What to look for in a professional content writer for your business

Looking for a professional content writer

Finding a professional content writer for your business can be literally equated to finding gold wading through streams of water hoping that small trinkets will somehow find their way into your sieve. No, I’m not exaggerating. Considering how important content writing is, you can ill afford to make mistakes while hiring a professional content writer that is just right for your business? How do you do that?

This recent Copyblogger blog post begins with a very important note of advice: go for a content writer who has a very strong, confident writing voice. What does that mean?

I write socio-political articles also for a couple of online publications. Recently someone commented under one of my articles “Typical Amrit way of writing”. It means the person who left this comment not only frequently reads what I write, she can also recognize my voice. In fact this is not the first instance: I remember when I used to work with a team of writers (I no longer do that – I work on my own these days) I sometimes used to suggest my clients that one of my writers should write for them. Most of them used to insist that I should write because they wanted the content written just the way I write. As a professional content writer they recognize that I have a voice, a unique way of writing, and they want that for their businesses as well.

The blog post further says your professional content writer should have the following qualities:

He or she should have a good command over spelling, grammar and usage
He or she should be able to give an interesting twist to the existing facts and data so that your readers find the content interesting, compelling and if possible, entertaining.
The professional content writer for your business must understand how to write content that helps you sell more because ultimately it is your conversion rate that matters. He or she should know how to form headlines that can hook the readers, the email subject lines that encourage your recipients to open your email messages, write blog posts that are informative as well as engaging and write landing page messages that convert more clicks into purchases and subscriptions.
He or she should know why he or she is writing using a particular content writing strategy. This is very important because unless you know what you’re doing, you cannot make it manifest in your words. If you understand the objective of what you are writing, your writing becomes clearer and more convincing.
The professional content writer for your business must understand and accept the importance of professionalism and ongoing education. Unless your content writer continuously invests time in growth and education, he or she is not going to keep up with the evolution of your business

Some extra points that can help you find the right professional content writer for your business

The above point talks about the inherent qualities of the professional content writer that you aim to hire for your business, but what about his or her business sense? What makes him or her professional and committed? Here are a few more things you should look for:

He or she runs a professional content writing business: Although I don’t mean to say that content writers who don’t have a business providing content writing services cannot write well or they are not professional (you can never define individuals in such strict terms) but it always helps if the person you are hiring is running his or her own business because then he or she will understand your business needs. He or she will be better equipped at meeting deadlines because in meeting your deadlines lies his or her success as a professional. He or she needs to get more business for his own enterprise and this can only happen if he or she is able to provide you top-notch content writing services.
Your content writer has a professional website: Again, you may hire a content writer from one of those freelancing websites (Elance, Odesk) and there is no harm in it as long as you get the results, but just to be on a safer side, make sure that the content writer at least has a website that is constantly updated. This shows that the person is serious and isn’t providing content writing services simply because he or she has got some extra time or because he or she is between different jobs. Many people approach me for content writing work because they have taken a break for 4-5 months. Among such people you cannot get professional, committed content writers.
Your content writer maintains a blog: A content writer without a blog is like a driver who doesn’t like to drive. The job of a content writer is to write and no content writer can be so busy that he or she cannot maintain a blog to showcase his or her writing skills. It also shows that the content writer cannot manage his or her time properly.
Your content writer has a social media presence: This is not necessary but just to make sure that you can contact your content writer in case you are unable to reach him or her via email or telephone.

These are more or less the attributes that you should look for in a professional content writer for your business.

How to use hashtags as content marketing tools

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Usi ng hashtags as content marketing tools

Hashtags are everywhere these days. People use them on Twitter, Google Plus, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube and any other website where content is promoted using keywords and tags. You can use popular hashtags as content marketing tools.

Why use hashtags as content marketing tools?

More and more people are relying on social networking websites to find valuable, useful and relevant content. Random searches can be tiresome so people who are really interested in a topic follow hashtags (also called trending topics). They can either create streams based on a hashtag based on their favourite social networking tool (something like Hootsuite) or they can simply click the popular hashtag to view all the updates in the stream. For instance, if you want to know what all people are saying about content marketing today on Twitter, you can check out the hashtag #contentmarketing. So if you want to say something that you can somehow relate with this hashtag append it at the end of your message and post it on Twitter. All the people following this hashtag will be able to view this message. A problem with popular trending topics is that the message may not stay in front of your viewers because they scroll very fast – sometimes thousands of people are posting every second.

Do you want to use the trending topics as content marketing tools?

This is how it works…

Find out what’s trending and think of how you could use these trending topics for your content marketing requirements. Doesn’t matter if some popular trend is being promoted by a company, a sports club, an NGO or a political party. If it is in the public domain and if you can creatively incorporate it into your content marketing effort, you should go ahead and do so.

But make sure you don’t end up irritating people. I don’t believe that bad publicity is better than no publicity – in the business world it doesn’t work that way. You ruin your reputation as a business and it takes lots of time to undo the damage.

How to find hashtags that you can use as content marketing tools?

The first spot is of course the Twitter website itself if you want to use some Twitter hashtag. In fact most of the prominent hashtags are displayed on their respective websites. On Twitter you can find them on the left-hand side. You can see international hashtags as well as the ones specific to your country or region.

You can also create a list of hashtags that would be relevant to your business or your target audience and then routinely post updates and content links accordingly.

Don’t underestimate the power of commenting in your content marketing strategy

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Commenting on other blogs and websites can reap you great benefits, as claimed in this blog post where the author Neil Patel claims that he generated $ 25,000 with 249 comments. I can understand if you are a bit cynical about the tactic because most of us relate commenting to comment-spamming – people indiscriminately leave comments to generate traffic with the false understanding that it will increase their search engine rankings. Comment spamming is a legend in blogging circles and there are many plug-ins specifically to deal with the menace.

But Neil, quite understandably, doesn’t talk about THAT sort of commenting. Commenting is a very special feature and most publishers keep it switched on because it makes publishing more interactive. Whether it’s personal blogging, professional blogging or news websites, every publication these days has the facility to leave comments. So it isn’t that commenting is frowned upon. What’s frowned upon is commenting just for the sake of commenting. This is something you should avoid especially if you want to make commenting an integral part of your content marketing strategy.

How to make commenting an integral part of your content marketing strategy

You will need to be patient of course. Commenting is a bit different than blogging because you’re commenting on someone else’s blog or article and initially he or she may decide to not to approve your comments. So in that regard you will need to practice some patience before your comments begin to appear on the website that concerns you.

Be careful of what blogs and publications you choose. Remember that you’re commenting because you want to attract business. It’s no use commenting on a fashion website if you sell homoeopathic medicines unless there is a connection.

Being a professional content writer I have a wider choice because anybody can be my client (this also increases my effort manifold of course).

Once you start commenting, be careful that you add value to the ongoing conversation. Be sincere. In order to do that properly read the blog post or the article and take down the main notes. If you decide to disagree with some of the points, evaluate them carefully and crosscheck with the information you have with you. Even if you’re going to agree add your own take so that the people participating in the comment conversation know that you have actually grasped the thread.

What if you have no idea how to start? Doesn’t matter. It doesn’t mean you don’t start leaving comments. You can just leave a polite “well-written”. Being a new entrant, people won’t mind that.

With commenting you need to be persistent. As mentioned in Neil’s blog post, he left 249 comments on various websites. He is a known professional in the field of Internet marketing and blogging so it is quite understandable if his 249 comments were able to generate $ 25,000 for him. It might not happen to you. But even if a fraction of that success is generated by regular commenting, the effort is worth it.

20 benefits of hiring professional content writing services

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What are the benefits of hiring professional content writing services? This is a serious question because it is going to be a long-term commitment and if you’re thinking of hiring professional content writing services, both in terms of money as well as time (although in terms of time the service you hire is going to take care of most of the stuff).

As a busy professional you recognize the importance of content for your business website but either you’re not comfortable writing it yourself, or you don’t have enough time. Writing content for the purpose of content marketing is often a full-time commitment. Content writers like yours truly can do that because well, since I’m already creating content for my clients, it’s easier for me to quickly open another document and create a blog post for myself. This might not be the case with you. You may be working in altogether a different field and it is often difficult to sit quietly on a daily basis and create high-quality and valuable articles and blog posts. This is why you need to hire a professional content writing service.

Below I have listed 20 benefits of hiring professional content writing services.

Publish content on a regular basis: Whenever one wants to implement a solid content marketing strategy the biggest hurdle is the content that needs to be written and published on a regular basis. When you have assigned this task to the professionals, you can rest assured that you will be getting reliable, engaging, compelling content on a regular basis.
Get high-quality content on an ongoing basis: This goes without saying. Any professional service that you hire deserves to be called professional only if it provides you high-quality content without errors – grammatical as well as spelling.
Enjoy better search engine rankings: One of the benefits of hiring professional content writing services is that they can provide you keyword-centric content without going overboard. This is very important. Your content writer should be able to use your keywords contextually without overusing them and at the same time sound trustworthy and compelling. This is not as easy as you may think. Simply using your keywords doesn’t mean your content is going to give you a good conversion rate even if it gets you better search engine rankings.
Avail greater accountability: Professional content writing services are bound to provide greater accountability and this is a big benefit of hiring them. People should be able to trust them and rely on them. If many businesses are already relying on the content writing service that you have chosen for your business, then you can rest assured they’re going to be accountable to you.
Get a dedicated content writer who is not influenced by your business: In order to influence your customers and clients you need to speak their language. This is often not possible for someone working in your organization. You need someone who is an outsider and hence, can empathise with your customers and clients, and then write accordingly.
Have a greater choice of content writers: A good benefit of hiring professional content writing services is that you are not bound to a particular service or a particular content writer. Don’t like someone? You can ask the content writing service to change the writer for you, or you can change the service itself. It’s all up to you and you are in total control. This is not the case if you have hired someone in-house. Hiring and firing employees can be an expensive affair, but this is not the case if you hire professional content writing services.
Update your existing content regularly: It’s very important to regularly update your existing content to keep it fresh and relevant. By hiring professional content writing services you make sure that your content assets that are already there are not neglected because due to lack of time this is something that gets ignored while you try to create as much new content as possible.
Stop worrying about new content writing ideas: This is also one of the major challenges when you want to create new, fresh content for your website or blog, or even when you are contemplating getting your content published on other websites and blogs – how to get new content writing ideas? Although there is tons of stuff you can write about just when you are about to write, nothing comes up in your mind. People working in professional content writing services are used to coming up with new content writing ideas; for them it is a habit (of course, also a professional compulsions). So you don’t have to constantly worry about what to write – it is done, most often, behind your back, without bothering you.
Easily scale your content writing requirements: As your business expands so will your content writing requirements. You don’t need to hire new people for that. Professional content writing services are well equipped to meet your demands. They will automatically be able to provide you more writers or more time from an existing writer. Inversely, you don’t have to fire an employee in case you need to cut down on content publishing. You simply have to let it be known to your service provider and that’s it.
Save more money: One of the greatest benefits of hiring professional content writing services is that you don’t have to spend money on getting new employees and give them all the employment benefits that businesses often have to give. There is no extra money involved while hiring a professional content writing service. You pay just for the content you get and nothing more. You don’t need to dedicate computers and software to the writer. He or she doesn’t need your office space. He or she doesn’t use your electricity and your furniture. Remotely he or she can quietly work and get paid for just the content he or she gives you.
Establish yourself as an authority: As a professional who depends a lot on personal branding you need to establish yourself as an authority and you do this by constantly sharing your expertise and wisdom with your target audience. If you don’t have much time you can hire a professional content writing service and it will provide you all the needed content in a well-written format. All you need to do is provide them some insightful input and accordingly they can create high-quality content for you on an ongoing basis that will help you establish yourself as an authority among your peers as well as audience.
Make your brand more recognizable: Recognition, familiarity (unless you’re really screwing things up) builds trust and when people trust you, they are more eager to do business with you. By publishing authoritative content on a regular basis you make it easier for people to find you, come across your content and then remember you. By hiring professional content writing services you can rest assured that quality, authoritative content is always being written for your business.
Create a reliable content stream: Reliability is very crucial when you want to continue a successful content marketing campaign. Even small gaps can lead to a totally wrong direction.
Exploit all the promotional channels available to you: Since you never lack content you can exploit all the channels like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Blogging, Guest Blogging and Tumblr (just to name a few) to promote your brand and get more traffic to your main website or blog.
Engage the right audience on social networking websites: You can engage your audience on social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter by consistently posting authoritative content that links back to your own website or blog. People will respect you more if the content comes from you rather than from other websites. When you link to your main content, encourage people to interact with you, ask questions and seek answers.
Get published on reputed websites and blogs: This is a great way to get back links from authoritative websites. By hiring professional content writing services high-quality content is easy to come and since it is easy to come, you don’t have to just focus on your own website or blog. You can also share your valuable content on other websites and blogs, exposing your brand in front of a new audience as well as getting links from those websites and blogs.
Engage customers on your website or blog: As I have already mentioned above, engagement doesn’t just happen with a few blog posts and articles. You constantly need to publish new content and then gradually people begin to respond. As they respond, according to their response, you create new content and then according to your new content, they respond again, and the cycle goes on.
Enjoy higher conversion rate: Compelling content gives you a higher conversion rate. It doesn’t matter how good your search engine rankings are and how well you can engage people on social networking websites, unless you have compelling content on your own website, created by a professional content writing service, you’re not going to enjoy a higher conversion rate.
Get more subscribers to your email updates: Building your own mailing list still is one of the best ways of building targeted traffic to your website because people willingly subscribe to your mailing list. If they like your content, if the content they like is regularly published on your website, it gives them a reason to visit your website repeatedly and if they really find your content valuable, they won’t like to miss it. This is the time when they will subscribe to your email updates.
Broadcast your email marketing campaigns regularly: Email marketing content is as important as website or blog content and in many cases, even more important. When people open their emails, go through its contents and then click the links included in the message, they come to your website with a purpose. They are already inclined towards dealing with you. By hiring professional content writing services you can ensure a continued supply of high-quality content for your email marketing campaigns.

Can a web content writer help you improve your conversion rate?

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A web content writer isn’t simply someone who helps you fill up your website or blog with lots of text – the text must also improve your conversion rate. I know it is not possible with every web content writer you hire because just as everybody can write but very few become novelists and journalists, almost everybody can write content but there are very few who can actually help you improve your conversion rate.

Actually, even with a content writer who has no grasp over the concepts of engagement and conversion you can experience a marked improvement in your business but then it is like throwing darts in the dark – one of them may hit the target but most won’t. It’s also like buying a lottery ticket – very few win, rarest of the rare. In the case of a web content writer who doesn’t know the C of conversion, he or she may give you good results by creating lots of content.

Most of the businesses who hire the services of a web content writer do so to improve their search engine rankings and this is something that can actually be achieved by hiring any sort of web content writer. Here is an example.

These days I am trying to improve my search engine rankings after many years. So I was doing some research and checked out the websites that ranks quite well for the term “content writing services”. Some of the websites ranking quite well for this phrase have lots of junk content – not all, but some who shouldn’t be on page 1, but they are due to whatever aberration. They have lots of content centred around the phrase “content writing services” even bordering on keyword spamming but still they are performing good as far as their rankings go. What I’m trying to say is, despite having a web content writer who knows zilch about your conversion rate and who can get you on Google’s first page, there isn’t a guarantee that people will do business with you. In order to do business, you need to convert. For that, your web content writer has to rise above his occupation, properly study your business and the people it serves and then create convincing content.

There are 2 ways your web content writer can help you improve your conversion rate

One sort of method I have already explained via the Google search engine rankings example. Your web content writer creates lots of content around your keywords. So much content that your website, by some fluke, ends upon the first page of the search results, and then you get so much traffic that even if a fraction of that traffic converts, you do pretty well. This is how email spam sustains itself. The numbers are so high that even 0.001% results can be massive.

The other method is that you hire a web content writer who is actually a writer. What do I mean by that? A writer who understands your audience – their pain points, their concerns, their desires, their problems, their expectations – and then prepare content accordingly, in a compelling, convincing manner. Your web content writer should be able to write as if you are directly talking to your customers and clients in the best possible way. Your language should be fluent and it should inspire trust and confidence. It shouldn’t be replete with unnecessary jargon and superfluous sentences.

Once your web content writer has prepared text that can convincingly talk to your customers and clients, he or she will be able to make a big impact on your conversion rate. Otherwise, your web content writer will be simply generating traffic with lots of noise and nothing more.