Tag Archives: Content Writing

How do I decide what to write for a particular business or industry?

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What to write for which industry

There are 2 ways. If I am working as a content consultant AND content writer for a client, I come up with my own suggestions regarding what sort of content to write to engage the right audience. If I’m working just as a content writer I’ll leave it up to the client to either send me the exact titles or a rough idea of the topics and then accordingly I write content. Even if I’m working just in the capacity of a content writer I give suggestions to my clients and it’s up to them whether they want to follow those suggestions or not.

So how do I decide what to write for a particular business or industry?

The fundamentals remain the same. The content should be

  • Relevant
  • Well-written and well-formatted
  • Error-free
  • Informative and educational
  • Engaging and convincing
  • Scalable

Once these things are taken care of I start focusing on the audience for the specific business or industry. The audience for a company that manufactures and markets water pumps would be totally different from the audience for a company selling fashion accessories. Even the language differs. But almost all the clients want

  • Better search engine rankings
  • Better response on social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter
  • Good conversion rate

Not every business requires a blog. Not every business requires informative articles. Some businesses require blog posts, some require informative articles, some require case studies, some require Facebook and Twitter content and some require email marketing content. The content writing differs from channel to channel.

If a business wants to target people on LinkedIn the content should be business-oriented. It should be data driven. You don’t find cute-cat and cute-dog videos on LinkedIn but you will find plenty of them on Facebook and even serious businesses find themselves indulging in such activities (done properly there is nothing wrong in it). Real-life examples are used to refer to problems and offer solutions.

Whether my clients are aware of this or not, most of the content that I write I write for engagement. I keep it interactive as much as possible. In order to achieve that, I constantly keep in mind what my client’s customers or clients would find useful, informative and if it can be helped, interesting. For instance, there is a private investigative agency for which I write content on an ongoing basis. In different blog posts I talk about different facets of investigation work, what sort of efficiency is required, how privacy is respected and what all it takes to be a competitive investigator whether it is private investigation or corporate investigation. You need to educate your customers and clients because then they feel empowered and their need to feel empowered helps me decide what sort of content I write for a particular business or industry.

What exactly is “content”?

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What exactly is content?

We are constantly using terms like content marketing, content writing, content strategy, SEO content, social media content and so on, but what exactly is content?

People who write think that what’s written (text) is content. Those who produce videos think that videos are the content. The ones who deal with images think that it’s the images that make a major chunk of content. So if you have a blog where you’re constantly writing about your business the text that you have written for your blog is content for it. If you’re posting videos that are somehow related to your business, your products or services on YouTube then it’s video content. If you find your muse on Pinterest than images are your content. What you have written on your homepage, the images that you have used and if you also have animations and videos on it, they all constitute content. The product descriptions and service descriptions are a part of your content and so is your company profile and the “about us” section.

Everything existing on your website that communicates with your visitors, conveys something, elicits some response, is content.

Why am I writing this?

Because people don’t take content seriously enough. They think they require content only to improve their search engine rankings so for them, content means publishing informative articles and blog posts. This is why they want to pay pittance to content writers and this is why content writers are ready to work for pittance: both have no idea how important content is.

You lose at 2 fronts if you don’t take your content seriously or if you don’t understand properly its significance:

  • You don’t optimize your existing content
  • You wrongly optimize the content that you get created for better rankings

So in the end you aren’t exactly gaining anything.

Have a close look at the content that you have on your website and this means, all the pages and not just blog posts and “SEO content”. Even streamlining your existing content can significantly improve your conversion rate and search engine rankings.

How many headlines do you write?

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The headline of your article, blog post or webpage is as important as the rest of the copy and many would claim, even more important. In fact, according to David Ogilvy,

On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.

It is the headline that draws people to your link because it is the headline that often appears as the highlighted hyperlink on search results, social networking websites and other online places. It is your headline that gives an idea what your content contains. The words that you use in your headline can make or break your content marketing campaign.

Some of my clients insist on getting multiple headlines from me and I don’t mind. It is a challenging task. They say, “Send me 10 headline options for this blog post” and then they choose what they like the best. The same goes for an email subject line (just as your headline prompts people to read your webpage, your email subject line prompts people to open your message). Of course they pay me accordingly and that’s not the point, the point is when you create multiple headlines you cannot only test them out, you also have a better grip of what is the most compelling way of making your offer.

How to get more customers and keep the old ones coming back, with content writing

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Getting new customers with content writing

Every business depends on customers and clients. Even if you’re not a business but a non-profit organisation or a not-for-profit business, you need funds and donations and for that you need the maximum number of people feeling a connection with your cause. Having a for-profit business is no different. Content writing can help you establish a connection between the audience that you seek and the audience that seeks you.

Why content writing keeps the old customers coming back to you

This is how constant content writing keeps your old customers coming back and doing business with you

  • They remember how helpful your website was the first time:
    First impression is normally the lasting impression. If they have a good experience when they come to your website for the first time, if they find all the information they need written in an understandable language, they will keep this in mind.
  • Content writing provides them all the answers: Whenever they seek an answer they can find it on your website because you’re constantly creating new content for your website. I assume that when you write content for your website you are actually creating knowledge base rather than simply creating gibberish. If you just want to create nonsensical text to improve your search engine rankings than this blog post is not for you.
  • People eagerly subscribe to your updates: When they find well-written content on your website they eagerly subscribe to your email updates. They would like to know what new offers you have, how well you are describing your new products and services and just in case you have something they need.
  • They closely follow your social media updates: Everybody uses social media these days (or social networking websites). You will hardly come across someone these days who isn’t on Facebook or Twitter (or both). Through well-targeted content writing you can encourage your existing customers to follow you wherever you post your content, whether on social media websites or social networking websites.
  • Quality content writing encourages your existing customers to promote your content: They promote your content for the goodness of it. Why do people promote content? Why do people share links on their social networking timelines? They want to share something interesting, something useful to their friends and followers. If what you give them is interesting and useful, they will automatically share it.
  • They feel you understand their problems: Constantly writing content for your website makes your existing customers feel like you understand their problems and you want to provide them solutions. You’re constantly talking to them through your content writing.

Why content writing gets you more new customers

  • They are immediately hooked to your website content: It’s very easy to bring people to your website and very difficult to keep them there. If you don’t write quality content for your website on a regular basis, if you don’t pay heed to the copy of your homepage and your important landing pages, you won’t be able to keep people on your website for more than a couple of seconds. In order to make sales you HAVE to keep people on your website for as long as it takes and the best way of doing this is, giving them awesome content.
  • They can make informed decisions by reading your content: You shouldn’t be shoving your own decisions down their throats. Provide them the information they seek. Provide this information through writing informative content. Then let them decide. Empower them with decision-making and give them all the tools they need right there on your website.
  • They find all the answers you’re looking for:
    Indecision can be bad for your business. Confusion can be distracting. The moment your customers feel they cannot find the answers they are looking for, they’re going to move elsewhere. Even if they don’t intend to, just to find the answer they want, they will leave your website and even if they don’t find the answer at the other place, there is a remote chance that they will come back to your website even if initially they had intended to do business with you. So if you’re constantly writing content in order to provide them the answers they seek, you will make sure they stay on your website.
  • They come across your content when it is shared by your existing customers: Writing interesting content, as already mentioned above, encourages your existing customers to share it on their social networking and social media timelines. This highlights your content in front of people who have never come to your website, consequently, bringing you new visitors.
  • Content writing improves your search engine rankings: Better search engine rankings don’t mean more sales since once people are on your website what matters is the quality of the content you have written, but they do help in getting you new visitors because after all, it’s these visitors that eventually turn into customers. When you’re constantly writing quality content for your website it begins to have a positive impact on your search engine rankings (because you end up covering important stuff that the search engines may feel, is important).
  • They consider you an authority on your subject: People prefer to do business with people they consider having an authority on the concerned subject. This might not be true for an e-commerce website because they are not based on individual branding but if you are selling something like books as an author or your services (for instance I am a content writer and hence sell my content writing services) it helps you tremendously if you can establish yourself as an authority figure through regular, authoritative content writing.