Monthly Archives: June 2012

Harness the Value of Writing Research

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By Rhonda Campbell

writing research
Pic by Julo – Wikimedia Commons

By working with a professional writer you can achieve your goal to regularly connect and communicate with your target audience. You can also save yourself hours, if not days and weeks, of research time. This, of course, can translate into short and long-term financial savings.

This is possible because experienced writers, like technologists, have skills that allow them to drive your business forward in ways you may not have previously been aware of. Research, being aware of valid online and offline resources to access for the best facts and information, is amongst a talented writer’s skills. Furthermore, hiring a professional writer to conduct the right research for you can give you:

  • Deeper insights into trends impacting your target audience
  • Awareness of shifts in your industry
  • Opportunities to build and maintain consumer trust
  • Chance to distinguish yourself from other business owners
  • Wealth of quality written content to use to continue to expand your online and offline presence
  • Confidence in the written content that you publish
  • Knowledge of other types of content being published by other business leaders in your industry that you were previously unaware of

Hire a professional writer to create well researched articles for you and readers may come to see you as an expert in your industry. Include the author’s byline with the online articles and your business can get picked up by Google News, generating even more customer traffic for your business. Once articles your business publishes are picked up by media outlets like Google News, readers can create subject (e.g. marketing, writing, green living) or business name (e.g. Disney, Chistell, Pep Boys) alerts so they receive email notices when your company is mentioned in new articles, press releases, etc. It only takes seconds to create the alerts; however, the benefits your business can receive if hundreds or thousands of people create alerts on your company name may extend for years.

All of the above is driven by quality content. In addition, if your business hires a professional writer to research, write, self-edit and publish quality content that is written in an engaging style, you can build a following through social media channels and RSS feeds.

Contact me today to start fulfilling your writing and project management needs.  I look forward to hearing from you!

Writing for the Right Target Audience

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By Rhonda Campbell

Do you read all of these magazines regularly:  Outdoorsman, Romantic Times, People, Auto Racing, Essence, Ladies Home Journal, Guitar, Teddy Bear, Vogue Knitting, Track and Field News, Computer Weekly, Ad Busters, Art Doll Quarterly Wax Poetics and Parabola? My guess is that, even if you have a broad range of interests, you don’t read all of these magazines each month. In fact, I’m guessing you’ve never read all of these magazines. . . . Brace yourself. The same way you don’t read every magazine or slick that’s on the market, not every consumer wants the products and services that you develop and sell. The sooner you accept this fact, the sooner you can start developing content that attracts and retains the attention of your company’s target audience.

So, who is your target audience? Is your target audience comprised of college students who knit two or more days a week or is your target audience made up of middle aged men who pay a hundred dollars a month to buy tickets to NHRA drag races?

If you’ve been managing your business for two or more years you have enough information with which to create a composite of your target audience. For example, let’s say you own a restaurant – receipts can show you when your busiest hours are. If your customer traffic picks up significantly Monday through Friday at mid-day, there’s a good chance that a large part of your target audience is comprised of retirees or stay-at-home moms. You could easily verify this by coming to your restaurant during peak hours and observing your customer base.

Keep these people in mind as you create content for your newsletters, flyers, websites and social media accounts. You also want to work with a professional writer to create content of interests to the type of people living within a certain radius (e.g. 12 miles) of your restaurant. For example, if your restaurant was located close to a college, you’d want to hire a writer to create content that peaks the interests of this demographic as well.

The fact is, even without the Internet, as a business owner you benefit greatly when you create content that speaks to and resonates with your target audience. The value of content cannot be overstated. You need content to create radio ads, television ads, press releases, magazine articles, job descriptions, books, etc. Furthermore, the Internet provides additional tools with which to create and distribute your message, which can make this a very rewarding time for you as a business owner if you understand and appreciate the role writing plays in serving as a bridge you can cross to reach buying customers.

Once you understand this you’ll realize how important it is to describe your target audience and your business objectives to the professional writer you hire. An effective writer will also ask you questions about your business in order to get a clear image of your target audience. This, in turn, equips a professional writer to develop and write content that satisfies you and your customers. And you know what’s said about happy customers . . . they come back and give you more business.

Contact me to start fulfilling your writing needs today.

Using Articles to Build and Grow an Online Business Presence

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By Rhonda Campbell

Take a look at your Alexa (www.Alexa.com) website rankings to quickly measure the strength of your business’ online presence. Unless your business website has the Number One ranking I suggest that you continue to tweak your website. In fact, you might want to add a blog to your business website.

To get the most out of your blog you’re going to need to add new content or new articles to your blog about four to five times a week. About three months into doing this don’t be surprised to see that your business website receives spikes in search engine traffic on the days you upload new articles. This is what happened at Write Money Incorporated (www.writemoneyinc.com), a website that I create content for.

And it’s true. You will benefit from including targeted keywords in your articles. However, my experience as a professional freelance writer has been that just by writing naturally, certain phrases will appear in articles organically. When this happens articles flow smoothly, making them easier to read.

After all, the point of writing is to communicate with others. Writing is merely one tool available to you with which to communicate. Other tools, whether you are communicating with friends, family or customers, include speaking, illustrations, cooking, dancing and body language. Use two or more communication tools effectively and you can build a sizable following.

As a business owner you may be clear about the importance of connecting and communicating with your current and prospective customers. What you might find challenging, especially when you consider your jam packed work schedule, is writing hundreds and thousands of articles to post to your company’s blog. This is where the value of hiring and working with an experienced freelance writer surges.

A talented and experienced freelance writer can do more than drive traffic to your business website, introducing new customers to your products and services. A talented and experienced freelance writer can also help you increase your search engine rankings. If you place ads on your website, hiring and working with a freelance writer can also help you generate more ad revenue. Furthermore, if the freelance writer you hire and work with has valuable social media marketing experience, the benefits you receive broaden even more.

This article was written by Rhonda Campbell, an experienced freelance writer for hire at www.writerrhondacampbell.com