The Goals of a Content Writer

To identify and eventually master the skills required to be a successful content writer (=make stacks), you must spot what’s expected of a professional in this role.

Of course, the ultimate objective is to make a sale, whether it is a product, service, or emotion. 

As you may already know, a sale occurs in multiple steps. Initially, you (or any buyer) gain awareness of the brand and their offering. Then, comes the decision phase when they determine whether to trust you over the competition.

Finally, when they can clearly justify their potential investment, the purchase takes place.

The content writer facilitates each of the aforementioned steps in a customer’s journey.

I’ve divided them into different segments to isolate relevant skills required to achieve each of the milestones in a typical consumer’s journey.

1. SEO — Attention

You have to reach your target audience first.

People, for the most part, search for their problems and look for potential solutions on the internet first. It begins with a simple query on Google or some other AI chatbot like Perplexity to learn more about the challenges they’re facing.

Therefore, your objective, in this phase, is to capture their attention.

If the blog posts or articles on your website rank on the first page of the search results, ideally in the top three, it is likely that you will succeed.

And search engine optimization (SEO) will help you get there.

SEO refers to a set of best practices that “trick” search engines like Google and Bing into believing your content is better than the competition. Consequently, they rank it higher on the search engine results page (SERP), giving you more exposure and, ultimately, traffic.

The majority of content marketers and writers will pretend that SEO is more than a hack, probably to act pretentious or maybe because they are ignorant.

Either way, SEO is pretty easy. There are certain tricks, such as inserting the user query (primary keyword) and its semantic variations (secondary keywords) throughout the article and getting backlinks.

The only challenge here is that it is a grind. It is a long-term game and requires a ton of time, effort, and patience. I’ve delved more into SEO and how writers can integrate it organically into their craft in the upcoming chapter (linked below).

2. Educate — Retention

We’ve all seen articles and blog posts across the internet with clickbait-y titles, flashy intros, and thirst trap-like feature images. While these are quite effective in catching people’s eye and getting them to click on the link, they aren’t enough.

You can only nudge a potential customer further into their purchase journey if they actually read the article and get some value from it. 

Plenty of netizens visit numerous websites to never return. Yes, that’s an achievement of some sort, but such visitors contribute nothing to a business’ bottom line. Unfortunately, most content marketers and creators fail to realize it.

Anyway, this goal can be achieved by being genuine, which is harder than it sounds because of the cutthroat competition for attention on the internet. However, pleasing a handful of readers is better than disappointing a huge number of sporadic visitors.

Furthermore, not everyone who walks into your store or visits your website will buy. Hence, from a sales efficiency standpoint, you’ll be wiser to create content for the few that will.

After you finish a draft, give it an objective read and ask yourself, “Will the reader feel like they’ve wasted their time?” If the answer is yes, don’t get disheartened, just try harder next time because content writing skills improve with iterations.

3. Personalize — Interest

The useful content, such as how-to guides, explainer articles, and best practices, warm the prospects up to your brand. That’s not enough. The consumers must warm up to your products or services as well.

When a potential customer goes through your catalog, they should believe that it has the best solutions for their needs.

The (personalized) content here is targeted to such folks. Folks who are ready to purchase and are actively looking for options. Nobody else, including visitors who regularly lurk around your blog pages for educational content, should find these creatives relevant.

This includes case studies, testimonials, and influencer recommendations. In each of these content pieces, the product or service is the core talking point. The conversation dangles around its impact on the lives of the buyer and its efficacy compared to the alternatives.

4. Pitch — Conversion

The last element of the purchase journey is when a company, via a salesperson or whatever, recommends one of its products or services to a prospect. This is the most personalized of all kinds of content and occurs through personal means such as email, text message, or phone call.

Note that modern sales pitches are usually more implicit where the potential customer is led to a conclusion that they need a certain good or service. For instance, you explain why a particular laptop is great for video producers. The target audience, then, decides for themselves.

However, explicit suggestions are also common, especially in a face-to-face setting. Typically, if the conversation (or the contents of the article) flows naturally where inserting a commercial message makes sense, do it.

Looking Forward: Diving into Each

Each of the aforementioned content categories in a buyer’s journey contributes toward all of the four goals in different capacities. A keyword-rich educational article written for SEO may very well convert the reader into a paying customer.

Similarly, a case study can give a visitor more information and context about your industry.

Hence, it is crucial to ensure each of the pieces, regardless of their primary objective, hits the mark.

Moreover, the conversion process is non-linear. A potential customer may first read a testimonial and then explore your blog before making a purchase. And all of it could take anything between weeks to months, depending on your niche.

In the upcoming chapters, we’ll delve into how you can achieve each of the goals of a content writer by creating content that hits the mark.

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Next Chapter: How to Master SEO Quickly

Previous Chapter: Different Content Writing Career Options

Index (Prologue): What is Content Writing