When they first appeared in the late 1990s, blogs were running commentaries of writers’ lives, much like many Twitter and Facebook accounts today. Blogs were seen as one person’s opinion and deemed as little more expert than a diary. Unfortunately, many business people still consider a blog to be a four-letter word: unnecessary and not worthy of investment.
Like most things Internet, however, the blog has evolved and changed. Today, business blog have efficiently replaced the company newsletter in that it can contain news about recent business happenings or convey information on a single subject. Blogs may still contain opinion and commentary, but they are well respected as vehicles for passing along pertinent and sometimes vital communications.
What a Blog Does
Blogs are one of the primary means of communication between professionals today, according to Penn State University. Coupled with technological tools such as RSS feeds, blogs are an inexpensive inclusion in a marketing toolbox. They allow professionals to get their ideas out to their readers easily at little cost. Blogs are short, fact-filled articles that can be sent through email, posted on a website and sent to mobile devices.
The bottom line is that a blog is one of the best vehicles around today to communicate with your audience, whether they are customers, friends or followers. And since most blogs allow comments, the platform gives you an opportunity to connect with that audience, to have an exchange of ideas and to solicit feedback on your services or products.
Blogs vs. Newsletters
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles/FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Replace your monthly newsletter with a set of four weekly blog articles (which are called “posts”). You don’t need expensive software to write and publish your posts. Once you have a website, the technology to allow blogs is usually free and quickly learned. Since everyone has a web browser, you don’t have to worry about mailing costs, and since blogs are stored online, you don’t even need a filing cabinet to store your back issues.
Producing a newsletter can be costly. One eight-page monthly newsletter professionally written and laid out can cost you up to $500 a month, and that price only goes up the more clients you have. In other words, newsletter technology doesn’t scale well. Blog posts, on the other hand, can be professionally written and produced for a little as $60 a week. They are much more accessible, and always available, to your clients.
A newsletter requires coordinating multiple articles produced in advance of publication. A blog post, in contrast, can be produced and published on the same day. Even if you post your newsletter to your website, which is always a good idea by the way, adds new content for search engines on a monthly or quarterly basis. While that’s good for search rankings, you can publish a new blog post every week, providing a constant stream of new content and forcing those search engines to re-index your site more frequently.
Blogs Are Better
So forget the old stereotype of what a blog is. It’s gone the way of the www. It’s no longer necessary to produce expensive newsletters. Join the 21st century and jump into the blogosphere. Because it’s not just a good idea; it’s what you need to get noticed. It’s what will set you apart from your competition.
When you’re ready to get started, contact us. We are communication professionals and can offer free advice. Or if you understand the value of a blog, but don’t have the internal resources to create one, can do the writing for you.
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.
Even in a business community as small and insular as in Asheville, businesses face competition for their services. Asheville restaurants, Asheville architects, even Asheville dentists need business blogs to give them an edge. Why? It’s all about visibility.
It’s All About Visibility
Blogs not only add flavor to a staid website, but they attract potential customers. Blog posts can be about anything, potentially tying the business blog to almost any topical subject. In fact, if you’re using your blog merely to tout your monthly specials, you’re not getting enough visibility out of your blog.
Use the space to educate your customers. Write about not only what sets you apart, but also about the inside tips about your industry. Write about Asheville and why you chose to live and do business here. Regardless of your subject matter, if you provide useful information, visitors will not only remember you, they’ll come back.
Climbing the Ranks
An active website helps its page rank, too, which is another way to increase business. When anyone searches for your business online — not by your company name but by the product or service you provide — the first five listings (after the advertisements) are the links most likely to be clicked on. The competition for those spots is fierce, but an active blog helps.
What’s an active website? A site with changing content. That doesn’t mean you have to redesign your website every week. That wouldn’t help anyone. But when you add valuable information (like blog posts and new pages) over time, it gets attention from the search engines and from Internet surfers.
Finding Services in Asheville
Since consumers are turning away from the yellow pages and moving online, your Asheville business needs to make sure your listing shows up when those consumers do their searches. As Asheville grows, the new arrivals are going to be looking for new dentists, realtors, gardening stores, home decorating stores, and more. If you want their business, you have to be where they’re looking.
So update your website. Start a blog. Get busy finding the consumers who are out there trying to find you. We’re experts in website content, which means we’re experts in helping your customers find you online.
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.
Linda and Mark at Ray Access claim to be able to write about any topic they can research. And it’s true. They’ve written about plastic surgery, retail furniture, medical issues, construction, website development, and a whole range of other topics. Yet the prevailing “wisdom” in the industry is to specialize. Why?
Specialization Creates Experts
In today’s world, people gravitate toward experts. Experts speak the truth, they get paid lots of money for their intimate knowledge of their chosen field, and businesses and the media seek them out for advice. What’s not to like about specialization?
First, it limits your market and your audience. If your specialization is computers, you may occasionally write a piece that appeals to a wider audience, but most of the time, you’re writing for geeks. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. If your specialization is construction, you’re going to be writing for businesses in that field. Period.
While it’s easier to brand your services as a writer if you specialize, you also limit your marketing reach. An expert only matters when someone needs an expert in that field. Most days, they don’t.
Generalization Creates Opportunity
Since we can write on virtually any topic, we can write for virtually any client. Are you a dentist? We can create a terrific, engaging blog for you. Are you a landscaper? We can provide dynamic website text that’s SEO-friendly and written for the common man (or woman).
Being generalists means we specialize in a new field with every new assignment we take. We can still relate to the general population, so we don’t get bogged down in jargon. We get to learn and write about lots of different topics, and that suits us fine.
So regardless what your business is, it’s in good hands when you hire us to write about it. We offer a free estimate.
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.
Between us, Mark and Linda have owned a number of small businesses. As writers and editors, the businesses we start never get very big… yet we always strive for excellence and always work hard at marketing our services. Despite that, we continually fall into the trap of losing that balance between working like crazy and looking for work like crazy.
Image courtesy of bplanet / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Some call it “the feast or famine cycle.” We’re not sure if that’s the best moniker for this syndrome, though. Maybe it should be “damned if you do and damned if you don’t.” If we’re working like crazy, that means we’re earning money, but we aren’t looking for future work. If we are looking for work like crazy, that means we aren’t earning any money. As a result, we try to find a balance, but we never can. We tend to approach our marketing efforts in a disorganized and disjointed way.
Marketing Sure Helps
We tell clients in person and in our blog that they must maintain their marketing to get consistent, effective results. While we’re pretty good about adding fresh content to our website — it is after all what we do best — we’re slackers when it comes to consistent marketing beyond the site. Part of the problem may be a certain amount of laziness, but one of the biggest hurdles is forcing ourselves to do those unpleasant tasks — like sales and cold calling. It’s hard work, even when we know the person we’re talking to can benefit from the services we provide.
At the same time, as Linda says, “it’s difficult to make myself look for work when I have plenty on my desk.” Both Linda and Mark freelance to other clients outside Ray Access. It’s a small but growing business that doesn’t yet provide enough income for both of us to survive on, so we can’t afford to ignore other ready streams of income in order to step up our marketing efforts. “Why spend money,” Linda asks, “when I can stay at my keyboard and make money?”
Identifying the Trap
And there’s the trap. We’ve experienced it in every business we’ve ever owned. We’ve heard countless similar tales from fellow entrepreneurs. It happened when Linda was reconditioning yachts on the Chesapeake Bay and when she headed a freelance writing business. It happened when Mark was trying to ramp up a video production company and when he ran his own editing business.
As Linda so aptly put it: “I’ll be so enamored with a single lucrative contract that I ignore the marketing end of the business. I’ll do the jobs I actually contract for and enjoy the most, while telling myself — life is good, why not? And then — bam! — the single biggest client decides to move out of town or close up shop. And I’m left in the dust. A contractor without a contract.”
This blog post falls outside of our usual informational topics — talking about the importance of putting great copy on your website — to give you a glimpse of the darker side of small business. You may already know all about it if you run a small company. If you don’t, let this serve as a warning.
Is open confession good for the soul? I don’t know and can’t think about it because I’ve got some writing to do. What keeps you up at night?
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.
An earlier article by a content marketing firm revealed that the fastest growing companies get at least 40 percent of their leads from online marketing. That’s impressive enough, but the tactics of online marketing are so common sense these days that it’s a wonder everyone isn’t doing it.
Your Website Can Work for You
The most obvious online marketing strategy is using your website to attract potential customers and to reach out into the Internet to actively find potential customers. How can this work? Here’s a football analogy:
If a team has the fastest wide receiver in the game, that’s a tactical advantage. If the quarterback never throws to that receiver, however, the team has lost any tactical advantage and might be better off without that super fast receiver, who probably cost them a lot of money.
Your business website is just like that super fast receiver. You can have the slickest site in the world, but if you don’t use it properly to gain a tactical advantage, you might as well post a single page with your phone number on it. That site probably cost you a lot of money that you are now wasting.
To get the benefit of any website, whether it’s a super fast receiver or a third-and-long specialist, you need to make it active. An active site attracts the very people who are looking for your business. Those people are potential customers. It’s that simple.
How do you make a site active? Again, the simple answer is to keep it fresh. An active blog adds content to your website weekly. Adding information and changing content on other pages — even your About Us page — keeps the search engines busy re-indexing your site while moving your site up the page rankings.
Don’t Forget the Other Obvious Strategy
The other obvious online marketing strategy is SEO. SEO, in case you’ve been under a rock since 1999, stands for Search Engine Optimization. This strategy involves making each page of your website a clear destination for a specific question. Everything from the copy to the photos to the title should all say the same thing: what the page is about.
Keywords play a large role in SEO, but too many can backfire. Keyword placement on the page is important, but again, consistency is the real key. A content provider (gee, like us) can rewrite your website content to be SEO-friendly as well as human-friendly. It’s a win-win.
Hence Our Motto
We truly believe these strategies can increase traffic to your website without breaking your budget. It led us to our motto, which is: “If you’re ignoring your website, it’s likely ignoring you.” We mean it, too. Keep your site active and updated, and your company will benefit. Remember, according to CopyPress.com, the fastest growing companies get 40 percent of their leads online. What’s your percentage?
So when you want to use your website to grow your business, we can help.
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.
When all you have is a funny video and a few lines of text in a Facebook post, those words better be correct. When you’re looking at a 140-character tweet, one misplaced modifier could ruin your message.
Grammar is not dead. In fact, the need to know and use proper grammar is more important than ever because you have less time and fewer opportunities to do it right. Marketers abbreviate words because they believe that the attention span of consumers has been reduced to that of a gnat. So the words you use — and how you use them — are vitally important. Take this simple example:
Let’s eat grandma.
Let’s eat, grandma.
Do you want to send out your latest ad to bring in customers to eat grandma? I think not. Then there’s the popular example: “A woman without her man is nothing.” Punctuation and grammar make all the difference when you write:
A woman, without her man, is nothing.
A woman, without her, man is nothing.
Grammar Lessons Pay Off
Photo by Valentina Degiorgis
We love the thousands of examples out there that cross our desks every day. We collect them. Here’s one of our favorites: “The average American consumes more than 400 Africans.” Apparently, we are a very hungry nation.
Improper grammar also makes you look incompetent. iFixit owner Kyle Wiens says: “Grammar signifies more than just a person’s ability to remember high school English. I’ve found that people who make fewer mistakes on a grammar test also make fewer mistakes when they are doing something completely unrelated to writing — like stocking shelves or labeling parts.” And he won’t hire anyone with bad grammar.
If you can’t remember your high school English lessons, please let someone else read your words before you publish them, especially if you are paying for the privilege. Websites, Facebook updates, LinkedIn pages, Twitter feeds and all your print advertising must be correct if you are to be taken seriously.
Put simply: proper spelling, punctuation and grammar increase your credibility. Bad writing doesn’t.
So regardless whether you know the difference between “it’s” and “its,” or you are just too busy to care, give Ray Access a chance to proof your words before you post. We’re not merely writers — we edit and proofread too.
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.
Believe it or not — and this is a big admission from a couple of writer/editors — not everyone loves to read. Online, these preferences are exacerbated. So, let us present our three reasons to have a website video:
1. People Don’t Read Online
Many Internet users scan the websites they visit, hoping to find the content or information they’re seeking. Very few actually read the words you’ve so carefully crafted on your home page. That’s why it’s important to include headings and subheadings: they help direct visitors (not readers) to the key information you have to share.
A video allows people to sit back and watch instead of leaning forward to read. A video presents information, instead of forcing a visitor to find it. A website video can connect with more potential customers than a page of text.
2. People Don’t Learn the Same Way
People have different preferences, which are innate to them and colors the way they learn. Some are listeners. Some are more visually oriented. Others learn by feeling as they go. Not everyone enjoys dissecting the words to find the true meaning of your message.
A video can connect with those people who are visual learners. Auditory and visual learners are drawn to video more than to text. A well-done video also can touch a viewer on an emotional level, too. All these advantages can make video a more compelling presentation than a page of text.
3. People Love to Watch Videos
Many people would rather watch a video than read a page of text. A video can be more entertaining, but it can also get a message across quickly and effectively. A website video also keeps a visitor on your site longer, and if it’s good, encourages the visitor to explore the rest of your site. A video is an ideal complement to solid writing that engages the readers.
A video appeals to Internet users looking to be entertained while they get their information. If you want to tell your story, get your message across, or increase sales, you should consider what a video will do for your website … and your business.
We Do Website Videos
Luckily, Ray Access can help. We can produce a website video for you that helps you realize your goals. Attract a bigger audience. Improve your website page rank. Sell your product or service. We can help you to creatively reach out. Watch a sample of our work and imagine the possibilities:
Addiction Recovery & Prevention (1:50)
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.
Some time ago, we blogged about press releases, since we have experience writing them. We said that press releases had to contain real news and be directed at the right audience. We said that over time, these press releases have value.
Well, that was then — this is now.
We learned recently that in the new Google paradigm, links in an online press releases hold no SEO value. None. Zip. Nada. So if you’re writing a press release and sending it out online, you should not expect a bump in the page ranking of your website, even if you placed links in the release that point back to you.
Is a Press Release Useless Then?
Here’s the interesting thing. While an online press release by itself has no value, the content of the release has as much value as it’s ever had.
How can that be, you may ask? Simple, as SEO expert Matt Cutts once summarized:
So the link from a press release will probably not count, but if that press release convinces an editor or a reporter to write a story about it… then if that newspaper links to your website as a result of that… it doesn’t matter whether it started or was sparked by a press release or it was started by an email that you sent.”
It’s Press Release Content That Matters
Press releases today are really just meant to provide a lead for someone in the media to pick up and run with. If your press release can inspire that kind of response, then it’s done its job.
If the reporter sites your company or its website in the article, that link, ladies and gentlemen, has tremendous value in SEO. Depending on the reach of the media outlet that writes and distributes the story, that link can drive all kinds of traffic to your site. It’s the ultimate in marketing: an independent third party writing about your company. And it all might start from a press release.
Long Live Press Releases!
So the press release isn’t dead. It isn’t a waste of time and money. But — and it’s a big “but” — the press release has to matter to its audience… and that audience is always the media. It has to contain significant news. And it has to be well written.
The team at Ray Access is constantly on the lookout for trends and tools in the world of online writing. When we find something of interest, we don’t hoard it for ourselves; we share it with you. Because you have a right to know.
We realize you can choose anyone to write your online content, whether it’s press releases, blog posts, or even your website text. You’ve probably know someone whose nephew writes pretty well and works for beer money. That’s fine, but remember you get what you pay for. When you want quality, professional work, writing that is effective and gets you attention, you need the pros. You need us. For more advice about our services, contact us today.
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.
Anyone with a fourth-grade education thinks he can be a writer.
Writers aren’t like athletes, who have visible physical attributes that define their profession. We’re not like scientists who have a wall full of diplomas. We look like ordinary people, so it’s easy for an untrained and unproven writer to blend in.
If any literate person with a pencil and a notepad can sit down and write something, then what’s the value of a professional? It’s not our spelling or grammar. It’s our skill at rhetorical writing. It’s our imaginative use of words. It’s our ability to get to the heart of a message and verbalize it. It’s our uncanny knack for saying the right thing at the right time.
What Good Writing Does
Good writing, therefore, isn’t just spell-checked writing. Good writing serves a purpose. It answers questions, makes the complex understandable, and fills a need.
For example, let’s say you have a website to sell cars. If your home page shows photos of the cars you sell and lists the technical specifications, it has some value. You know potential customers can come to your site, do their research, and decide if one of your cars is right for them.
But if your home page instead highlighted the cars’ best features and told stories about what makes your cars so great, you may get those potential customers to invest time and emotion into your products. You may be able to persuade those website visitors that not only are your cars great, but your company or dealership is the best place to buy them.
Why Good Writing Matters
We’re advocates of good writing not just because we’re writers. We want to see the world a better place, and good writing — good communication — helps move it in that direction. The art of writing is the art of storytelling. The art of rhetorical writing is the art of shaping a story to a target audience.
You have a story to tell. You have a product or service to sell. The two merge in the message. Your website, your blog and your communications should all reflect your core story in understandable ways. Your business writing should reach out and attract, entice and tantalize. Good writing can accomplish this.
Not Tricks, But Techniques
Good writing can combine business and pleasure. In other words, if you’re blogging about your catering business, you can write about the new royal boy named George and tie it into your business, whether through a special, a new item, or just a pondering about what the parents eat. It’s a technique that can potentially find a wider audience than people looking for caterers. And it works.
Another technique is to explore your business. There is more to catering, for example, than meets the eye, especially if the eye belongs to your customers. They don’t know what goes into making those delicious cakes and pies show up on time and piping hot. That’s what your blog can do; that’s what a blog is for: educating your customers. And if you can entertain them along the way, you’ll make friends and loyal fans.
This is what we do at Ray Access: we help you make fans. We help you reach out to potential customers with good writing techniques and stories that explain your advantage and uniqueness. Anyone can pick up a pencil, but not everyone can manage good writing. That’s why there are pros like us.
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.
Most savvy business owners today get a website before they even open their doors for business. While some actually need the site to run their companies, others do it just because everyone else is doing it. Is that a good enough reason to dump time and resources into something you’re not even sure you need?
If you’re a business owner, especially if you’re a small business owner, you know you have limited resources. Not just money, but time and energy, too. Building, maintaining and marketing a website, like any other business strategy, can use up those valuable, and limited, resources. Therefore, you should carefully consider your options and your needs before you rush to hire a web designer.
Go through the same process you would for any other business expense. Ask yourself why you need it, who you’re trying to reach and how it’s going to help you build your business. Know what you’re getting into before you invest. Below are our top four reasons to get a site of your own … as well as a few tips on when and how to use it.
1. Contact
Hardly anyone uses the yellow pages anymore. Is it worth the money to get your little square published alongside all your competitors? You’ll likely get a much better response with a good search engine hit. Even when people know your company name and just want to find your phone number, they’re more likely to search online through their home computers or smart phones than to pick up the yellow pages.
Make it easy for people — your prospective customers — to find you. Put your phone number, email address and physical address on your home page. Put this contact information in a conspicuous spot. In this era of instant gratification, visitors will click off your site in a heartbeat if they can’t find what they’re looking for. See our previous blog posts for other tips on how to optimize your website to attract visitors.
2. About You
Before future clients call you, however, they may want to find out a little bit about you and your company. Especially if your business requires a substantial investment, they will browse your site to see if you’re the right company to hire. For shoppers who do their research, provide clear, concise copy that highlights your goods and services. What do people need to know about your business to make the decision to hire you?
Furthermore, if your business is a brick-and-mortar destination, such as a restaurant or retail store, add a map or simple directions beside your address. Make this information easy to find. Make sure your hours of operation are listed on your home page too, because that’s one of the most common things customers look for online.
3. Unique Information
Another good strategy for attracting potential customers is to provide information that’s not available anywhere else. That’s the value of a well crafted blog, newsletter or set of articles on your site. When people search for a related topic, they’ll see a link to your web page, and they are now one click away from your website.
How does this work? Here’s an example. According to the Pew Research Center, a think tank that tackles all kinds of interesting issues, 80 percent of all Internet users have used the web to look up health information. That’s 93 million Americans. If you can write about a health-related topic that ties into your own business, you can tap into that market. If you own a shoe store, for example, provide information about hammer toes and flat feet. Write about how your food is gluten-free or low-fat.
4. Entertainment
Don’t underestimate the power of engaging entertainment. Most Internet users go online to be entertained. Satisfy them by providing some gossip about your area or your industry. Add videos and links to YouTube that relate to your business. Add top ten lists, a la David Letterman, and share funny quotes.
Give your readers reasons to keep coming back to your website. Marketing is about keeping your name in front of their eyes on a regular basis. Make your site so inviting that visitors will bookmark it and send links to their friends. “Hey, did you hear about the joke that Auntie May’s Cookies put up on her site today?”
If you can accomplish these four things on your website, you’ll have a successful site … and likely, a successful business. To learn more strategies for improving your website, contact us today.
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.
You have a story to tell. You have a product or service to sell. The two merge in the message. Your website, your blog and your communications should all reflect your core story in understandable ways. Your business writing should reach out and attract, entice and tantalize. Good writing can accomplish this.
Another good strategy for attracting potential customers is to provide information that’s not available anywhere else. That’s the value of a well crafted blog, newsletter or set of articles on your site. When people search for a related topic, they’ll see a link to your web page, and they are now one click away from your website.