by Elle Ray | Jul 21, 2014 | Blog Writing
Ideas for Your Blog Can Come from Anywhere
By now, most investors know that you get the biggest bang — and lessen the overall risk — by investing your money in diversified funds. The old adage of “don’t put all your eggs in one basket” is true in many arenas, including the blogosphere.
The more authoritative your articles, the better, of course, but the more people you can reach, the better your chance of becoming recognized as the go-to expert in your field. To that end, we at Ray Access are taking our own advice and beginning to diversify our blog topics.
Writers Write
We are first and foremost writers. And we tout our uniqueness by also wearing editors’ hats with every post, blog, webpage and press release we create. As professional writers, we believe that no writing should ever be published that isn’t first read by another set of eyes, preferably a professional editor with a keen sense of tone, voice, grammar, style and sass.
Because that’s our strength, we’ve been devoting our informational blogs to the art and science of writing online — and getting your writing read by the right people. At least up to this point. As we continue to share our expertise through this blog, we now will begin diversifying to bring you articles and insights we believe important and interesting to all business people, including bloggers.
Mix It Up
In addition to writing about writing for the web, with topics like “why you need an image on your blog” and “what plagiarism does to your page rankings,” we’ll mix it up with articles about networking, health, decorating and fashion. With this new mix, we hope to give you interesting and informative topics to share with your friends and colleagues, to post on your own social sites and to raise your awareness.
You’re going to see us more frequently online too, as we deliver the fresh, insightful thoughts that are making us famous (or infamous, depending on your perspective). Our goal is to make the Ray Access blog a must-read for anyone who ever writes a post, reads a webpage or trolls the Internet for fun or profit — in a nutshell, nearly everyone.
Off the Path
OK, we admit that we’re being a tad shameless with this new direction that we’re taking our blog. But we want to increase our own visibility, too. The more informative, unique and important our blogs are, the more traffic we’re going to generate. We want our website to increase its online presence as our business grows. And it is growing.
We tell our clients that the more they post, the more they will increase traffic to their site. We want to lead by example. So don’t be surprised if you start reading articles related to a season, holiday or special event. Asheville, North Carolina, constantly presents us with interesting twists of the news. Maybe we’ll cover those too. We might even pop in an opinion or two. At the same time, you can expect more information about the art of writing for the web and all that it entails.
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.
by Mark Bloom | Jul 16, 2014 | Content Marketing
Thank You, Bob Dylan, for Giving Us the Words
Like many writers, we know we can always count on Bob Dylan lyrics to illustrate a point. These words, originally penned in the early 1960s, are truer now than ever before, but we’re not speaking of political turmoil. We’re speaking of technology and search engine optimization. Is it a stretch? We don’t think so, and we’ve allotted ourselves 500 or so words to persuade you, too.
Here’s the Situation
The Internet has changed the way we find information, products and services. Instead of the Yellow Pages, we turn on a connected device. Instead of the dictionary, we visit a dictionary website. Instead of a catalog, we search online.
Yet how that process works — entering a phrase or question into a search engine — also changes all the time. Ostensibly, the search engines want to serve you the sites that most likely will answer your question, but it’s often not an easy question to answer, no matter how many 1s and 0s you use.
As a result, the Internet has gone through several changes, as search engines look for the best algorithm to deliver the answers you want. Then you have the tech savvy developers who fudge the system with keywords, backlinks and paid ads. The past few years have seen this tug of war reach epic proportions.
On top of all that are the changing stylistic preferences of the public’s changing tastes. They want drop-down menus, menus down the side, fewer words, more words, sidebars, no sidebars, lots of photos or one good video. If you tried to keep up, you spent a lot of money.
And the point is this: What can you make of the mess that the Internet has become? If you have a business website, how can you stay on the first page of results when the formula the search engine uses to determine what’s “relevant” keeps changing?
It’s a serious question that deserves a serious answer. Luckily, you don’t have to rely on a search engine for this answer. You have Ray Access.
Assess Your Website
If you haven’t updated your website in the past five years, you may not be taken seriously. It’s no longer enough just to have a website; you need an active site. You need to provide useful information to your audience. To get their business, you have to first attract their attention and then hold it with the answers they are searching for.
Keywords matter, but not as much as having information people want. Readability — subheadings and lists that make the content easy to scan — matters too, but only if you have information people want. Let Ray Access give you a website assessment to determine the strengths and weaknesses of your current site.
Obviously, if the information on your website is out of date, no one will return, even if they happen upon your site. Your website is your Yellow Pages entry, your storefront and your company reputation, all wrapped up in a pretty package. If you’re not attracting visitors to your website, it might be time for a facelift. Or at least a remodeling with new content. If you need help, ask us for some affordable guidance.
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.
by Mark Bloom | Jun 20, 2014 | Small Business Advice
Why Your Customers Do Business with You
Every business faces competition. In America, competition is a given. It’s part of the invisible hand that moves markets. You likely don’t appreciate it, however, while your business is trying to make inroads into your competitors’ market share.
But competition is healthy. It can bring out the best in all of us, even if we lose the race, since the best lessons come not from victory but from defeat. And you can quote me on that.
What Do You Offer?
To get more business, you must have a strategy or plan or advantage over your rivals. Whatever it is — a superior product, 24/7/365 personalized customer service or simply that you have the best location — it is your unique value proposition. This is what sets you apart from your peers. It’s why you deserve a bigger share of the marketplace.
If you don’t have a unique value proposition, then you are no different from the shop down the street or the next service listed in the phone book. Without a unique value proposition, there’s no reason for potential customers to choose your business over another. So rethink your business plan and make sure you have a specific answer to that age-old question: Why should I buy from you?
How to Use Your Unique Value Proposition
You’ve done all the work and figured out your unique value proposition. You now know what sets your business apart. You have figured out why your business is so much better than your competition. So why doesn’t the world beat a path to your door? What’s holding you back?
The most obvious problem is that no one else knows what your unique value proposition is! Have you told anyone besides your spouse, your mom, and your employees? That’s right, you have to communicate your value to your target market, the very people who make the decisions to buy your products or services.
If you advertise, make sure your unique value proposition is front and center, clear and simple. Your potential customers want to know. You don’t have to persuade them to buy from you; you simply have to tell them why it’s in their best interest.
Ray Access Can Help
Ray Access is a content marketing firm. We provide content for your website, turning your site from a passive brochure into a attractive announcement. Your website should draw an audience and then turn those visitors into customers. That’s the purpose of a website. That’s the value of an effective website.
And that’s where Ray Access can help. We’ll turn your website into a marketing engine. We’ll expose your unique value proposition on every page. With words and pictures, we’ll give your visitors a reason to buy from you.
The Ray Access Value Proposition
So what’s our unique value proposition? You get two for the price of one. Ray Access is an everyday, all-the-time, true-blue BOGO. Buy one, get one free. There are other good writers out there and some pretty talented editors too. But when you hire Ray Access, you get both — every time.
No piece of writing leaves our hands until both Mark Bloom and Linda Ray have touched it. We each read and edit every blog, press release and web page. We bring years of professional journalism, book editing, magazine publishing, technical writing and research expertise to every job.
Contact us to discover how we can help you. You’ll quickly understand that Ray Access is more than a writing service. We provide content that will help your business grow.
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.
by Elle Ray | Jun 10, 2014 | Writing
How to Write Effectively in the 21st Century
Today’s Shakespeares look harder at page rankings and reader conversion numbers than at what’s actually on the page. But those days are fast coming to a close. Search engines have been tweaked to recognize the keyword-stuffed, quick-hit advert-articles that have plagued the Web for years. Now they are seeking — nay, demanding — that you put consistent, meaningful quality content on your website or just go home.
The Long or Short of It
The average visitor to a website leaves within 10 to 20 seconds — but that assumes there is obviously nothing of value on the page. Research now shows that if you can capture the attention of readers within those first important seconds, you can keep them there for much longer. And the longer the visit, the more likely you’ll make a sale.
The days of needing to keep blogs, Web pages and articles short to hold readers’ attention are gone. Born again is the prospect of enticing readers to continue reading, to find value in your writing and to stay — and even scroll — to finish your piece. According to researchers at Microsoft, the length of your copy is not as important as the first few lines of copy you offer. So whether you write 250 words or 2,500 words, if you don’t capture readers’ attention in the first couple lines, they’re out of there. Click.
Search Engines Like Quality
Now, attracting readers in the first place is another story. The top 10 listings on Google for a sample keyword search each had more than 2,000 words on their landing pages. The sites aren’t ranked high just because they have a lot of copy; they receive the top spots because they have a lot of rich copy — words that convey a useful message, a message that readers want to read and can’t stop reading. Websites that provide more of what readers want are getting the most respect from search engines.
The adage that’s been working its way through the Web-marketing world the last few years is: “Copy is king.” It seems now that copy is king, queen, jack and the entire court.
Readers Like Quality
Readers prefer rich copy, too. They are more willing to re-post blogs with longer, useful content than shorter, unappealing copy. Quick Sprout analyzed 327 blog posts and found that posts with more than 1,500 words received 22.6 percent more likes on Facebook and 68.1 percent more tweets than shorter articles.
One phenomena linked to these findings is that people are searching for more complex terms than ever before, using up to eight words in a search — which by the way is called a “long tail.” With more copy, you increase the odds that you’ll fit those searches. When they find you, the odds also increase that readers will convert to customers too.
So when asked whether it’s better to write more or less, the answer today is: “More is better!” Richer is better and more is better. But when you’ve got to have it all done right, more rich content is something that we at Ray Access can do too.
Ray Access Today
We’ve bought into the traditional rap that blogs need to be fewer than 500 words to be effective. But we’re retuning our concepts to align with the Google monster that rules so much of what occurs on the Web. Expect to see longer blogs from us occasionally. It’s still time-consuming, and we’ll have to charge more for longer blogs, but with the right combination of length and quality, we expect to get better results, just as you will.
We can’t just throw up some nonsense blog or give you just a quick peek at a really hot new trend. We’ve got to give you reasons and research, reality and really rich rewards if we expect you to stay. And if we expect you to convert and call us, we better give you something worth your while. Let us know. Did we?
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.
by Mark Bloom | Jun 4, 2014 | Writing
Choosing the Right Tone and Language
Targeting your website — or any communication from your company to your customers — is a matter of building a relationship. To make that connection, you have to use language that’s familiar to those you’re trying to reach. For example, it may be all right to use slang when you’re writing to attract teenagers, but not when your audience is composed of CEOs.
The language and style you employ in your writing should be geared to the audience — the customers — you want to attract. Speak their language, and you stand a better chance of connecting with them. If you build a relationship with your target demographic, whatever it is, you’ll stand a better chance of selling your products or services to them.
How Ray Access Does It
When we take on new clients, we always pose the same set of questions. One of them includes who their customers are: the general public, doctor’s offices, or women aged 35–55. Your target audience defines how we will write both your website and your blog posts.
We like to meet our clients in person, to get a feel for who they are and to listen to them when they speak. When we start writing for them, we set aside time for the client to approve the style and language, as well as the content, of our initial draft. We expect some back-and-forth of the copy until our client approves.
One time, a client removed all the contractions we’d put into the copy. Another client changed specific words. It’s exactly the kind of feedback we want at this stage. Once we know our client’s preferences, in addition to the target audience, we know we can deliver content that will appeal to both our client and the intended audience.
How You Can Do It
If you want to create your own content — for your website, your blog, or your brochure — you must know who you want to read what you write. Who is your audience? Who will buy your products or services? Write to them in a friendly, engaging way.
Whether you need to be formal or casual depends on both your personality and your audience. Study your competitor’s websites. See what type of language they use. Are they doing a good job connecting to their audience? How can you be different enough to stand out? These simple questions can point you in the right direction.
When You Can’t Do It
If you get stuck, or if you don’t know where to start despite the advice in this article, contact Ray Access for help. We are pros when it comes to writing your website, your blog posts, your brochure or whatever you need. We’ve written hundreds of blog posts for a diverse set of clients. We’ve written websites as small as six pages and as large as over a hundred pages. Since we are a partnership, we write and edit everything that we send to you, so you can be sure it’s clean copy free of errors.
Let us be your voice to your customers!
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.
by Elle Ray | May 27, 2014 | Blog Writing
And Why Current Events Should Matter to You
One of the most common — and most effective — ways to get consistent hits on your blog is to tie some of your topics to current events. When people are searching the web for information about a plane crash, an epidemic or a recent celebrity wedding, there’s a good chance that your newly posted, well-written blog may come up in the search. And after all, your blog should be attracting new visitors to your website.
Image courtesy of Gualberto107 / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Stay on Top of the News
To begin, you’ve got to stay tuned to the news of the day. You can’t expect to keep up-to-date on current events if you’re not a regular news reader. And that means all sections of the news cycle, from entertainment to world news, local happenings and celebrity gossip.
Get in the habit of scanning the headlines of a thorough daily news website that covers all the main topics of the day. Watch for a tie-in to your industry or geographic area. Then write a blog post that either answers questions that were raised or mentions your area of expertise.
Use Newsworthy Keywords
To get a search engine’s attention, you need to incorporate keywords that people may be searching for. If you’re writing about food poisoning to tie in with the latest cruise line outbreak, for example, include keywords such as “cruise line outbreak,” or “food poisoning on cruises.” If you’re blogging about allergies, tie into the spring allergy reports in the news with slogans commonly used.
If your tie-in is local, make sure to include the area as it’s referred to in the news. For example, a landslide in Western North Carolina may effect your area of Asheville, but the news keeps referring to the “WNC landslide.” Be sure to include the words “WNC landslide,” even if your blog is about how to prevent mold after flooding in the city of Asheville.
Write and Post Quickly
Just as quickly as news occurs and is reported, the media is on to the next big disaster or celebrity misbehavior. When you’re tapping into current events for your blog topics, make sure they really are timely. Attaching your name to the fires in California won’t be as effective a week after they’ve been extinguished. Nor will your blog post about how to communicate in a marriage hold as much search engine strength a month after a big celebrity divorce as it might when the famous couple first has a shouting match in public.
When you see news that you could tie into your own business, write the blog post that same day or contact Ray Access to quickly knock out a relevant article that provides unique content with a current event twist. Post it within 24 hours of the news reporting cycle to get the most from the tie-in.
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.
