15 Content Writing Examples from Top Content Writers and How to Showcase Your Own
Jessica Michael
Published onSo you're a writer, and now you want to get paid.
One of the best careers for writers is content writing, which allows you to leverage your writing skills into a fulfilling and well-paid career.
But in order to get hired as a content writer, you've got to be able to show potential bosses and clients your skills and expertise. That's where content writing examples come in.
In this article, we'll cover what types of content writing samples you'll need depending on the type of content writing you like to do. We'll show you content writing examples from professional content writers to inspire you. And lastly, we'll tell you how to showcase your own content writing samples so that you can turn your passion for writing into a career you love.
What is content writing?
Content writing is an umbrella term that covers everything from magazine articles to blog posts to social media captions. In fact, everything that requires writing can be called "content", but the term content writing is generally applied to digital content.
Content writing can be broadly divided into two different focuses: content for informational purposes and content for marketing purposes.
Informational content writing includes articles for journalistic platforms and media outlets, reviews, op-eds, essays, research papers, internal communications and stakeholder communications, informational newsletters, and so on.
For this type of content writing, it helps to have a professional or educational background in the areas that you're writing about. For example, if you have a background as a healthcare practitioner, you can specialize in content writing for medical newsletters. If you have extensive travel experience, you may want to focus on travel writing for lifestyle blogs. If you have a degree in journalism or creative writing, that may put you ahead of the crowd when it comes to writing for news outlets.
Content writing for digital marketing is all about making the sale. This includes product descriptions, advertising copy, scripts for ads, social media posts, and web copy, among others.
Experience in sales, marketing, advertising or copywriting is helpful, and you'll need to understand things like SEO and sales funnels. While you can leverage expertise in your area into a niche marketing career, it's not necessary as long as you are great at writing impactful and persuasive copy.
Types of content writing examples
The three main categories of content writing are content writing for earned media, content writing for paid media, and content writing for owned media. You'll want to have content writing samples for each of the categories that you write for.
Earned Media
Earned media includes publications and digital media platforms such as magazines and news outlets. Journalists and writers focus on these channels, which may also include script writing for video production or podcasts. Earned media implies that writers are paid by the platform that is doing the publishing and not by the subject of the articles.
Content writing examples include:
News articles
Reviews
Essays
Podcast scripts
Video scripts for news and lifestyle outlets
Paid Media
Paid media is any kind of advertising that a company or organization has to pay for. Content writing examples for these channels include:
Copy for websites
Copywriting for advertisements
Content writing for brochures
Script writing for commercials
Social media advertisement copy
Owned Media
Owned media is any platform or channel that is owned by a company or organization where they have total control over what appears. This includes email lists, website blogs, and social media channels.
Content writing examples for owned media include:
White papers
Social media posts
Email copy
Video scripts
Blog articles
Newsletters
Product descriptions
Landing page copy
Success stories and case studies
Internal Communications
One last type of content writing that often gets overlooked is content writing for use within a company or organization. This type of content writing is sometimes done in-house, but many content writers make a good living from specializing in internal communications alone.
Content writing examples for internal communications include:
Employee handbooks
Training guides
Scripts for educational videos
Communication templates
Stakeholder updates
Content writing and SEO
SEO is short for Search Engine Optimization and refers to the process by which content, code, and websites are designed to be easily found by search engines. For example, if you search for something on Google, the articles and websites that pop up on the first page of your search results are the ones you are most likely to look at. Therefore, it's important for websites that want to drive traffic to their site to design them to be attractive to Google so they rank higher up on search results.
SEO content writing is specialized to take advantage of keywords, common search terms, and other elements that Google bases its search result preferences on. Blog posts, web copy, and product descriptions are SEO content writing examples. While this article doesn't cover the ins and outs of SEO content writing, it is a great market, so if you do specialize in it, be sure to showcase that expertise with SEO content writing samples.
For more info, check out our complete SEO guide here.
What is great content writing?
Great content writing depends a lot on the type of content writing you're doing and for whom. For example, an incredibly well-written op-ed for an online news outlet is going to read very differently than a compelling product description for a client's online store. So how do you figure out the best way to write for all the types of content writing that exist out there?
As we discussed above, you should already have narrowed down the types of content writing you'd like to specialize in, depending on your areas of expertise and professional experience. A journalist and a digital marketer are both content writers but of a very different sort, and you'll need to figure out what you're aiming for to make sure you hit the mark with your content writing examples.
That being said, here's a few questions to answer as you consider tone, writing style, and potential impact.
Who is your target audience? If you are writing a book review to be published in a lifestyle magazine, you'll want to consider who reads the magazine and what they'd like to know about the book. If you are creating a Google Ad that targets college-bound highschoolers, you'll want to understand what they're interested in and how to best convey that to them.
Who is your client? Your client is the entity that is paying you and whose interests you represent. If The New York Times pays you to write a restaurant review, then you are writing from the perspective of the outlet, not from the restaurant you are reviewing. If you write a social media caption for a dog food company, you'll want to make sure you are representing their interests, not the interests of every dog food company that exists.
What is the intention of the content? Content can inform, it can inspire, and it can be utilized to make sales. Understanding the purpose of what you are writing will help you craft the correct prose for that particular call-to-action.
What is the length of your content writing? Examples of short copy include product samples and social media posts. Longer content writing examples include blog posts and articles. How you approach your subject and how detailed you get will be influenced by how much space you have to talk about it.
What is the tone or brand voice? A travel and lifestyle blog has a much different tone than a fintech company. Make sure you research the content that already exists and listen to your client when it comes to the impact and impression they'd like their content to have.
Regardless of who you are writing for or what you are writing about, content writing is best when it's persuasive, clear, and honest.
Content writing examples
We've given you a lot to think about when it comes to content writing. Examples can give you an even better understanding, though, so we've included some here to help you understand what you may need to do to curate your own impressive collection of writing samples.
Examples of Email Copy
Dan Berget
Dan shows off his email copywriting samples by putting together a visually stunning pdf collection of emails he wrote as part of the Lumens marketing team. Utilizing pdfs as content writing samples for email copy is a great idea if the emails themselves are visually appealing.
Theresa Boehl
Theresa uses a similar pdf-style display. In her case, she showcases three different companies she's worked with, which helps clients see that she can be brand-specific in her tone and messaging.
Content Writing for Articles
Hannah Taylor
Hannah is a film buff who's turned her love of the cinema into a writing career. Here, you can access links to her latest film reviews. She organizes her articles according to outlet, which shows that she's been a trusted contributor for multiple outlets.
Lauren Seagren
Lauren writes for Placemakr, a US-based travel blog. Here, she's collected an extensive sample of her work, which displays her specialty knowledge and niche writing.
Molly Wolfe
Molly is a lifestyle content writer. She's collected her best articles from multiple outlets and makes sure to show a range of article topics, from travel to fashion.
Blog Posts
Anna Burgess Yang
Anna has turned her career in product management into a career in content writing. She specializes in blog posts for FinTech companies, which keep their customers informed and their websites SEO-relevant.
Hannah Taylor
Hannah helps round out her content writing examples by showing writing samples from guest blog posts she's written. Guest blog posts helps clients see her range of tone when it comes to blog posts, and is a great way to create content writing samples if you are just starting out.
White Papers
Andrea Warmington
Andrea includes multiple examples of white papers alongside her other content writing examples. These writing samples show that she's capable of the intense research and technical understanding that it takes to write a convincing white paper.
Jennifer Jones
Jennifer also includes white papers as part of her content writing samples. In her case, her deep knowledge of crypto is showcased through both her blog writing and her white paper examples, which establishes her expertise instantly.
Copywriting for Social Media
Theresa Boehl
Theresa uses screenshots and video embeds to display her social media content for multiple travel and real estate companies. This highlights her understanding of social media copy and brand voice in a visually impactful way.
Advertising Copy
Lauren Seagren
Lauren includes a section in her portfolio that highlights ad campaigns she's designed. In addition to her infographics, she's created cohesive copy that unites the advertising messaging.
Product Descriptions
Dan Berget
Dan does a great job of including 4 different product descriptions from 4 different companies. He includes a brand statement that helps potential clients see how he uses brand messaging to shape his descriptions.
Content Writing Examples for Beginners
Rachel Krajna
For anyone who is just starting out in content writing, examples of published work may not exist. Rachel creates sample cases and writing samples that show her skill and expertise without having to get published.
SEO Content Writing
Jessica Michael
Jessica uses a screenshot with a brief explanation of her SEO philosophy to highlight her SEO content writing abilities.
Video Script Writing
Amaka Odozi
Amaka includes a short video she wrote and produced in her projects. This is a great way to showcase your script writing talents, even if you haven't had a chance to write for a client yet.
How to showcase your own content writing examples
As you can see from the content writing examples above, one of the best ways to showcase your writing samples is by creating an online content writing portfolio. Digital portfolios are easy to share and simple to update.
Find out how to create your own content writing portfolio with Journo Portfolio.
