You might not realize it, but content is what drives your company to success. Everything from what’s written on your company’s website – including blogs – to social media posts is content. Even though it’s the lifeblood of your business, you might still wonder if looking for content writing services in Maryland is a sound investment.
It’s a valid question. You, as the owner and/or CEO of your business, might be the one writing the content on your website. It’s also possible you’re in charge of all the social media accounts. At the very least, you’ve delegated these responsibilities to other people within your business. After all, who knows more about your business than you and your employees?
Content creation, when done correctly, takes a rather lengthy amount of time. Blog posts have to be constantly written and consistently posted, the information on your website needs to be maintained so the most accurate information is available, and managing your company’s Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn accounts take time as well.
If you are doing all of this, when do you have time to do all the other things your job requires? If you pass it along to someone else in your company, when will they have time to do their jobs?
The right content can turn potential clients into leads, and leads into actual clients. This is why content creation is so important to the success of your business. If you have limited bandwidth at your company and realize you need to seek help, here are a few things to keep in mind when looking for content writing services in Maryland.
Understanding your Business
The process of finding the right content writing team for your company can be rather daunting. You’re basically asking relative strangers to handle your company’s message, while trusting that they’ll be able to do a good job and not sink your business.
This is why you have to do your research on content writing services in Maryland before hiring anyone.
The top priority is making sure you hire content writers who understand your business – completely. You’re bringing in content writers to provide the voice for your company, so they need to fully understand all aspects of your business – everything your company does, your competition, and your company’s core values.
[tweetthis] The top priority is making sure you hire content writers who understand your business – completely. [/tweetthis]
During your search for content writing services in Maryland, you’ll have meetings and receive proposals from various firms. These firms or agencies should come to these meetings prepared, having already researched the main keys to your business. They should also come with plenty of questions about your company.
Once you decide on which firm to use, they should sit down with you again to come up with personas for your target audience, as well as figuring out a plan for blog posts and social media. Remember, your input is vital. If something doesn’t sound quite right, or you’d like to see changes, speak up. The content writing team is there to help improve your business.
A Keen Understanding of Your Target Audience
Since the blog and social media posts – as well as other information on your website – created by the content writers represent the voice of your company, it’s imperative they know your audience. If your business sells furniture for office spaces, it doesn’t do any good for your content to focus on people looking for couches for their homes.
Content writers must fully understand your target audience, which is why creating marketing personas is crucial. Marketing personas (or client personas) are pages that highlight your company’s target demographic.
Personas will include who the target might be (an office manager, a CFO or CEO, a sales team, or other types of customers or clients) and then break down each target into several sections.
- DEMOGRAPHIC: The focus here is on the target’s age, level of education, experience in the business, as well as any other pertinent factors about the individual.
- DAY TO DAY: What is the average day like for your target? What are their responsibilities? How long do they usually work per day and per week (if applicable)?
- PAIN POINTS: This is where you start to hone in on problems and solutions. What causes them to be stressed? What issues do they run into time and time again? It’s important to keep your company in mind – things your business can offer to alleviate these pain points – when coming up with these.
- OBJECTIONS: What are some reasons your target might not want to deal with your company? Price can always be an issue, as can being resistant to change.
- CORE MESSAGES: Once you create all of this information, you can come up with your core messages. The core messages will highlight what your business does in a way that would interest the target. How is your company the best at helping the target deal with their pain points on a day to day basis while assuaging any objections they might have?
Your company will more than likely have multiple targets, and content writers should have personas for each. The core messages might vary only slightly from persona to persona, but keep in mind different targets will probably have different pain points and objections. Make sure your new content writers keep this in mind as well.
Knowing How to Effectively Use SEO
We’ve already determined that lack of bandwidth within your company is a great reason for you to look for content writing services in Maryland, but there is another almost equally important reason: search engine optimization, or SEO.
All of the work, time, effort, and money spent on your website means very little if search engines aren’t able to find it. So, when a potential target does a search on Google for something your company does, it will either show up several search engine results pages (or SERPs) in, or not at all. Users will rarely journey past the first or second results page.
Any agency offering content writing services in Maryland can promise you results, but if they don’t truly understand how to effectively produce SEO-rich content, it’s just an empty – and costly – promise.
Everything on your website should be optimized for search engines – every page, every blog post … everything. A great content writing service, once they fully understand your business, will create keywords that are then used for pages and blog posts.
Keywords are the phrases people type into the search bar. Going back to our previous example, if your business sells furniture for office spaces, some keywords that might be created would be “business office furniture,” “furniture for office spaces,” “workplace desks,” etc. It’s important here to use words such as “business” and “workplace” since people search for furniture for their home offices as well.
SEO isn’t just about having the right keywords in place. Good SEO also includes providing meta data, alt tags, header tags, and more, on each page. This, along with the keywords, tells search engines what the page is about and, if someone does do a search for “workplace desks,” it increases the chances your website will show up on the first results page.
Solid Grasp on Social Media
Social media is everywhere, and a majority of businesses around the world are using it in some way. Since Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn combined have almost three billion users, it’s not surprising companies want to jump in head first.
While using social media is a great way for businesses to interact instantly with customers and clients – both current and potential – it can also lead to nightmare scenarios, such as inadvertently posting something you shouldn’t have, or leaving the people with which you’re hoping to connect wondering why you haven’t posted in months.
A great content writing service should handle your company’s social media in two ways.
The Plan
One of the worst things you can do when you have a social media account for your company is to ignore it. Just as Google frowns upon websites that don’t constantly add fresh content, your current and potential clients and customers will move on and unfriend/unfollow your business. Each month, content writers should put together a social media plan for your business that establishes what type of post should go out on what day. Ideally, your company should have in place two planned posts a week for Facebook and LinkedIn, and a post (or two) every day for Twitter. Once the plan is created, it can then be uploaded to any number of social scheduling sites (Hootsuite, Hubspot, Buffer, etc.). This way, your company never has to worry about not having social posts.
Stay Alert
It’s great to have the plan in place, but social media is in a constant state of change. What was important an hour ago might not be as important right this minute. That’s why content writers need to be on top of what’s trending and ways to get your company’s information in front of the most eyes. Your company should want to get the most out of social media and this would include interactions, engagements, follows, likes, etc. The more people that see your posts, the greater the chances of them looking at your social bio, or clicking on a link in the post. All of this leads to greater chances of potential leads visiting your website.
It’s also great to have content writers who can provide some personality to your social media accounts, but within the confines of your company’s core values. Successful companies are the ones who interact with other users. If you don’t have the time to do that on a consistent basis, it’s yet another reason to look for content writing services in Maryland.
Aficionados of Grammar
Think about the last few batches of resumes you received for a job at your company. When you looked over them, did you find any misspelled words or other typos? Did you continue to think about hiring that person, or did you move the resume into the “No” pile?
Granted, there are two sides to this grammar argument. Some say, in the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t matter. Typos happen and that should diminish what a person or company does. Others, however, see it as extremely unprofessional. In the case of the resume, if the applicant couldn’t even take the time to do a simple spell check before sending in their resume, what does that mean for their quality of work?
Proper grammar is important. If a potential client had to make a decision between your company and another business and, in their mind, it’s a tossup between the two, any little thing could tip the scales. If your website is filled with misspelled words and typos, that just might be enough to send that lead to your competitor.
Great content writers are sticklers when it comes to grammar. While it might not be something on everyone’s minds, poor grammar undermines your company’s credibility and makes your business come across as unprofessional.
[tweetthis]Make no mistake, you want content writers who are meticulous when it comes to grammar.[/tweetthis]
Think back to the resume – if you were to look for a company such as yours and found their website, how likely would you be to work with them if their website was filled with misspelled words and typos?
A cursory search on Google for “bad grammar business” results in 2.2 million results, with headlines such as “Bad Grammar is Bad for Business,” and “Is Bad Grammar Killing Your Brand?” Make no mistake, you want content writers who are meticulous when it comes to grammar. After all, when you’re bringing in content writing services in Maryland, you want an agency dedicated to keeping your digital presence looking as professional as your business.
For the Best Content Writing Services in Maryland, Look No Further
If you’ve decided the best thing for your company is to hire a knowledgeable, experienced content writing service, these bits of information can help you find a good agency. Finding a great agency, though, is up to you.
At the end of the day, you can have the best content writing service in the world, but if you’re not comfortable with the agency, or it seems as though the agency just doesn’t understand your company, it’s not beneficial to you or your business. Your company deserves to work with a talented group of people who care just as much about you as they do your company. With New North, you get just that.
New North, based in Frederick, Maryland, is a digital marketing agency staffed with experts in SEO, social media marketing, website design, and content writing and creation. We understand what your business is going through because we hear stories just like yours all the time. We know what works, what doesn’t, and we work with you to make sure your company succeeds.
So, if you’re looking for content writing services in Maryland you can trust, you’ve found us. Let us help your company grow. Contact us today by clicking this link, or by calling us at 240-575-5887, for a free, no-hassle consultation. We look forward to helping your company on its journey to success.