Creating Your Brand’s Content Marketing Style Guidelines

Using Writers Work for Content Marketing

Using an outside company like Writers Work to hire a writer for your company’s content marketing needs will free up your time for more important things. One of our writing experts can carefully craft blog posts, web copy, marketing emails, advertisement copy, and more, and this method is actually cost effective, whether you’re a small business just starting out, or a large, well-established company. Writers Work can help you find a writer who requires little management but who can create amazing content marketing materials that will help your company grow. You can try us risk-free for 30 days! But before you hire a writer, you should create a style guide for them to follow.

The Importance of a Style Guide

A company style guide gives your writer a strong, easy to follow rulebook regarding the type of content they will be writing for your company, as well as very specific company standards to use while writing. These standards include things like the company’s preferred tone and voice, as well as the company’s specific purpose, mission statement, branding (including fonts and company colors), grammar guidelines, and acceptable resources for the writer to use for research purposes. These tools will help your writer stay on topic and on brand, and will ensure consistency throughout your content marketing, even if you use more than one writer.

Be Specific and Use Examples 

When creating your style guide, don’t assume that every writer who reads it will know what you’re thinking or what you mean with only vague guidelines to go by. Be very specific about what works and what doesn’t, and what is and isn’t allowed. Use examples whenever possible. This will make it a universal resource, no matter who uses it.

Provide Links to Other Style Guides as Resources 

If your company has agreed to abide by The MLA Style Manual or The Chicago Manual of Style, provide links to these sources so that your writer can get to know them and use them as references when writing.

Stay On Message and On Brand

Your style guide should help your writer stay on message, and on brand for your company. However, the style guide itself should also follow that rule. Read, proofread, and edit your style guide more than once, and make sure that your company’s message and brand are front and center throughout. This also ties into the next piece of advice – keep it consistent. A consistent message makes it easier for your writer to understand exactly what your company wants and needs.

Keep It Consistent

Keep your style guide consistent. It’s frustrating for writers to read one rule on one page, and then see the complete opposite written 10 pages on. While writers should come to you with questions, a consistent style guide is a way to empower them to focus on their work independently, without having to take up a lot of your time asking for clarification. To learn more about the Writers Work app and the tools it offers to writers, sign up today!