The great news for writers considering content marketing writing is that the writing skills we have honed doing other types of writing are directly applicable to content marketing writing. However, there are a few subtle differences between content marketing writing and traditional journalism that are important for writers to understand.

• 1. The Purpose of Content Marketing Writing Is to Increase the Customer’s Trust in the Brand.

If you write an article for a consumer or trade publication, your purpose is to educate or entertain the reader so that they will continue to purchase the magazine. With content marketing, the purpose of all of your deliverables is to provide valuable content to the reader with the purpose of establishing the brand’s expertise in the industry. If done correctly, this increases the amount of trust that the potential customer has for the brand. While this is a subtle difference, it is essential to keep this point at the front of your mind because it affects everything from subtle messaging within text to topics to even allowable sources.

• 2. Your Client is a Brand instead of a Publication.

When you write for a traditional publication, you are hired by the publication to write the article or blog post. However, when you write content marketing materials, your client is the brand. Some content marketing writers write through a content company such as Contently, Skyword or Ebyline, but even in that case, their client is the brand.

• 3. Understanding Your Audience is Key

Knowing your audience is a skill that writers have been focusing on since the beginning of time. But with content marketing writing it is even more important and your audience is typically much more defined. And often it is a specific niche within a companies target demographic that they are looking to capitalize on. It is important to understand your audiences needs, problems and what sources they get information from.

The thing to remember is none of these concepts or topics are new to freelance writers. Each one is simply a twist or a different emphasis on something that we are already doing all day long.  While there are definitely some small differences, I am positive that any freelance writer or journalist who wants to add content marketing to their services already has the majority of the expertise they need to be successful.

What are some differences that you have found between traditional article writing/blogging and content marketing writing? How have you handled the differences between the two types of writing?