Tag Archives: Content Writing

It’s easy to send an email—and it can cost you basically nothing. Your company can send a limitless number of marketing emails, hoping for the best—but if that’s the approach you take, you’ll find that your emails fall on deaf ears. In fact, you’ll probably find that they never get opened at all.

Just because emails are perceived as cheap and mundane doesn’t mean you should be careless in how you send them. With the right approach, marketing emails can be more than just inbox filler. They can actually move your sales needle and improve your bottom line.

Get Your Subject Line Right

Remember, your marketing emails won’t accomplish anything if they don’t get read. And that largely comes down to the subject line. Your subject line sets the tone and establishes the first impression for each email you send—and a good subject line will entice the recipient to explore your message. That’s how you get your emails to be opened and read.

So what does a good subject line look like? For one thing, it’s succinct. According to one study, the best length for an email subject line is four words. Does that mean every email you send needs to have a four-word subject line? No—but you should definitely shoot for brevity.

As for the substance of your subject lines, make sure you avoid clichés. Emoji and overtly salesy language tend not to grab anyone’s attention. Instead, convey the value of your message. What does it say, or what kind of offer does it include? How will the recipient be better off for opening your message?

That’s what you should convey in your subject line—in as brief and punchy a way as you can.

Send Your Emails to the Right People

Another key to getting your emails opened and read is to make sure they go to the right people. Before you hit send, know who you’re sending to.

Accomplish this by keeping a well-curated email list. There are different ways to do this. Maybe you have lists for low-quality and high-quality leads; for returning customers and new leads. At Grammar Chic, Inc., we have distinct aspects of our business—resume writing and content marketing, for example—where the subject matter overlap is pretty minimal. Thus, we maintain separate email lists, only sending resume-related stuff to jobseekers, not to our friends who work in marketing.

Well-curated email lists are key for ensuring that, when someone receives your message, it contains something that speaks to them.

Make Your Emails Valuable

Finally, your emails must earn the trust of each recipient. To put it another way, you need to show that you respect your recipient’s time. Remember that the people who receive your emails probably receive a ton of messages over the course of the day. They have little patience for something that simply hogs space in their inbox. Rather than sending them a bunch of cursory messages day in and day out, send messages judiciously—and make sure each one really counts.

And to make a message count, you need to make sure it offers something of value. Value, of course, can come in many different forms—among them:

An offer for a white paper, guide, or other downloadable offer

A discount code or coupon

A first look at a new product or service, before it’s been unveiled anywhere else

Carefully curated, value-adding clips from your company blog

The bottom line? Don’t waste anyone’s time. Give them something that speaks to their needs and shows that you’re looking out for them—not just trying to hock your wares.

Write Emails That Improve Your Bottom Line

Good emails don’t just get read; they convert, in one way or another. As such, they can actually move your sales needle. We’d love to show you more about how that’s done. Reach out to Grammar Chic’s email marketing experts for a consultation. Call us at 803-831-7444, or visit our website at www.grammarchic.net.

Astounding though it may be, the time for year-end reflection is here. As we head into 2018, one thing business owners might consider is their website content. Good content is almost like a full-time employee, promoting your brand and explaining your company to online customers 24/7. The question is, is your Web content pulling its weight?

There are five basic jobs your Web content should do—and if it’s falling short, there’s no time like the present to augment, revise, or even write all new content from scratch.

Offering Value

Your company website shouldn’t actually be about you—at least not entirely. Really, it should be about your customers. What are their pain points? What are the solutions they seek? And how can your company deliver value? Your written website content should address each of these things. Some examples:

Building Trust

Another important job for your website content? Earning the trust of your readers—and in particular your potential customers. Remember that your website is the capstone of your online reputation, and it should always make people feel more comfortable doing business with you. Consider including:

Thought leadership (such as a blog), proving that you know what you’re talking about

Product demos or guides, showing that they work as advertised

Testimonials

Reviews

Any guarantees or warranties you offer

Gathering Information

A good website offers information to its readers, but also harvests information for your business. This is usually done through a form, wherein visitors are asked to provide some basic contact information in exchange for something valuable. Ideas include:

Subscription to your email newsletter

A white paper or e-book

A one-time discount or coupon

Closing Sales

Finally, your website should convert. Ideally, when all these other parts are in place, your website can function as an around-the-clock sales generator, enticing customers to make purchases, set appointments, or reach out to your sales team directly. Some vital aspects of this include:

Is Your Website Doing its Job?

Take a little time over the holidays to give your website a performance review—and if it’s not doing all that it’s supposed to, consider a Web content overhaul. Our team can help, from strategizing through the writing itself. Reach out to Grammar Chic, Inc. at 803-831-7444 or www.grammarchic.net.

Online content creation is often spoken of in a purely functional capacity: You need to generate some words that will, in turn, give the search engines something to chew on, all while conveying your branding message in a clear and effective way.

But your writing can be technically precise, grammatically correct, and loaded with all the right SEO keywords, and still fail to make much of an impact—especially if it doesn’t start an emotional connection with your audience.

That’s something that happens only when you write with the right style—including all those old writerly concepts like diction, tone, and voice. Style is the oft-neglected aspect of content marketing—a field too often made dry, colorless, and technical—that often spells the difference between failure and success.

Style Defined

Style can be understood in many different ways; a recent Marketing Land article says it’s “a way of communicating,” which sounds right to us. After all, the style of clothing you wear says something about you, your tastes, your personality; and in the same way, your style of writing can convey communicate something even beyond the literal meaning of your words.

Of course, style can’t be relegated to just one aspect of your writing; it encompasses a few different things, among them:

The way your text looks on the page—for instance, short vs. long sentences, etc.

Why Style Matters

In the end, though, does style really matter? It does, and for a simple reason: Effective marketing copy must appeal to more than just the rational mind. Emotions are just as impactful to purchasing decisions. (Have you ever made an “impulse buy” that you couldn’t really explain, just because it felt right to do so?)

That’s not to say that writing has to be a direct appeal to emotions; in some contexts, something a little more formal and impersonal might actually be more appropriate. Yet style can have an effect on the subconscious, and make a reader either more or less agreeable to trusting your brand. For example, a style that’s technical and erudite will lead to a deeper innate trust of your highly-technical product, while something warmer and more casual would work better when trying to appeal to the readers of a parenting blog.

For marketers, style can be relied on for three basic purposes:

It can help establish and earn trust, as in our example of high-level style for a highly technical product.

It can help establish a connection with your reader, really lodging information in the brain.

It can have aesthetic appeal unto itself—causing readers to take notice.

Bring Style to Your Marketing

Are you ready to inject some style into your marketing copy—helping it become powerful and resonate? Our writers can help. We’re well-versed in creating marketing copy to fit any asked-for style or voice. Learn more about our style-savvy ghostwriting services by contacting Grammar Chic today—www.grammarchic.net or 803-831-7444.

The way people search for information is changing—and it’s changing fast. You may be used to actually typing out your search queries, but more and more users now favor voice search—a trend that has much to do with the advent of mobile services, plus voice assistants like Siri and Alexa. Just how big of a deal is voice search? According to many industry predictions, more than half of all search queries will be voice-based by 2020.

Of course, this changes the way we think about content marketing. You can’t just write for those who do text-based search. You also have to write content that can be easily discovered and digested by those who are searching with their voice—and having the results read back to them.

But how can content marketers adapt?

How Does Voice Search Change Your Content Strategy?

There are three big ways in which voice search changes content strategy.

Think in terms of questions and answers. When you’re typing out a search query, you generally try to make it as brief as possible; something like best coffee maker or best plumber near me typically suffices. When you’re using voice search, though, you’re more likely to ask an actual question: What’s a good, affordable coffee maker? Who is the best local plumber? As a content marketer, it’s important to incorporate this question and answer format; use titles and H1, H2, and H3 tags to ask questions, then provide immediate answers within the following paragraph. This makes it clear to the Google algorithms which questions you’re addressing, in a way that voice search users will find straightforward and helpful.

Consider long-tail keywords. Again, voice search users are more likely to elaborate their queries; best local plumber may become something like what’s the best local plumber who does drain cleaning or what’s a local plumber with good reviews, or who is the most affordable plumber in the area? This gives you an opportunity to implement longer, more specific keyword phrases that better match the conversational style of voice search users—and in doing so, you can get more specific with your own value proposition.

Incorporate your location. A majority of voice search queries are location-based—which makes sense, given the big overlap between voice search and mobile search. To ensure your content is visible to the relevant audience, it’s important to incorporate as much local data as you can—including localized keywords, user reviews and testimonials, and your company contact information.

Whether because they lack the time, the ability, or some combination of the two, more and more businesses are outsourcing their content writing; when it comes time for a new company blog post or press release, they farm it out to an agency or a freelancer, where the work is done relatively hassle-free.

This method obviously has its advantages, but there can also be compromises—especially when it comes to quality.

It doesn’t have to be that way. You can get high-quality work through outsourced content writing, but to do so, you’ve got to hire the right people—and manage the process wisely.

Why Content Quality Matters

First, a quick word about quality. It can be tempting to approve of any half-decent writing that’s sent your way, but business owners can and should be pickier about what they accept. There are a couple of reasons for this, and the first is branding. The writing on your website or blog reflects your brand, and as such you want it to be authoritative, clean, and helpful; you want to provide value to your customers, without errors or typos. Sloppy writing makes you look like a sloppy company.

In addition, you need quality because Google demands it—and if you want your blog or website to rank well within Google searches, keeping the algorithms happy is a necessity. Google wants its search engine users to have relevant answers to all their quandaries, so to ensure high visibility, you have to be helpful and solutions-oriented.

Hiring Quality Writers

That’s a high threshold for your writer to meet—so how can you ensure that they rise to the challenge?

First, make sure you hire the right people. A writing company, as opposed to an individual freelancer, can offer a real business track record, including reviews and testimonials. Always ask for work samples, too. Of course, checking out the company’s own blog helps you see what they are capable of.

Always make sure you’re getting your writing done by native American English speakers.

Do your part to provide clear directions. Be ready to offer topics, a sense of your voice/desired tone, and any SEO keywords you’d like the writers to employ.

Also be prepared to educate the writer about who your audience is, and what you wish to accomplish with your writing. Clear goals are vitally important.

Finally, make sure you know quality work when you see it. This goes beyond just checking for typos and grammatical errors. Also make sure the writing that’s submitted to you is tailored to your audience and advances the goals or agenda you’ve set forward.

At the end of the day, good writing is something you can offer to customers and potential customers—and optimally, it will offer both value and professionalism. Or, to put it more succinctly, it will offer quality­—and yes: That is something you can get through outsourcing, so long as you approach the process shrewdly.

To learn more, reach out to the writers at Grammar Chic, Inc. Be sure to ask us about our own standards of quality. Contact us at www.grammarchic.net or 803-831-7444.

A strong visual content strategy can take your online presence to the next level, and help you cut through a lot of the social media noise. And one type of visual content that’s especially useful is the infographic.

People like infographics because they provide data in a way that’s quick, engaging, and easy to understand; a good infographic can be educational and paradigm-shifting without being too demanding of the reader’s mental capacity. On social media, this last point is critically important!

To get the most out of your infographics, it’s important to develop and promote them properly. Here are a few guidelines for doing just that.

Best Practices for Creating and Sharing Infographics

Pick a Topic People Care About

This is foundational. Your infographic should provide information that will actually be useful, or at the very least interesting, to your audience. Don’t just pick any old topic; pick something that’s relevant to your brand, has practical implications for your audience, and speaks to either the pain points you address or the solutions you provide. Bonus points if it’s something that challenges preconceived ideas—i.e. data with a surprising conclusion.

Write a Compelling Headline

As always, headlines are everything. There are a lot of things you can do to get eyeballs for your infographic: reference the surprising conclusions; note the expert source of your data; promise something unexpected, or simply point to the practical value that your information provides.

Write a Strong Introduction

Both for the purposes of SEO and simply for providing some context, a brief introduction is recommended. Three or four sentences is usually fine; include an SEO keyword or two if applicable, as well as related links and a call to action.

Provide Trustworthy Data

Your infographic needs credibility, so if you’re drawing from a third-party data source, make sure to include a proper citation. If it’s your own internal research, just say as much in your introduction. Proper proofreading and fact-checking are essential, too!

Get Social

Always promote your infographics on social media—using hashtags as appropriate. If you can, enable social sharing buttons on your infographic, too. Remember that this is a content type that lends itself to sharing, but it’s always smart to make it easy and convenient for your readers to pass it along.

Optimize the File Name

Google’s algorithms will crawl the file name of your infographic, so by all means make it something that conveys your specific topic. A generic file name, like untitled.jpg or infogaraphic.png, is a wasted opportunity. Optimize your alt-text, too, using a relevant keyword or two when you can.

Write an Accompanying Blog Post

To boost your SEO and back-linking potential, write a keyword-rich blog post to contextualize and explain your infographic. Make sure to share and promote the blog post, too!

Need Help Writing or Promoting Your Infographic?

Whether you’re looking for someone to script your infographic or to work it into a robust social media marketing campaign, Grammar Chic, Inc. can help. Reach out to us today at www.grammarchic.net or 803-831-7444.

Increasingly, marketers and brands must merge their organic content effort with paid advertising offers. Whether you’re looking to get Facebook views or dominate the search engine results page, combining a natural content effort with PPC ads is imperative; picking one over the other simply won’t get you optimal results.

PPC ads can be especially important during the holiday shopping season. With more consumers doing their shopping online than ever before, your brand has a lot of big opportunities to be discovered by those who are making their Christmas lists or seeking the perfect gift for a loved one. Paid ads allow your brand to be visible to these shoppers at every stage of their consumer journey.

To capitalize on these opportunities, we recommend these seasonal strategies.

Start with Last Year’s Data

If you didn’t do any holiday ads last year, you can skip this section. But if you did, know that your previous data can be a helpful road map for where you might go this year. Were there certain types of ads, certain keywords, or certain calls to action that gave you big results? That doesn’t guarantee they’ll work again this year, but it’s certainly a reasonable indicator.

Use Seasonal Keywords

Research confirms that seasonal keyword phrases can make a big difference in the success of your ads. Specifically, words that help your ads get seen by shoppers—terms like “perfect gift,” “gift for children,” “stocking stuffer,” etc.—can work well when they are inserted into your copy. You might experiment with some really finely-honed phrases, like “affordable kids gifts” or “creative gift for boys.”

Rewrite Your Ad Copy

It can be a pain to rewrite all your existing ad copy, but it might also prove really effective—especially if you can generate new copy that speaks directly to holiday shoppers. Try using your copy to urge end-of-the-year decisions, or to simply encourage consumers to join you in your festive spirit!

Create Holiday-Specific Landing Pages

An effective PPC ad always links to a landing page—not just your generic home page—and that’s especially important if you’re advertising special holiday deals or discounts. Ensure that the ad copy takes the reader directly to a page that specifically addresses that deal. Make it easy for shoppers to find what they’re looking for.

Grammar Chic, Inc. is a full-service content writing company that publishes The Red Ink, a collection of informative articles pertaining to professional editing and writing services, writing and editing techniques, and brand management tactics. For more information about Grammar Chic, Inc. and the services that it offers visit www.grammarchic.net.