Tell Your Story to Sell Your Wares

by Mark Bloom | Apr 30, 2019 | Content Marketing

Content Marketing and Storytelling in Business

Let me tell you a story. It’s a love story, in a way. Boy meets girl. There’s passion, perseverance, even a few twists and turns. It has a happy ending. It’s our story, the story of Ray Access. It’s the convergence of content marketing and storytelling.

Content marketing and storytelling come together at Ray Access

When Mark Bloom met Linda Ray, the idea of drawing people to look at your website was new. As writers, they saw the possibilities. As they browsed the internet, they saw the need. By the time they formed Ray Access, they had developed a passion for useful content and websites that actually added value to the world.

Blogging for a Better World

At first, they advertised themselves as business bloggers. Blogging adds volume to a website while providing a platform to share:

Tips and tricks about a business
Insider information about an industry
How-to instructions to help businesses help themselves
Content targeted specifically to a segment of their market
Links to great information others are putting out
Opinions about related topics

This reflects the purpose of content marketing and storytelling adds value to each of these areas. Good writing — content that connects with an audience quickly and communicates its message effectively — is what people online look for. Making it personal helps an article to connect to its readers. And that’s exactly what Ray Access did in its early years.

An Evolution in Content Marketing

But the world doesn’t stay the same; it continues to evolve, sometimes sweeping the rug out from under your best-laid plans. And that’s what happened to Ray Access. Despite a dearth of quality blogs, businesses weren’t clamoring for them in large enough numbers. The entire business model, the foundation of Ray Access, was in danger of crumbling, leaving Mark and Linda in tight spot.

Should they widen their marketing? Seek new avenues to draw new clients? All options were on the table. Just as prospects looked their grimmest, opportunity struck. It was a quirky circumstance, an unforeseen happenstance. Once of their existing clients asked if they do website content.

“Of Course We Write Website Content!”

You have to remember, those were trying times. The business was struggling. Both Mark and Linda questioned the earlier passion for their craft. They didn’t get to say “No” often at all. But website content has a different purpose from blog posts. Blog posts are all content marketing and storytelling. Website content has to convert visitors into customers. It has to persuade people to contact and order products and services.

The two writers dove into the effort to learn the nuances between blog posts and website content. Their passion for their work was rekindled. The business was saved.

And They Lived Happily Ever After?

Well, not exactly. As every small business owner understands, running a business takes hard work and luck. But the happy ending (for now) is that the business is still going and still growing. Mark and Linda are still together, partners in a business that is a product of their passion for writing and their belief in a better, more effective internet.

Now you know a little bit more about Ray Access. You know Mark and Linda better, and you know what drives them in their day-to-day work. Content marketing and storytelling do come together to serve a higher purpose. Take advantage of both by contacting Ray Access to let us provide you with that content magic to help you better connect with your audience.

Ray Access is a content marketing firm that delivers targeted words to empower your business. Contact us about your specific project to receive a quote or discuss your needs. We write website copy, blog posts, e-newsletters and more. Everything we do is thoroughly researched, professionally edited and guaranteed original.

How to Get Your Blog Published

by Elle Ray | Dec 18, 2018 | Content Marketing

How to Increase Your Reputation and Your SEO

The term “blog” has expanded right along with the technology that gave it birth. Once upon a time, a blog was just a rambling of your thoughts as in an electronic diary or a vehicle to dispatch coupons and deals via newly sprouted social media channels. Today, a blog post is much more akin to an article published in a magazine.

Get your blog published in a magazine

Magazine articles, both online and in hard copy, are usually longer than quick marketing blurbs, and they’re much more professional than personal journal ramblings. Articles are closely edited. Articles serve a distinct purpose — to educate or entertain a specific publication’s audience. To get your blog published in a magazine, it must read much more like an article than a blog of the past.

Write with Authority

Online readers have become sophisticated. Today, they expect blogs to contain at least some useful information, backed up by references, or funny anecdotes that they can pass on or use to better their lives. When you post a thoughtful blog on your website and social channels, readers appreciate your efforts and hopefully pass along your words of wisdom on their way to becoming loyal customers … or at least loyal readers.

Thoughtful blogs also set you up as an expert in your field. To get your blog published in any other form or on anyone else’s website, you must present yourself as an industry expert. That means you have to know your stuff, while researching and quoting the other experts. Guest posts on other blog sites serve as links back to your site, and that’s one of the cornerstones of search engine optimization. So it’s worth writing with authority to get your blog published on another popular website.

Editors Seek Quality

Magazines, whether they’re online or strictly in hard copy, have high standards. They’ve either been operating for decades and already have a stellar reputation, or they’re new on the scene and want to build that kind of reputation. To get your blog published in a highly-coveted spot in a prized publication, you must follow a set of guidelines and protocols.

Those rules and regulations typically are either posted on the magazine’s website or they’re available through other sources, such as Freelance Writing or Writer’s Digest.

Other basic guidelines that apply to most media when you want to get your blog published include:

Follow the publication’s submission rules strictly and to the letter.
Get your writing edited by at least one other set of eyes. Even though they have their own editors, don’t submit work with blatant errors.
Read a number of issues of the publication to get a sense of the tone and style they prefer.
Submit your blog in the format requested.
Start small and get a few clips under your belt in local freebie magazines. Their writers’ policy is going to be less strict than that of national publications.
Attach a brief resume so editors know that you aren’t a total amateur, especially after you’ve got a few clips.
Proofread your queries and introductory emails. Consider these your cover letters to get your blog published. They must be as error-free as your article.
Address your queries and emails to a specific person. Never send it to an impersonal “info” address if you can help it.
Prepare to get rejected. It’s part of the package.

Eventually, You’ll Get Your Blog Published

If you don’t have an agent or marketing staff sending out your queries, requesting backlinks and introducing your writing to magazine editors, the process can be extremely time-consuming. It can get frustrating too.

But keep in mind that it takes only one “yes” to get you noticed on a national level. Remind yourself that there are readers who specifically want what you have to sell and are interested in what you have to say. In fact, write to those readers as if they already are your customers, and they’ll appreciate your expertise and believe that you know just what they need.

Content Marketing and SEO in the Real World

by Mark Bloom | Oct 30, 2018 | Content Marketing

How Can Content Marketing and SEO Co-Exist?

Here’s a true story, brought to us — and now to you — by one of our new clients. We won’t mention any names to protect everyone’s privacy. Since the story relates to all businesses, our client’s industry, location and size don’t even matter.

Every business needs to attract new customers, and many use content marketing and search engine optimization (SEO) to achieve results online. Content marketing can’t replace SEO, but SEO can’t be effective without content marketing. While they have to co-exist, your business has to find a workable balance between them.

Differences and Similarities

Both content marketing and SEO are inexact sciences. Both take some time to take effect and pay off. Both use the power of internet searches to prove that your business is the best option to the potential customers searching for products or services like yours. Yet each serves a slightly different purpose:

SEO uses various techniques to bring visitors to your website. It delivers visibility, so people can actually find your website. And a good SEO expert or firm makes sure your website attracts the right kind of people: those who may buy from you.
Content marketing, on the other hand, provides relevant information in a way that website visitors can understand and digest. It answers questions and builds trust. It’s content marketing that persuades visitors to actually take action and contact your business.

SEO Services Can’t Do Everything

Content marketing and SEO relate to each other, but neither can ignore the other, and that’s the crux of this story. In this case, the client was working with an SEO expert, who was doing everything he knew to perfect the visibility of the client’s website. Some of these techniques included:

Doing keyword research to pick the most appropriate phrases to target
Providing backlinks, linking to the company site from other reputable websites
Identifying website pages to ensure that the site covers all the necessary bases

The issues began when the client questioned the SEO expert. It wasn’t about the results, as they hadn’t even progressed that far. The SEO expert was only concerned with optimizing the site, as that’s the focus of SEO. But the client wanted an appealing site, too, one the company could be proud of.

When the SEO expert claimed the look and feel of the website wasn’t important, the client felt offended, and the relationship spiraled downhill from there. Now, we’re not stating that all SEO experts act this way. Most base their techniques on solid research. But even SEO experts disagree on strategy among themselves.

Business Requires Trust as Well as Results

The client made the painful (and expensive) decision to release the SEO expert. It meant admitting the relationship was irreparably damaged. It meant acknowledging that the money already paid was spent in vain. It meant that the client still had to find a way to market the business, somehow bringing content marketing and SEO into harmony.

Enter Ray Access. The client contacted us and presented the dilemma. While a content marketing firm like Ray Access can produce website and blog content to get the business noticed, we’re not in the SEO business. We don’t provide backlinks or track traffic.

How Content Marketing and SEO Work Together

So the client wanted to be sure that we could help the business move toward its goals of growth. Can content marketing replace SEO? No. But content marketing builds long-lasting, organic value, meaning that once it’s in place, the value of the content stays high for a long period of time. If it’s done correctly, content marketing answers the questions potential customers are typing into their search engines.

Every business website needs compelling content to present its case to motivate visitors to respond with a call or email message. Content marketing and SEO both work to bring visitors to the site, although content marketing’s strategy is more inbound-focused than outbound-focused. But SEO alone can’t help visitors once they arrive on the site. Content marketing creates the environment that turns visitors into customers.

Contact Ray Access today to discover how content marketing can help your business.

The Difference Between On-Site Blog Content and Off-Site Content

by Guest Blogger | Oct 23, 2018 | Content Marketing

For SEO, Use Both On-Site and Off-Site Content

Effective content creation for both on-site and off-site platforms has never been more important to the performance of your SEO campaign. The right content delivered at the right time in the right way can make all the difference to your bottom line. But the question is: are you doing it right?

Well-crafted on-site content can help strengthen your brand’s message and highlight your industry expertise. But you’ll also need to produce creative off-site content to help your business secure the best online coverage. In other words, spreading your message across a range of off-site publications increases your online rankings while amplifying your brand.

How Online Ranking Works

When done correctly, effective on-site content can increase your website’s search rankings. If you’re looking to become the go-to brand/service for your prospective customers, it’s crucial that you appear at the top of the online results page. But it’s no longer enough just to publish on your own website.

Google, the leading search engine, recently updated its search quality rating guidelines. This act has had a profound impact on the way content is created and used. In its revised 166-page document, Google has stated that it’s now paying greater attention to what users are searching for and what information they end up reading.

The tech-giant wants to focus on enhancing the user experience across its platform. The changes it has introduced reinforced this statement and initiative, which has had a ripple effect for content creators and marketers around the world.

Blogs Support On-Site Content

Ultimately, blog content on your business website supports your visitors’ journey, while providing them with the most insightful information for making good decisions. Blogs also support your website visitors when making a purchase, as they see you as a more trustworthy figure. There are a few techniques you can use to make sure your on-site blog content performs exceptionally well, such as:

Understand your audience. The first step to creating blog content is to understand who reads it — usually, this is your main demographic who already have an interest in your products or services. Although you’ve positioned yourself as an authoritative figure, you need to speak to your website visitors as if they’re on your level for both acquisition and retention purposes.
Write with clarity. Avoid any industry jargon, as this can be an instant turn-off for your readers. Be transparent with your audience and provide the information they need in a concise way that still delivers the same level of information.
Differentiate yourself. Use your blog content as a way to tell your audience that you’re better than your competitors. You can achieve this by showing off your unique selling proposition — whether it includes next-day delivery or a lengthy warranty on your products. If your article delivers useful information, your readers won’t mind you being slightly advertorial, as your products and services can be beneficial.
Create links. Internal links are a must in your blog post, but only if they’re relevant. If you’re discussing a certain product or service that you offer, you should link to the relevant website page to give readers more information and to help improve the overall page authority of the blog post.
End with a call to action. It’s essential that you close your blog post with a specific call to action. If a reader has made it all the way through your article, they’re already invested in your business and are more likely to perform that action.

Off-Site Content Serves a Different Purpose

Creating off-site content is completely different from publishing blog posts for your business website. In this case, you’re not trying to appeal to your customers, but to journalists and major publications that can drive authority (and traffic) to your website. Off-site content gives you the ability to increase your brand visibility.

It may require a full team of innovative and creative people to come up with outreach ideas to support an SEO campaign. You must carry out extensive research into what is relevant in the news. This can allow you to see what type of content journalists are looking for and what’s currently working well in terms of online coverage.

Off-Site Content Goals

For your off-site content, aim to create articles for publications that cover different niches. For example, an article that discusses how technology has improved health and safety in the workplace would appeal to technology, business and HR websites, all of which can improve your link-building strategy for your online marketing campaigns.

You should also create content around national or international events or celebrations. Editors are more likely to pick up this type of content because it will appeal to a wider audience and generate an overall buzz. You may have seen this with the World Cup recently; you’ll soon see the same with the upcoming holiday season.

Final Thoughts

Publications and journalists don’t take content pieces that are too advertorial; they want to provide readers with content that’s informative and unbiased. But that’s not to say they won’t credit you with either a brand mention or a link to one of your target pages.

Although content creation for both on-site and off-site may look similar, they’re very different in tone, format and objective. Target your on-site content to inform your readers and your off-site content to market your brand.

Georgie White is a copywriter at a digital marketing agency in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England. After completing his traineeship at the National Youth Film Academy and finishing his studies in Creative Media Production, Georgie transitioned to Mediaworks in August 2017, where he uses his creative flare to write unique content for a range of clients from all different industries.

Why Web Developers Shouldn’t Ignore Social Media

by Mark Bloom | Apr 24, 2018 | Social Media

Small Businesses Need to Promote Themselves

If you think your business is immune from social media, think again. Companies that ignore social media do so at their own peril. And that includes website developers — whether your business is a booming agency or a small one-person operation.

Despite the recent privacy issues hovering over a certain social media platform, social media in general is gaining traction in the global population. That makes it a prime target for marketing and building brand awareness. Companies that ignore social media don’t take advantage of these possibilities.

People Are Active on Social Media

As a web developer, your clients are most likely other businesses. That’s a broad spectrum, so maybe you target a specific niche:

Small businesses
Medical practices and hospitals
Finance and capital markets
Government projects
Lawyers’ offices
Real estate companies
Local-only businesses

You know whom you’re trying to attract. You should know, therefore, where you can find those decision-makers so you can reach out to them. Since most people spend some part of their day or week on social media, find the right channel and broadcast your message!

Marketing Requires Full Coverage

Companies that ignore social media aren’t reaching millions of potential customers. Physical marketing — on a billboard, in a newspaper or on your vehicle — only reach those people, including business owners, who see it. Unless your business only works with local companies, you’re missing a huge segment of the population.

There are few places to market to a national — or international — clientele outside of the internet. Few people read industry magazines anymore, and if they do, it’s online. Referrals still work as the number one way to land new business, but even that often takes place through social media sites! Effective marketing, as you likely know, requires reaching out on multiple channels. In other words, you must advertise not just through blog posts on your website, but on social media too.

People who buy your services need to see your company name three times or more before it sticks. Multiple channels increase your odds. So, don’t emulate companies that ignore social media and the value it can bring. It’s time to embrace social media.

How to Reach Your Social Media Audience

Business owners, marketing directors and other decision makers for the businesses you target as potential clients are online and on social media. It’s up to you to find them. Several examples to help guide you to the most appropriate platform include:

Creative business owners may be spending time on Pinterest or Instagram. They’re more likely to be young and perhaps looking for inspiration.
More traditional business people — including financiers, lawyers and realtors — likely spend time on LinkedIn. A business-first social media platform, LinkedIn can connect businesses.
Very many people have Facebook accounts, but usage varies, and the accounts are often personal, not professional. Your business can, however, build brand awareness by posting regularly and with smart content.
Twitter also hosts a mixed bag of users, but it’s more business-friendly than Facebook. Twitter has helped numerous industry leaders develop devoted followings. You can too.

Try your hand in your chosen platform. Be consistent. Post interesting and relevant content. Link back to your website. Engage, direct and share. By avoiding the tactics of companies that ignore social media, you can gain an advantage. Good luck!

How to Use Social Media to Promote Your Blog

by Elle Ray | Apr 17, 2018 | Social Media

Social Media Creates Awareness for Your Blog

Make a splash when you promote your blog on social media!

Whether you write your blog daily, weekly or monthly, you want people to read it. Even if you hire a service like Ray Access to write and edit your blog, it doesn’t do you any good unless it’s being read. Unread blogs — especially when they’re really well written and full of interesting, engaging material — are like packets of vegetable seeds left to rot in the pantry.

To get the most out of these seeds, you have to open the package, plant the seeds in dirt, water them, give them sunshine and nurture them until it’s time to reap the rewards. To allow others to get the most out of your thoughtful writing, you’ve got to promote your blog. You must find places it’ll be found and enjoyed. You’ve got to tout its content … and yes, even its existence!

Start Writing

An important step in marketing through social media is to create good content. Blogs are not ads and they aren’t tools to tout your company, your products or your services. Instead, blogs are a means to drive traffic to your website — where you get to do all those salesy things.

Blogs are intended to create a buzz about your expertise, your trend awareness and your interesting take on the latest news. Blogs should be informative and entertaining. They must implant an idea in your readers’ minds that make them want to learn more about you and your business. (If you don’t have the time, the energy or the ideas to write your blog, contact Ray Access for assistance.)

Social the Heck Out of It

Marketing your blog through social media means more than posting it on your company Facebook page, though that certainly is an integral part of how to promote your blog. In fact, one of the biggest reasons that more small business owners aren’t taking better advantage of social media to promote your blog is that it can be really time-consuming.

It’s easy to set up a few random links to automatically post to your social accounts every time you add new content to your site. It’s quite another proposition to position yourself in front of your target social audience on a regular and consistent basis — can you say daily?

It’s not enough just to share it once and then sit back and wait. Use your social media to promote your blog the same way you use your social accounts: in and out throughout the day, reposting, retweeting, rehashing, renewing and reviving the same post over and over and over. Tease your blog in different ways on various platforms, but get it out there more than once.

Stick to a Schedule When You Promote Your Blog

Just like a daily work schedule that gets you out of bed every morning at 7:00 am to catch a train or make it to your desk by 8:00, so a posting schedule guides your blogging. Write it on the same day of the week and post your blogs consistently at the same time every week. If you don’t have time, assign the job to someone else. Assign the schedules while you’re at it.

Then promote your blog on a similarly rigid schedule. It may seem like the new marketing trends that include social media are more flexible and fly by night, but the exact opposite is true. The more unstructured your platforms are, the more disciplined you need to be about meeting your deadlines and making those posts.

Keep It Friendly

Likes and retweets are signs that you’re someone who offers readers something valuable for their time. You’re providing information or entertainment they want to share. Whether you’re the go-to source for the latest workout or diet plan, or you make your readers smile with charming turns of phrase, you want your blogs to be liked, loved and passed on. So play nice.

When you promote your blog, you don’t want to come off as a spammer, stalking your friends with the same posts all through a single day. Consider the source. For example, you wouldn’t want to post the same blog on Facebook within hours. But on Twitter, the feeds run so quickly that the odds of running over your own blog are remote. Know your platform and then play by their unspoken rules of etiquette.

Short and Sweet and to the Point

One final thought (among many more possibilities) is that you can save yourself a lot of frustration and energy-zapping time by writing really quality blogs. Pull-out quotes from your extensive blog library make for great posts to platforms like Twitter and Instagram. Give Google+ a toot with a little jingle jangle from a blog you wrote last year. If you make every sentence as powerful as possible, each can almost stand on its own!

Add a cool caption to a crazy picture you took of the weather that ties in with an enticing blog you wrote last month about freakish weather-related services you offer. In other words, use creativity to promote your blog through social media. It’s mostly free, but it can take up a lot of time. If done right, though, you may be the next big social hit that everybody else wants to copy. Post that!

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