Tag Archives: email writing

5 types of content that I write

Leave a reply
5 types of content that I write

5 types of content that I write

Although I have extensively explained on my website that being a writer I can write on a wide choice of topics and realms, many clients often ask me exactly what I do and what sort of writing I provide professionally.

I have spread my net quite wide in the previous years and I think this has been a mistake. There are many writing activities that are time wasting in terms of generating income. For example, email writing. Most of the clients think of email as number of words but sometimes, more effort is needed in writing a business email than writing a blog post. I’m gradually moving towards the payment model that is based on the effort and expertise rather than merely the number of words.

Broadly, I’m writing content for 5 types of requirements these days. I’m explaining below

1. Blog writing

I love writing blogs because it is mostly linear writing without fluff. It is educational. It is informative. It imparts value.

Although blogging requires research, in most of the cases clients these days send their own outline and sometimes even research material because I charge extra for that. As long as they are paying for my time, I don’t even mind extensive researching.

Although many clients hire me to write “SEO blog posts” I focus more on quality and relevance rather than simply stuffing keywords. This is primarily the reason why I charge slightly more than other content writers who don’t mind simply writing for SEO.

2. Web page writing

This involves writing for the homepage and other pages on the website such as the services page, the company profile, the about us page, or the product descriptions.

Web page writing is quite important, and I charge more than I charge for blog writing. This is where conversion happens. This is where you tell your visitors whether they should do business with you.

Web page writing or website writing is a mix of content writing and copywriting. You inform, educate, but more than that, you sell.

3. Email writing

As I have explained above, I’m shifting the focus to quality rather than the number of words. I like writing emails because I love to communicate. I can write convincingly. I can stick to the point. I can communicate what the client wants to communicate to his or her client or customer. The only precondition is, the client must be able to tell me what he or she exactly wants to communicate.

4. Case studies

A case study is a detailed examination of some problem a customer or client had been facing and how that problem was solved by a service or are product. Detailed method is described, including technologies.

A case study is like a story. You tell about a customer or a client and what problems he or she had been going through. Then how those problems were solved through your effort or through your product. It uses engaging storytelling to weave a narrative around what you offer.

5. Landing pages

Landing pages are very focused. Unlike the usual web page or the blog post page of a website, a landing page has a single objective – to prompt the viewer to take a particular action. This action might be buying a product, or a book, or subscribing to a mailing list.

Landing pages are used for PPC and email marketing campaigns. People are driven to landing pages by promoting the link to them. For example, if you want to draw people through Google AdWords campaigns or Facebook campaigns or even email marketing campaigns, you use a landing page.

Landing page is mostly copywriting.

Other than these five categories, I have also been writing e-books for some clients, but mostly it is blogging, website writing and landing pages.

Writing effective cold emails

Leave a reply
Writing effective cold emails

Writing effective cold emails.

I think suddenly a web page that talks about my email writing services has risen in its rankings. I get lots of queries about my email writing services. Many clients also want me to write cold emails for them.

What are cold emails? No, they’re not written after keeping your laptop in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Or maybe they are called cold emails because you expect people to give you a cold shoulder after receiving them.

Cold emails or unsolicited messages are sent to people who are unaware of your existence. You offer them your product or service through the cold email. They are not expecting to hear from you. They don’t know anything about you. They are just going about their life and then suddenly your message pops up in their inbox and low and behold!

I have never written cold emails to promote my content writing services because I have rejection issues, but I have written plenty of them for my clients.

There is a difference between cold emails and bulk emails

Cold emails are different from the usual bulk email marketing campaigns mostly considered as spam. A cold email is sent directly, preferably to someone you know, with a unique business proposition or a unique idea, or a unique bit of information that you feel will be useful to the person.

A cold email is good for one-on-one interaction. You come across a person. You have his or her email address. You know what the person does and what sort of business partnership you can have. So, you send a proposal.

How to write an effective cold email that generates a response?

Keep it personal

Address the person by name, something like “Hi Balbir.” Use a conversational tone.

Use a compelling subject line

By “compelling” I’m not saying using hyperbolic expressions or promising the stars. Avoid something like, “This email is going to transform your life!”

When sending out cold emails, my personal recommendation is that try to build a relationship instead of getting a business deal or trying to sell something.

A good example would be, sharing a piece of information that would be useful to the recipient. And use that thing in the subject line (Here is something I found that will be useful to you… ).

Use a recognizable “from” line

Use your name instead of just your business. The “from” line can contain something like your first name, your first name and the title, your first name and the company name, and so on. Just make sure that your name is there.

Quickly introduce yourself

It takes someone just a couple of seconds to move to the next message. As soon as the body text of your email begins, tell about yourself. Possibly in just two sentences. Introduce yourself in a manner that it is relevant to the cold email that you are sending.

For example, if I want to offer my content writing services, I should introduce myself like, “I am an experienced content writer who…”

Start with some words of encouragement

Don’t start with “me, I” – start with “you”. Something like, “I really like what you have written on your website, particularly on this web page…”

Or, “The point that you made in the recent LinkedIn conversation was quite revealing and informative.”

Come to the point as fast as possible

Preferably, your cold email shouldn’t be more than 60-100 words. If you can manage, even less, even better. Most probably the person on the other side will be checking your message on his or her mobile phone. It is not convenient to read long email messages, especially cold messages, on a mobile phone.

If possible, don’t try to sell something

Sales messages are really off-putting, especially when you’re not expecting them. No matter how useful a product or service is, nobody wants to spend money just like that. When people want to spend money, they want to spend money when the thought of spending money comes to them, not when someone else brings it up. Just let the person know that you would be interested to know if there is a possibility of you and him/her working together.

Don’t go on and on about your product features

Tell the person how the product is going to help him or her improve his or her life or the way he or she does his or her work. Offer a solution rather than a product or a service.

End with a call-to-action

Don’t ask for something a person would hesitate to do. Just ask him or her to send you a quick reply. Just one word, something like “Yes” or “No”. The person will really appreciate it. Avoid asking to click a link or fix a 30-minute call.

Remember that the best response is that the person responds and responds without a negative reaction. If he or she is eager to take the conversation forward, your cold email has succeeded. Even if it is just a blank response to let you know that he or she has received your mail.

Content writing for effective email marketing

Leave a reply
Content writing and effective email marketing

Content writing and effective email marketing

What is the relationship between quality content writing and effective email marketing?

You might as well ask what is the relationship between air and breathing?

Or, what is the relationship between speaking and words.

To understand the importance of content writing vis-à-vis email marketing, you need to understand your email strategy.

There is a good way of doing email marketing, and there is a bad way.

The bad way is, simply blasting an email message to “thousands of” email addresses and then hoping that since you have sent out a message to so many people, even if 1% of them respond, you have hit the jackpot.

Doesn’t work that way.

It’s a misconception.

Even if you send out a message to thousands of people, unless you send them something that really matters to them, they’re not going to respond.

Even 1% don’t respond.

It’s because people don’t really care about you.

The same way you don’t really care about them.

You just want them to spend money on you and then be done with that.

You don’t even want to spend much time, effort and money on creating a convincing email message for them.

If the message matters, if you want your communication to make an impact, you understand the importance of content writing.

Of course, you can fill up your email message with high-resolution images and for many businesses, words don’t matter, especially when your brand already enjoys a significant degree of recognition.

Amazon, for example. They can simply send out a catalogue with prices and small descriptions and people are going to buy if they want to buy.

On the other hand, as a small business, or even a big business that doesn’t enjoy brand recognition, you need to hit a chord with your words. You need to convince people. You need to tell them that you have something to offer that they cannot resist, something highly useful.

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

How quality content writing helps you in effective email marketing

Content writing and email marketing

Building your own mailing list for personal branding

Email marketing works. People know it works but somehow, they don’t believe that it actually works. Since they don’t take their email seriously, they think that so does everyone else.

This might have got something to do with email being mostly free.

But they often come across blog posts and articles, and these days even videos, where people are shouting from their rooftops telling the non-believers that email marketing definitely works. It has worked for them.

In The Ultimate List of Email Marketing Stats for 2019 the Hubspot blog post refers to a study that says that email marketing generates $38 for every $1 spent on it. This is 3800% ROI. Which marketing tool or marketing method gives you this much ROI?

The problem is, although people drool over such an ROI, they neither want to work hard for such an ROI, nor want to spend money.

They just fantasize about replicating the success stories of other email marketers and then, since it is so easy to send out “thousands of” email messages, they go on doing the same thing without much success and then in the process, getting disillusioned.

Quality content writing is what makes your email marketing effective. It is content writing that earns you $38 for every $1 that you spend on getting your email campaign written, designed, and broadcast.

Some more stats about email marketing:

  • 83% B2B companies use email marketing as one of the primary content marketing tools.
  • 40% B2B marketers claim that email marketing is most critical for the success of their content marketing.
  • In 2019, just the US companies spent around $350 million on email marketing.
  • 99% consumers check their email everyday (I bet you have already checked your email multiple times today).
  • 80% respondents, according to this Marketing Land survey admitted that grammar and spelling mistakes were the biggest reasons why they abandoned going through an email message. Words matter.

Writing is important because going through email is a very personal activity and hence, when someone is reading your email, it is as if you’re talking to him or her directly. It mostly happens in the subconscious mind.

So, for effective email marketing, it is very important that you pay close attention to every word, every sentence, every paragraph, every heading and every bullet point that you use.

Even a small oversight may send your recipient to the next message in the inbox.

For email marketing success, the focus of your content writing must be establishing a relationship with your recipients, rather than stuffing a marketing message down their throats.

Therefore, an important key to email marketing success is running a long campaign rather than blasting off intermittent messages.

Take your own example. Do you remember any business, organization or company that sends you messages you look forward to receiving?

If you can recall a few names, these are probably the businesses, organizations and companies you want to do business with, want to spend your money on.

This is because they deliver something valuable. Something valuable to you. Something you enjoy reading.

Deliver something useful. Deliver something useful regularly. And use good language to deliver it. Then, when they need to purchase something that you offer, they will definitely purchase it from you unless you have made it impossible for them to purchase it from you (for example, exorbitantly costly).

When writing content for effective email marketing, keep the following in mind:

  • Use a compelling subject line that makes people open your message despite all the distractions. Make a promise in the subject line.
  • A precursor to writing a compelling subject line is knowing what your recipients really need. Only when they need something that you have mentioned in your subject line, they will open your message eagerly.
  • In the first headline or the first paragraph, talk about the promise that you have made in the subject line, otherwise there will be a disconnect and your recipients will immediately move onto the next email message.
  • Use smaller words and smaller sentences. Just one sentence per paragraph.
  • Use a conversational tone but don’t dumbify your writing. Respect the intelligence of your recipients.
  • Remember that it is a one-on-one conversation. Keep it that way.
  • Don’t shy away from working with a professional content writer.

Some people have a natural flair for writing expressively. Recently I advised a client to write a blog post on her own because I noticed that she was writing better than me.

This doesn’t make me a bad or and incapable content writer, it’s just that, I agree that when it comes to writing on certain subjects, people who are already working in the field, in the proverbial “trenches”, provided they know how to write, write with much greater passion and insight than someone who is just taking points and writing something.

So, using the guidelines mentioned above, if you feel that you can carry out an effective email marketing campaign on your own, nothing wrong in that. Go ahead.

But if you think that it would be better to work with a content writing service then don’t dillydally. It will one of the best business investments you will ever make.