Businesses today cannot sustain without an online presence. No matter how big or small your business is, having platforms to interact with existing and prospective customers online is imperative. Just having a website or a blog is not enough anymore. With such immense competition, you have to ensure that your website and blog stand out. This will only be possible if your content is on point. So, how to get quality content for your website and blog?
You cannot sit and write everything yourself. You have other business operations to run. Thankfully, there are a number of options available today to help you get content for your online platforms. All you need to do is follow these few steps to streamline the process. If you’ve done it right, you will have quality website and blog content served to you on a platter.
Here’s how you can get quality content for your website and blog:
1. Clearly lay out your content goals and requirements
2. Choose one of the many options to source your content
3. Set clear guidelines, start small and scale, monitor the incoming work and offer timely feedback
That’s it. You’re just three steps away from getting great content. But wait, there’s more to it than meets the eye. Let’s see what it takes to get good quality content created.
1. Clearly lay out your content goals and requirements
If you are going to get your blog or website content written by someone, you should first have a clear vision of what you really need. Each business has its own unique requirements. Your business’ requirements will be best known to you. If you expect someone to write effective and impactful content for you, you have to clearly state what you need them to write.
Here’s what you should do.
i. Identify your target audience
If you are publishing content online, there has to be a particular section of people whose attention you’re coveting. That section is your target audience. The target audience usually refers to those people who will be interested in or benefited by your product or service.
Identifying your audience is important because generalized content hardly ever serves any purpose. Your website content or blog posts have to be directed towards the people that can be influenced and converted into future customers. And this is what a writer will have to keep in mind while composing the content. So, content writers will have to be told who they are writing for.
ii. Define your content goals
Your website and your blog serve different purposes, though aimed at the same thing – marketing for your business. Website content and blog content has to be written in different ways. So, you should brief your writers about what you exclusively want for your website and for your blog.
Let’s find out what the basic differences between these two types of content are.
a. Website content
Your website is your business’s online avatar. It reflects what your business is all about and must contain all the information related to your product or service that people might seek.
A website is a direct marketing tool for a business. People who are visiting your website are there because they already know what they are looking for. So, the content on your website has to be straightforward and succinct. There is no need for, or the space for, any extra information that is not relevant to your business. It is best to be concise but compelling when it comes to website content.
For the ease of conveying to your writers what you want in your website content, you could take the help of a content template. Content templates are documents that provide a breakdown of all the individual chunks of content that will be appearing on your web page. The content writers simply need to fill in the spaces with the required content. The template will include all the guidelines for each individual piece of content, such as its purpose, audience, context and style. This makes it easier for the writer to understand what they are to write and why.
There are template creation tools available too, that can help you create a template and manage workflow. GatherContent is a popular CMS tool that has the feature. Another similar tool is Content Snare, that allows you to create templates and allows writers to have their work approved or revised at one place. Many other such tools are available online.
b. Blog content
Blogs, unlike websites, are indirect marketing tools for a business. A blog is generally a means of redirecting traffic to your website without specifically advertising your business alone.
Blogs are mostly used to share information with a target audience. This information may be directly or indirectly related to your business. The purpose of blog content is to offer answers to questions that people have on anything related to your niche. Backlinking your blog to your website can help redirect traffic to the website.
Blog content generally has a more friendly and conversational tone, though not very colloquial. The content has to be informative and well-researched. Most importantly it has to be useful to the target audience and relevant to your business. These requirements must be conveyed to the writer.
Both blog and website content will also need some SEO research. SEO is indispensable for any kind of online content if you want it to appear in search engine results pages. This research can be done by the writers too, but it is best if you do it yourself. Try and find out what keywords and SEO practices will work best for your business, so that the information can be shared with the writers.
For your blog, research, strategize and zero in on these important considerations:
- Target audience (create some reader and customer personas you are after)
- SEO strategy
- Top level content themes, blog style and tone
- Any specific format you’d like to adopt (not necessary, but could be a differentiator from other similar blogs)
- Frequency of publication and ideal blog post length for your audience
2. Choose one of the many options to source your content from
Now that the planning is done and a content strategy has been laid out, you need to decide who will write your content for you. There are many options these days to get your content written. Following are the four key categories of content providers:
i. Freelance writers
This is usually the least expensive way of getting content written for your online platforms. Freelancers mostly work on a pay-per-job basis. You can hire freelancers through job postings or referrals.
The quality of work can be a concern in some cases though, if you haven’t already seen their work before. Also, a freelancer is not your employee and doesn’t have any binding commitments to your company. This could be a good temporary solution for small businesses or startups but not very feasible for long term projects.
ii. Freelance content platforms
If you want to avoid the bother of searching for a skilled freelance writer yourself, there are platforms that can help you find one. Freelance content platforms can be a great way to connect with skilled freelancers and get content written. With these platforms, there is more accountability.
There are 2 kinds of freelance platforms where you can find good blog and website copywriters:
a. Freelance platforms where you can post your content projects for bidding by several freelance writers
This option typically has long turnaround cycle, and you may still be limited to 1-2 writers that you decide to go with.
b. Dedicated writing freelance platforms where your projects are auto-matched and/or floated to several writers
These are faster and generally allow you multiple revision requests and even the option to reject content if it’s not up to the mark. Narrato Marketplace falls under this category.
More about Narrato Marketplace: It is a freelance content platform that deals purely with content writing. At Narrato, we match you with highly skilled freelance writers from your niche using smart algorithms, based on the requirements you state. Narrato’s USPs are advanced writer matching, fast turnaround, unlimited revisions, satisfaction guarantee and affordable pricing.
iii. Content writing agencies
If you want a more steady solution for your content writing needs, you can outsource it to a content writing agency. These agencies have their own experienced content writers. You have to send them your projects and their writers will conduct research and write content for you. The good thing about outsourcing your work is that it can be a long term agreement as well, which is usually not the case with individual freelancers.
Outsourcing your content writing work saves you the trouble of interviewing, hiring and training writers on your own. While some agencies only write and deliver content to you, others can offer you several complementary content marketing and publishing services.
There are numerous content writing and marketing agencies you can choose from. If you are looking for a content marketing solution at a reasonable price, you can try Godot Media. Godot Media offers excellent content writing services across various industries and markets.
iv. Full time in-house content writers
If you need a constant flow of content or have long term ongoing projects, an in-house content writer would be your best bet. In-house content writers hired by you will have better accountability and you will have more control over the content they create. Hiring should also cost you less than outsourcing in the long run.
This option is more viable for businesses that need a steady stream of content on a regular basis. For new businesses or smaller startups, hiring a full time content writer may not be a very economic solution.
3. Set clear guidelines, start small and scale, monitor the incoming work and offer timely feedback
Once the requirements and the content provider are decided, you are ready to go. But before you begin, it is important to set very clear and detailed guidelines for your writers. This helps you save time on corrections and revisions later on. Having good communication with your writers or content writing agencies is crucial.
For the first few times, you can try giving out smaller assignments. This will help you gauge the quality of the content and find out where improvements are needed. Share your feedback with the writers and tell them what’s working and what’s not. As things fall in place gradually, you can share bigger projects with them.
For a blog, you will need a continuous and steady production of content, which may be a little daunting in the beginning. Running out of blog topics is quite common when you have to dole out something every second day. Look for different ways to find blog topics for your writers. Consistency is important in blogging.
For website content, make sure that your content writers follow the template you have set. That will make things easier for your developers and web designers when creating a web page. It also leaves little scope for mistakes or irregularities.
Although you have assigned the task of creating your content to the writers, it is important to monitor the process and ensure that things are taking shape the way you want them to. Continuous monitoring and guidance throughout the process of content creation will improve the final outcome. Also provide timely feedback, both during the process and after completion. Offering your views on the work being done, while it is still in progress, can help the writers fix their errors on time. It also saves you the time required for reviewing.
To sum it up
There are innumerable options available to get your content written. What’s important is to find out what your requirements are and what kind of writing services would best meet those requirements.
Maintaining good communication with writers, setting clear guidelines and sharing honest feedback can go a long way in producing quality content for your website and blog.
