Having a big presence out on the world wide web isn’t just reserved for the “big guys.” Sure, giant companies have giant budgets to work with, but that doesn’t mean that you have to let them run right over the top of you. You may not have the PPC budget that they do or as much money to spend on online video production, but you’ve got a great tool at your disposal — your content!
Whether you’re taking advantage of article syndication, blog posting, press releases, em@il marketing, or all of the above, the content you put out there is a direct reflection of who you are. If you have the wrong content writing strategy — or no strategy at all — you’re going to give people the wrong impression of you and your business.
I know, I know – You’re busy! You’re a business owner, not a writer! Even if you had enough writing skills to scrape together a few articles or a couple of blog posts, you simply don’t have the time to do it.
So, what do you do?
You come up with a content writing strategy that fits your needs and fits into your budget.
However, that doesn’t mean you go out and find the cheapest writer you can.
Remember, the content you publish is your only chance to connect with your target audience. Make the wrong impression, and you’ll wind up with website visitors that are scrambling for the “back” button, instead of signing up for your email list or buying something from you.
Publish content that’s really bad — like an article that’s keyword-stuffed, a blog post full of spelling and grammar mistakes, or an article that overstates the obvious and doesn’t ever provide any legitimate information — and you’ll wind up with readers who are so turned off that they’ll make a promise to themselves to not do business with you!
Think that’s an exaggeration?
Consider these two examples:
1. A few months back, I was doing some research for a client who sells wicker chairs. During my research, I stumbled on an article that said, “The chair has quite a few capabilities, amongst that is currently being sat unto.”
What would you do if you were looking for legitimate answers and stumbled upon this content writing marvel? Would it encourage you to think of the author as an expert? Would you want to do business with the website that published it? Chances are you’d run screaming in the opposite direction!
2. Last week, I stumbled on an article published by a company that sells flowers. The entire thing was a content writing nightmare, but my favorite part was, “A good bouquet of cut plants affirms a great deal and might be offered for practically all celebrations. Even so, if they get home they generally don’t continue being in good condition too much time. Don’t you think thrilling to obtain pretty flowers out of your local simply to feel down when you view them sag and also normally dry out?”
Doesn’t that make you want to run and grab your credít card and purchase a nice bouquet?!
OK, you’re thinking, these are some pretty extreme examples — from cheap writers that reside right at the bottom of the barrel. Your content writing strategy wouldn’t ever include publishing something like this!
But you could still have the wrong content writing strategy — just by publishing stuff that’s so-so.
Chances are your small business doesn’t have the budget for unlimíted articles, a new blog post every day, or a new video script every week. That means you have to make the most of what you’ve got. If you can only afford an article or two a month, you have to find a content writer that can make them stand out. If you can only afford to create one video for your website, it has to be fantastic. If you can only afford to pay a content writer for a few blog posts, they have to be amázing.
That’s the great thing about the world wide web – You don’t necessarily have to publish the most content. You simply have to provide the most value.
Think it can’t be done?
Think again!
I’ll use myself as an example.
Sure, I’m a professional writer, but that doesn’t mean I have endless amounts of time to spend on my own content writing strategy. Instead, most of my waking hours are spent writing for my clients! Like you, I’m a business owner that has to prioritize, and things get put on the back burner. I don’t update my blog every day. I don’t publish a new article every day.
But when I do sit down and write for myself, I make sure that my content kicks butt.
The end result?
Premier Content Source’s home page is number 1 in Google for its main keyword, and on pages one and two for its other keywords. Our internet traffic has skyrocketed since Google first unveiled Panda back in 2011. My blog is getting thousands of viewers every month. The articles I publish get “liked,” Tweeted, and syndicated all over the place. I hear from new people every day that found me through some piece of content that I wrote.
There’s no reason why you can’t have the same success. All it takes is having the right content writing strategy. If you’re always thinking about how you can answer your readers’ questions and solve their problems — in an interesting and informative way — you can’t go wrong!
By Nicole Beckett (c) 2012
Today I browsed through the 3,500 or so SEO questions people asked at Google and chose the most common ones to answer. I figured that, if so many people were seeking out answers for these SEO questions at Google, many of you may also be wondering the same things.
“There’s an app for that.” How many times have we all heard that phrase during the past couple of years? Allow me to put it into better perspective for you. During the last week of 2011, 1.2B apps were downloaded, with 242M apps being downloaded on Christmas day alone. While that number may seem staggering, it is even more so when one considers that less than 11B apps were downloaded in all of 2010. Add to that the fact that it is predicted that the number of mobile apps offered by companies will jump by a factor of 10 in 2012, and it is clear that the public’s App-etite is clearly uncontrollable.