Category Archives: Business Development

I don’t compete on pricing for my content writing services

Content writing – competing on the basis of rates

I get lots of work from abroad. In fact, in the initial years, there was no work from India. Back then people didn’t understand the value of quality content in India. Many didn’t even have a website.

People in the USA and other Western countries on the other hand appreciated good writing. They started having websites in the early 2000’s.

They also understood the importance of content vis-à-vis Google search engine rankings earlier than people in India. It was also a time when outsourcing was at its peak as one of the most preferred ways of cutting costs.

Although, at my end, I never tried to charge less but who am I kidding? Most of the people in the West outsource their work to someone from India assuming that they are going to pay less.

Even when I was charging less (doing it, but not accepting it), even those rates were a lot for Indian clients. Hence, when I started getting assignments in India, I charged a lot less compared to what I was charging my clients from abroad.

This began to trouble my conscience. The foundation of my business was built through the support of people who believed in me – even if it was for the sake of saving money – and now I was charging more from them and less from people who still didn’t understand the value of good content and were simply being arm-twisted into working with a better content writer, by Google.

Clients from India can be lousy. One shouldn’t take it personally because that’s how they are. Our sociocultural environment makes us mistrust even our neighbours. They want to pay the minimum possible rate and they want to extract the maximum possible from you, short of killing you.

The only benefit is that once they understand that there is no escape from hiring a good content writer, they appreciate your talent and somehow manage to pay what you’re asking for. Besides, once you have made a name for yourself, there are so many clients that you can conveniently pick and choose.

Coming back to different rates for clients from abroad and clients from India: even that phase passed, and I gradually started increasing my rates to what I was more comfortable with, even with my Indian clients.

My conscience stopped troubling me. Even when I was charging them rates clients from India would never agree to, they were paying me less than they would have had to pay a native writer.

These days my rates are more or less the same. I’m comfortable with my rates. I don’t compete based on my rates. If a client calls me and tells me that there is a certain content writing agency or there is a certain content writer who is charging a lot less than what I am quoting, I tell them, “Well, congratulations! You have already found the content writer of your choice. Go to him/her.”

Even from my clients from abroad, after doing some reading on the web, I have realized that sometimes I charge slightly more than their native writers. I’m fine with that. I’m charging for the value I deliver, not for the fact that I am a content writer from India. Instead of attracting clients who are more interested in saving costs by hiring a content writer from India, my objective is to attract clients who are just looking for a better content writer.

Why Will the COVID-19 Crisis Boost Digital Marketing in the Future?

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Digital marketing is more relevant during Covid-19

The field of digital marketing has been evolving for more than a decade now, and its importance is exponentially growing. With all the changes in the use of our devices, technological advances have provided us with more opportunities, along with constant access to the World Wide Web.

And with the outbreak of a global pandemic, people are spending even more time online. Most of the countries are in a lockdown state, with restrictions on travel and general movement, but people still need both products and services. The impact of the current situation will be a long-term one, and it will affect every aspect of the world market.

The new reality

For the time being, virtual reality is the only one where we can actually connect. For this reason, it is essential for brands to continue with the online presence and show people that we’re all in this together.

Many businesses are having a hard time coping with the loss of profits, and are wondering if they’re going to survive. And we are all aware that many people have lost their jobs and financial stability.

The times are quite unfortunate, but no one could have predicted these circumstances. The only way for a business to survive is to adapt to rapid changes, stay visible and relevant, and understand the consequences for when everything gets back to normal.

Staying relevant

It has never been so important to remind people of your products and services. Trying to anticipate the needs of the consumers is a leading idea in marketing in general, but at this point, you have a better perspective than usual.

And you can even get the best out of this awful situation and earn more trust among your customers, by increasing the loyalty levels. You know that everyone is spending more time online, so you need to be present as well.

There are several aspects of your visibility, starting with social media.

This period can be an opportunity to work on your digital marketing improvement, as its importance is going to continue growing afterwards.

Providing relevant content and staying on top of the crisis will make your brand more humane, and you ought to show empathy while raising your brand awareness.

Share the latest updates and helpful advice, ask for feedback and try to entertain people.

You can attract a new audience and possibly convert them into customers.

In terms of branding, this can turn out to be a great phase in which your business can evolve. It is highly recommended to use this time to invest in PPC and SEO services, as those are becoming the new and modern “traditional” ways of marketing.

Experts all over the world have been saying this for a while now, but now, living only in the virtual world, deprived of human contact, it is becoming clear as a day.

Consumer intentions and habits

Digital marketing and peoples expectations during Covid-19

People are adapting to the changes quite rapidly, and their expectations change in accordance.

You need to follow and respond to those because billboards are huge, but the reality is that most people will walk by them staring at the screen of their smartphones.

The importance of e-commerce is also exponentially growing, therefore the need for better online promotion.

It is all connected, and every trend will influence the next one. But, since we’re not talking about fashion, the trends will not come back, but only continue to change.

Your ranking on the search engines is likely to determine the future of your brand’s image and reputation.

Most people will search for the product or service they need before they purchase, so they need to be able to learn about your brand. It is simply not enough to have a website, because, without the proper promotion, the traffic on it will most likely be on a low level. Furthermore, not every one of those visits will end up with a conversion of users into buyers.

The future has arrived, and you shouldn’t leave a head start to your competitors, by staying in the past.

Conduct research of your competition and you will most likely find out they are all investing in paid advertisements and optimization of search engines. The smartest move would be heavily investing in the promotion now and preparing something valuable to offer. Since there is a movement restriction, the best advice is to focus on the local area and include it in your targeted keywords.

Emotional component

When you are there for someone in the hardest of times, people tend not to forget it. They will appreciate a supporting video message from a company’s CEO for example and every other way you can try to engage them.

We are all isolating and staying home, surrounded by the devastating news which are shaping our minds and heavily influencing our emotional stability.

Having the emotional component in the equation can help you trigger the positive ones and create a more stable connection with consumers, further increasing the levels of loyalty.

No one can say for sure how much longer this is going to last, but one thing is sure – the world will not be the same afterwards. Once the habit is formed, it is not so easy to break out of it.

This doesn’t mean people will continue to shop in bulk, but rather there will be many changes in our lifestyle that have happened on a subconscious level.

Accept the fact the virtual reality is becoming more and more intertwined with real life, and as soon as you adapt to it, you will see the results and higher profits.

You can even convert the most loyal consumers of other brands, by appealing to their emotions. Brands that have developed a strategy for promoting the offer of deliveries will be more respected and attract new buyers, for example.

Conclusion

In the world of entrepreneurship, flexibility has always been the key.

Marketers need to focus on the expectations and habits of consumers, in order to find the right approach.

The Internet has changed the very essence of life, and people will most likely continue to shop online, and those numbers are predicted to only grow over time.

One-click purchases, and deliveries are some of the features people are grateful for in the new age.

The time is only going forward, so don’t let yourself be stuck in the past.

What type of content to write and publish during a global crisis like Covid-19?

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Content writing and publishing during the Covid-19 crisis

It is very easy to lose track during a crisis. There is all-out chaos.

All your attention span is taken by the news of how many people are being infected or how many people are dying, or about how the outbreak is unleashing unprecedented recession.

What type of content should you write and publish during a pandemic that is affecting every individual in the world?

Just as it happens in normal times, the purpose of writing and publishing content is always to help your readers, and so should be the case when you write and publish content during a global crisis.

This blog post on Marketing Land titled Marketing during a crisis and recession rightly says that “There’s no playbook for any of this.”

Marketing in the times of a global crisis

No one among us has seen a global crisis of such scale. The things that we saw in the movies are now unfolding right in front of our eyes like a bad dream.

The good thing about writing and publishing quality content is that the fundamental intention of publishing such content doesn’t change: even when things were normal, your content was supposed to help people.

In the “normal” times, of course, the “help” meant educating your customers and clients so that they could make better purchase decisions.

But in the Covid-19 ridden world, you know that the biggest question staring in everyone’s faces how to survive the outbreak, both physically and financially.

When you want to promote your products and services, you must consider whether people can actually buy them or not.

I have a few clients whose markets have totally vanished (I provide B2B content writing services and hence all my clients have their own businesses).

For most of the clients, they’re simply trying to hold onto whatever they have got.

Fortunately, the machinery of the world is still moving.

Which means, things can be done, should be done, and this also holds true for writing and publishing quality content to maintain your search engine rankings, to maintain your visibility, and even to reach markets that you haven’t yet reached.

For example, I’m getting content writing assignments from countries I had never previously gotten work from. Hence, I’m thinking of expanding my presence in these countries.

Here is a nice “Whiteboard Friday” video and the treat is that Rand Fishkin is making the presentation almost after a year:

People are naturally holding themselves back when it comes to spending money on marketing, especially content marketing because they believe that the demand is crashing, but Rand in the video makes a very good point: things are going to bounce back, and when they do, will you be ready to leverage?

Don’t hold yourself back simply because everyone else is. If you can afford, do invest in content marketing and building quality content because as the world gets back on track, there will be a sudden surge. At that time, if you have improved your visibility you will be better off compared to your competitors who have gone into a huddle and are ignoring their marketing.

Rand says that one thing we can be certain of is that people are paying more attention online now that they are confined to their homes.

Whatever you are publishing, they’re paying attention. They are less distracted. They may not be travelling. They may not be sitting in coffee shops. They may not be chatting with their colleagues or a group of friends while checking out your blog post. They’re not as distracted as they normally were during pre-Covid-19 times.

Although the above-mentioned blog post from Marketing Land gives a broad advice to businesses and brands on how to manage their businesses in the changed scenario, since I provide content writing services, my main focus is, what sort of content can help you during the Covid-19 crisis: content that can help you survive currently, and build a strong footing for you when the machinery of the world begins to move again.

Here are a few things you can consider:

Write and publish content that will help your core audience

Even if you are a hardcore seller, aggressively promoting your products and services is not going to help you.

Even if people are not put off, they are in no position to either use your products or services (most of them) or buy them.

Take for example the advice given by the Marketing Land blog post, and even by this blog post that I’m writing. Publish advice people can use or at least get inspired from.

Of course, we are all experienced. We all know how to handle the situation. But when we read about it, when we come across blog posts and articles that talk about the same thing, it keeps us focused and helps us reorient our approach.

What if you don’t have something valuable to share with your audience?

Your genuine concern helps. People and businesses are publishing a ton of useful information on the Internet. Go through LinkedIn. Go through Twitter. Find useful articles and blog posts and then share them through your blog or your newsletter.

Consolidate your existing content on your website and blog

Since practically everyone in the civilized world is confined to home, you may get enough time to go through your website and blog and see what content you have been ignoring or didn’t have enough time to improve.

Maybe there are certain keywords and search terms you have been ignoring or you didn’t have much time to cover. Now you can cover them.

If there are certain topics you feel should have been on your website, you can publish them.

Should you publish information about the Coronavirus outbreak? Many websites are doing that.

It depends. If you have information that is not present on other websites, publish it on your website otherwise, just publish links to other, more useful information sources like newspapers or hospital websites.

Otherwise, focus on your core topic. There is no need to sell if you don’t feel like it. Just fill up your website or blog with lots of useful information that will come handy when people start buying again.

Can you grow your business during the coronavirus pandemic?

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How to grow your business during the coronavirus outbreak

I know, talking about growing your business during this crushing coronavirus outbreak may seem a bit inappropriate.

The reality is, we all need to make a living, at least those who can.

We are all looking into a long spell of economic downturn coupled with a humanitarian crisis that hasn’t been seen for at least a century.

Hence, all the more reason to keep at least some parts of the economy moving and maintaining the cash flow.

This Green Entrepreneur blog post lists 7 strategies that can help you grow a business, or rather, a new business during the coronavirus pandemic.

Every challenge brings a collection of opportunities with it, and so has the current coronavirus pandemic.

With most of the businesses coming to a halt, you have time to focus on content marketing and expand your presence on the Internet. It will help you reach out to the existing market, however much it exists, and it will also give you a headway when the world gets on its feet.

The above blog post lists the following things you can do to grow your business while you maintain social distancing and remain confined to your home.

Enhance your content marketing effort

The good thing about content marketing is that content can be produced and published digitally. You don’t have to invest in raw material. All the tools that you need to publish useful content are already there with you.

You want to publish videos? You can use your mobile phone.

You want to publish podcasts? Even these can be done using your mobile phone or a standard microphone attached to your computer or laptop.

Want to publish blog posts? You can write them yourself or you can hire a content writer or a blog writer.

Content marketing helps you in normal days and it also helps you in these testing times.

Businesses haven’t disappeared. They are just recuperating, or they are functioning in a different manner. You have to reach out to them and content marketing is the best way to do so.

Work at improving your SEO

In the regular hubbub of doing business content marketing and SEO often take a backseat. This is a good time to focus on improving your search engine rankings and increase your search visibility.

The benefits of SEO come from many factors. As mentioned above, your search visibility improves. You get more targeted traffic. Your conversion rate improves. You get more back links because a greater number of people can find your content. You get more content to share through your newsletter.

There are various tools available that can help you figure out what sort of content you should publish to improve your SEO.

Invest in social media marketing

Facebook has nearly 2.45 billion monthly active users. At the time of the Covid-19 crisis, more people are logging on to Facebook to keep up with their loved ones and even to interact with their colleagues.

The same goes with other social media platforms like Instagram and Twitter.

Millions of your customers might be there. If you have never advertised on social media and social networking platforms, perhaps, now is the right time.

Be regular with email marketing

Email marketing needs to be a bit different during a pandemic. Ideally it should be different always, in the sense that instead of continuously pushing your products and services in front of people, you must add value to their inboxes.

Keep in touch with your subscribers. Send them good information about how they can keep themselves safe. If you feel that a bit of information can help them work better during their confinement, share it with them. The key is, provide value. They are going to remember you for that.

Aside from these actions, I would also suggest you spend more time on LinkedIn if you’re providing B2B services, like I do. Almost all my content writing and online copywriting clients come from the B2B segment.

5 qualities to look for when you need a blog writer for your business blog

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Qualities to look for when you need a blog writer for your business blog

In this blog post you are going to learn about the qualities to look for if you need to hire a dependable blog writer for your business.

What is a blog?

A blog is different from a website.

Initially blogs were like journals. People would create random entries and then publish them.

On the homepage there appears a chronological list of all the posts that have been recently published, most probably in datewise descending order, with the latest blog post appearing at the top.

In the early days the Internet hadn’t yet been commercialized. It was mostly run by volunteers or hobbyists. There were a few business websites, but most of the content published on the Internet came from people who simply liked spending time and sharing their thoughts.

Seeing the opportunity to provide a platform that would allow people to publish their thoughts easily, many companies introduced blogging platforms.

I remember in the early days, there was Blogger.com and even MovableType.

Old blogging platforms

Many more services were started, and then came WordPress in 2003. It completely changed the way the world blogged.

WordPress is a complete blogging software that you can install under your own domain. This way, you don’t have to blog for another platform.

After the launch of WordPress, blogging took a new turn.

It became so popular that right now almost 35% of self hosted websites use WordPress as the platform. As a CMS, WordPress has captured 62% of the market share.

Why have a business blog?

Do you know that business websites that also have a blog have 434% more indexed webpages and links? Websites that have blogs get 97% more incoming links compared to those websites that don’t have a blog.

Initially, when businesses got interested in blogging, it was mainly for SEO. The structure of a blog is such that it is good for your search engine rankings provided you can publish content on regular basis.

This still remains one of the primary reasons why businesses publish blogs, but now, there are many more reasons why they do so. Some of the reasons I am describing below:

Business blogging improves SEO/search engine rankings

Business blogging improves SEO

I must say that merely having a business blog doesn’t improve your SEO. What actually improves your SEO is the way you cover your topics.

For example, if I want to improve my search engine rankings with my business blog, I shouldn’t publish whatever comes to my mind.

I should stick to content writing, online copywriting, SEO, blogging and content marketing, because they are related to my field.

Your business blog helps you because the way it arranges content.

Google likes fresh content and on your blog, you publish content regularly, and hence, give Google fresh content to crawl, index and rank.

Google prefers topic density – how much you have covered your topic – and since you are continuously talking about your business field, it increases your topic density.

How much your business blog improves your SEO rests on how often you publish content, what is the frequency, and how well you cover your core topics.

Your business blog increases your brand visibility

What is brand visibility on the Internet? It means how easily people come across the name of your business or conversations around your business.

Since you give Google more content to index from your domain, more content about your domain is found on search engines and hence, you increase your brand visibility on Google.

When you publish more content and then share it on your social media profiles it gives people a reason to reach out to you, express themselves, and even repost your content on their own timelines.

Brand visibility on social media.

The more you express yourself, the more people talk about you and the more they talk about you, the greater is your brand visibility.

Your business blog gives people something to share on social media

This is an extension of what I have written above. People are not going to simply talk about your business on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter just because your business exists.

Why would they bother unless they are getting something out of it?

Publishing your business blog doesn’t mean you continuously harp about how great your business is.

You publish content that helps people.

You publish content people will be interested in.

Hence, when you publish content people can make use of, content they are looking for and content that helps them, they share that content on social media.

Your business blog establishes your authority

A business blog establishes your authority

As I have written above, you cannot continuously talk about how great your business is unless there is some context.

I use my business blog to talk about various content writing and blogging issues.

In this blog post I’m talking about how to hire a blog content writer if your business needs one.

What qualities to look for when you need a blog writer?

It means I know what qualities a blog writer must have to help you publish a successful business blog, and I’m sharing this knowledge with you.

This helped me establish my authority on the topic.

What’s the benefit?

Would you rather work with a novice or someone who knows what are the best qualities of a blog writer?

Your business blog brings more inbound traffic

Your business blog brings inbound traffic

Content marketing is all about encouraging people to come to your website or blog rather than tricking them into coming to you through advertising, which is intrusive and annoying.

Since business blogging increases your brand presence on various channels, it becomes easier for people to find you.

For many years I haven’t used advertising. All my traffic comes from either Google or other websites where my links are present. A big chunk also comes from my newsletter.

That’s all inbound traffic.

I’m not catching people off guard with my pushy advertisements.

I put up lots of content out there. People find that content. Then they come to my website.

More businesses these days are aiming for that.

Why should you hire a blog writer instead of writing for your own blog?

Why hire a blog writer?

I’m covering this topic just for the sake of covering it otherwise, I never convince people into doing something they haven’t thought of or they don’t want to do.

If you want to write for your own blog then go ahead.

There is nothing to stop you.

After all, it is your own blog.

You want to hire a blog writer because you want to hire him or her. You know your need.

Clients who approach me to write for them do so for the following reasons:

They are looking for a better writer.
They are looking for a content writer or a blog writer who can write convincingly for their audience.
They need a blog writer who can maintain a balance between SEO writing and conversion-rich writing.
They need to publish content regularly and consistently.
They need a blog writer who can write for their industry as an expert does.
They need someone with a fresh perspective.

You may have your own reasons why you need to hire a writer for your business blog.

Anyway, if you plan on hiring a blog writer, listed below are some qualities you may like to look for.

5 qualities in a blog writer you may like to look for, for your business blog

5 good qualities of a blog writer

Frankly, there are thousands of content writers and blog writers you can find on the Internet. This is good as well as bad.

Good in the sense that there is no dearth of writers you can find.

Bad in the sense that since it is so easy to find a blog writer, it is very difficult to find a good, reliable blog writer (because pretty much everyone can offer his or her services to you).

Whenever I’m pitching my own blog writing services as a content writer, what makes my clients hire me is the fact that I have a business website.

This means my stakes are higher. It makes me dependable.

I haven’t just randomly created my profile on one of the freelancing websites. I have stuck my neck out.

This doesn’t mean I am trying to put down people who get writing assignments from freelancing directories. They have their own reason. I have my own reason.

Anyway, aside from the fact that you should hire a blog writer who is really serious about his or her services, listed below are some qualities you must look for.

1. Your blog writer must have the ability to write for your audience

Your blog writer should be able to write for your audience

What does that mean?

Maybe someone is a good writer but he or she can only write in a style he or she is comfortable with.

Remember that when content is published on your business blog, people assume that you or someone representing your business, is writing for the blog.

So, your blog writer must be able to write the way the people in your industry like to read.

He or she should be able to seamlessly use and incorporate industry jargon.

It goes without saying that the writing must be error free in terms of spelling, typos and grammar.

He or she should be able to mix conversational style as well as your official “voice”.

People in your industry must be able to read your content easily but at the same time feel reassured that they are reading someone highly educated and well-versed with your industry.

The writer must also be able to understand the business side of writing because only then he or she will be empathetic towards your needs as well as the needs of your customers and clients.

2. Your blog writer must be passionate about his or her writing abilities

Your blog writer must be passionate

Why is it necessary?

First of all, as a writer I know that when one has passion, it shows through between the lines.

What you write is important, but what you don’t write but still convey is even more important, and that comes only with passion.

Second, a passionate writer does not plagiarize. Of course exceptions are always there, but a writer who is passionate about his or her writing ability will be very uncomfortable at the thought of having to depend on someone else’s writing.

3. Knowledge of SEO

Your blog writer must have working knowledge of SEO

Writing search engine optimized content isn’t as simple as it seems.

No matter how good a writer you are, there are thousands of factors that have a direct or indirect bearing on the SEO of your writing.

Although there is no scientific way of proving whether your writing is going to fare well on search engines, there are certain formats, certain ways of using your keywords or search terms, that can definitely improve your search engine rankings.

Your blog writer must know how to

Write content around your keywords.
Organize content in various chunks for better SEO.
Write Internet friendly and mobile friendly content.

One needs to maintain a balance.

Though, many SEO experts these days are saying that you shouldn’t focus much on your keywords, in the same breath they also say that the keywords matter.

Not just the keywords, but also the related words.

Your blog writer must be able to weave an interesting and engaging narrative using your keywords.

4. Your blog writer must be able to research independently

Your blog writer should be able to research independently

Research is very important when writing quality content. Research gives you validity.

It helps you link to authoritative sources.

For example, what are the best strategies to improve your blog’s search engine rankings? It helps you if you can link to some useful insights from an authoritative blogs such as Search Engine Land.

5. You need a blog writer who is going to be consistent

Your blog writer should be consistent

Consistency is hard to get and frankly, unless you have worked with your blog writer for a few weeks or a few months, it is impossible to know whether he or she is going to be consistent in terms of quality and deliverability or not.

Nonetheless, initial communications and a few assignments can give you at least some idea of how consistent the blog writer is going to be.

I have had personal experience with people who are very consistent when seeking work and then suddenly they vanish when I give them some work.

This is a good indication to stay away from them.

It is better if your blog writer has a stake in the work

This is something that I have mentioned above.

When you work with me, I have a stake in my business.

I have a website.

My full business depends on how I deliver.

This is my livelihood.

This is not a random profile existing on some random freelancing website.

Hence, having my own content writing business website, having my own blog writing website, makes me responsible.

Similarly, look for a blog writer who has a higher stake in the work he or she does.

Of course, these rules and qualities are not written in stone. Some blog writer may have them all and some may have just a few of them.

It is going to be your own calling.