Tag Archives: Quality Content Writing

The importance of content writing and copywriting in the times of Covid-19

Importance of content writing and copywriting in the times of Covid-19 outbreak.

The world is gradually settling down to the reality of living amidst the Covid-19 outbreak. How can content writing and copywriting help you get through these difficult times?

The lockdowns came and economies all over the world are opening up with great caution. There have been heated debates on what is more important – preventing oneself from getting infected or restarting the wheels of the economy.

Millions of jobs have been lost. Thousands of businesses have been closed and many are on the verge of bankruptcy.

In the meantime, Jeff Bezos is almost worth $ 200 billion. A lot of credit goes to the spike in the online retail market because people don’t want to go out and shop.

As someone who provides professional content writing and copywriting services, I see an increased demand from my clients in the online retail sector. Many on-demand mobile apps are coming up that allow people to buy products from home.

Cloud services is another sector that has experienced phenomenal growth during the Covid-19 outbreak, as a greater number of companies prefer their employees to work from home.

Even Google and Microsoft declared recently that they are encouraging their employees to work from home at least for a year.

Companies like Intel are changing their work culture on a permanent basis so that more of their employees can take care of their responsibilities from home using cloud services.

How can efficient content writing and copywriting help you during the Covid-19 outbreak?

Coming to the main topic of the post…

Whenever a calamity hits, some businesses are affected more, and some businesses are affected less.

There are many businesses, due to their positioning and targeting, who even profit.

Businesses providing digital services are profiting during the times of Covid-19.

Netflix is profiting. Of course, Amazon. Microsoft and Google. Gaming companies. Online video conferencing companies. On-demand food, groceries and commodity delivering services.

Hence, if you are providing services that can be delivered online, you need to enhance your presence.

I’m not saying that suddenly you’re going to give Amazon and Google a run for their money, there are thousands of small businesses that are doing great during the outbreak.

This also means that you need to maintain your visibility.

Almost everyone searches online these days whenever one is looking for a service or are product to buy.

The first thing they do is, go to Google or launch the Google app on their mobile phone, and search for the thing they need.

It’s very important that they are able to find you if you want to sell to them.

No matter how great your product or service is, if they are not able to find you, how are they going to become your paying customers and clients?

You need to improve your search engine rankings. You need to improve your conversion rate.

Targeted content writing helps you increase your organic search engine rankings.

Efficient copywriting helps you improve the conversion rate on your website or landing page.

During uncertain times, you may feel that you can ill-afford to spend money on professional content writing and copywriting.

This is understandable.

But, if you are spending money on advertising (something like PPC campaigns), then SEO content writing is, though, I don’t like using this expression, way cheaper compared to advertising.

When you run PPC campaigns, you pay for every click. And this every click is for every keyword. If you get 10 clicks, you pay for them. If you get 100 clicks, you pay for them.

But when you invest in quality content, your search engine rankings improve organically.

So, whether you get 10 clicks, 100 clicks, 1000 clicks, or even 1 million clicks, the only money that you spend is on the quality content that you are getting from a professional content writer.

The same goes with professional copywriting. Even if you don’t want to improve your SEO and you would rather spend money on a PPC campaign, how much of that paid traffic is actually converting?

If your PPC campaign sends all the traffic to your homepage, let me be frank with you: you are wasting money.

Traffic from a PPC campaign must always go to a landing page that has been specifically created for a set of keywords. Landing pages are specifically used for PPC campaigns.

A landing page needs professional copywriting.

Once people come to your landing page through your PPC campaign, they need to be convinced by your copy.

Every headline, every sentence and every bulleted list point contribute towards your overall conversion rate.

Hence, if you ever thought of making strategic investments in content writing and copywriting for your website, now is the best time.

You need all the visibility you can get during the Covid-19 outbreak which, the WHO has predicted, is going to last for a couple of years, at least.

Why you should pay for quality content writing

Leave a reply

Why you shouldn’t mind paying for quality content

One of the biggest problems faced by good content writers is that most of the clients undervalue quality content.

I have expanded my presence on the Internet enough to attract clients of different dimensions.

Hence, if there are some clients who are not comfortable with paying the rates that I request, there are many other clients who are ready to pay my rates and in fact, many believe that I should be charging more.

There was a time when I never had conversations with clients who had problems with my rates. I would simply tell them to look for another content writer.

With age I have become more patient. I try to have conversations with those clients.

I try to explain to them that when they are spending money on a quality content writer, they shouldn’t worry about needlessly spending that money because writing on their website is the most important aspect of their presence on the Internet.

Read: Why quality content writing matters and how to maintain quality

Some understand. Some don’t. Some understand but don’t want to accept that they have understood.

For an average person or entrepreneur, it is difficult to recognize the uniqueness of business content because writing is everywhere.

You go to any website, writing is just there, by default.

You notice the header. You notice the logo. You notice the animation. You notice the images. You notice the color scheme. You notice the layout. You notice even the font type.

But writing?

Writing is just there.

You will rarely say, “wow, what a writing!”

You come across writing on the blogs. You come across writing in newspapers and magazines. You come across writing on social media websites. It is everywhere. Everyone writes.

So, I can understand if you don’t feel like paying your content writer what he or she deserves.

With so much writing, people forget that casual writing and sharing your thoughts is different from writing for business.

I will give you a small example.

You use free services on the Internet without giving them even a second thought.

You use free email. You use free social networking tools. You use free blogging platforms. You use free video hosting services. You use free cloud storage space.

But the moment someone asks for money, you start thinking about the pros and cons of using the same service that you have been using for years.

Even if tomorrow Google starts charging for Gmail, you won’t pay eagerly.

You will quickly start looking for other “free” email services even if they are not as good as Gmail.

You will pay for Gmail only if you cannot do without its features.

So, if you’re not ready to pay to Google for a service that you have been using for years, for free, how do you expect people to spend money on your website especially when countless other alternatives are available on the Internet?

The Internet gives you unprecedented opportunities, but it also gives you an unprecedented level of competition.

If you sell something, there are hundreds of people selling the same thing and people are already buying from them.

If you offer a service, there are hundreds of people offering the same service and people are already using that service.

Even your website layout and template may look the same as someone else’s because you have probably bought a template that is being used by many other businesses.

One thing you can be totally unique at is your writing and hence, whether people realize it or not, it is your writing that is a deciding factor.

For example, this blog post that I am writing is completely unique.

Even if someone has already written about the issue that I’m writing about (why you must pay for quality content writing), the way that person has written is totally different from what I’m writing here.

Whether you realize it or not, your entire business is based on what you have written on your website.

Deciding to buy something is an emotional decision.

Emotions are controlled by words. Written words.

People don’t decide to do business with you because of the image, or the logo or the animation or the layout of the website.

People decide to do business with you after reading what you have written on your website.

Not wanting to pay for quality content writing is like not wanting to clean the air you breathe because the current state of the air, though polluted, isn’t killing you, yet.

Most of the websites have lousy writing on them because the content on them is not written by professional and trained content writers.

Importance of quality writing for SEO

Quality content writing is more so important when you want to improve your SEO.

Read: 5 Reasons Why Content Writing Is Important for SEO

Long gone are the days when your SEO depended on the way you used your keywords.

Keywords still matter, but what matters more is the way people interact with your writing.

If your writing is not relevant, if it is not engaging, you begin to lose your search engine rankings.

More than 97% of your search traffic comes from Google.

Google is spending millions of dollars every month to make sure that irrelevant and useless content doesn’t show up in the search results or at least doesn’t show up in the top search result pages.

More than 300 maths PhDs are constantly modifying ranking algorithms at Google to enable the crawlers crawl and rank high value content.

If you want to compete with these 300 maths PhDs, it’s your choice, but an easier option is to give Google the type of content it is looking to rank higher – quality content.

Why paying for quality content isn’t a waste of money?

The writing on your website is an asset.

Although, on your blog you are constantly publishing your content, the content that you publish on your main, business website, remains there for months, and sometimes even for years.

This means, for months and for years, this content will make people do business with you.

The writing on your website is a business-generating machine.

It is a high-value asset.

People are going to form an impression of your business by reading what you have written or published on your website.

They will decide whether they want to do business with you or not, after reading your information.

If your writing is not compelling, if it is not engaging, if it is not conversational, people are going to leave your website to explore and evaluate another website.

Small businesses are always personality-based.

If someone goes to a Google website or an IBM website or a Microsoft website, he or she is ready to put up with small annoyances and even lousy writing.

But if the same person goes to the website of a small business, he or she is going to become all judgmental.

Even a tiny uninspiring sentence or word will send him or her away.

It’s because, whereas Google, IBM and Microsoft don’t have much competition, a small business has lots of competition.

Going to another website is as simple as going to another link or doing another search on Google.

If I’m looking for a mobile app developer and I’m not convinced with the information you have presented on your website, all it takes is a couple of seconds to go to another mobile app development website.

Aside from these, here are a few reasons why quality content is important for your website.

People want to share high-quality content

Sharing gives you brand visibility.

Content shared by people is more valuable than content distributed through advertising.

The more people share your content on their social media timelines, the better are your search engine rankings.

Not just sharing, even when people “Like” your content, it gives indications to Google that people are appreciating your content.

Every instance of sharing your content, liking your content or any other reaction to your content (someone leaving a comment), sends out signals to Google which are then used to decide your search engine rankings.

Quality content establishes your authority

If personal branding matters to your business, then you must establish yourself as an authority.

When people respect you for your knowledge, wisdom and your hold over your subject, they want to do business with you because they know that they are dealing with an expert.

They will also eagerly pay you higher compared to your competitors.

In my content writing and online copywriting business too, since I’m constantly sharing my thoughts, my expertise and my knowledge, people are eagerly ready to pay my rates even when sometimes they feel they’re having to pay higher than they would pay to another content writer.

Good quality content helps people remember you

Good quality content on your website renders a unique personality to your presence.

When you work with a professional content writer, he or she also brings a unique personality.

Many of my clients want me to write for them because of my writing style. They want the same writing style for their website and blog.

Retention is very important on the Internet.

If people cannot distinguish you from your competitors, it is difficult for them to develop a sense of loyalty for your business. They get distracted easily. They switch easily.

So, the next time, if you are wondering why you should pay for high-quality content writing, remember these points and you will enjoy greater clarity.

Content writing for effective email marketing

Leave a reply

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.

How quality content writing helps you in effective 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.

Writing effective content for 7 stages of content marketing

Leave a reply

Content writing for 7 stages of content marketing

I just came across an interesting infographic explaining the 7 stages of content marketing. They are

Setting a goal – what you want to achieve through content writing.
Creating a content writing strategy – what all factors will influence your content writing process.
Research – to create authoritative content, you need to do research to collect useful insights and data for making a convincing case.
The actual content writing process – use all the information that you have gathered, write the content and publish it based on your strategy.
Content curation – provided you can find it, you can curate highly useful content and either publish your own version of it, or share it using your social media and social networking timelines.
Content distribution and broadcasting – once you have written the content and published it, you need to broadcast it. In terms of content marketing, you need to “market” your content. You can use different channels available to you including email marketing, social media marketing and search marketing.
Engagement – this is also an important component of content marketing. Only when you engage your audience, it responds to your content.

Just as content marketing followers a 7-stage approach, so does content writing, although, content writing is a subset of content marketing – the content that you market is often obtained through high-quality content writing.

But the process is more or less the same.

When I start working on a certain piece of content, I always ask my client what he wants to achieve? What should be the end result? How must the reader feel after having read the entire piece?

Research is an expensive undertaking, because it takes time and also, access to data sources. Very few clients are ready to pay for research and they think it should be a part of writing content.

They need good content, good content needs data, data can be gathered with research, but they think, they shouldn’t have to pay for the research because it is part of content writing. It becomes a vicious circle.

Then comes the actual content writing process. Being an experienced content writer, this doesn’t take much time provided I have the needed information.

Content curation is not a part of content writing, but it plays a crucial role. For example, I didn’t have time today to work on something elaborate but then when I came across this infographic, I quickly had something to write about. This can be termed as content curation. You can directly share the content you are curating, or you can use it to write and publish content on your own website or blog.

One of the most crucial passes content distribution. This is where most of the content marketers are stumped.

For content marketing, you need to build an audience, or you need to spend money on a pre-built audience. Since people are not even ready to spend good money on content writing, spending money on content distribution is even more difficult. But, writing and publishing content is just a very small part of content marketing. What’s important is, you make sure that your content reaches the audience.

Engagement, again, is as important as marketing your content. We live and operate in a high state of distraction these days. People won’t notice your content unless you are able to engage them. Engaging means making people respond to your content. People respond through “Liking” your social media updates, sharing your content, writing about your content, recreating it on Twitter – basically, reacting to your content in a positive manner.

You may like to read What is engaging content writing?

Why it is important to solve problems with your content writing

Leave a reply

Solving problems with content writing

When I continuously talk about solving problems with your content writing I don’t mean you turn into a Messiah and relinquish all thoughts of making money and just focus on helping people.

There are many business models that solely revolve around helping people and this in itself generates good money, but there’s a reason why, when you solve problems, especially through content writing, you generate more business.

This Copyblogger blog post says that every audience has these three subgroups:

People who read your content.
People who don’t just read but also share your content on their timelines.
People who take action on the advice that you publish through your content.

The last subgroup is very important.

People who take action obviously read your writing.

People who take action obviously agree with you, like what you’re saying, and consequently, they may also be sharing your content.

People who take your advice are also most likely to buy from you because since you are already solving their problems, they trust you with solving more problems.

Even if they don’t buy from you, they become your advocates and help you reach people who may buy from you.

Remember that on the Internet, it isn’t just important to reach your customers and clients, it is also very important to create a tribe of people who help you promote your business, preferably by word-of-mouth.

Someone sharing your content on his or her timeline may be more valuable than someone buying from you and then forgetting about you.

So, the next time you’re planning to publish a blog post simply to cover a topic, make sure you solve a central problem in such a manner that people can, at least some of them, use the solution to better their lives.