20 Terms Every Content Writer Needs to Know

20 Terms Every Content Writer Needs to Know Crafting content for businesses and their marketing agencies can be a decent earner for aspiring writers. But if you want to be taken seriously, you need to get the lingo right. Dan Brotzel of UK agency Sticky Content walks us through some of the essential terminology So, youve got your first content commission – a series of blog posts perhaps, or some new web copy. What usually comes next is a briefing form. The brief may be a detailed document of several pages, or it may be a couple of pages in an email. It may have been written just for you, or – more likely – for lots of other people working on the project as well, from marketers to web developers. ​​​​​​​ Your first job is to go through the brief, understand whats required, and come back with any questions. Heres a handy guide to some of the phrases you may come across Amends. Content work always goes through several rounds of amends on its way to approval. Your agreement may cite a certain number of rounds of amends that you will carry out; if not, its worth asking about this up front. While you shouldnt worry that there will be things to tweak, you should make sure that the amount of amends isnt getting unreasonable or turning into a rebrief. Brand voice. This is the verbal personality that your copy should convey. Guidance may come in a tone of voice document or in a brief description, e.g. friendly, straightforward, positive. If in doubt, ask for examples of voice they like. Call to action (CTA). All content should lead to a next step you want your reader to take, such as Call us now or Get a quote. Knowing the CTA will help you focus your writing. Compliance. In heavily regulated industries such as finance, a Compliance team will review the copy for potential issues such as making claims (the cheapest cover ever!) that cant be backed up. Its worth asking up front what sorts of things they normally look for. Conversion. The action that you want people reading a piece of content to take, such as downloading a report or making a purchase. Copydeck. Simply the document that contains your copy. This may take the form of a templated doc that you are asked to write content into. Distribution. How your content will reach people, for example via email, social channels or search results. Engagement. A slippery word that really just means people acting on your content in some way, e.g. Evergreen content. Content thats designed to have a very long shelf-life so needs to be written in a way that wont quickly date. Hygiene content. Essential content that keeps a website working, such as FAQs, Help content and About us content. This is distinct from Hub content (regular editorial-style content such as posts and articles) and Hero content (big campaign material). Key phrases. Words you may be asked to work into your copy, to help it appear in relevant search results pages. Landing page. The page that people arrive at after clicking on a search result, especially a paid-for one. There is a whole best practice for writing and designing these to drive conversions. Listicle. An article written in list form, usually beginning with a number. Localization. Translation. Sometimes you will be asked to write copy thats easy to localize, meaning it should steer clear of idioms and very specific cultural references that could get lost in translation. Newsjacking. The practice of creating some content triggered Optimization. Basically, improving things through an ongoing process of testing and learning. A page thats been optimized for search, for example, is one that has been written and designed to have the best chance of driving search traffic. Personas. Many bigger companies will have developed character sketches that stand in for key segments of their target audience. Often theyll have a nickname such as Sally, the savvy shopper or Dave, the silver surfer. These profiles can be very useful to help you pitch your copy correctly. Pay Per Click. The paid-for ads that appear among your search results when you look for something via a search engine. Pay per click is abbreviated PPC. The search engine gets a small fee whenever anyone clicks on an ad. Stakeholders. People with a governance interest in your content, such as Compliance, Product, and Brand. All review the content, and some may have an input into its creation. Stakeholder reviews inevitably lead to amends. Traction. A fancy word for response. As in: We want to see how much traction this first ebook gets, then well decide whether to do another one. Wash-up. A meeting where the work is reviewed after its gone live. You may not be asked to attend this, but you may hear feedback from it thats useful for your next commission. When interrogating a brief (as marketers like to say) you can inspire confidence