Category Archives: Content Writing

Remove digital distancing through targeted content writing

Remove digital distancing with targeted content writing

We are living in the times of social distancing.

Instead of coming closer, we want to move away from people fearing that the closeness can get is infected with the Coronavirus.

This is a legitimate fear as the initial reluctance for social distancing has proven disastrous for many countries.

As social and physical distancing are the norms of the day, how do you make up for it.

By removing digital distancing.

What is digital distancing and how you can remove it with targeted content writing?

Digital distancing can be self-imposed or inadvertent.

Digital distancing is when people who are supposed to reach you, people who should be able to find you, are unable to do so.

Digital distancing can happen due to multiple reasons including

You are not writing and publishing targeted content.
You don’t rank well for the right keywords and search terms and hence, people cannot find you on Google and other search engines.
You don’t have a social media presence.
You don’t have a mailing list and you don’t publish a newsletter.
You don’t have incoming links from other websites and blogs.

What it means is, for a big chunk of your target audience, you practically don’t exist.

You can remove digital distancing and bring people closer to you, digitally.

You can achieve this by writing and publishing targeted content.

What is targeted content writing?

Targeted content writing

It is content writing that solves the purpose.

Why are people looking for you?

For example, if you’re searching for content writing services or a content writer or an SEO writer, are you simply doing it because you have lots of spare time, or are you in need of these services?

Targeted content writing is based on searcher’s intent.

Here Google explains how searcher intent is redefining the market funnel.

In terms of search engine traffic, searcher intent is the “why” behind the search.

Why is the user looking for the information he or she is looking for?

Searchers intent can be categorized in the following manner:

Informational intent: People are simply looking for information, something like “how fast is covid-19 spreading?”
Navigational intent: People want to go to a website but don’t know what the URL is and hence, they search for the name, something like “credible content”.
Commercial intent: People aren’t yet ready to buy, but they are comparing different services, something like “which is better, MailChimp or AWeber?”
Transactional intent: People do this search when they actually want to buy a product or service, something like “need a content writer for my website”.

If you can know what the intent of your typical searcher is and then write and publish content accordingly, you can remove digital distancing to a great extent.

When you write and publish targeted content, on regular basis, you begin to experience an improvement in your search engine rankings.

When your search engine rankings improve, more people are able to find you and when more people are able to find you, more people share your content on social media and more people link to your content.

This sets a chain reaction.

Your online business, whether you run a consultancy, a retail store or an e-commerce store, depends on the right exposure that you get on the web.

To grow your business through targeted content writing, you need to achieve two things:

Start generating targeted traffic through publishing targeted content.
Write and publish lots of quality content to replicate the above result.

Removing digital distancing is very important for online success.

Unless people are able to find you, how can they buy from you, how can they do business with you?

Yes, you can use advertising to mitigate digital distancing to a great extent, but advertising is haphazard, unscientific and in most of the cases, ineffective.

Content marketing – writing and publishing targeted content and then broadcasting it using all available means – makes you become a part of people’s lives, which is more meaningful than advertising.

So, start writing and publishing targeted content to remove digital distancing.

How do you drive traffic to your e-commerce store with targeted content writing?

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Increasing traffic to your e-commerce store with targeted content writing

In this blog post you will learn how to use quality content writing to drive targeted traffic to your e-commerce website.

Driving traffic to your e-commerce website or e-commerce store ideally shouldn’t be a problem.

The content management systems are built in such a way that they are anyway quite search engine friendly.

If you are doing everything to make it easier for Google to crawl and index your catalog, getting targeted traffic from search engines shouldn’t be a problem.

The main problem comes from your competition.

For practically every commodity being sold on the Internet, there are hundreds of e-commerce websites offering the same thing.

If you’re looking for shoes, there are hundreds of websites selling the same variety of those shows.

Even if there are not “hundreds of websites”, searchers rarely go beyond the second page of the search results.

Hence, if your website is not featuring on the first page, there is a remote chance that people will come to your e-commerce website.

What are the main sources of targeted traffic to your e-commerce website?

Sources of inbound traffic to your e-commerce website

The main sources of targeted traffic to your e-commerce store are

Search engines
Internet advertising
PPC marketing on search engines and social media websites
In-app advertising
Direct traffic from incoming links
Email marketing

I provide content writing services for search engine optimization, for accumulating incoming links from other websites and social media and social networking websites, and of course, for email marketing.

How does quality content writing help you get targeted traffic to your e-commerce store?

There are multiple ways content writing can help you. Here are a few things that can be done.

Write highly unique titles and descriptions for your products

There must be something unique in your products that you can highlight. Something that may be very few people are searching for, but they are searching for it.

For example, many running shoes are Velcro shoes, without laces. Hence, if you have “running shoes” or, “jogging shoes” in your catalogue, maybe you can also highlight the Velcro feature and use in the title “jogging shoes with Velcro” or “running shoes with Velcro”.

The basic idea is to stand out and write something that is not being used by other e-commerce store managers.

Similarly, in the description, mention attributes that are important, attributes for which people search, but that are not being covered by other sellers.

This will immediately improve your targeted traffic.

Write and publish engaging content to build long-term traffic

Content writing for e-commerce stores doesn’t just mean writing titles and descriptions for your products.

You can write blog posts and articles talking about various aspects of the products that you are selling.

An e-commerce website selling gadgets can publish gadget reviews and can even invite customers to leave reviews.

Remember that these reviews are different from the usual reviews that appear under every category.

I’m talking about full-fledged blog posts and articles.

An e-commerce website selling garments and accessories can publish advice on how to select the right garment for the right occasion.

Many people are looking for such information.

Recently I wrote a blog post on top 10 evening wear disasters to avoid, for an apparels website.

You may wonder if big stores like Amazon aren’t publishing such blog posts and articles, why should you?

Well, they are very big websites with a very strong brand presence.

They are the preferred choice of all search engines.

These e-commerce stores have already spent years and invested millions in building their brands.

Since your brand is not well known, you have to compensate this lack of brand presence with high-quality content.

This Forbes blog post says that 90% of today’s data has been created since 2016.

This post was written in 2018 but you can easily guess how much information is being published on the Internet and how important it is to get noticed amidst this deluge of information.

Get traffic from social media through engaging content

All sort of information is constantly being shared on social media and social networking websites.

This information doesn’t always have to be informative.

But it must provide some value to those who are sharing it (look, I’m sharing this) and to those with whom the information is being shared.

You will have to decide which type of information your target customers and clients like to share on their social media timelines and then write and publish content accordingly.

But make sure that you don’t just simply create noise.

Creating noise doesn’t help your e-commerce business.

Your content must be meaningful, and people should be able to relate to it.

It should definitely represent the voice of your brand.

Doesn’t matter if it is funny.

Doesn’t matter if it is highly useful (some tips on the Covid-19 outbreak).

It doesn’t matter if it is full of tips and tricks (better ways of working from home).

Make it share worthy.

The importance of content writing for email marketing

Then comes email marketing.

This Nielson study says that 66% of online buyers buy their products from the brands they are familiar with.

Nothing nurtures familiarity better than email marketing.

You may also like to read Importance of email marketing for content marketing success

Email marketing is one of the strongest Internet marketing tools but just like any strong tool, it takes effort to build it.

It is of no use if you haven’t invested time in building your own mailing list.

Only high-quality content writing and publishing helps you build a quality mailing list – a healthy subscriber base that responds to your messages.

Remember that people subscribe to your mailing list when they expect something good out of it.

When they find glimpses of quality in your content, upon visiting your website or blog, they don’t want to miss your content and hence, they subscribe to your mailing list.

The good thing about running an e-commerce website is people already expect to hear updates about your products.

But they simply don’t want to buy.

Something must be there for them to attract them.

They want to get better bargains.

They want to receive discounts.

They want to be notified of lucrative offers.

They are also looking for information they can use for making better buying decisions.

I suggest maintaining a balance of 60-40: if you’re an e-commerce store, make 60% of your email campaigns helpful (useful information) and 40% about different product offers people would like to miss.

The main benefits of writing and publishing quality content for your e-commerce website

Before you talk about benefits, here is an interesting quote by Bruce Springsteen, used to clarify a point in a McKinsey article on the importance of consistently publishing high-quality content:

Sustaining an audience is hard,” Bruce Springsteen once said. “It demands a consistency of thought, of purpose, and of action over a long period of time.

Writing and publishing content focuses on generating and maintaining an audience that pays attention to you.

Hence, I constantly say on my blog that don’t create noise, develop a voice.

If your audience cannot distinguish you from other websites and blogs, it’s no use publishing content.

Even if they want to do business with you, since they cannot distinguish you from the others, it becomes difficult for them to buy from you.

If you go and publishing the same sort of stuff being published on other websites, your content won’t deliver and then you will think content writing and content marketing are useless.

The problem is with the approach, not with this type of marketing.

With this out of the way, here are the main benefits of writing and publishing quality content for your e-commerce website to generate targeted traffic:

1. You build audience retention

Why is audience retention important?

You want people to remember you, right?

With most people wanting to buy from brands they are familiar with, it is very important that people can immediately recall in what business you are when they come across your name.

2. More social media sharing

People share your content if they find it useful.

When they share it, you get traffic from social media and social networking websites.

3. Quality content writing builds trust

Trust is very important on the Internet.

Although e-commerce has gone mainstream, a lot depends on how much people trust your website when they decide to buy.

When you regularly publish quality content that people like, they begin to trust you and your judgement and consequently, your business proposition.

4. You improve your search engine rankings

The SEO mechanism works in a very convoluted manner.

To make Google crawl your website regularly, you need to offer something worth crawling regularly.

If your content writing and publishing frequency is very low, Google learns that you are not a frequent publisher and hence, stops visiting your website or blog regularly.

It leaves everything on randomness.

On the other hand, if there is a pattern and you publish content with greater frequency, it begins to crawl and index your website regularly.

Once I experienced that one of my technology blogs was indexed within seconds when I published new content.

Back then, I was publishing six updates every day.

Even the way you readers react to your content has a direct impact on your SEO.

Hence, it is very important you write and publish engaging content that solves real problems for your readers so that Google can pick positive indicators and further improve your rankings.

You may like to read 5 content writing tips to improve SEO

In conclusion, if you want to experience the power of high-quality content, just look at an average newspaper or magazine.

Even if you don’t trust journalism nowadays, try to remember those days when you trusted the newspaper that you got in the morning.

Whether it was New York Times or Washington Post or the Times of India, you trusted the editors and columnists and based your political and ideological opinions based on their opinions.

These publications had built their platforms, their presence, among our lives.

In the same manner, good quality content writing and publishing, helps us build our own platform, no matter how small it is (even if you have an audience of two people).

It makes people trust you and then buy from your e-commerce store.

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.

How to make a connection through your content writing and hook readers

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How to make a connection with your content writing

Why do you write and publish content?

I’m pretty sure many of you are going to say, “for better SEO”.

Although, this is not a wrong approach, if you are writing and publishing content merely to improve your search engine rankings, you’re missing a great opportunity to connect with your core audience.

Your content writing increases your conversion rate if it is able to connect with your readers.

Your content writing must be able to establish a connection with your readers/visitors, as very nicely explained in this blog post, titled “How to write magnetic content that resonates with your audience”.

The author draws a parallel between a chance encounter with a letter carrier or a mailman, and the importance of different approaches towards storytelling to establish a connection with your audience.

He begins his blog post by telling a story about a letter carrier who used to deliver mail in his office, six years ago. Then he got transferred to another city or another area.

The author observes that the letter carrier has grown heavier.

During his previous posting, the letter carrier had to visit individual offices or homes to deliver mail and letters. He would park it struck somewhere and then walk to different offices and homes.

In his new posting, he didn’t have to move much. All he had to do was open the mailbox doors, put in the letters, and close the doors, from within the truck itself. Result: he gained weight.

Such a subtle difference, such a big impact.

In my own blog post, this one, I begin with the importance of making a connection with your readers.

Why is it important to make a connection with your content writing?

By now you must have read multiple times that every buying decision is an emotional decision.

A Harvard business School professor says that 95% of purchase decisions are made subconsciously.

Emotions are triggered when you make a connection, whether the connection is visible or invisible, whether it is perceptible or imperceptible.

The connection doesn’t even have to be immediate.

Maybe a connection was made a year ago or a month ago and then, even unconsciously, it comes to the fore, when you are making a purchase or making a buying decision or deciding to hire someone like a content writer.

In the above-linked blog post, the author says that you can make connections, you can write magnetic content, by opening every piece of writing with an engaging story.

Why is storytelling important?

You may like to read Importance of storytelling in content marketing.

Recently I have worked on a few landing pages and the clients have insisted on having a short story on the landing page.

I begin a typical story like this:

There was this guy named Peter. He was having problems with his business. These problems had spilled over his personal life. He was on the verge of getting a divorce. He was thinking of filing for bankruptcy. He had laid off most of his staff.

Then he came across this app that completely transforms the way he manages his business.

… and so on.

Yes, at this time when explaining it here, it may seem a bit artificial, but on the landing page, I create an entire narrative and you can feel a connection with the protagonist.

When you tell a story, people can immediately relate.

These days there is the Coronavirus pandemic going on.

If you go through various blog posts and articles preparing lists of books that you can read while you are confined at home, you will notice that 80% of the books have some sort of outbreak or epidemic as the main theme. This is because these days people can relate to such plots and stories.

You can interweave storytelling and content writing by creating a context.

Does the story always have to be real?

It’s great if the story is real, but even if it isn’t real, as long as it is believable and practical, use it.

Why storytelling makes your content writing unique from your competitors?

When you’re writing and publishing content on your website or blog, how unique is it?

Haven’t all the topics also been covered by your competitors?

For example, if you are a mobile app development company and you want to explain your development process, aren’t there thousands of other websites out there that are explaining their development process in the same manner?

How do you make your mobile app development process unique?

Through storytelling.

Your story is always going to be unique because, it’s your story.

So, instead of simply explaining your development process, tell about a client who had a certain problem and then how you used your development process to solve that problem.

This can be applied to any situation.

For example, instead of explaining how to do online trading using your platform, talk about how Rajesh used your platform for strategic investment and growing his money.

What types of business blogs have I been writing for as a blog writer?

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Types of business blogs I have been writing for as a blog writer

Although on the Internet, while providing writing services, one has to wear different hats, by the end of the day, I’m a plain writer.

Why am I saying that? Because I have been writing for a diverse range of websites and blogs. Some of them I’m listing below:

Information technology blogs including programming, web hosting, blockchain development, mobile app development, software consulting and server management (many more).
Real estate development and realty.
Construction business.
Shipping business.
Fin tech and finance (including accounting, bookkeeping and taxation).
Garments and accessories (yes, even how to buy eveningwear and ballroom dresses).
Dental implants.
Skin care.
Internet marketing and search engine optimization.

and many more.

Does this make me jack of all trades and master of none?

Depends on how you look at it. My field is information technology so, it’s easier for me to write on IT, programming, app development, software development and enterprise level solutions.

Since I need to market my business on my own, and since I have been working on my own since 2004, I have developed an in-depth knowledge of Internet marketing and SEO, and consequently, I find it easier to write on related topics.

Other than these, being an experienced writer who is writing almost all the time, when I’m given a subject, I can do a decent job and sometimes, clients are even thrilled.

That is why I have been getting lots of blog writing assignments for real estate and finance.

Given an outline I can write on pretty much every topic. Even when the outline is not given, provided the information is available, I can come up with some decent work.

The main reason my clients hire me (aside from the fact that I write convincingly) is that I have gained lots of experience writing SEO content. Unlike with other writers, they don’t have to train me to write for the search engines.

My main strengths as a blog writer are:

I write well with very few spelling and grammar mistakes (most of them are differences of opinion, to be frank).
I write convincingly and in a conversational style.
My writing can be easy-going as well as uptight, depending on the audience and the needs of the client.
I write as a businessperson. From the very first word that I write to the last word that I write, the interest of the business for which I’m writing, is constantly at the back of my mind.
I don’t have to make an extra effort to write search engine optimized content. I do it naturally.

What makes me a good blog writer for your blog?

Adaptability. Dependability. Sincerity. Effortlessness.

I don’t compromise on my principles.

Having said that, I totally understand that your interest needs to be of paramount importance when I’m writing your blog posts.

Hence, I strike a balance between what I want to write and what I should be writing.

I come with an attitude because I believe that a writer who does not have an attitude is either a reporter or a stenographer.

When I write, I keep two things in mind, or rather, three things:

The interest of your readers – what they should gain when they read your blog post.
Your interest – what you should gain when your blog post is published.
SEO – how the blog post that you have published improves your search engine rankings.

This enables me to deliver just the blog posts you need for your business blog.