Easily one of the biggest mistakes any site makes is not using quality writing to promote their business, services or interests.
For example, a cattle farmer, whose family has been in the cattle business for over a hundred years is best suited to advise about the best sort of milk, cheese, beef and quality of stud stock he’s got available at any time that would best suit a client’s needs. He may not however, be the best one at writing entire articles that deal with cattle farming, or the latest innovations in milk processing. There’s an old saying to do what you’re best at and to leave others to do the same, or another which states someone is a jack of all trades and master of none.
WHAT MAKES A WORDSMITH?
Wordsmiths, not just writers – they’re hard to find and sometimes to justify paying what they deserve to perform the artwork that is their words that promote your business or service in the most positive light possible. The trouble is, it takes money to make money and it can be little better spent than by employing someone who makes you sound polished, professional and knowledgeable about whatever you want to have written. The cattle farmer could ask this writer to delve into the latest milk processing innovations, as well as to write a comprehensive piece about studies done on milk without any growth hormones versus milk that has growth hormones and the effects. He could even ask the writer to type up a piece that goes into great historical detail of the stud quality of his bulls, and the prize winners they’ve produced.
KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE
It’s not enough simply to be good with words or research however, the person must be able to know the audience they’re writing for and what that audience is looking for, and it helps if they’re working alongside a marketing strategist as well so that everything they write gets optimized for search engines like Google to easily find and make available, which can also be boosted in social media to reach even more people than just a website alone can bring. The writing needs to maintain a level of quality that a native English-speaking graduate of college would have, and employ words that can easily be understood by everyone but are at the edge of wondering what a beautiful word means, and only understood here and there by context clues.
PERFECT INFORMATION
The easiest tip to give is to separate content into bite-size paragraphs using bold headings that catch attention and make the person want to read whatever comes afterward. Avoid using too much click-bait that gets someone to look at the article but doesn’t come close to matching what they clicked to find out about – it’s a quick way to lose trust which is not easily gotten back. If you are only doing bit posts which contain little words and are meant to send someone to your site instead, like the catch things people post on Facebook which are mostly a photo – be sure the few words stated have the most impact. Places like Magi.Social are well versed in the kinds of things people most like to see, so like that cattle farmer mentioned previously – allow people who know the business the most and can offer the service the cheapest with quality do it instead. You’ll be glad you put it in the hands of professionals, so you can do more of what you do best.
DO RESEARCH
Be sure research is done on anything written, because a word once spoken is an arrow let fly. It cannot be taken back and must be accurate as well as sourced through a link to the original data preferably so that people can see where the data came from. They can then link you to the trust they get from the study data having proven that what was said was accurate. Never have writing that is taken word-for-word without using quotation marks and attributing precisely where it was taken from, or trust won’t be all that is lost, it steps into the realm of plagiarism and can also get a site de-indexed from Google for having duplicate content.
BECOME A HUMAN BILLBOARD
If you really want to stand out, using the previous example of the cattle farmer, actually reach out to influential people in the area you’re working within. Reach out using a phone call, email or an instant message on their social media page asking them if you can interview them and use a quote in an article you wish to write. Our cattle farmer would most likely reach out to John Harris from Harris Ranch Beef, easily an industry leader and someone he could use quotes from to further push the point home that he’s someone who can be trusted to provide quality information and Mr. Harris would likely be honored to be quoted by someone else in the industry.
GRAMMAR MATTERS!
Something else that is easily neglected and should never be is spelling and punctuation. The use of proper grammar can easily be undone when there are frequent misuses of words, spelling problems and punctuation that makes no sense. There’s plenty of sites that can do a lot more than simply spellcheck your work like Grammarly which will give grammar suggestions, spelling issues to be fixed are instantly identified and they also have a tool that will check for plagiarism. Whatever you decide to have written for your company, ensure it is done with poise, class and style and is always at a level that you can be proud of being linked with your company and you’ll gain many more readers.
