Category Archives: Content Marketing

How to find the killer content writer for your website or blog

Once you have decided to create quality content for your website or blog it is very important that you find a killer content writer for the job. I know I’m using a clichéd phrase, but what I mean is, you need a person who understands your business, understands your audience, knows what language to use, and then communicates your message convincingly, preferably, repeatedly, using the appropriate language, to your audience. I know, a long sentence, but you get the point, right?

So how do you find such a content writer?

You first have to decide whether you want to hire someone full-time, part-time or you would rather outsource the content writing job. Since I am a content writer, I’m going to write this from the perspective of someone who is looking to outsource the job. So with this settled, how do you find a content writer who can really deliver with a punch and build you a formidable business asset? Here are a few things you can do

Recognize, acknowledge and accept the importance of content writing for your business

What the heck does that mean? you must be wondering. Aren’t you looking for a content writer because you know that your website needs content writing? Many business owners think that way but still they don’t understand content writing and therefore, they expect their content writer to charge as low as $ 5 (just a ballpark figure to explain the trend) for “quality” webpage content or blog post. Just as you have to pay a premium for a quality computer, quality smart phone, quality software, quality web design, quality food in a quality restaurant, and a quality four-wheeler, you also have to pay good money for a quality content writer. If you don’t think that, you’re either not serious about getting content written for your website, or you have a different perception of the real world.

Acknowledge that the content writer you’re planning to hire is running a serious business just like you

Considering the amount of money some people want to pay to their content writer (for example, $ 5) they think that the content writer is just a good-for-nothing, out-of-job fellow who has somehow gotten hold of a computer and an Internet connection and is now trying to make a living off the Internet without having spent any money. I’m not saying such people don’t exist, but if you want to hobnob with such people, then maybe you also have the same sort of attitude and running the same sort of business in your basement, mostly surviving on freebies abundantly available on the Internet.

If you’re doing serious business, then you have to collaborate with a serious person. If you need business class services, then you need to get a person who is running a business. If you want professional content for your website or blog, you need a professional content writer who provides his or her services as a business rather than as a hobby or an in-between-jobs activity.

But how do you know that the content writer you’re contemplating working with is a serious business owner or at least a professional content provider? Here are a few things to consider:

He (or she) has a website with all relevant sections (homepage, services, about section, FAQs, contact form, etc.)
His website shouldn’t look as if it was designed back in 2003
He has clearly and convincingly described how he works and what procedures he follows in order to deliver effective content
He has good command over the language (the language in which the content is to be written)
He has a visible presence on the web – since there is a great possibility that you will be looking for a content writer on the Internet, you should be easily able to find him.
He should have a blog that is regularly updated. Being a content writer he should have lots of content on his own website so that you can get a fair idea of how he communicates
His fees and rates should be there on the website
He shouldn’t be one of those “professionals” who would go to any length vis-à-vis the pricing in order to get your work. If he is too eager to please you it’s an indication that he is not very confident and if he is not confident he won’t be able to apply his skills with confidence to your writing too.
He should reply to your email messages or phone calls or Skype messages within a decent time span. It doesn’t mean his replies should reach you within minutes because he is supposed to be working and not constantly monitoring the messages people send him, but a time gap of, let us say if it is not very urgent, should be at least eight hours.

Remember that these are basic traits and there might be many more characteristics that you may look for in order to find the right content writer for your business.

Have a clearly laid out plan for your content marketing campaign

There is a reason it is called “content marketing”. Hiring a content writer doesn’t mean your job is done and now it is up to him to do your content marketing. Have a plan. You should know what you’re trying to achieve by getting content written for your website or blog. You should know what topics need to be covered and why and what sort of effect they should have on your traffic as well as the people who decide to stick around your website for awhile. Remember that you are the one running your business. You know it’s nitty-gritty. You know more about your customers and clients than the content writer. You know there are various triggers (if you don’t, you need to do your research you need to hire someone who can do it for you) that motivate your customers and clients.

Once you have a plan you will know exactly what your content writer needs to do.

Decide what you want: a content writer, a content marketer, or both

A perfect solution would be a content writer who knows a bit or two about marketing too. This is because effective content writing has less to do with impeccable writing and more to do with convincing writing. How do you convince people? If you can market your idea in a compelling language. Remember that it shouldn’t be perfect language. It should be able to persuade people into doing business with you. A knack for marketing makes your content writer confident and lucid. He knows how to communicate the strengths of what you’re offering in an effective manner (to streamline your sales funnel).

Be ready to let your content writer do what he does best

In order to let the killer content writer create killer content for your website or blog, you will have to let him do his job the way he likes to do it (as long as he is delivering something that helps you grow your business). Once you’re convinced that he understands your audience and he is able to create content accordingly, don’t meddle too much. Don’t force him into writing something he is uncomfortable with. Don’t impose your ideas about how to write because it’s he who is in the business of writing content and not you. You might be a legal eagle but writing is not your calling (unless you are John Grisham, of course), so stick to your expertise and let the content writer do his job.

Promoting your content is as important as writing it

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Promote your content

This small blog post on Copyblogger rightly says that no matter how great content you write and publish, unless you have set up a mechanism to promote it, to make it possible for the right people to find it, it is of no use. This can be a great bummer if you have the talent, you have the intention, but you don’t have the ability to create that mechanism. What’s this mechanism?

Once you have published a blog post or an article, how do you make sure that maximum number of people read it and even respond to it? If you already have good traffic it is not a problem. But what if you hardly get 5-10 visitors every day and most of them don’t even stay for a few seconds, leave alone reading your greatest blog post? As I am repeatedly saying on my blog, depending on search engines, especially Google, doesn’t really help. You need to create your own ways to get targeted traffic to your website or blog.

Here are a few things you can do:

Network with people: Although, as suggested in the above Copyblogger link it might not be initially possible for you to network with highly influential people in your field, you can start interacting with people who are either slightly more influential than you are, or somewhere around where you are right now. How do you network? It doesn’t mean sucking up to them (it isn’t wrong actually unless it becomes a nuisance). Follow conversations of influential people on the Internet and pitch in whenever an interesting discussion is happening. If they ask something, and if you happen to have the answer, provide it promptly. Promote their content whenever you feel it deserves to be promoted. Recommend their links on your timelines. Write blog posts and articles in response to what they have written and notify them even if you slightly disagree.
Publish quality content non-stop: This involves long form and short form content. Be consistent. Whether you like it or not, the success on the Internet, as it also happens otherwise, depends on being there at the right time. What’s that right time? Either you depend on serendipity, or you be there so often that one of those times becomes the right time. Most people in the world depend on this strategy to increase their odds. Be regular with your content so that people always find something to promote, something to talk about, on your blog or website.
Interact on niche forums: This is something I also need to focus on. I know some people who get lots of targeted traffic from niche online forums. Despite Facebook and Twitter, these forums are thriving and lots of interesting discussion takes place in these forums. Be an active member if you have enough time.
Concentrate on building a mailing list: This point cannot be stressed upon enough times (this is also a self-note). Having your own mailing list can be invaluable. Actually I understand why it may seem like a vicious circle. You need traffic to build your mailing list. People advise you to build your mailing list to build targeted traffic. This ends up dissuading you. But you know what? Somewhere you have to start. At least have a signup form prominently displayed on your website or blog.
Work on building your authority: If you are interested in improving your organic search engine rankings you must already know that the author rank plays a big part in it. The higher is your authority over a particular topic, the higher are your links ranked for that particular topic. Your authority can be improved by encouraging more and more people to share your content under their social networking profiles, hyperlinking to articles and blog posts authored by you, sharing and promoting your social media content, and last but not the least, creating authoritative content for other blogs and websites.
Follow recommended SEO guidelines: Search engines, after all, rule the roost when it comes to sending targeted traffic. Don’t neglect search engine optimization guidelines while creating your content.

Wondering how you can have enough time for content writing as well as content promotion? Of course one way would be to hire a professional content writer who is not just adept at creating exceptional content but also knows how to promote it. The other option would be to schedule your content strategy in such a manner that you can devote equal amount of time to both the activities. Remember that, though creating content and publishing it regularly may seem to be an easier option and hence you may end up doing just that, it isn’t solving much purpose if it is not being accessed by your target audience. So even at the cost of producing less content, devote enough time to promoting it.

How to optimize your content for Facebook’s Paper newsfeed app

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OK, you must be wondering Facebook has just launched its new newsfeed app called Paper, it hasn’t even been used by many people, not many reviews are available online, and I’m already talking about optimizing your content for it. In case you’re wondering what the hell I’m talking about and what is this new newsfeed, head to this nice review on ReadWrite.com that says that this app is more about looks and less about the content it plans to broadcast.

Anyway, there is a great buzz all over the Internet and you may have already seen people fervently tweeting about the release. Sadly the app is only available for the iPhone users (well, it remains to be seen whether it is a good thing or a bad thing) and as iPhone users are prone to doing, they are blowing this thing out of proportion.

When you talk of optimizing your content what is the first thing that comes to your mind? What exactly is content optimization? To me it is

Creating as relevant and useful content as possible
Writing in a language that appeals to your target audience
Creating a captivating headline that draws people to the main article
Making your content shareable
Organizing your content – text – under appropriate headlines, sub headlines and bulleted points
Hyperlinking to further bits of useful and related information
Avoiding excessive use of images and videos (unless your content merely constitutes of such media)
Using the correct structured data markup

The last point is very important especially for the apps like Facebook’s Paper newsfeed app. Such apps use the structured data markup to identify the nature of your content and then adjust it in the feed accordingly.

The points mentioned above are the universal traits of content that is optimized for practically every medium whether you are writing for your blog/website or for social networking websites. The same goes for Facebook Paper. Use the right markup so that your content appears under the right section, create captivating headlines so that your content can grab people’s attention, write smaller sentences so that it’s easier to read them on smaller devices and as always, stick to the point.

Content marketing and a tropical fruit tree

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Why do you create content for your website? If you take your content seriously then you must be publishing articles and blog posts regularly. “Regularly” can be everyday, a few times in a week, or maybe a few times in a month.

The point is, whenever you are writing and publishing content you must be spending a considerable amount of time – even money – on it.

Why do you do it? Do you really believe in the power of content marketing, or are you simply trying out one of those “new fads”?

For the sake of focus, I’m assuming you understand the importance of what you’re doing.

Even when we’re serious, even when our intentions are clear, sometimes we just get trapped in a rut and keep on doing stuff thinking that sooner or later it is going to pay off. That’s why it is important to regularly step back, and evaluate our work. It’s more so important in creating and publishing content for your website.

Content marketing, although one of the most effective ways of building targeted traffic and generating qualified leads on an ongoing basis, doesn’t show results fast, unless your effort is backed by a big budget. It actually works like a tree that has to fully grow before it gives you fruits. Just imagine realizing you have been growing the wrong tree all along, or you have grown a tree that gives no fruit at all.

So how do you ensure that you are sewing and nurturing a tree that will someday give you the right fruit?

Naturally, by having a clear idea of what fruit you want to have. In terms of content writing and content marketing, you need to have a clear idea of what you want it to achieve for you – what fruit you wanted to deliver?

Not every tree can grow and give you fruit in your region. In a cold, European city, town or village you may not be able to grow a tropical tree. You either have to move to a tropical region, or you have to create the right environment for that tree to grow.

What I mean to say is, you have to understand and recognize the importance of selecting the right sapling, creating the appropriate environment, and nurturing the tree with great care before it can bear you the fruit.

When you apply the concept of the tree onto your business, creating, publishing and distributing that content is the tropical environment that you need to create, targeted traffic is a tree that you plant and grow, and qualified leads that turn into paying customers and clients are the fruits you get.

Differences between Owned, Earned and Paid content marketing channels

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In my previous blog post titled “Content distribution/marketing is as important as writing and publishing content“, I wrote about the importance of using content marketing and distribution channels so that you don’t have to depend on the whims of search engines for targeted traffic.

Some of the prominent channels I talked about were:

Twitter
Facebook
Google+
Newsletter

Other prominent content marketing and distribution channels that you can use are:

Your business blog
Improved search engine rankings
PPC campaigns on search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo
Banner advertisements on websites and blogs
Your own website content
Your articles and blog posts appearing on other blogs and websites, and even online forums
Press release websites (but only those of repute, not the spammy sorts)
Promoted content on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn (there are many more such platforms)

This is not a complete list, this is just to give you an idea of the channels you can target in order to market and distribute your content. Among these channels, they are of the following three broad categories:

Owned
Earned
Paid

Below I briefly explain the difference between these categories of content marketing channels.

Owned, earned and paid content marketing channels

Owned content marketing channels

As the name suggests, you own these channels. These can be

Your own website content:
- Information pages
- Articles and help pages
- Company, services, product profile pages
- FAQs section
Your company blog
Your newsletter
Online forums that you host under your own domain name or various other owned domain names
Your social media and social networking platforms including YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Google+, etc.
The mobile phone apps that you may have to make it easier for people to access your content

You are in full control of these channels. You need to build them up from scratch. They require lots of effort but once you have done enough work, the results can be awesome.

How do you nurture owned content marketing channels? Of course by producing high-quality content on a regular basis. Whether you’re publishing a blog, a series of articles for a newsletter, be persistent. Don’t overtly worry about stuffing keywords here and there in order to improve your search engine rankings because this no longer work. Solely focus on quality. Provide useful information. And provide it consistently.

Earned content marketing channels

These channels manifest due to your authority and expertise and the sort of respect your opinion enjoys. These channels can exist in the form of

Bloggers and webmasters linking to your content
People writing articles and blog posts in response to what you have published on your website or blog, or even elsewhere
Your articles and blog posts appearing on other websites and blogs
People sharing your blog posts and articles from their own social media and social networking profiles
People talking about your content on various online forums and comment sections
People including your links in their own newsletters

Of course, you need to “earn” this channel by establishing your authority and proving your expertise. People should want to link to you. They should want to share your content on their respective timelines. They should find your content relevant enough to respond to it on their own blogs and websites. Your content should be so useful that people link to it in order to add more value to their own content.

Paid content marketing channels

If you have enough money, this is the best approach for you. You pay for the exposure. Some of the well-known paid content marketing channels are

Google’s AdWords campaign
Bing PPC
Promoted updates on Facebook
Advertising on Facebook
Sponsored tweets on Twitter
Submitting your content to paid directories
Buying link space on other websites or blogs – this is frowned upon by Google but if you don’t care much about how Google thinks about you, go ahead and do it

There might be more channels in this category, or in fact, in all the categories mentioned above.

Which content marketing channels should your business use? There is no set rule. The best would be earned channels because you will be actually investing time and effort in improving the overall quantity of your content rather than trying to get quick results and end up creating lousy content in the process.

But in order to create a space in earned channels often you have to use a mix of owned plus paid channels. As I recently read somewhere if you don’t invest in paid channel lots of your quality content remains unnoticed, that is, there is no use creating it.