Effective Inbound Marketing Tips

It's no secret that a large number of companies out there are now turning to an article writing service to help them fully realize their content marketing and social media strategies. In fact, in a recent study of companies engaged in online marketing, only thirteen percent stated that they had no plans to outsource any of their content writing. Nearly twenty percent are outsourcing all of it, and that number is growing.

So, if you feel a little bad for thinking about hiring an article writing service, don't. You have plenty of good company. Chances are, a fair number of the commercial blogs you currently read are being written by outsourcers, and you don't even know it.

But, is it the right choice for you? Here are a few proverbial red flags that may mean it's time to look outside your company for your content writing needs.

Four Signs You Need An Article Writing Service

I. No one on your staff has studied writing.

Content writing is a specialized field, distinct even from copywriting. It takes years of practice to learn. It's not just a matter of knowing grammar and how to build an argument logically; you also need to know how to communicate with different groups in terms they will understand and relate to. Content writers also have to understand the concepts behind SEO and Inbound Marketing as well. If no one on your staff has this background, there's a good chance your content isn't doing as much for you as it could.

II. You find yourself without enough time to create good content.

Whether you personally are doing the writing, or you've handed it off to an employee, generating content takes time. A well-researched blog article takes at least an hour or two to create, and could take much longer if you're trying to advance a new or controversial idea. This adds significantly to the workload of whoever's doing it, and takes away from the time they can devote to doing the job you hired them for initially.

III. Your blog has a high bounce rate.

In inbound marketing parlance, a "bounce" is when someone clicks through to your page, but then leaves again shortly afterwards. In this scenario, it means your basic SEO strategies are working, because they're leading people to your website, but you're failing to engage them once they arrive. This is exactly the sort of situation that an article writing service is well-suited to address. They can give you the content you need to ensure your visitors stick around long enough see what you're offering.

IV. Few visitors are responding to your Calls to Action.

This is another sign that you are failing to engage your visitors. A successful Call to Action requires three basic things:

• The CTA button itself, which lures the visitor into clicking through to see what you have to offer,

• The landing page text, which convinces them to sign up and give you their information, and

• A visitor who is engaged enough to go through with all this.

Depending on the article writing service, they may or may not be able to help you with the CTA button itself. However, they can absolutely help with the other two points. Compelling content in your blog, and elsewhere on your website, will increase your credibility to visitors. Better landing page text will help ensure more people who click the button then go on to access your offerings, and convert into leads.

An Article Writing Service Makes Your Website More Effective

No matter what your reason for hiring one, a good article writing service will give you content that engages your visitors and helps convert them into leads, while simultaneously giving you and your employees more time to focus on running your business.

Does knowing that outsourcing content writing is extremely common make you more likely to hire an outsourced writer for yourself?  

Have you ever heard the old saying about how there are only about a dozen different plots for a story, and every book and movie ever made is just reworking one of them? Well, believe it or not, the same is true for blogs. There's really a pretty simple set of “formulas” for blog writing, and if you follow them, you can be turning out plenty of content in no time!

So, if you're writing blogs for your company, read on for some tips on how to keep producing high quality content that brings in new leads!

Writing Blogs Made Easy: A Quick Guide

1. Find a topic.

Sources of inspiration are all around you. Talk about an aspect of your industry, or your manufacturing process. Answer a question you heard recently. Listen to the news for subjects relevant to your business. Read other blogs, respond to what they say. Variety is the main key here. Don't write about the exact same thing every day.

2. Decide on a Format.

Here's where those formulas really come into play. There are really only a small number of basic formats when writing blogs. Once you come up with an idea and then pair it with one of these formats, you're already halfway there.

• Problem resolution. Basically, you just present a problem, explain its causes, and then detail the solution to that problem. This format works for everything from explaining flea prevention to advocating political policy.

• Top ten (or bottom ten) lists. Go easy on these. A good Top Ten list can go viral because of its simplicity, but there are so many out there that it's become a stale format.

• Answering questions. A FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) is a great subject for a blog, if you commonly get questions all regarding a specific area of your business.

• Prognostication. Everyone likes to slip on their fortune teller hat from time to time. Analyze trends in the industry (or the country) and explain how you think they'll affect your business down the line. These can be great for getting you noticed as a strategic thinker.

• News analysis. No matter what industry you're in, regulations constantly change, and major financial or political news can have a big impact on you. When the wind shifts, that's a great time to write a blog with your thoughts on it.

• Article response. If your industry has a friendly community, start blog-based conversations going with fellow members by writing a response to something they say.

3. Pick Keywords

Hopefully you already have a set of keywords for targeting your SEO. If not, now is definitely the time to do so. Find a couple keywords that are relevant enough to your topic that you can slip them in naturally when writing blogs. Generally, you don't want to have more than two or three different keywords.  Otherwise your writing becomes about shoehorning them in, rather than actually producing good content writing.

And remember, you only need to have a keyword density of around 1%-2% for your SEO, so don't overdo it.

4. Include Some Links and Citations

Including links are great for your SEO. Just like back in school, it's best to provide links with sources on facts you're presenting, since it both legitimizes your work and gets some outbound links in there. Also, don't forget to link to yourself as well. If you mention something you covered previously, link to it so interested visitors will keep reading what you have to say.

5. Proofread!

No, seriously, proofread it before posting. Your word processor isn't going to catch all your typos or grammatical errors. When in doubt, read it aloud. You'll hear errors your eyes don't catch.

That's it! That's really all you need to know. Writing blogs really isn't that hard, once you break it down step by step.

What blog writing tips have you discovered that worked for you?