What Are Content Guidelines?

What Are Content Guidelines?

Content guidelines define the look, feel, and voice you want for your content, just like brand values do for your business.

While developing your brand’s reputation across various digital platforms, they help your output to be more cohesive.

There might be numerous writers on your content marketing team or freelance writers who offer the best content writing services. Your set of content guidelines will serve as a centralized repository of facts for your writers.

Benefits Of Having Content Guideline

A set of content guidelines will assist in ensuring that your content is high-quality and consistent. Let’s delve deeper into the reasons why.

Continuity of tone fosters confidence

It is, at best misleading and, at worst, damaging to your reputation if your tone fluctuates between being humorous and conversational and being methodical and scientific.

The tone you use in your writing must be consistent; audiences anticipate this, so it’s best to perform a content audit to find any discrepancies.

It strengthens your relationship with your audience and gives them a clearer idea of the personality of your business. They are far more inclined to purchase from you if they feel confident in you.

Consistently high quality enhances the consumer experience

Have you ever placed an order for your go-to takeout only to be disappointed by the flavor of the food?

If so, you’ll be aware of how inconsistent quality may damage a brand. Your content is the same way.

You will develop a reputation as a reliable information source as you consistently upload high-quality content.

Nevertheless, if you publish a blog that isn’t up to par, your reputation may suffer.

Simply put, poor-quality content could completely expel potential buyers from your sales funnel.

7 Most Important Content Guidelines

Content guidelines lay forth the standards that people should adhere to when producing content for your company.

They set out everything you need to understand about how to produce consistent content for your business in the form of directions and suggestions.

Make sure yours contains details regarding your company’s:

1. Brand Voice

It’s not what you say that matters; it’s how you say it that counts. The tone of voice that distinguishes your business should be described in your company’s content rules.

In order to assist in bringing it to life, they should also provide compelling, pertinent instances of how your voice sounds.

2. Creating And Evaluating The Content

The inclusion of details about processes distinguishes content guidelines from an editorial style guide.

It’s important to keep track of the processes involved in creating content, including the evaluations and approvals that must be obtained for various types of blog content, as well as the timeframes for each of these procedures.

Holding everyone accountable will be simpler with this knowledge as a point of reference.

3. Terminology

There may be dozens or thousands of distinct, business-specific words used by large companies.

So that authors can be sure they’re constantly utilizing the correct phrases to represent the many facets of your organization, you should include documentation of these in your content guidelines.

4. Tips For Success

Writers occasionally should or shouldn’t do things that are particular to their business and don’t fit easily into any other category.

For instance, writers should or shouldn’t use contractions or only use the complete firm name on the first occasion.

Making sure your content guidelines become a helpful reference tool and serve as a content map will depend on organizing all these rules in a logical sequence.

5. Branding

How should your brand come across in your content? Perhaps you have a preferred method of describing your business or the goods and services it provides.

Making certain you accurately portray the company requires that you get that information straight.

6. Target Market

What factors must you take into account in order to ensure that the audience for whom you are writing is the right one for your work?

The target audience should be outlined in good content guidelines and as a part of content strategy.

That also entails providing pertinent information on how to develop material that will genuinely benefit them.

7. Content Styling

Having a set content style is one of the basics of writing content.

The MLA Handbook and The Chicago Manual of Style are excellent style manuals to use because there is no point in attempting to create something new.

Choose one, and make sure to include a statement in your document stating which one you chose to match your content guidelines with.

Given how difficult it may be to navigate those instructions, think about highlighting some of the most crucial and essential topics in your content guidelines to give writers a head start.

How Can Content Guidelines Help Improve SEO Performance?

An important aspect of content marketing is engagement. It’s doubtful that your content will create leads or drive conversions if it doesn’t hold the attention of your readers.

By giving you a structure for producing content that is pertinent, beneficial, and fascinating, content guidelines can assist you in producing material that connects with your target audience.

You can make sure that your material is consistent in tone, style, and purpose when you have a framework of content guidelines.

This consistency increases the likelihood that your audience will interact with your material and helps them develop trust in your brand.

You may position your business as a thought leader in your sector and develop a devoted audience by producing content that is educational, entertaining, and beneficial.

Examples Of Content Guidelines From Leading Brands

Many well-known brands operate under their own content guidelines that aid in the creation of engaging articles for their audience. Here are few cases:

HubSpot

HubSpot is at the top of our list due to its superior services and content. Its editorial policies emphasize producing instructive, educative, and useful content.

They also stress how important it is to support any assertions made in the content with facts and research.

Moz

The content guidelines at Moz, a prominent platform for SEO tools and software, emphasize the importance of producing interesting, relevant, and valuable material.

They also stress the value of speaking clearly and succinctly and avoiding gibberish or technical phrases that their audience might not be familiar with.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are content guidelines for marketing?

A collection of guidelines called content marketing guidelines outlines the tone, voice, duration, style, and themes that should be used while communicating with your intended audience.

What is the importance of content guidelines?

Content guidelines do far more than just describe the brand, tone, and voice of your organization.

These guidelines offer content writers a road map for both generic writing requirements and company-specific requirements. Your content strategy’s foundation is also comprised of content guidelines.

Wrapping Up

Content rules are crucial; there is no doubt about it. They are essential in ensuring that everyone in your organization who produces content is striving to meet the same standards.

The challenge is encouraging others to follow them.

These kinds of documents frequently gain popularity when they are first released, but they eventually become obsolete.

A thorough set of content guidelines will guarantee that the output of your team is consistent, tailored to your audience, and published at the time when it will have the biggest impact.

Also, it will help you save time and simplify the process of hiring new writers.