Content Writer | Content for Biz Inc.

Company Content Reviews Emphasize Copywriting Skills

Content writing reviews from Hubspot and Mashable caught my attention this week. They both cite companies that rely on copywriting skill to achieve business objectives.

In a blog post the folks at Hubspot describe the copywriting at 10 different companies as amazing. The copy succeeds in the following ways:

– Describes how everyone feels while in the midst of whatever you offer

– Gets people to open their emails: “A few ways to …”

– Is clear, concise and crisp with a touch of whimsy

– Uses puns and stories in product descriptions to bond with buyer persona

– Says a lot with few words

– Spins customer service issues by being playful, helpful, and informative

– Crafts powerful taglines that explain the value proposition

– Strikes a balance between professionalism and humanness

– Employs data to prove a point while still telling a story

– Is humorous, timely and relevant

– Positions brand through themes and is highly personalized

Sivan Cohen reports on the Mashable blog that fewer than 21% of technology companies have a corporate blog. She cites five company blogs that work and why. A reason for each of her choices is given:

– Includes relevant tips and tricks for navigating the online world

– Offers a platform for users to tell their stories

– Connects event attendees to people behind events

– Provides unique insights

– Emphasizes creativity and fun

When skillful copywriters understand business objectives and audience interest everybody benefits.

With Google On Our Side

When people talk about the rise of China’s global economic power, I counter with: “Yeah, but we have Google.” Some times when people ask me a question I don’t know the answer to, I reply: “Google it.”

As a content writer, Google and I share a goal – useful, quality content on the Internet. As stated in their Best practices #1: “Focus on the user and all else will follow.” It’s no longer a David vs. Goliath world. People and companies with good ideas and good products can prosper no matter what size.

A vice president at a telecommunications company said he was astonished by what Google knew about their customers. The information was deeper and broader than anything the company had. It kind of scared him. With such knowledge comes revenue and responsibility. Decisions need to be made along the way. From what I see, Google is heading in the right direction.

Emphasis on Quality Content

I tire of seeing those who manipulate online pages be in more demand than those who create good content. With its latest changes, Google seems to be tired of it too. Changes in its algorithm, Penguin, aim to rid us of schemers who use keyword stuffing and link tactics to improve rankings. Such practices are like playing multiple balls on each hole during a round of golf or adding clubs beyond the limit rule.

From Google Best practices #3: Does this help my users? What if all the time companies spend on questionable SEO tactics was used instead to develop original, quality content for their audience? Another Google change, Panda, focuses on promoting sites with such content. Well-researched articles, in-depth reports, and thoughtful analysis are being rewarded with high rank. If you think this kind of content comes only from big companies with swarms of subject matter experts, think again. You may be surprised by what a company owner and a good content writer can create.

With Google on our side, content writers can empower companies by focusing on and helping their audience.

The Best Content Writing Positions Your Company as a Solution Provider

“We’re not selling boxes, we’re selling solutions for the food service business,” said a marketing manager for a food service packaging company, I recently met with at the NRA Show.

How you define your business impacts everything about your marketing, including your content. And while a narrowly defined product category helps customers recognize what you do, it can also mean a missed opportunity when customers fail to think of your busines as a solution provider.

Content needs vary based on your definition. Content for companies who manufacture food service packaging might include specifications based on materials and performance. Content for companies that sell packaging solutions to the food service industry could easily be expanded to include a wider variety of topics:

1) Improving brand sales with innovative packaging

2) Sustainable packaging to satisfy environmentally conscious consumers

3) Increasing profitability with creative packaging solutions

Food service operators are interested in saving money, increasing profit and driving sales. They want to keep customers happy. Packaging may not be on the top of an operator’s “to do” list. In fact, they would probably rather not worry about it at all. Who, among your customers, has the time or resources to become experts in food service packaging? Not too many, I would guess. Other companies and products face similar constraints.

Without education or motivation B2B buyers will often look for what appears to be the lowest cost solution, which is often not the best solution or even the most cost-effective.

The best content writing defines your business as a solution provider. It educates, informs and appeals to the motivations of your audience.

Vic Miceli of DesPlaines Office Equipment (DPOE) has figured out that businesses need solutions, not office equipment. He explained in a recent meeting I attended, that business owners often purchase printers without giving a thought to the cost of cartridges or maintenance. By advocating a solutions approach from DPOE, Miceli saves clients a significant amount of money, while freeing up their time to worry about things other than the copiers, cartridges and printers.

Moral of the story: Professional content writing can help define your business. Will you be a solution provider or just another product?

Content Writing Lesson for Food Service: Swap Broad Terms for Specifics

Many companies have jumped on the green bandwagon and for good reason. Consumers favor environmentally friendly brands and companies want to do the right thing. However, as a result of this movement, words like sustainable and organic have been bandied about with increased frequency. But what do these words mean to consumers?

Research conducted by The Hartman Group suggests that the words “sustainable” and “organic” are confusing to consumers. At the Protein Innovation Summit, Tamara Barnett, director, strategic insights, Hartman Group, advised food suppliers and restaurant operators to scrap words like sustainable and organic in favor of words that consumers can more readily understand. According to Barnett, consumers want to know where food comes from, so information about where a product is sourced from is important. Consumers want to know food comes from a real place. Consumers want to know how your practices impact quality. Educate and explain your practices with specifics rather than generalities.

On the menu and on your website, answer the question of where your food comes from. Explain what it does for the consumer (environmental or health benefits). Showcase your suppliers. “Consumers want to work with a company that is a good neighbor,” said Barnett. It is increasingly important to show a connection to the community that uses your product.

Don’t forget that authenticity can be conveyed not only in words, but in pictures. Photos of real customers, employees and places, build trust.

As content writers we combines words and pictures to impart meaning. We can review your current website copy and edit for clarity and substance. We will scrap confusing words in favor of more descriptive terms and keywords. It is not enough to be sustainable or organic.

B2B Copywriter or B2B Content Writer: Who Will Do a Better Job Writing Your Website Copy?

To answer this question you really need to understand the difference between a B2B copywriter and a B2B content writer. Most people accurately describe a B2B copywriter as someone who writes advertising or promotional copy for a business marketing to another business, but a b2b content writer’s job description is a little more fuzzy. A basic definition is someone who specializes in producing online content (for B2B). But what does that mean? Does a content writer do search engine optimization? Does a content writer do keyword research? Can a content writer produce a video? These are some of the questions you should ask before hiring a B2B content writer or SEO copywriter, because not every content writer has the same understanding of the job .

Here’s my take on what a content writer should provide:

1. A focus on results

What will be the measure of success: web traffic, email newsletter sign-ups, requests for quotes? A content writer should be accountable for writing content that puts the business in the best position to achieve their online objectives. If a writer says they specialize in writing copy to help a business show up in search engine results, they should be accountable for doing that. Depending on the level of competition for your keywords, it is quite possible that just optimizing your website copy is not going to be enough to get the results you are looking for. A competent content writer will be able to explain why.

2. Keyword and competitive analysis

Some writers are happy to take what the client thinks are their keywords and write content around them. But many business owners don’t understand how difficult it is to rank for those keywords. A good content writer will let a client know the best strategy for ranking based on a competitive analysis and a comprehensive keyword analysis. As a client you need to understand the importance of the time spent doing this.

At the same time, there are still companies who don’t believe anyone would ever search for their business online. They just want to have a professional site they can direct customers and prospects to. They don’t care about keywords or search engine results. For those clients, a good copywriter is probably all they need.

3. Useful content

One thing you don’t want on your website is overly promotional copy. For the most part people visit B2B websites for information, so you should look for a writer whose style is clear and direct. Does the writer have a good sense of what questions a visitor would ask? If the writer isn’t asking the right questions, you won’t have the right answers on your site.

4. Social media savvy

A content writer understands that it’s not just about writing content for a website but also for various social media channels. Is your writer well connected on Linked-In, Twitter and Facebook? Do they know how to use these tools to build an audience for your content? Are they willing to teach you how? Social media is one of the biggest drivers of website traffic. If your B2B content writer doesn’t want to tackle this, you will need to know how to handle this important task.

As a B2B copywriter turned B2B content writer, I thought I knew a lot about writing for the web. But with each project, and especially through work on own site at www.contentforbiz.com, I realized there was a lot more to it than I first thought. Content writing is much more difficult than I ever imagined. Only after hours and days spent researching keywords, and competition and digesting google analytics, did I realize how to not only write for the web, but to write for results.

I think there are probably many writers who want to put their copy online and call it content writing. I don’t think they will be successful in getting results. There are a lot of people involved in Internet marketing that offer one piece of the puzzle: the copy, the video, the SEO, or the web design. The problem is, as a B2B marketer, you need it all. At Content for Biz we do our best to pull it all together for you, with strategic partners to help in areas that aren’t in our expertise.

Writing in short sentences, using bullet points and throwing in some keywords might help someone when they get to your home page, but your customers and prospects need to get there first. And that’s the key value a content writer provides.