In order to stand out in a competitive marketplace, you need a content marketing plan that drives results. And while copywriting is essential to a successful strategy, copyediting takes content to the next level by enhancing its quality, clarity, and overall effectiveness.
In this guide, we discuss several key ways to leverage copyediting in your content marketing strategy, including how to:
- Create a style guide
- Correct errors
- Ensure consistency
- Verify factual information
- Improve readability
- Engage the target audience
- Incorporate SEO techniques
Keep reading to learn more about copyediting and how it can benefit your business.
What Is Copyediting?
Copyediting is an essential step in the editorial process, completed after developmental editing but before the final proofread. The goal of copyediting in a marketing context is to ensure that content is clear, accurate, error-free, and aligns with your brand and messaging. While copyediting and proofreading both involve correcting errors and improving readability, copyediting is more in-depth and addresses broader issues related to quality and adherence to style guidelines.
Depending on the industry you’re in, there may also be legal and ethical considerations to consider when creating content (e.g., plagiarism concerns or copyright infringement). In this case, copyediting includes verifying that your published content complies with the relevant regulations and standards.
Next, let’s take a closer look at how to incorporate the basic principles of copyediting into your content marketing strategy.
The Benefits of Copyediting Marketing Content
If your business relies on a steady stream of website traffic, it’s not enough to scale content creation. To get the results you want, your content needs to be specifically tailored to your target audience and provide a memorable user experience. And while copyediting can be labor-intensive, investing in it upfront can actually save time and resources in the long run. Fixing errors or addressing issues with unclear communication after publication can divert your team’s attention away from other areas of the business.
Effective copyediting also projects professionalism and authority; it signals to your audience that you value consistent quality and take the time to present a polished and refined image.
How to Use Copyediting in Content Marketing
Here are some ways to successfully implement copyediting as part of your overall content marketing strategy:
Create a Style Guide
To effectively copyedit your business’s content, you need to create and implement a company-wide style guide. A stye guide contains directions for how all marketing content should be written, including standards for:
- Brand voice and tone
- Consistent spelling
- Language (dialect, formality, etc.)
- Punctuation and grammar (such as whether to use a serial comma)
- Acronyms and abbreviations
- Industry-specific terminology
A style guide is necessary for copyediting because it provides a set of established standards to refer to throughout the process and ensures consistent high-quality content. If you don’t already have a style guide for your business, you should collaborate with your team to develop a basic one before starting to copyedit. A style guide is a living document, so you can always add to it or update it down the line.
Correct Errors
Part of the copyediting process involves addressing issues such as punctuation and grammar errors. These surface-level issues can be distracting to your audience and decrease your credibility and brand authority. According to one study, 59% of web users avoid buying from brands that publish content with obvious errors – so it likely won’t matter how engaging or creative your copy is if it’s riddled with mistakes and typos.
Ensure Consistency
Copyediting your marketing content leads to consistency across all content publication platforms, which increases trust and credibility with your audience. When copyediting, check that your brand style guidelines have been consistently applied and that the content reflects the appropriate tone for your intended audience. This is an important step, as content that contains inconsistencies, even relatively minor ones like spelling variations, can hurt your business and make it seem disorganized.
Verify Factual Information
When copyediting, always verify the accuracy of factual information and statistics. This is especially significant if your business uses AI-generated content, as it can include factual inaccuracies or improper citations. If necessary, thoroughly review and verify data and claims against previous in-house publications and reliable outside sources. Publishing incorrect or misleading information can damage your reputation and impact your bottom line.
Improve Readability
One way to use copyediting in content marketing is to ensure that potential customers see the most relevant information as soon as they land on your business’s homepage, for example, what you’re offering and how your brand is unique. It’s also important that all published content is clear, concise, and scannable for skim readers. This could involve restructuring hard-to-read sentences, eliminating redundant words or phrases, and refining awkward or unclear phrasing.
Engage the Target Audience
Incorporate copyediting into your content marketing strategy by making sure that content catches the attention of your target audience and keeps them on your page. Research your target audience and create detailed buyer personas to help you understand the type of language that will resonate with your preferred demographic and best convey your message (e.g., motivational, aspirational, humorous, or friendly).
Incorporate SEO Techniques
You can also use copyediting to boost SEO and drive website traffic and conversions. Ensure your chosen keywords aren’t awkwardly forced into the copy – they should blend seamlessly with the surrounding content for best results.
And to further improve SEO, content should be as relatable and helpful to the reader as possible. Search engines like Google consider the effectiveness of content when prioritizing websites on results pages, meaning well-written, user-friendly content consistently ranks higher on SERPs. When copyediting, check that content efficiently and concisely addresses common user search queries related to your specific product or service and eliminates irrelevant or outdated information.
Professional Editing Services
If you’re ready to leverage copyediting in your marketing strategy, Proofed’s editing services can help you meet your content goals. Let our expert team take care of the copyediting so you can focus on expansion and increasing sales and conversions. We can even collaborate to create a style guide for your business that reflects your unique brand voice. Schedule a call with us today to see what we can do for you!
