What makes a good writer and how to make your content a successful? You have to write like today is the moment and what the future will bring for your audience.
If you aren’t already practicing these tips below, you should be. If you are, here are some insights that help marketers assess what to look for when hiring a content writer.
What type of content is the best to post to grow my business?
Blogs, articles, newsletters, case studies and white papers are fantastic lead magnets to develop relationships with your customers.
Case studies are great for convincing how and why your products or services have been successful with proven concepts. With a case study you take a customer’s real experience about why they made the decision to become a customer, and what it’s like for them to use your product or service. Case studies should deeply communicate “how” your product or service helped a company accomplish their needs.
Tip: Place a sign-up form at the end of your published content as an invite to receive a case study. It’s a vital CTA ( Call to Action) step for the reader to further gain trust with your brand.
All of your blog posts should have a lead magnet with some free content offerings such as “more tips”, a “free trial”. This can also be in the form of a discount offer or even a sign up to your newsletter. You’re leading a potential client to interact with your services that helps them decide to do business with you. Hopefully, email leads should flood your inbox.
Tip: White papers help readers gain detailed knowledge using a longer format. Articles and blogs enlighten and perk interest, and address questions at the beginning of the education process. People buy based on trust and that you will not disappoint them. Trust is earned over a period of time through various stages of the pre-buying process.
The Value of Data from Your Current Customers
With a base of current customers, the data you have from successful campaigns is worth its weight in gold marketing to new customers.
Current customers let you understand what made them decide to buy. Was it price, long term customer service needs, ease of use, or something else? Additionally, study what caused certain customers not to buy, and at what stage of your marketing did they drop out of the sales funnel. Data bases must be timely and accurate. Clean, rinse repeat.
B2B audiences are looking for empathy when deciding on a buying opportunity. Use emotional decision-making factors for content to gain more trust for your brand.
Did you know that 80% of people appreciate learning about a company through custom content. 31.8% of companies with a content strategy achieve 27.1% higher win rates than those without a content strategy (CSO Insights).
Boost Conversions with Storytelling
Every piece of content you push out should offer a better way to do something amazing with your products. Being creative takes skill. Planning the right moves takes time to acquire customers. If you can’t figure it out yourself, its time to hire a professional.
Storytelling creates a bonding effect and connects to your someone on a deeper level. Effectively done, it creates a longer attention span, giving the reader a chance to relate and reflect. I bet you never forgot the stories your parents and relatives told you when growing up. Well, same effect- being memorable.
Great writing should resonate a reader with the same feeling when entrenched in watching a great movie or reading a novel.
It’s not easy to create an emotional selling concept. Many writers can’t do it. When you find one, this writing style has proven to be highly effective in capturing business.
You must decide the purpose, who you are writing to, and what you want to accomplish. Most importantly, decide how you want your audience to feel. Do you want to enlighten an audience, bring reflection, gain excitement, feel sympathy or empathy?
Put a bit of psychology in the mix and your content will be more convincing. Study what makes people tick. An advanced writer will understand how to get people to buy whether it means being controversial, factual, sad, funny or dramatic. If you understand your audience and what your brand stands for, it easier to figure this out.
Does your database include all key decision makers relevant to your projects?
Make sure you know the level of involvement for those you are marketing to, and who are the influencers and final decision makers in the buying process.
The art of content writing and targeting.
Don’t just market to everyone you think will buy your product or service. Start marketing to those you know “will” use your services effectively using data.
Using too wide of an audience approach, your research may be too broad and ineffective. Narrow your research and know who you are targeting for each campaign.
Tip- Get your business into the news, an industry publication, or a mention from an industry expert which can help project authority and trust. Decision makers are more likely to trust your brand when seeking out peers and news within their industry.
Become a guest poster or interview subject on someone else’s audience to gain exposure. This can be on a podcast, written publication, television, or radio show. If your budget allows, hire a PR person to get you leads for an appearance.
The Writers Prospective
Writers are often given assignments from brands about explaining benefits and features and why they should choose your products or services. We are told to “speak in the brands voice.”
If a writer doesn’t really know and understand your brands voice, they left in the trenches to figure it out. A writer should have a one-on-one discussion with you about what your brand is about. It should be a deep discussion.
Don’t expect a writer to really understand your business just from your website. If the person hiring the writer really knows the answers a writer should be looking for- that’s awesome. If not, a good one will probe the right questions to make the project a success.
Good writers are also good salespeople and story tellers.
You shouldn’t deny a writer for wanting to spend time going over a road map to help you develop a deeper understanding and strategy for an assignment. It’s money well spent- especially for larger projects.
Many writers such as myself with credit back a roadmap fee once you agree to hire. If you did not make a hire- the road map is still an invaluable tool for future projects you create. It’s money well spent either way. You will both decide if you are right for each other at this critical inflection point.
Personas
Part of understanding a persona is their role in the company and their job responsibilities. Many marketers fail by approaching C-Level Executives with the same selling strategy as they would a mid-level manager.
The marketing strategy must change if you are marketing to the C- Suite. They look for the impact and consequences your product/service can have on the future of their business.
C- Level executives normally are not involved in premarketing buying processes. A team of company marketers who have been sold through a sales funnel process will then decide to make recommendations for your product to be evaluated for a sale. It’s a good idea to familiarize yourself on how that decision making process works before you start your content marketing.
Good writers will ask more in depth questions for information about why a persona makes a budget decision and how they arrive to it.
Part of understanding a persona is their role in the company and their job responsibilities, and their challenges. The persona should go deeper, and you should be discussing with the person you hire why their clients buy from them.
Key points for 2021 and beyond.
· Develop flexible strategies with each social channel.
· Deliver marketing information through communities, Facebook and LinkedIn groups.
· Spar community connectedness where the audience can communicate between themselves such as a slack channel.
· Remove biases about your audience. Curate your content with the actual problems and questions your customers
have.
· Good timing is everything. Give the audience what they need at that given moment.
· Use press releases and publish on industry source websites. C- Suite Decision makers read the news.
· Use readable URL’s so your content is better found and understood for SEO purposes.
· Make sure to include keywords within the URL.
· Focus on quality- not quantity. Content marketing is not a numbers game.
User-generated stories have been quite successful in creating brand trust, which in turns attracts new loyal customers. Follow the practices from above and you are sure to see a better ROI on your road to content marketing success.
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