Blog Writing
Gone are the days when blogging was the sole domain of the self-absorbed, indulgent teen drama queen.
Business blogging is now recognised across New Zealand as a key strategic marketing tool. Maintaining an active, healthy blog presence offers a range of key benefits to a business:
- Direct & indirect sales
- Brand awareness and recognition
- Build closer connections with customers & clients
- Promote the business as an authority in its field
- Strengthen brand loyalty
- Brand storytelling
- Build trust and respect
- Be seen as human beings, rather than a faceless corporate entity
- Improve your Google search ranking
- Demonstrate the benefits or your products or services
Why can’t I just run my own business blog?
The truth is that you quite possibly can. Many New Zealand businesses successfully operate their own pages, posting regular, interesting, well written blog content that fits their company persona to a tee.
Unfortunately, for every business doing it right, there are many, many others failing to fulfil their potential when it comes to quality content creation and blog writing.
Amongst many reasons that running your own blog might not work out, the most common are:
- Workload. You recognise the value of a corporate blog but you’re a busy guy or gal! You have a business to run and fun as it may be, you can’t spend vital time working on your blog to reap the undoubted benefits.
- Lack of ideas. After the initial enthusiasm dips, many business people just don’t have the time, imagination or energy to constantly generate fresh, new, engaging content.
- SEO. A lot of nonsense and scare-mongering is talked about SEO (which stands for Search Engine Optimisation) these days, but one undeniable truth is that as a business blogger you ignore the topic at your peril. Basic SEO techniques are surprisingly easy to learn and not quite the dark art they’re painted as by snake-oil salesmen. Business operators and staff have a company to operate, and too frequently make the mistake of side-stepping this crucial component in driving traffic to their carefully crafted material.
- Lack of interaction / community. Writing your blog content is only stage 1 in maintaining a productive blog presence. Building a community of subscribers who will regularly visit and interact with your social media channels is an ideal way to create brand advocates who will go forth into the big wide world and spread the good word about your business and its benefits.
- Too ‘salesy’. It’s easy to forget that the people who read blogs are human beings just like you or I. Would you revisit a site where the bulk of its content was self-promotional or constantly trying to sell you something? A healthy blog identifies its desired readership, ascertains what type of material they will respond to, and tactically engages with them on their own playing field.
- Relevance. Whilst being overly pushy is a big no-no, it’s equally essential to ensure your blog sticks largely to its remit. Your audience needs to be engaged and interested in what you post, but also needs to recognise how your business can be of genuine and valuable service. It’s a balancing act. At Buzzwords, we try to stick to the 80/20 rule when it comes to our blog writing service. Buzzword’s blog content writers will craft and share interesting, engaging content that will stimulate your target demographic and encourage reciprocal conversation, in order to build brand trust, affection and recognition. By utilising this technique, your community of online advocates will grow, and ultimately prove more receptive to the occasional ‘traditional sales pitch’.
- Poorly written material. It’s not everyone that has the gift of the gab. Of those that are able to express themselves eloquently and succinctly, many are unable to do so in written form, or are lacking the requisite proficiency in spelling and grammar to write professionally. Even the most articulate of individuals can struggle to write for specific mediums, as each format calls for a different approach. The creation of tremendous web copy, press releases, articles, RFPs, marketing brochures, blog posts and the many other forms of business literature, is a learnable talent but one which takes time, experience and ability. Writing for business is a skill. If your business lacks the expertise in-house, Buzzwords blog content writing service could be the answer.
But how does it work? How do you know our business?
A big concern for clients is that blog content published under their name by a third party won’t adequately convey the “otherness” of their business. Smart companies know that industry expertise, individuality and personality are all crucial aspects of customer communication.
At Buzzwords, we take the time needed to get to know you and your work, so we can accurately represent you to your consumer base.
A typical work-flow for a fully managed blog writing service would be:
- Discussion. For new clients, we always begin with a thorough conversation about the business, its products or services, target client base, marketing strategy, existing online presence, brand message, goals and ‘voice’. With blogging, understanding the tone and style in which you wish to communicate in order to cultivate and maintain your identity, is crucial to achieving success. Once we’re on the same page, we move on to discuss specific blog post topics and angles. This usually works best as a collaborative effort, although we at Buzzwords are able to leverage our experience and creativity to drive this stage, where a client feels unsure exactly of what it is they want their blog to achieve. We will ask the right questions to interpret the direction and angle with which each individual client will be comfortable. Once an initial rapport and understanding is established, subsequent discussions around content are usually a breeze.
- Write. If we sense any uncertainty about the direction needed following discussion, we will usually send a sample in the form of an introductory paragraph prior to issuing a first draft, so we can ensure client satisfaction. From there, we will typically produce a first draft blog post within 72 hours. It’s not unusual for the first draft to be approved as the final piece.
- Review. This is the stage where we encourage customers to take a short amount of time to review our work. This step usually results in fairly swift approval, sometimes after some slight changes of phrasing to suit the client’s wishes, although we encourage our customers to discuss frankly with us, on those rare occasions that expectations are misaligned, so that we can get our editing hats on, and deliver exactly what it is you are looking for.
- Post. Each business operates differently. Some clients will wish to simply take the copy we have written and pass to their in-house team to publish on their internally maintained blog page. At Buzzwords, we offer a range of further management solutions for our self-written content, including blog site management. Buzzwords are able to upload, format and post the articles we write to a range of hosted blog platforms.
- Promote. An optional service many of our clients choose to utilise is the promotion and syndication of blog posts. Your blog post will be pushed out and shared via your Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn sites (or any other platforms agreed as part of a marketing strategy). This stage can include additional bespoke requirements, such as syndication via other platforms, websites or content aggregators, depending on the field of business. If your organisation doesn’t yet have a social media presence, Buzzwords offer a range of solutions to help you set up and maintain a range of channels, from the usual suspects (Facebook, Twitter) to the more obscure and specialist sites.
- Engage. Blog post written and posted. Job done, right? Well, it depends on the scope of your overarching marketing plan, but if you’ve taken the wise decision to push our expertly crafted words via a range of social media presences, you’re quickly going to develop an audience. Great! Now you’ve worked so hard to grab the attention of your target demographic, don’t let it slip easily. Blogging, like so many other tools of the social web, is about two-way interaction. Once we’ve given your readers some food for thought, you’ll be surprised how often they want to continue with and contribute to a conversation. Readers can usually post comments on the blog posts themselves, but are particularly predisposed to joining the discussion via the associated Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn pages, if you’ve cross-promoted the content in these spaces. If a reader has something to add to the discussion, or just some feedback to give, it’s an opportunity to continue the conversation and maybe even pull in some more dialogue from other readers. Keeping an eye on the discussion that develops, and contributing additional observations as the conversation progresses, nurtures the sense of connection between a business and its followers, develops loyalty and enhances your brand.
Here’s some feedback from one of our Wellington based clients on Buzzwords blogging services:
“Qual IT has been working with Buzzwords for over six months now. We had been struggling to generate material for our content marketing strategy. We wanted a writer who took the time to understand our business and who could generate fresh, engaging articles that would resonate with readers of our website blog and social media channels. With Buzzwords, we got that in spades. They quickly found our ‘voice’ and have since been writing website content, blog articles and social media updates for us, as well as editing documents and articles that we generate ourselves.”
Steve Willsher, Business Development Manager, Qual IT Solutions
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Convinced yet? If you’re ready to maximise your business potential through a regularly maintained blog presence, contact Buzzwords now. We are ready and able to provide one-off or regular blog writing services, depending on your specific needs.
