Tag Archives: Content Marketing
Web content writing – Are you over-reliant on PPC?
Fact – Your website needs increased traffic to raise sales
Fact – Search engines remain the number one way for people to discover your website
Fact – Paid search results can get you to the top of Google rankings (ish) So obviously you should be concentrating your online marketing budget on PPC right?
Increase your website traffic, increase your profits
Wrong! Consider the following stats:
- 85% of search engine traffic comes via organic links
- Only 11% of advertisers report achieving a higher ROI through a Pay Per Click Advertising Program than an Organic Search Engine Optimization program
- 4 out of 5 (80%) of search engine users never click on PPC results
- 86% of search engine users report they feel organic listings are more relevant than paid listings (Source: Zero One Zero)
And what about the following quote from Marc Resnick’s seminal work, “An Empirical Study Of Paid Listings In Product Search And Purchase“: “For paid listings to yield the financial results that are anticipated by the business community, it is critical that consumers perceive paid listings and their descriptions as relevant to their transactional tasks. The results of this study support previous findings that this may not be the case, but also provide some guidance for the development of paid listings. Participants in the study showed a bias against paid listings in several ways. They reported an explicit suspicion about paid listings in their verbal protocols. They rated the relevance of the paid listings as lower than the organic listings despite the content of the descriptions being controlled across listing type”
Does this mean you should drop PPC completely? No, but it should serve as a warning that paid search complements organic SEO. It does not (and cannot) replace quality web content as a driver for your website. Organic search engine results are driven by carefully crafted, compelling website copy which is relevant, entertaining and informative for real people.
Google have stated the importance of creating content that people actually want to read time and again. Truly great websites recognised this long ago, and are inevitably crammed with fantastic content. Unfortunately there is no shortcut to success.
Organic SEO provides a long term boost to your website traffic, PPC traffic lasts only as long as your budget. Paid search can kick start traffic to your website, but ultimately it will be quality content which keeps traffic and customers flowing to your site.
One more thing! SEO and top notch copywriting is not about creating website traffic. Your focus must always be on creating sales. All the website visitors in the world will not be of use if you convert them into customers too.
Need help creating quality SEO web content for your own site? Get in touch with us today to learn more about our professional copywriting services.
Content Marketing – Why Worry About White Papers?
If you operate in the B2B marketplace, it is extremely likely that at some point you will have been asked to trade your email address in return for receiving a “white paper”. This magical document promises to explain why Cloud widgets help slash operating costs, increase efficiency and improve business profits (or something similar). But only if you sign up first. No email address, no white paper.
If you printed out all the white papers on the Internet, it would look a bit like this
White paper madness?
The white paper is at the forefront of a “new” revolution called content marketing. But really it boils down to a very old marketing premise – give the customer something for nothing, and have them join your marketing mailing list in the process.
The reason that white papers are so popular is because:
- Your client finds the information useful and applicable to their situation
- Each sign-up is a pre-qualified sales lead for you
- White papers are relatively cheap to produce and offer a decent return on investment
The client has already demonstrated an interest in your subject and solutions when they download the document. This can then be used by your sales team to create a more-targeted campaign focusing on these people and increasing the likelihood of converting them into a customer.
How to succeed with white papers?
A quick search on Google turns up millions of free white papers (over 7 million as I write this), so how do you make yours stand out?
Relevance
Choose an aspect of your service or product which addresses a real-world issue faced by your customers. Often this means a white paper is very narrow in scope, but this also makes it much more relevant to the people downloading it, creating a finely tuned sales lead. Using a search term as the paper title (“How does Cloud CRM improve my company turnover?”) gives you a starting point to construct a case and attract more readers.
Authority
Your business should know what it is talking about. Your white paper should then establish credibility about your knowledge and experience. This is best achieved by using general industry information and statistics, rather than allowing the document to become yet another sales brochure.
Facts and stats
People love facts and stats, and your white paper needs to be stuffed with them if it is going to prove a point. Reference respected sources and studies wherever possible to increase trust. Spend the time researching relevant information to give your white paper some real “meat“. You can also use quotes from respected industry figures for added credibility.
Focus
Pick a subject or central theme and stick to it. If you find you want to address a closely-related topic, consider creating a second white paper. Don’t muddle issues or you will confuse readers and dilute your authority.
The white paper can then be offered for download from your website until the content becomes outdated. The document offers many of the benefits of a traditional brochure or mailing without the printing and postage costs. Better yet, only people who are interested receive the document, reducing marketing budget wastage.
If you would like to know more about white papers, content marketing, and how they can be applied to boost your sales leads (and ultimately your company profits) drop us a line. We research and write white papers for clients operating in a variety of different sectors, and can certainly help you too.
Content Marketing, $1 Trillion and Your Business
A new report from eMarketer claims that global ecommerce sales have topped $1 trillion for the first time in 2012. Yes, $1 trillion. And that figure is set to rise again next year.
Using content marketing and copywriting you could start creating stacks of cash for your business
It is little surprise to find that US shoppers account for the majority of that sum. However Britain’s position in the league table is unexpected – second with $110 billion spent. Bad news for the high street perhaps, but great for those trying to leverage the power of the web for increased profit.
Which is why despite the popularity of online video, copywriting services are becoming ever more important. Websites, blogs, articles and whitepapers are all now essential for increasing brand awareness and driving visitors to your website.
Content marketing, uses passive copywriting techniques to generate client interest, and create potential sales leads in the process. In the past, marketing involved pushing information at would-be clients. However these days clients are a lot more discerning, preferring to receive marketing messages on their own terms. Content marketing is designed to pull customers to your website and your business.
It is only by trying to engage with readers can you “pull” them, causing them to come towards you by their own choice. Pushing is like swimming against a current – the swimmer is either pushed away, or pushes against the information (and your business), neither of which is likely to be a positive experience!
As a result, creating non-advertising content like whitepapers, infographics and articles are even more important. And with a projected UK share of $141 billion up for grabs in 2013, the stakes are high.
Why not get in touch with Tech Write today and see how we can help with your content marketing strategy to capture new leads passively?
2012 – Our Copywriting Year in Review – Part 2
Following on from our last installment (predictably named 2012 – Our Copywriting Year in Review – Part 1), we continue our run down of the past twelve months, describing some of our projects and introducing some of our new customers. Enjoy!
July
Despite many businesses winding down their marketing efforts to reflect the Summer slow-down, Tech Write forged two new relationships requiring frequent blog contributions. Warrington-based educational IT-specialists Do Digital employed us to write a number of monthly blog posts targeted at their unique market niche. Meanwhile Essex web design agency Bytewire were also on the look out for skilled ghostwriter to contribute content to their company blog.
A desk diary - very 2013!
August
August was relatively quiet although our ongoing commitments for blog content and articles kept us rather busy!
September
The end of the school holidays led to an explosions in requests for work. First up was another press release for Italian iOS developer Fabrizio Bartolomucci to publicise the update of his In Arrivo! iPhone app designed to help tourists navigate Rome by taxi or bus.
This was closely followed by requests for complete website rewrites for Manchester-based software consultancy Systems Valley and Indian specialist fire services provider Agnice International. Both project required creation of new SEO-optimised content to coincide with the website relaunches of both businesses.
Tech Write also formed a new working relationship with inbound marketing experts Tomorrow People based in Birmingham and were immediately put to work ghostwriting web content for an established SME accounts software developer.
October
The success of our first project with Tomorrow People led to immediate requests for the complete re-write of a large website for an ERP software provider accompanied by a number of articles for their new company blog.
Tech Write were also commissioned to write a one-off article for Essex-based IT support services Those Computer People for their company blog.
November
Tech Write were referred to an Irish software developer looking to ghostwrite the content for a client’s website. The project involved writing a number of pages to publicise a brand new performance management system.
We were also asked to ghostwrite some specialist technical articles for a Maltese consultancy specialising in Microsoft Hyper-V services.
December
Tomorrow People were in touch again early in the month looking for another website re-write, this time for a specialist financial services software provider. Content needed to be SEO optimised and amended to fit the constraints of the new website according to the plan provided. We were also asked to ghostwrite a number of extended articles for their ERP software customer.
So there you have it. 2012 in review. A busy but productive year!
What links International Education Week and Web Copywriting Services?
The internet makes your web content truly global
This year International Education Week is being held between the 12th and 19th November. But what does a celebration of international education and web copywriting services have in common?
The answer involves considering what your own website is trying to achieve. What are most people looking for when they surf the web? What are you looking for as you trawl websites? For some it will be entertainment but for most it will be information. Some will even be looking for entertaining information.
But when you read useful information, you are of course being educated in the process.
However, unlike International Education Week, the content on your website has to last longer than seven days. In fact it probably needs to be added to at least once every week to keep visitors coming back. Why? By providing genuinely useful information on your website you can:
- Encourage visitors to come back and visit your site, hopefully converting them into customers in the process.
- Establish a reputation within your industry or sector for expertise and generosity.
- Attract the attention of search engines who will direct more visitors to your site once they have indexed your content.
This copywritten content can take the form of new web pages, blog posts or even articles submitted to publications or guest posts on other websites. The key is to ensure the information you produce is genuinely useful to your readers – try to educate and inform rather than just writing for the sake of it.
So why not get your business involved with International Education Week by engaging in some creative web copywriting? Your readers learn, your company prospers and the world becomes just that little bit better educated!
If you need help, Tech Write offer a number of very affordable web copywriting services designed to give your website the content it needs and that your readers deserve. Alternatively drop us a line using our contact form to find out how we can help.
