Good writing is at the heart of any successful business – whether you’re a professional copywriter, SEO copywriter or business journalist. The ability to present information clearly and concisely in a compelling manner is vital when trying to persuade others to take a particular action or make a purchase. But increasingly businesses are realising that they can’t just leave copywriting to chance. They need to invest in skilled practitioners who can craft compelling messages to persuade customers, build trust and increase conversion.
To find out more about the importance of investing in copywriting, let’s take a quick look at how Google search works.
How Google Search Works
When you search for information using Google, the company’s search engine, you’ll see four results at the top of the page. These are known as the “organic results” and are created by the search engine based on a number of ranking factors – including how relevant and how interesting your results are.
Depending on how you write your search query, you’ll see different results. If you type “copywriting” into the search bar, you’ll see four organic results at the top of the page. You’ll also see a few sponsored results (these are the paid advertisements that you might see above or alongside the organic results).
Now, let’s say that you’ve just found out that Google has a “self-serve” tool that allows anyone to create a blog. This is a great opportunity for you to grow your business – but to do so you’ll need to enter the name of your business in the search bar and then opt-in to display your organic results on page one. What this means is that you have to have someone craft an editorial piece that appears to be about your product or service, but is, in fact, highly relevant to the phrase “self-serve blog.”
Doing this can take significant resources – both time and money. But the good news is that while you’re busy improving your existing blog posts, you can also use the editorial piece to promote new products and services that you think might be of interest to your target audience.
Why Blogging Is Important For Business
Blogging is one of the most popular types of online content today. According to HubSpot Blogs, a study of 22 million blogs across 14 industries found that 76% of adult internet users read blogs at least occasionally. And now that the Covid-19 pandemic has brought the world a sharp digital eye, many businesses are realising the value of blogs in remaining relevant to potential customers.
Whether you’re a business looking to gain authority in your industry or a brand looking to establish thought leadership, blogging is an ideal way to do so. You can create content that supports your goals, and you can use various tools to track the success of your efforts.
- Blogs that rank highly in Google search results are more likely to drive relevant traffic and increase engagement.
- Having a high-quality blog can serve as a strong foundation for your SEO efforts.
- Blogs can help establish your authority in your industry and provide you with an outlet to voice your expertise.
- Blogging is a relatively cheap and easy way to establish thought leadership.
- The content on your blog can be used to attract, engage and retain customers.
Why Should You Outsource Blogging?
While many businesses are benefitting from the ability to outsource tasks such as copywriting and editing to qualified professionals, some are finding that blogging is not a task that can be easily left to virtual assistants. If you’re finding that your existing team is struggling to keep up with the ever-growing needs of your business, why not outsource the less-rewarding tasks to someone who can take care of it for you?
According to the same HubSpot Blogs study, only 4% of respondents said that they handled all aspects of their blog content while 15% said that they outsourced some of the work. So it seems that many businesses are finding the perfect middle ground – ensuring that good writing is incorporated into all aspects of their digital marketing strategy and aligning their content with their overall marketing goals.
How Can I Optimise My Blog For SEO?
If you’ve been blogging for a while and realised that your content wasn’t performing well in search, there are steps that you can take to improve your SEO. To optimise your blog for search engines, you need to take into account both the words and the visuals of your content.
As you’d guess, the SEO-optimised blog post will contain the words that search engines like Google use to find relevant content.
If you’re looking to improve the SEO of your blog, you need to look at the words that you’re using in your headlines, sub-headings and body copy. So whether your blog post is about tech gear, productivity hacks or legal services, you need to use those words repeatedly in your content. It’s also a good idea to create anchor text for the various links that you have throughout your blog post. This is the text that will be used by search engines to determine the relevance of your links – so ensure that it’s both relevant to the content that you’re posting and also contains key words that Google’s search engine might use to find your blog post.
One of the simplest things that you can do to improve the SEO of your blog is to create a unique, individual URL for each post that you publish. Search engines like Google love unique, individual URLs as they allow the search engine to easily identify and rank each individual post when a user clicks on a link to your blog (or any other website). So instead of using a generic URL for a lengthy post (such as “www.example.com/blog-post-about-tech-gadgets”), use a unique URL for each blog post to identify it as part of a series or as the culmination of a particular project.
How Do I Attract, Engage And Retain Customers?
As a business owner, marketing manager or lead reporter, you’ll soon discover that customer engagement and loyalty are vital to your success. According to HubSpot Blogs, 79% of respondents cited strengthening customer engagement as a key priority in their roles, while 77% prioritised retaining existing customers.
To engage with customers, you need to consider various platforms that might be used by your audience. For example, do you have a website, an app or a social media account that your customers can interact with?
In an age where customers expect to engage with businesses through various channels, the answer might be through a combination of the above. If you have an app, you can also integrate sign-up for a mailing list within it – providing your customers with exclusive content and offers as they engage with your business.
One of the most effective ways that businesses can retain customers is through word-of-mouth promotion (WOM). According to HubSpot Blogs, 54% of respondents said that they would primarily rely on WOM for customer acquisition, and 43% would use both marketing and WOM to land new customers.
To promote your business through word-of-mouth, you need to focus on generating quality content that is both interesting and influential. As an SEO copywriter, you will write persuasive and engaging content that draws in readers and encourages them to share your work. To engage with potential customers, you should look to establish yourself as an expert in your industry and ensure that your content is both interesting and of value to your audience.