Business Writers Explain the Purpose of Different Kinds of Content
Sarah
You might have the world’s best business idea. But unless you can reach your potential customers, that idea isn’t worth much. In strategizing ways to generate more leads, you may have forgotten a valuable asset in the online marketing world: business writers.
Fortunately, you don’t have to invest thousands in billboard rentals and ad campaigns to reach your potential customers; they’re online every day, using search engines, chattering on social media, and checking their emails.
To catch their attention, you need to deploy a thorough content marketing strategy. Business writers can help you do that.
What Is Content Marketing?
Content marketing involves using various types of online content — think blog posts, social media posts, or videos — to capture the interest of potential customers.
Thanks to search engines, you see content marketing in action daily. If you’ve ever run a search for “how to fix a furnace” and found results for a local HVAC company, you’ve seen that company’s content marketing strategy in action.
This strategy isn’t just for large corporations. If you own a smaller company, small business writing services can help you get ahead in the content marketing game.
If you want content marketing to be effective, you need to make sure that your strategy involves high-quality writing that spans a variety of content types. Here are some of the key ones to consider.
Landing Pages
When you create or revamp your company website, the most important elements to include are targeted landing pages.
When a potential customer clicks on a search engine result, an email link, or another link to your site, they “land” on one of these pages. If the page is engaging, informative, and clearly promotional, they’re more likely to become customers or subscribers.
On the other hand, if a landing page is poorly designed, fails to provide the answer to the reader’s question, or doesn’t give visitors a clear next step (such as subscribing to a newsletter or browsing your product selection), visitors are more likely to click away.
This means that your landing pages should be optimized for conversions. A great landing page has a few critical elements:
- Hero Shot: This is the image at the top of the page — make it eye-catching enough to draw page visitors in
- Headline: Your headline succinctly sums up your business (for example, “Real Food for Real Athletes” for a meal-delivery service)
- Supporting Headline: This adds some supporting information to your headline (but keep it short!)
- Benefits of Using Your Company: Lots of landing pages break these benefits into very short paragraphs or lists to clearly grab visitors’ attention
- Social Proof: These include social evidence, such as reviews and awards, that boost customer confidence in your company
- A Call to Action: This asks site visitors to sign up for a service, buy a product, or take another specific action
Think of your landing pages as your digital storefront. Would you walk into a store with cluttered windows, dusty merchandise, and no sign? Probably not.
Geo-Targeted Landing Pages
You might not be able to customize your landing pages for every single visitor. However, if you have a large service area, you can customize them for different locations.
Landing pages targeting a specific region can bring more traffic to your site.
For example, say you own a car wash franchise with locations across the United States. Most people looking for a car wash aren’t just going to type “car wash” into Google. Someone in Nashville, TN, will likely search for “car wash Nashville” or a similar phrase.
If you have a landing page targeted specifically at Nashville, your site is more likely to appear near the top of the search engine results page. The higher the ranking, the more likely a would-be customer is to click.
Blogs
Blogs serve a couple of different purposes on your company site: They build trust by adding value to potential customers’ lives, and they increase customer engagement.
Because blogs aren’t as directly promotional as landing pages, you might wonder how they manage to build customer engagement. The first way they do so is by drawing in readers and building a brand audience.
For example, if you own a reptile supply company, you might have a blog full of articles on reptile care tips. A reptile owner might initially find your site by searching for “tips for bearded dragon care.” If they find the blog helpful, they’re likely to visit again. They may even purchase something from your store.
If the reptile owner finds your blog especially helpful, they may share it on social media. When followers click over to it, they may end up becoming part of your brand audience, too.
Blogs aren’t as promotional as landing pages, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t promotional at all. To maximize your chances of a conversion, include a relevant call to action at the end of each post. Business writing services will craft compelling calls to action that convert.
Case Studies
Case studies will not be part of every brand’s content marketing strategy. However, if you’re a business-to-business (B2B) company, case studies are arguably the best way to advertise your effectiveness to potential customers.
For example, suppose that you run a tech company that builds custom apps, and you’ve recently created an inventory-tracking app for a local coffee company. Rather than just mentioning the app’s creation on your website, you can include a case study that goes into depth regarding how you helped the company solve its existing problems.
Just like with blog posts, it’s a good idea to include a call to action at the bottom of a case study. Once a decision-maker at another company has read what your business can do, they’re more likely to follow up with you!
Social Media
Almost everyone is on social media these days. Is your company? Social media marketing is an ideal way to build engagement and stay at the top of your customers’ minds.
The type of content (or other media) you lean on will depend on the social media platform. When it comes to writing for social media, here are some strategies that will pay off:
- Mention (and link to) new blogs while pointing out how they can help readers solve a problem
- Showcase a particular service or product
- Offer a timely discount (like a sale for New Year’s or Memorial Day)
- Interact with your customers and answer their questions
- Create a recognizable brand voice
Business writers create more than just landing pages and blog posts. Many have experience with social media writing and know how to develop a distinctive, consistent brand voice.
Email Newsletters
Email marketing offers a way for your brand to stay connected to customers and potential customers — provided you don’t overdo it. If you send emails so frequently that customers feel overwhelmed, they’ll unsubscribe.
Your email newsletters should strike a balance between education and promotion. Business writers will craft both regular email newsletters and one-off emails that get you conversions.
E-Books
When discussing content marketing, even professional business writing agencies sometimes forget about e-books. You might wonder why businesses bother with this type of long-form content. After all, isn’t there enough content on the blog?
But e-books aren’t just about content; they also work as a kind of trade for your site visitors. If you get a site visitor’s email address, you can send them promotional emails and newsletters that make it easier to close the lead.
Most people who visit your site aren’t ready to just hand over their email addresses. This is where the magic of the e-book comes in. If you offer a free e-book in exchange for subscribing to your email list, you’ll see much greater success.
By the time your customer opens up the e-book, you’ll already have their email address. However, you also need to offer a high-quality e-book that meets their expectations and earns their trust.
If the new subscriber opens up your e-book and doesn’t find what they’re looking for, your business will lose credibility in their eyes. When you invest in hiring a professional business writer, you’ll know that your e-book strategy is helping — not hurting — your chances of closing new leads.
Looking for the Right Business Writers?
Having the right business writers in your corner can make all the difference when it comes to growing web traffic, closing leads, and building your company.
However, juggling social media posts, landing pages, blog posts, and case studies can get overwhelming — especially if you’re not experienced with content strategy.
With a content marketing package, you won’t need to worry. Write Collective’s all-in-one content marketing package includes everything you need to take your business to the next level. With industry-specific content and the best business writers in the industry, we’re ready to help you succeed. Want to see what Write Collective can do for you? Take a look at our content marketing packages today.