Author Archives: Amrit Hallan

About Amrit Hallan

Amrit Hallan is a professional content writer who helps businesses improve their conversion rate through credible and compelling content writing. His main strength lies in writing search engine optimized content without compromizing quality and meaningfulness.

Is artificial intelligence going to replace content writers?

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Can AI do content writing?

Last year, a Japanese AI wrote a novella and almost won a literary prize. Considering such developments, questions like, is artificial intelligence going to replace content writers are bound to be asked.

Artificial intelligence is already being used in chatbots where answers are provided to visitors according to the questions they ask, and the questions don’t have to match the exact string existing in the database. Some of the chat bots can even understand the context.

Google search already uses AI to know the intent of your search queries rather than simply focusing on words. As I wrote in my previous blog post on sentiment analysis and content writing, search engines already try to interpret what you really mean rather than the search terms that you are using, to give you the best possible answers to your queries.

If you have switched over to the new Gmail interface you must have noticed that when you open a message, there are options beneath it that allow you to send a quick reply based on the content of the email message. That’s context happening, powered by AI.

Artificial intelligence can even recognise what is present in an image, for example, if there is an image of a tiger hiding behind trees, artificial intelligence will tell you that there is a tiger hiding behind the trees in the photo. As you must already know, AI can recognise faces, as is the case with the tagging feature that Facebook has.

So, with all this intelligence, can AI also do the job of content writing? If AI can write novels and books, why not content?

Why would you be tempted to use an AI instead of a content writer?

Volume, coupled with quality, I would say.

A good thing about machines is that they never tire, and the performance is consistent.

What you want from a content writer? You want high quality content that can improve your conversion rate and your search engine rankings.

For conversion rate you need convincing content, conversational content, engaging content.

Can artificial intelligence achieve that?

Only when it thinks like humans.

We are not humans just because we are biologically alive and unlike animals, we are humans because we are more perceptive about our surroundings and we can think about thinking itself.

As René Descartes said, “I think, therefore I am.”

A human being, a human life, is a collection of memories, experiences and bits of knowledge gathered throughout a life period.

Hence, the way a person writes, comes from all those memories, experiences and bits of knowledge that he or she has gathered through her entire existence.

Artificial intelligence may have data but at least in the near future, it is not going to have memories and experiences.

So, how can artificial intelligence be used for content writing? Can it really replace content writers?

I think AI will be able to create a framework of ideas, but a life can only be injected in that framework of ideas by a human content writer.

When it comes to generating 500-1000 articles or blog posts per day then may be, yes, artificial intelligence will definitely replace content writers, if not in the near future, then maybe in the coming 5 or 10 years.

But when it comes to turning visitors into customers and clients by establishing emotional connections, AI won’t be able to replace content writers, because only humans are capable of making those emotional connections.

Artificial intelligence will be able to generate quantity. Quality will only come from content writers.

Why I’m negotiating with my clients less and less for better content writing

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Saying “no” to negotiations

Around a year ago when I changed my targeting I became quite open to negotiating my rates with my new clients. I was too eager to take up new assignments because I was trying to get into an entirely new market.

Since then, two things have happened and now I’m negotiating with my clients less and less.

Lowering the rates more than I can comfortably offer reduces the quality of my work.
I have got enough work on the rates I need to deliver quality.

Why negotiations are harmful for quality content writing?

I’m not saying negotiations are always bad – every business, every company does them and besides, everybody is entitled to a good bargain.

In my case, I always offer the best rate I can offer. I always feel uncomfortable offering a higher rate assuming that the client will ask me to lower it and then I should say something like, “Okay, fine, I will do it at a discount for you.” Feels like cheating. Doesn’t sound dignified.

This is why, I charge just the right amount I think I should be making while delivering high-quality content writing.

The rates that I charge allow me to spend good time writing good content. If a charge less, then I have to make it up by focusing more on quantity and less on quality which is not good for my clients, and more importantly, not good for my own skill.

Yes, it puts off many clients, but then, there ARE clients who find my rates fine and eagerly pay me what I ask.

What is conversational content writing?

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What is conversational content writing?

There was a time when content writing was mostly done to improve search engine rankings for selected search terms or keywords.

Although, still, the primary reason why clients contact my content writing services is to improve their search engine rankings – which my content writing definitely achieves for them – they also understand the importance of conversational writing. They know that to be effective, their writing needs to make an impact.

It’s a welcome change. It shows that they have begun to understand what an important role content writing plays in the success of their business. It no longer is just a tool to mindlessly fill the website with “keyword-centric” content for SEO.

What does conversational content writing mean?

In very simple terms, conversational content writing means writing in the way we normally talk.

What is conversational content writing?

How do we talk?

Do you talk to a friend like this – “In view of the last conversation that we had pertaining to your conference proposal I would like to put forth a suggestion that you may like to consider while making the presentation.”

You don’t. You may simply say, “Remember the talk about your conference? Would you mind if I suggested something? I feel it will really help you make a better presentation.”

We don’t use very long sentences. We don’t use complicated expressions. We use day-to-day words.

Since conversation means an informal talk, we’re not talking to impress, and the same holds true for writing. We’re not writing to impress, we are writing to engage.

It’s just like talking to a friend or a casual acquaintance.

No, I don’t mean you should use abusive words (just like you use them with your friends) in content writing, but even without using cuss words you can be conversational.

Many writing experts or advisors say that you don’t need to be a stickler for grammar rules, but I think it depends on what you’re writing.

On one hand you don’t want to come off as a person who doesn’t know the language he or she is writing in, on the other hand, your writing shouldn’t sound as if lots of effort is being put in to sound “polished”.

A word of caution: there is a difference between writing in a conversational style and dumbing down your writing.

For example, you can write on blockchain technology and its implications on bank transactions, using all the jargon that is being used in the industry, but still, you can make your writing conversational.

Why conversational content writing is better?

Casual conversations are more effective

You want to engage your readers.

You don’t want to bore them or put them off or distract them by using words and expressions they don’t understand.

Remember that content writing is all about achieving the end goal – getting more business.

The purpose of content writing isn’t showcasing your writing prowess.

The person who is reading your blog post or your email message must feel at ease. He or she shouldn’t feel intimidated. The sentences and phrases must not sound lifeless.

Also, it is easier to trust a person who talks to you rather than delivers a long monologue of highfalutin words, expressions and promises that sound bizarre.

Stiff writing sounds artificial whereas, conversational writing sounds authentic.

“Proper” writing makes you sound distant whereas, conversational writing style makes you seem like a friend or an acquaintance.

Also, once you practice, it’s easier to write content in conversational style compared to the formal style you might be used to.

Here are some benefits of writing content in conversational style:

Easier reading for your visitors and email recipients.
Clarity of thought as you focus more on the message and less on how you should write that message.
Simpler sentences make bigger impact as people’s brains aren’t occupied with trying to decipher what you have written.
Your readers can easily identify with you because you talk in their language.

Conversational content writing is better for SEO

Your SEO is decided by artificial intelligence driven by the machines. Although the ranking algorithms used by major search engines like Google and Bing are quite advanced, they prefer simpler sentences that mean exactly what you are writing.

Conversational content writing makes you write simpler, to-the-point sentences.

It is advised that a sixth grader should be easily able to understand what you’re writing.

If a sixth grader can make sense of what you have written, so can artificial intelligence.

How to write in conversational style?

When newbie content writers approach me and seek my advice on how they should write, I always tell them, they should write as they talk minus grammar mistakes.

Every writer who truly wants to write has a unique style.

Sure, many organizations and businesses prefer to stick to a style guide, and there is nothing wrong in that, but the style guide is mostly used to structure the content rather than dictate how a content writer must write.

Listed below are some pointers to keep in mind when you’re trying to write your content in conversational style.

Assume someone is sitting in front of you having coffee, and talk to that person

Talk as if sitting across a coffee table

This is the easiest way of adopting a conversational style while writing content.

Imagine someone sitting at the coffee table in front of you and your talking to that person.

Remember that depending on who that person is (defining the persona) you may slightly change the way you talk to him or her, but basically, the keyword is “talk”.

If it helps, before writing, record. Use an audio recorder on your phone and communicate your message just the way you are talking to someone.

Don’t pretend to sound erudite. Having said that, if this is your natural style, then sure, play around with it.

Basically, no matter how you write, it shouldn’t be stiff.

Make ample use of “You” and “I”

Speak in terms of you and I

Write in the first person as much as possible. Since, conversational style means talking to someone and assuming that a person is sitting in front of you, it makes more sense to use “you” and “I” instead of “you” and “we”.

Though, I will admit that it is not always possible to use “I” instead of “we” especially when you are writing on behalf of your business. On your official web pages, it makes more sense to write in terms of “we” because we are writing on behalf of your entire team, but on the blogs, it is better to use the personal touch.

Also, when you are sending out email campaigns, it is always better to use your name and then use “I” and “you” instead of “we offer this” and “we offer that”.

Tell a story

Tell a story through conversational content writing

“Tell a story” has almost become a cliché in the realms of content writing and content marketing. What does it really mean?

It’s like, instead of telling that my content writing services are awesome and then leaving it at that, I give you a live example of…

Mr. Mason’s business wasn’t growing because of low conversion rate. Even his search engine traffic wasn’t picking.

He had worked with a few content writers, but after having spent a few hundred dollars and having published 20 odd blog posts, the performance of his website was the same it was before he started trying out various content writers.

Then he came across my Credible Content website and liked how I have structured the main web pages and the amount of information that I have shared on my content writing and content marketing blog.

Since he had already been disappointed with his previous content writers, he contacted me skeptically.

At the outset I told him that more than “SEO content” he needed good content, conversational content, and engaging content.

There was no emotion in his existing content.

If you don’t feel enthusiastic when talking to people, how are you going to motivate people into becoming your paying customers and clients?

Whatever he had written on his website, it didn’t feel that he really meant it.

We agreed to revamp his existing content instead of writing new content because although his current content wasn’t performing, he had chosen good topics and those topics were relevant to his business.

So, I spruced up his main content and blog posts. I rewrote content that was looking like essays into two-way conversations.

Totally recognizing his need for better SEO, I rearranged the text to make it more search engine friendly.

The existing content was quite thin. I rearranged some of the posts into authoritative, long form blog posts and included verified data from trusted resources.

I set up a routine/content calendar for him, which is very important.

In a couple of months, both his rankings and bounce rate improved.

Now he is regularly getting content from me. His business is picking up.

That’s a story.

Try to help people

Help people through content writing

When you are constantly trying to make people do something for you, your stakes are higher, and this shows in your writing.

Instead, just try to help people. Helping gives you confidence. When you have confidence, it automatically shows through. Confidence makes conversational content writing easier and seamless.

Helping doesn’t always mean writing tutorials. Helping also means helping them make a decision in your favor.

So, if writing tutorials is not your game, you can publish industry news.

If new research data is regularly available in your niche, analyze the data and explain it to your visitors.

You can publish news. You can publish interviews. You can respond to blog posts and articles published elsewhere.

The basic idea is, regularly generate engaging, useful content you are enthusiastic about. You will be automatically writing conversational content.

Sentiment analysis: Happy customers, better content marketing, better SEO

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Sentiment analysis, content marketing and SEO

Content marketing and SEO are not just intertwined, they are also constantly evolving as companies like Google constantly try to figure out how to churn out the best possible results.

Algorithms today can analyze billions of messages in the form of text, images and videos on the Internet and tell you the exact sentiment people have about your business, about you, about your political party, and pretty much anything people feel sentimental about.

This is advanced technology and not everyone can have it. But, as a business, you can develop a content marketing strategy that can help you create content that depicts positive sentiment.

This blog post on Skyword explains in detail what sentiment analysis means and how it is changing SEO, and improving user experience. The post says that MIT has developed an algorithm that can even interpret sarcasm through the emojis people have used in their social media updates while talking about brands.

According to this Search Engine Journal report, Bing has already started using Sentiment Analysis to influence search results, and Google is contemplating it.

In fact, Google, to an extent, has already been using this technology, or something similar, to show you Featured Snippets.

Example of Google featured snippet

Here are two blog posts that I wrote about Google’s featured snippets:

To show Featured Snippets, the Google algorithm tries to find the intent of the search and then goes through the links it has crawled and finds out the portions that exactly answer the question being asked in the query. It interprets the sentiment.

The problem with the current version of such snippets is that they tend to provide just one perspective.

For example, in the above Search Engine Journal blog post, the author takes the example of “are reptiles good pets?”

Same intent but different Google query results

It was noted that Google showed a different snippet for “are reptiles bad pets?” whereas, search engine experts like Danny Sullivan feel that the answer should be the same because the question is more or less the same – you want to know whether reptiles are good pets or bad pets.

Microsoft Bing, instead of shuffling between different snippets, has started showing two perspectives side-by-side. Here is a screenshot from their blog post on the same topic:

Sentiment analysis used by Microsoft Bing

What exactly is sentiment analysis, especially in terms of content marketing and SEO?

It means using online tools to analyze various pieces of writing (not necessarily on your blog or website) to gauge what sort of sentiments people have about your business.

A special thing about sentiment analysis is that it is not just the black and white of “you are good” and “you are bad”. Though, “good” and “bad” are also very strong sentiments, there are many subtle emotional tones that people use to talk about your business and the subtle differences can make a big difference on whether people decide to do business with you or not. Take for example:

“Yes, a great piece of writing, indeed!”

“Do you really think it is a great piece of writing?”

“This piece of writing could have been better.”

“I have certainly seen better examples of writing.”

“Your writing is good, but anyway I’m going to go with another content writer.”

Now, as a human, if you go through these lines, you can interpret them as positive, negative, comparative and even cynical (the first one).

Suppose, I have been gathering all the feedback from my content writing clients and storing it somewhere over the years. A good sentiment analysis tool can tell me what the overall experience of my clients with my content writing service has been. Of course, more data there is, better are the results.

The above-mentioned data can be gathered from multiple sources, not necessarily from the emails that you get from your customers or clients. You can get the data from your comments section, from reviews section, and even the chat transcripts that you might have been saving.

If you want to widen the net, you can use hashtags, trends, keyword strings and your brand name to collect data from all over the Internet and then run it through your sentiment analysis software.

Sentiment analysis isn’t just done to know what people think about your business, it can also be done to know what people think about a particular aspect of life or doing work or having a vacation and then accordingly you can make changes to your business.

So, how does sentiment analysis have an impact on content marketing and SEO?

As a business you can use specialized sentiment analysis tools to monitor conversations on the Internet and social media and then tailor your content to serve your customers and clients better.

As mentioned above, Bing is already using sentiment analysis to decide what results to show for your search queries, and Google is in the process of doing so.

For big brands, the search engines may analyze the conversations people have about these brands on various platforms and then rank their content accordingly.

Suppose, there is a greater number of people criticizing the latest version of the iPhone. So, instead of showing a blog post from Apple that lists great things about the latest version, the search engines may decide to rank another blog post highlighting the negative things about the phone better than Apple’s blog post.

Similarly, if people share your blog post on various platforms with “positive sentiment” its search engine rankings may improve, compared to a greater number of people sharing another blog post on similar topic from another blog, but with “negative sentiment”.

So, as a small business, how can you improve your content and your content marketing by observing sentiment analysis, and consequently, improve your SEO?

Age-old wisdom comes into picture: create and publish relevant content. It all boils down to that.

Why?

What is positive sentiment anyway? You get positive sentiment in the form of endorsements from people who read your content, who watch it, use it to better their lives or the way they do their business or make purchasing decisions.

How do they endorse good content? They link to it and surround it with positive expressions (a great example, great insight, well said, what a piece of writing, nice tips, and so on).

When your content is posted on social networking websites people comment on it, like it, share it and carry out other activities that prove that they appreciate your content.

Sentiment analysis and SEO

Although Google hasn’t completely adopted sentiment analysis, the search engine has been using “search intent” to show featured snippets.

There is another technology that is called RankBrain that observes user behavior when people find your content on search results. If search engine users find your content on Google, go to your page or blog post, spend a few seconds over there, come back to Google and carry on the same search, it tells Google that the user didn’t find what he or she was looking for and hence, your content doesn’t solve the purpose of being ranked for the search term it is currently being ranked for. Your content loses its ranking.

How to write content for Google RankBrain

Alternatively, suppose currently a link doesn’t rank well but a user finds it on second or third page, goes there, spends some time and then no longer carries the same search back on Google, Google thinks that your content has solved the purpose of being ranked for the search term. Your content gains its ranking.

This is also a form of sentiment analysis because Google observes how people react to individual search results and then this has an impact on your search engine rankings.

Concluding remarks on sentiment analysis

The success of your content marketing depends a lot on your ability to understand what your audience needs and then providing it.

This very much takes care of positive sentiment about your content in general, and your brand in particular. If people like your content, there is a great chance that they are also going to like your brand, although, if they don’t like your product or service, it doesn’t really matter how great your content is. Ultimately, it is the business experience that matters, especially when you intend to promote a business through content marketing.

People generate and share content everywhere these days. You are not directly in control of the content generated by the others. You are only in control of the content generated and published by your business.

So, how do you control content generated by your prospective and current customers and clients?

By not giving them a reason to write content with negative sentiments. Provide them exceptional quality products and services then follow with great service.

It’s been observed that people leave negative feedback more easily than positive feedback. If someone has a lousy experience with your business there is a greater chance of him or her venting it out than someone having a good experience and going to the extra length of putting in some good words about your business.

Hence, publish high-quality content and then follow it up with a great business proposition. You will maintain a positive sentiment around your business.

Why should banks invest in content marketing?

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Content marketing for banks

Open Forum is my favorite example that I often give to my customers when I try to explain to them how continuously publishing helpful content can get them a loyal following.

Open Forum is the business help publication from American Express. They regularly publish high-quality information to help small and medium-sized businesses.

In fact, when I recently visited their website, I saw that their tagline is: “Insights, Inspiration and Connections to Help You Get Business Done”.

This information in the form of articles and blog posts isn’t necessarily about banking. In fact, most of the information is about how to improve your professional life, how to do your business well, and sometimes, even life hacks.

For example, recently they published this: 3 Qualities That Can Make or Break High-Performance Teams

The point is, creating positivity and encouraging productivity and through this, building a loyal readership that repeatedly visits the website and gets exposed to the American Express brand.

This Forbes article talks about why, to target young millenniums, it is very important that banks invest in good quality content marketing.

The article lists many reasons – the millenniums spend most of their time on their mobile phones, etc. – the most important reason is being visible in the times when content in all forms has exploded.

Every social networking platform or companies these days wants you to post some form of updates, whether they are images, videos or text. Just post, post and post.

We have become a civilization of content consumers and content publishers. People these days purchase good camera phones, even expensive camera phones, just so that they can publish good-looking photographs and videos on Instagram.

So, with so much content going on, you cannot ignore it.

But, posting random content doesn’t help your brand, especially when you are a bank. Personal content may help or may not help, depending on how strongly that personal brand is built. What do you do?

Content marketing for banks – educate your customers and clients

Educate your customers and clients.

I know, this sounds clichéd, but sharing knowledge and wisdom is a powerful tool.

Take for example the above Open Forum content platform by American Express. Very rarely they promote their banking services, though, you may say that they don’t need to promote their banking services because the brand is quite well-known.

They have built an audience. A loyal audience. Entrepreneurs and businesses can use the insights regularly published on the content platform to grow business and improve themselves.

This generates goodwill. Normally, such useful content isn’t available for free. These are very high-quality blog posts and articles.

Sooner or later, entrepreneurs and businesses have to use financial services. When the right time comes, why go to someone else? You already have a brand you like. You feel like you owe to that brand because you have used its content to improve your business.

In fact, Morgan Stanley also publishes something similar like Open Forum. They call it Ideas.

In the banking sector, even if you don’t want to follow the exact American Express template for content marketing, there is lots of scope for publishing helpful content.

Help for various banking services isn’t easily available. Some helpful blog posts and articles are written by users, but from the banks, very little information is published.

Banks can publish articles on how people can productively use their services for the benefit of their personal lives, professional lives and businesses.

So many people get into credit card troubles. Why can’t a bank start a video series advising people how to productively use credit cards rather than ruining themselves with uncontrollable shopping binges?

Banks have massive amounts of interesting data. They can easily use interactive videos or even infographics with amazing amounts of information on various banking services.