What it is like working as a content writer at Zluri?

Recently I completed my one-year stint at Zluri. What a journey this was!

Lots of writing, rectifying mistakes, and most of all, a great journey of learning.

I still remember my first day at Zluri. As an amateur writer coming from a journalist background, content writing for a B2B company was a bit overwhelming.

The first thing I did was unlearn many things from my past writing style. Next, I focussed on writing for the whole buying center--consisting of decision-makers (CXOs, directors, senior professionals) and end-users. My messaging was focused on a narrow (& target) audience.

In contrast, while in journalism, it was to convey the news to the laymen, communicating to the mass. So the writing didn't require going deep. I was not communicating with experts but rather with the general audience.

At Zluri, I started off writing long-form blog posts (articles) that attracted our target audience (CIO, IT heads at enterprises, IT teams, IT admins, SaaS operations professionals, SAM, ITAM experts) to our website.

I have had some experience in blog writing for a B2C audience. No matter how much marketers try to say there is no demarcation between B2B and B2C, it's human to human; when actually working, you will discover (as I did) that B2B is a different animal.

To help me get the hang of it quickly, Lalit (content head at Zluri) used to send me a content brief before starting a blog.

A usual content brief contains the blog's topic with an outline (all the subheaders that need to be included.) He used to give me the links for each subtopic for doing my own research.

So I started researching the topic, took notes, and started writing the blog. Though this may sound easy, it actually ain't. It requires a lot of research, thinking, and coming up with unique ideas.

As a writer, if you start writing without deep research, any subject matter expert (remember, we are not writing for a general audience) could point to your blog as written by some lousy writer.

In the beginning, I had no clue about SaaS Management, so I had to do my background research well before starting off on a topic. I used to participate in all the meetings and team discussions to gain depth on the topic.

As I developed my own understanding of the topic, I started taking interviews with SMEs to ask custom questions and get an understanding of a topic in-depth. This took my writing to a new level (to quote my manager's words).

Checking what is out there, taking note of the substance, discussing with team members and SMEs, thinking of new ideas, and most importantly, editing my own articles multiple times before sending them off are some of the best practices I follow while writing a blog now.

Though I have been working for a while, it took me a while to understand the true importance of the content team as a whole. I used to write every day but never had the chance to look back on how my writing was impacting the organization until one-day, Ritish, the co-founder at Zluri, told me how the blog posts I had written were generating business for the company. It is this which indicates how my work is getting transformed as leads for the company.

When my manager shared the $$$ value of the articles I had written, I couldn't believe that the blogs I had written had performed so well. Till now, I used to see writing as just writing. But seeing the impact, the whole cycle was clear.

Huge kudos to our SEO team. Without a well-planned SEO, even great content could fail from ranking on Google. To be a content writer, you should not just write but should also plan for distribution (aka promotion). Because at the end of the day, that is what you are working for.

No matter what you are working on, there would be plenty of blog posts written on the same topics all over the internet. But only well-written and deeply researched content gets footfall from the intended audience.

Right from marketing to communicating with potential customers, you would need the right words. So, the content team is an important part of any company (even more so for B2B SaaS startups as they can't rely on paid adverts.)

The best part is, you never get bored. It's not repetitive work. There are always new learnings. Thinking of newer structures to better phrases and introductions, content writing can be interesting and challenging at times.

Currently, I work on a variety of content for Zluri, from blogs, landing pages, and newsletters to emails, social media posts, white papers, etc. Not a single day has been dull as the job requires high energy and curiosity to learn something new every day.

The good news is we are expanding and would need a few more hands to help us create quality content. Not just that. A bigger team means a lot more fun and frolic.

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If you are a beginner, intermediate, or expert content writer and looking for a job, feel free to shoot me an email at sreenidhe.s@zluri.com. I would be happy to refer you for the role of content writing at Zluri and a few other startups I'm connected to.