How can writing help a business?
I get asked this a lot and the simple answer is...
Writing for your business adds value to you and your customers, if you do it yourself it is an excellent opportunity for self-development. Most importantly, writing for your business builds brand awareness.
Let's take writing a blog article for your business website for example…
Let’s say you were a loft conversion company just like 'Bailey Lofts', an ideal blog article would be ‘From design to completion’. If you were writing the article yourself, part of that process would include doing research, during which time you would increase your knowledge and understanding of your offerings.
If you don't have the time to write your own blog articles, don't worry, you can use a copywriter instead.
Here is a screenshot of the article for Bailey Lofts, they are one of my customers that I write for. I work with them to understand what they want to achieve with their blogging, I do the research on specific topics and produce a finished article. I also add the articles to their website so they don't need to worry about the technical side of publishing.
Using a copywriter for your business...
A copywriter is also known as a content writer. When writing for a business they would usually ask for a 'brief' from their customer, basically - a description of what is needed. A brief can be as complicated or as easy as you like. Sometimes I get presented with written content that needs re-writing or content that needs to be created from just a title or a topic for example. It is my job to do the research and create a draft piece of work that can be edited or used straight away.
You could also use a copywriter for different business projects, such as:
Writing the content on your website
Creating a newsletter
Doing product descriptions
Writing the content for an email campaign
Doing a press release
Creating written content for social media platforms
In this article, which is written in three parts, I am going to focus mainly on blog articles for a business website and look at it on three different levels - beginner, intermediate and advanced.
Understanding the value of blogging...
Here is an example of how 'blogging' works for businesses, we are going to look at B2B and B2C industries.
B2C - Business to Consumer
One of my customers is an anti-ageing company that sells supplements, they ask me to write about a topic, for example, ‘beards’. The article has to be valuable, informative and insightful and the conclusion has to contain a reference to their products that help to promote hair growth. By sharing their blog articles they are educating their readers and giving added value at the end of the article where they promote their products.
This customer puts their articles on their online magazine, in their actual magazine and share them on social media.
The articles for this company would normally round up with advice and a recommendation, as shown below.
This is the final section of written content for the above article...
There are less invasive ways to encourage facial hair growth and a combination of a healthy lifestyle and a supplement could be all that is needed. For example:
Good sleep – when you sleep, your body produces testosterone
Exercise – physical activity can help produce testosterone
Diet and skincare – eating a healthy balanced diet and taking care of your skin by removing dirt and dead skin cells can help
Beard oil – beard oil containing unrefined jojoba and pure argan oil can promote beard growth by naturally moisturizing the skin under a beard
Massage – increasing blood flow to the skin can promote hair growth
TLC – like most things, tender loving care and good grooming can help create a beard to be proud of (remember to brush out any food remnants – it’s not a good look)
Minoxidil – MinMax-Pro is a topical treatment to help stimulate hair growth. Containing growth factors IGF-1, bFGF and caffeine that are delivered straight to hair follicles stimulating and kick-starting the follicles into growth mode. MinMax-Pro is supported by high strength minoxidil (15%) that increases the blood supply to the hair follicles. Usage for beards: normally a pea-sized amount of minoxidil is rubbed into an area of skin on the face where there may be patches of small hairs or no growth at all
For more information about MinMaxPRO head over to antiaging-systems.com: http://bit.ly/MinMaxPRO
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Know this! Search engines such as Google love good quality, relevant and valuable content on a website. When you put fresh content on a website such as an article on a blog page, search engines crawl the new content and rate its value.
Have you heard of the term SEO (Search Engine Optimization)?
Having a blog article on your website helps with the SEO for your business online.
Be found as many ways as possible.
Search engines list your website and different pages of the website such as the 'About' page. If you publish blog articles, search engines will also list those pages which is excellent for SEO. It's great for brand awareness - as a business you need to be found online in as many ways as possible.
Here is an example of how a blog article can be listed on search engines.
B2B - Business to Business…
Another one of my customers in a Stunt Performer/Fight Coordinator. The articles that I write for him are about his history, fight choreography, fitness, stunts and productions that he’s been in. He shares his articles on relevant websites and social media platforms where the appropriate people such as Producers or Stunt Coordinators are looking for his services.
This is an example of how it can work really well for a business. The hot topic at the moment Worldwide is the Coronovirus and filming had completely dried up because of it.
My customer and I decided to write an article about health and safety within the industry. By doing this it has shown that he is very knowledgeable about the topic because we also included his recent certifications in health and safety and the coronvirus in productions.
As a result, it makes him a lot more attractive to a prospective producers because he's shown he's well qualified already. If they were to use him, there would be one less thing to worry about.
Our strategy worked...
Are you a beginner and new to the topic of blogging? If so, this is for you...
If all the above sounds a bit confusing, here’s a helping hand...
What is a blog? A ‘blog’ is a platform on the web, it can stand alone, for example, ‘Rachel’s travel blog’ or it can be incorporated into a website. On a website, you normally see it in the menu bar or in the footer called ‘blog’ or ‘news’.
I don’t quite understand what a blog on a website is, can you explain more? A blog on a website is much like a supplement in a newspaper. It’s an added value to a website and a great way to let readers know so much more about you and your business.
How do I get a blog page on my website? You can add a blog page to your website when it is built or you can ask your web developer to add a blog page at any time.
How do I get the blog articles on to my website? The blog article content can be added by yourself if you know how to get access to the platform that your website is built on or you can ask your web developer to add it for you. Asking your web developer each time can become expensive plus they might be busy so you may have to wait for the article to be published. Your best option is to know how to put it on yourself or get your copywriter to do it.
If your website is built on a platform such as WordPress, this is what it looks like when you go to the 'Posts' page which is where you would input your article. One of my customers is a debt councellor and his most recent article 'Mental health and debt' has been very successful. It has really helped a lot of people.
What do I write about in my blog articles? This is a challenge that a lot of businesses come up against, they don’t know what to write about or how to write something in a way that is easy for readers to understand and gain value from. If it is within your budget it is a good idea to use a copywriter to write at least some of your articles on your website. They can advise you about what content would work well for your business.
There are different types of copywriters:
Technical
Specialist
Factual
Fiction
An all-rounder (that’s me)
How would a copywriter know what to write about if it’s not their business? I've had an interesting conversation with a business owner about this. He questioned my value as a copywriter and stated that business owners should write all their content. He continued by saying if owners can't write for their business, they shouldn't be in business.
There was so much I could have said to him but I remained professional and explained that a lot of business owners just don't have the time to write. It’s a copywriter’s job to do good research and combining that with fresh eyes on a business they should be able to produce some quality and valuable work.
I have a blog on my website and I don’t know what content I should write for my current customer and potential new customers, what do you suggest?
I am going to cover this topic in more detail in part 2 but here are some considerations that you can look at for now:
What are other businesses in your industry writing about? Look at their blogs and their social media platforms
What are the hot topics at the moment in your industry?
Do you have any special offers coming up? Write a promo article for the product
Reveal more about you and your business, share some bios about employees
Are you doing something as a company and you want to share it? A fundraising event?
Why not run a competition
Look at ‘People also ask’ on search engine results when you type in something you want to find out information about. What questions are listed?
What problem can you solve for someone?
Create a ‘Things to know about’ article
Step-by-step guide
Quick guide
Reflection or perspective
Easy read
A checklist
Look for inspiration
Answer regular questions that people ask you about your products and services
I hope you found all that information helpful. It you are confused drop me an email and I can expand on this.
Kind regards, Rachel
Coming next...
The 'intermediate' level for writing blog articles for your business.
Including:
Content creation
Putting a blog article on your website
SEO
Google indexing
Contact me today if you need any information about my copywriting services.
rachel.roussell@gmail.com or call 07800887857
Know this! If and when you have great content share it. You can do that by sharing it on your social media platforms, in newsletters, flyers or an email campaign for example.