There is a dearth of editing tips for marketers. Tips for writing a great headline, subject line, or CTA, yes. But how to make your 7th grade English teacher proud and present clean content? Not much.

I’m writing this for those who are looking to expand their marketing skills to be able to proof your own team’s content or offer editing skills to your clients—and wondering where to start. Editing and Proofreading are two content marketing strategies that should not be overlooked or rushed.

An editor's hand, holding a red pen


MARKETERS, HERE’S HOW TO APPROACH EDITING (OR TRAIN SOMEONE TO DO IT)

There are roughly 10 million blog posts published every single day. And by golly, a lot of them could use some editing. Every marketing team and marketing agency should have at least one person designated to edit all their deliverables. 

If you’re unconvinced, here’s the case for an editor:

  • A typo or a questionable phrase can instantly kill your credibility. You’d be surprised how many of these are in the wild on web pages. To say it another way, can your brand and your reputation afford to have glaring typos or droning sentences that make people wince?

  • Everyone should have their work checked. You may feel like you’re a great writer, and you probably are, but different people’s brains work differently, and what you think may be straightforward (or funny or appropriate) may not be. It’s the editor’s job to call out these weird spots and suggest edits. Also, everyone makes comma mistakes. Everyone.

  • Even the editor, who is often also a writer, should have another set of eyes on their writing. See above.

  • I have never once proofed a document and found nothing to fix. Granted, maybe that’s my own drive to fix and improve, but to assume that your documents are perfect is imprudent.


What do we mean by ‘editing?’
There are four stages of editing, generally-speaking:

  1. Content and Development Edit. Don’t ever skip this high-level look of the piece to ensure it’s something your audience is interested in, it fits in with your content strategy and brand, has enough research, quotes, or examples, and ideally has target keywords for SEO.

  2. Line Edit. Do all of your sentences flow and make sense? Here we look at moving paragraphs around or diving deeper into an idea to explore it more. 

  3. Copy Edit. This is what most people think of as editing; the sniffing out of typos, whether punctuation, spelling, or grammar. Because again, everyone messes up commas.

  4. Proofread. The proofread is the last step of review, preferably in the final format of the deliverable, whether a pdf, a whitepaper, a staged blog post, etc. 

9 STEPS FOR POLISHING YOUR MARKETING CONTENT

Say you’ve nominated a person to take on this role for you (and maybe it’s you). What are the most effective techniques for editing that won’t alienate the author? 

  1. Dig up any brand guidelines and brand tone documents

    Whether you’re reviewing materials for a client or for your own organization, find documentation on brand tone and style. These documents usually include important clues like words to avoid, how to capitalize headlines, and the primary tones of the brand’s voice.

  2. Integrate SEO keywords
    For any page online that you’d like to be found by organic search, make sure you’re thinking about SEO copywriting. Integrate your keyword phrase naturally, but in the right places, to be effective.

  3. Read the client’s materials and take note

    If you’re editing something for a new client or a new author, read their previous work for context and voice indicators. Take note of things like how strongly they push recommendations and opinions; how often they use quotes, testimonials, or stats; whether they use the second or third person when speaking to/about customers; and what their CTAs sound like. Especially if you are working blind without branding documents, recreating an understanding of their tone is important, and this may be the best way to get a glimpse.

  4. Don’t do it alone!

    Use Grammarly (the automatic writing assistant) which will call out mistakes that spellcheck and grammar check would miss or get wrong.  And get familiar with the fabulous Grammar Girl. These are resources that will cut your time down and quickly answer questions (usually about commas).

  5. If you have to read a sentence twice, there’s probably something wrong with it.
    And that’s ok. Try to pinpoint what’s bothering you about it. It’s often one of two things:  one word or one phrase that is shoved in where it shouldn’t be, or it’s too long. Try changing different parts of it to make it feel better or make more sense. You may need to chop it into two sentences or take out parts that aren’t relevant. If that doesn’t work, try to verbally say how you’d explain this in conversation; this can often unlock a different way of getting to the point.

  6. When in doubt, ask a question or give options

    If you’re uncertain about the author’s preferences for things like tone, the meaning of a sentence, or the point they’re trying to get across, don’t be afraid to just ask. When nuance can be hard to describe, it’s helpful to write out a few options for the troublesome sentence or headline and let them choose. As long as you don’t overuse this tactic, it can be the quickest, most direct path to resolving a problem.

  7. Have someone say what they mean. Verbally.
    Another tried-and-true tip is the 10-minute interview. If the draft or the outline you’ve been given is a) boring or b) full of overly stuffy industry speak, or c) confusing or more technical than your grasp of the topic, ask the author to describe it verbally. Record and transcribe it or write their explanations down verbatim and you’ve probably got something great to replace the boring. When people speak, especially about their specialty or something that can be confusing, their spoken words are nearly always easier to understand than what they write. Use that. The reader will thank you.

  8. Get to know authors’ quirks.
    If you’re working with certain writers consistently, you’ll notice they usually exhibit the same writing tics. As you see it and correct it, you’ll become more confident in doing so. Things like consistently veering off course, ranting negatively without solutions, using monstrous words or mile-long sentences, skipping the conclusion, or repeating their point are all common tendencies you’ll clip right along fixing.

  9. You’re not married to the length in front of you.
    Make a recommendation if you think it should be longer or shorter. Can you make two blogs out of this? Not enough? Get them on the phone and draw more out of them or find some stats to fill out your content.


If you think your organization could benefit from content marketing and editing services, we’d love to talk to you.