Tag Archives: Content Strategy

Hiring a website content writing service

Hiring a website content writing service is one of the most critical decisions you ever make for your online business. It’s basically your content that gets — whether through search engines, directly, or through social media and networking websites — traffic to your website, and it’s your content that converts your visitors into paying customers and clients.

Rather than hiring full-time in-house content writers, most small and medium businesses prefer to hire a website content writing service because (read why you should outsource to a content writing service), aside from saving on time and effort, they can also avail world-class writers from across the globe without going through the pain of finding them, and then training them.

The Internet is a great tool, a gargantuan advantage. Just log on and you can find writing talent from every possible nook and corner of the world. This is also a disadvantage. Unlike in the brick-and-mortar business it takes less effort to get onto the Internet and start a business. No, I’m not saying it’s easier to do business on the Internet, just easier to start a business. Nonetheless, there are many businesses that somehow manage to get the initial push and somehow you happen to stumble upon them and end up doing business with them. But do they deliver? Only time, and their performance, can tell. The thing is, they might just be testing the waters, or playing around with a new “work from home” idea just in case it works, but you are into serious business. You have invested your sweat, money and talent into your business and a lot is at stake. You are not playing around with some idea or “this Internet thing”. You want real results.

That’s why it’s very important to hire your website content writing service with great care. But if you have never worked before with this service, how can you decide, how do you know doing business with this company can be a safe bet?

What to look for before hiring a content writing service

For how long has your content writing service been in the business: You can easily find the age of the domain. Check out their blog archives (they have a blog, right?). Go through their online portfolio. If possible, check out their client websites and see how old the content over there is.
How does the website look: Most of the established content writing services have well-designed websites. By well-designed I don’t mean they should have won awards for best layout and design, you can just feel it. If they take their business seriously, they should also take their website seriously, because they are supposed to be getting good business from the website.
Does your website content writing service have a social media presence: This is not necessary but a service that’s active on the social media has a reputation to maintain. It takes lots of effort to build a brand on social media and networking websites. If they take their social media seriously, there is a great chance that they take their business seriously too.
Do they have a blog: Now this is a must for a content writing service. Just imagine a service that offers blog content to you and does not publish a good-quality blog. A blog is not just a great communication and SEO tool it also manifests an open, progressive mentality. It shows you put in effort to regularly talk to your visitors and share with them your thoughts.
What’s their quality of writing: This should logically be the first thing to consider.
How many websites link back to your content writing service: Back links are not only good for SEO, they are also an indication of good quality. If their website enjoys lots of back links from other websites and blogs it means people like what they have on their website and also what they have been doing.
What sort of testimonials do they have: Remember that many websites have testimonials that don’t seem real so you need to take testimonials with a pinch of salt, but reputed testimonials do matter. Be wary of testimonials not accompanies by website links. If they display big brand names and they themselves are not a very well-known name feel free to ask for direct links where their content can be seen.

Do you have your own consideration for hiring a competent content writing service? If yes, please share it in the comment section.

Content marketing defined

So where does the marketing fit in?

It’s not like the conventional marketing. Instead of promoting your products and services you promote your content, and it doesn’t always have to be about your business. There can be lots of information that is, although not about your business, but is useful, and is indirectly related to your business. Your information should solve people’s problem instead of pushing your marketing message. Does this mean you totally ignore your business and simply focus on solving people’s problems? No, it doesn’t mean that.

When you are providing your content, make it amply clear what business you are. Create contexts in which you can talk about your business. While trying to explain something, take live examples from your business. For instance, on this website I provide content writing, marketing and strategy services. For me it’s easier to refer to my services because they are closely related, but most of the content on the website is educational and informative.

Content marketing involves:

Constantly generating and publishing highly useful content
Making it easier for people to find your content through search engines and social media and networking websites
Engaging people in conversations regarding your content
Providing people a platform for exchanging ideas vis-a-vis your content
Reaching out to people in other forums and social media and networking websites

Content marketing is an inexpensive, highly effective method of establishing and promoting your brand. It’s also a double-edged sword. Since your content marketing effort is closely attached to your brand identity, you have to be very careful about what sort of content you publish and promote.

So do you have a content marketing plan? If yes, please share your experience and wisdom. If no, why do you think it’s not an important part of your marketing strategy?

Why your website content should pre-sell

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Pre-selling assumes that your customers are usually on your website to find answers to their questions or problems, and not to buy. The difference between selling and pre-selling is how you present these answers.

Pre-selling is just the opposite of selling, which is perceived as something that pressurizes you to buy. Pre-selling recommends subtly through one or two links in the informative content, building rapport with the reader and positioning you as the expert. Wouldn’t you be ready to listen if your trusted consultant recommended something to you? And that’s what pre-selling does. Pre-selling works because when people think you’re selling, their defenses go up; but in pre-selling, people are ready to listen.

Just about anyone is capable of doing the hard-sell on a product or service on the Internet. What makes the difference between a consistently successful online business and the ones that are looking for a quick buck boils down to the website’s ‘tone’. Every website speaks to its visitors and when the visitor reads the content, it should create the impression that the website knows what it is talking about.

Depending on how this content is expressed, it can establish you, the website owner as an expert. Rather than publish yards of running text that most visitors on the move are unlikely to read, the content must be presented as informative bite-sized pieces. Obviously no visitor wants to buy without knowing more about the product or service. To reach that fine balance between no information and the overdose, “pre-selling” is the answer.

Around 400-800 words is acceptable for pre-sell content to position you as the expert even as you gently pre-sell your visitors on your product or service. Here are some benefits of pre-selling:

Ever wondered why NASCAR, Wimbledon, the Olympics, etc. always start on time? It is because they are pre-sold. When you pre-sell, you set a deadline. On that date, you’ll have your product or service out with no excuses
When you pre-sell, your project is already funded. Which means – you don’t have to get all stressed out. What you need to do now is create compelling content and attractive packaging!
You get a good look into your customers’ behavior for your product or service. Based on this information, you can tweak and tone before you launch your product/service.

Your next thought is probably about what you can pre-sell – here are some ideas:

Books – can be pre-sold long before you write them.
Products – obviously
Seminars and workshops – you probably know this already. Some marketers pre-sell a series of these ahead.
Consulting sessions – where your customer pays you before the event
Membership sites – can be pre-sold even before they exist.

Just imagine how motivated you will feel to deliver when your first customer pays you!

So what exactly is content strategy?

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The dictionary defines strategy as “a series of maneuvers or executions performed in order to obtain a specific result or goal.” This pretty much explains what content strategy is, nonetheless, lets define it in the context of achieving your business goals.

Strategy basically involves:

Where you’re coming from
Where you’re going
How you’re going

Most of us know (I’m talking about averagely intelligent and intelligent individuals) where we are coming from and where we want to go. How we are going to go is the tricky part, the core of your strategy.

Assessing the need for strategic content writing

Why do you need to publish content in the first place?

To create buzz
To build a community
To inform

Both are very important. Buzz doesn’t just mean creating noise. It means generating traffic that eventually earns you revenue. Then, your content needs to convert and for this you need to impart the right information. If you want to hire my content writing and online copywriting services, I must inform you why it’s profitable to associate with me. With my content writing and copywriting skills I must be able to inform you and enable you to make an educated decision (in my favor, preferably).

What do you want to achieve through your content?

As mentioned above, you need content to generate traffic that converts. You can get this traffic directly through referrals and social networking websites or from search engines. Ideally, your content should

Increase referral traffic to your website or blog
Improve your search engine rankings
Convert your visitors into business partners, customers, clients or subscribers
Increase your brand awareness

Hence, content strategy means publishing and promoting your content in such a manner that it achieves the intended result for you. This may involve brainstorming on

What sort of content you should publish?
What medium must be used to publish the content?
What keywords and key phrases you should focus on?
What should be the publishing frequency?
How should the visitors be engaged?
How the content should be promoted?
How to increase your conversion rate?

Overcoming the “So What?” problem while writing content

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Image source: Global Girl

Don’t know what’s “So what?” problem? It’s when you write something seemingly great and your reader thinks, “So what, big deal!” Alright, there are some readers who have an insatiable penchant for being critical and they will criticize you no matter what, but you can drastically decrease the number of such reactions by devoting enough thought to what you are writing/publishing.

Why do readers reject outright what you have written?

The information you have provided is of no real use
The same information is available on hundreds of other websites and blogs
People have been sharing the same “secret” since 1998, or may be since 1500 BC
You are drawing wrong visitors to your website or blog (you are not creating optimized, seo-focused content)

What sort of content creates the “now this is something really great” effect?

Your content reaches the target audience (or vice versa)
You pack lots of information that can be used in the real world
You are providing valuable information that is not easily available
You are offering easily available information with an interesting twist

Is it always about informing and educating your readers?

Not always, but most of the times. You have to make sure your content solves your readers’ problem, that it provides a solution, that it delivers what your readers want. So what about content writing for businesses and corporate websites?

The same thing applies. If you are providing online copywriting services then you must (ideally) be attracting visitors that are looking for (or may need in the future) a competent copywriter. So if you say you’re a great online copywriter it’s not going to make much of an impact because there are thousands of “great” online copywriters on the Internet; in fact these days anybody who can type starts calling himself or herself a content writer or an online copywriter. Rather, you should immediately address your visitor’s problem (that’s why it’s advised you should have targeted pages) and offer the most apt solution.

Here’s a good blog post by Chris I cam across that talks about solving the “so what?” problem while publishing your content.