Relevant versus opportunistic content writing
You need to continuously write and publish content to remain visible on Google and other search engines.
This Hubsot report says that, according to a research, businesses that wrote and published 16 blog posts or more in a month received 3.5 times the traffic compared to the businesses that wrote and published less than 4 blog posts a month.
This is quite logical, actually. The more content you give Google to crawl, index and rank, the more content it has to show when people are looking for the related search terms.
As is the case with content marketing, only the content that is useful and relevant does you good. Useless content harms you in terms of search engine rankings and conversion rate.
This brings me to the main topic of this blog post: relevant versus opportunistic content writing.
What content do you write and publish during the coronavirus outbreak?
This is a vital question and I’ve been pondering over it for quite some time now.
In fact, recently I wrote What marketing rules to follow during a crisis like the Covod-19 outbreak, aside from other posts on writing and publishing content during a global tragedy.
One thing is clear. The crisis is going to get over, whether it takes a few months or a couple of years.
Even if things don’t improve much health-wise but most countries manage to flatten the curve, economic activities, in various altered forms, are going to resume.
If you don’t want to be left behind, you must focus on publishing content on your website to maintain the presence that you have created so far, or improve it.
The question is not whether you write and publish content or not, the question is, how to differentiate between relevant and opportunistic content?
The blog post from Skyword has some good insights on how to decide what is relevant and what is opportunistic when writing content for your website in the times of an international crisis like the Covid-19 outbreak.
It talks about 3 R’s to consider: Research; Refine & Reflect.
Research what most important is to your audience right now.
Think of how what you are writing and publishing solves their contemporary problems.
Make sure that what you are writing and publishing makes sense.
You don’t want to seem like a greedy jerk. You don’t want people think that even during a crisis of such scale, all you can think of is your business.
To be frank, everyone who is not dealing with the virus directly, is worried about his or her business, and there is nothing wrong in that.
We are all worried about the financial safety of our loved ones.
We know that once the world recovers its footing economic activities will resume and then people will be scrambling for all the opportunities they can get.
In terms of writing and publishing content, what are most of my clients concerned about right now?
Right now, they are mostly concerned about two things:
- How to scrape the bottom of the barrel and get as much work as possible (or sell as many products as possible).
- How to make sure that when things pick up again, their customers and clients can find them.
Many of my clients know that while people are unable to go to offices and take care of their normal activities, they are generating lots of targeted content to improve their SEO and expand their presence.
I’m not a healthcare expert. I’m not a doctor. I’m not even the news portal with the responsibility of keeping my visitors informed about the latest threats that coronavirus is posing or the new discoveries that are being made.
This information is already abundantly available, and one can easily find it.
When people come to my website, they’re looking for a good content writer who can help them publish quality content on their websites and blogs.
They are looking for a writer who can help them improve their search engine rankings.
They are looking for a copywriter who can help them improve the open rates of their email newsletters.
Basically, they want to improve the performance of their digital marketing efforts as much as possible.
They are also worried about the future.
Everything seems to be altered right now. People are being laid off. Old ways of doing business are being questioned. We are on completely uncharted waters.
Not just about their livelihoods, they are also worried about their own health and the health of their loved ones.
The over availability of news bombards them with all sorts of fears and worries.
Amidst all this, they are courageous enough to think about their business in terms of strategy and action.
So, although, mine is not a portal where they are looking for information on how coronavirus spreads and how it can be prevented, they are certainly looking for information on how to improve their SEO and overall conversion rate.
How to create a balance between relevance and opportunity?
For some, opportunities are always there. I recently read in a ZDNet update that since most of the people are working from home, cloud-based services are doing brisk business.
We cannot resent them for that. People have more reason now to use cloud-based services. G Suite is doing better. Microsoft 365 (previously called Office 365) and Microsoft Azure are raking in great profits.
Despite various controversies, Zoom is suddenly in great demand.
Technologies that can deliver food and other services with minimum or even zero human interaction are being developed with great speed.
So, yes, in every challenge, even if it is a global catastrophe, people are going to find opportunities, or they are going to be present where they can make use of the situation profitably.
There is no harm in explaining to your prospective customers and clients how your business can help them.
I can help people improve their search engine rankings, engagement and conversion rate through quality content.
People may not be directly looking for solutions from you. But they need you to empathize. They want to know that we are all in the same boat.
Right now, when you are writing and publishing content for your website and blog, write according to the current context.
Consider the problems they are facing and despite that, promote your products and services in such a manner that they seem appropriate under the circumstances.
For example, instead of saying “I’m great at content writing so hire me”, you can try something like “I can understand the problems you’re going through and I too am going through more or less the same set of problems. Maybe we can work out an arrangement where I can provide you my services and help you in whichever way I can using my content writing abilities.”
As someone who knows what the power of content writing is, through constant publishing, I try to educate my visitors on how important it is, especially now, to focus on publishing high-quality content so that their messaging can adjust to the new realities of our time, and despite these realities, they can leverage whatever opportunities are available.