of people tend to watch my videos too.
So, all you have to do is get started is to keep these three things in mind.
1. Write like you are having a conversation with someone, not like you are writing an English composition.
2. Keep your sentences and paragraphs as short as possible. Sentences should be no longer than about 30 words, and paragraphs should have no more than three sentences. This makes it a lot easier for people to read.
3. Don’t worry about your grammar that much. Use Word’s grammar correction when you start out, and it will make it a lot easier.
The more you write, the easier it will come each time. And don’t forget about reason #1 – start off with your blog strategy first. Get coaching with this, if you feel you need it.
Please remember, if you are waiting for someone else to anoint you as worthy, then you will be waiting for the rest of your life.
Kind regards,
Ian Dainty
416.277.4537
Author of the Forthcoming Book – B2B Marketing – The New Paradigm
Ian Dainty’s Email
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