Trying to make a piece perfect for publication can make you feel like Dorothy in the Land of Oz: overwhelmed and stuck in a strange world with rules that don’t quite make sense to you. (Commas and colons and verbs — oh my!) 
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When it comes to producing great content, however, spelling, grammar, and structure matter. Clean, error-free content demonstrates purposeful action, a high level of knowledge, and an attention to detail that consumers look for in any business.
The content you produce sends two messages to the reader: First, there’s the message you intended to deliver with your words. Then, there’s the underlying message your copy sends.
It’s really very simple. Accuracy supports a company’s expertise, and inaccuracy shows sloppiness and carelessness. Put yourself in the reader’s shoes. If you’re careless enough to make a mistake with your personal content online, why should readers think you’ll handle their account without making obvious errors?
Editorial Essentials of Expert Content
When publishing content, it’s important to remember that your voice isn’t the only one in your industry vying for consumers’ attention. With so much online content available, sloppy content will fade into the background and won’t be viewed as reliable expert knowledge.
If you don’t want your readers to go somewhere else to find the answers to their questions, your content should be:
- Well-organized. The point of content is to captivate, engage, and educate. You want to make readers’ job as easy as possible so they continue reading. An article’s structure, formatting, and flow are crucial for creating easy-to-read content. If your writing is confusing or disjointed, readers will simply click to a new page instead of trying to muddle their way through your article.
- Error-free. Clean, error-free copy allows the reader to focus on the message behind the words. If I read “your” instead of “you’re” in website copy, all I do for the next few lines is think about that silly mistake. Misspellings and grammatical errors shift your readers’ mindset away from the message and toward a state of annoyance.
4 Components of Effective Content Creation
Over the past 2 1/2 years, Influence & Co. has turned the Yellow Brick Road of content creation into the Autobahn. We’ve refined our editorial process at least a dozen times to reach the efficient process we use today. Our entire team is highly trained in content creation, and each step in the process acts as quality control for the next.
Whether it’s for our clients or internal employees, every piece of content we create undergoes a process that includes:
- A strategic purpose evaluation. A dedicated account strategist thoroughly reviews the article at each step in the process to ensure it accomplishes the overall goal. Tweet this
- Editorial input from publication strategists. Our publication strategists convey insights directly from publication editors during topic brainstorming and article review. This ensures that content is the best possible fit for a publication. Tweet this
- Plagiarism checks. We pride ourselves in creating only unique, original, and exclusive content from industry experts — not copied-and-pasted material from other sources. Tweet this
- Writing and editing support. Our editorial team makes up one of the largest departments at Influence & Co. Our skilled editors specialize in online content and take a hands-on approach with every article, from the brainstorming phase to final edits. Every piece of content that leaves our office has been seen by at least two editorial team members. Tweet this
What to Do if You Can’t Afford an Editorial Team
We have a highly developed, top-notch editorial team because we’re in the content business. However, we understand that hiring an editorial team — or developing one in-house — may not be financially feasible for some companies. Here are a few tips for company leaders who want to develop high-quality content without building their own team or hiring ours:
- Use online plagiarism checkers. Ripping off someone else’s material is one of the quickest ways to tarnish your credibility as a knowledgeable business professional. It’s silly to risk your reputation and PageRank when there are free, easy-to-use online plagiarism checkers, including Plagiarisma.net and Copyscape.
- Enlist the help of your friends and colleagues. There’s a reason why the editorial process at Influence & Co. includes at least two editors for every article: Two sets of eyes are better than one. If you stare at the same piece of content for too long, you’ll overlook obvious errors. Have your friends and colleagues read over your piece, and utilize your team’s best editor as a required last check for every piece of content your team writes.
Your content needs two things to make a positive impact on your content marketing strategy: a strong message and clean copy. We know you’ve got the message under control, but even the best writers need editors. After all, even though Dorothy always had the power to get home, she never would have made it to the Emerald City without the lion, the tin man, and the scarecrow.
Post by Brittany Dowell
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Want to learn more about using content to grow your brand’s influence? Check out our “5 Steps to Creating and Implementing a Thought Leadership Strategy” webinar replay.
