Content editing: why you need a style guide

Imagine that you’ve got a new software product in the works, and you’ve created a B2B marketing campaign to help promote it — but you glaze over the content editing aspect because you’re so busy perfecting the launch. Your campaign hits the internet, then you notice a glaring typo. How embarrassing.

Luckily, you can easily avoid this common scenario. By creating and using a style guide, you and your team will have a blueprint for content editing, so no matter how busy you get, your B2B marketing content will stay sharp.

In this article, we’ll cover:

• what a style guide for content editing is

• why you need a style guide

• how to create a style guide

• how to ensure it gets used by your team

What is a style guide?

Creating consistent, high quality content can be difficult if more than one person is writing or editing your B2B company’s marketing content. Enter the style guide: a set of best practices for your writers and editors, outlining standards for spelling, grammar, punctuation, sentence structure and image use to adhere to when content editing. 

Your guide should also include notes on tone and voice, content formatting, and rules for capitalization and search engine optimization. 

Why your B2B company needs a style guide

Editing skills in writing are extremely important. Your B2B company needs to build credibility to deliver your brand’s message as clearly and effectively as possible. 

Content editing with a style guide can help you achieve this goal, ensuring your content isn’t riddled with errors that detract from your message and call to action. Inconsistencies like typos, formatting issues, and an off-brand tone stand out to readers and can damage your organization’s reputation, making you look sloppy.

How to create a style guide for content editing

Assign someone on your team the task of creating your B2B company’s style guide for content editing. Ideally, this will be someone with editing skills in writing or an interest in content editing. 

Look for themes in the content you’ve previously published — for example, the use of Oxford commas — to make the process of creating your style guide straightforward. Establish these themes as rules in your new style guide. 

You should also scan your existing content for any writing habits that water down your message. Finally, include external resources for your team to refer to when content editing. For instance, include links to the Canadian Press style guide or templates for specific types of content like blog posts. 

Ensure your style guide gets used 

Tailor your style guide to your B2B company’s culture and level of experience with content editing. If your team doesn’t have natural editing skills in writing, they’re not likely to adopt a long and in-depth process for content editing, so keep your style guide short and sweet.

Get your team involved in the style guide creation process so they can provide input and ask questions. Introduce your style guide when onboarding new hires or freelance editors, ask if they have questions, and include examples of articles written in your B2B company’s writing style so they can see what you’re looking for firsthand.

Land sales faster with content editing

A carefully planned style guide can help your in-house content editing team or freelance editors create compelling content that crushes your marketing goals. Even if you’re not a wordsmith at heart, following a few simple steps can enable you to produce content that gets your message heard and attracts leads like bees to honey.

Download our free content checklist to learn the four essentials you need to cover before you publish any piece of content.