Nazira Konysbayeva, Author inContenteam - Multilingual Copywriting Service

Addressing the B2B Digital Challenges: Work Ethics and Rules Established in Contenteam

Nazira Konysbayeva — Fri, 03 Jun 2022 06:28:36 +0000

What B2B companies think of themselves and how audiences view them has never been larger. Companies may think that they know what the customer needs but fail to transform their effort from something abstract to something actionable. For example, 88% of businesses believe it’s important to have a 360-degree view of customers across channels and platforms, but only 15% have a unified system to gain insights from customer data.

At this point, positioning yourself as a customer-centric business is seen as yet another sales tactic. That is unless you prove to adapt based on evolving customer behaviors, expectations, and preferences.

We’d like to share our approach to improving customers’ digital experiences – and how integrating technology, processes, and people help us achieve that.

Defining Customer-Centric Businesses in 2022

Customer-centered transformation is becoming more profound. 88% of customers say the experience a company provides is as important as its products or services. Let that sink in. The experience you deliver is as important as what the customer buys.

Like in any relationship, customers navigate business relationships based on whether their interactions with a company are easy and enjoyable. And even B2B collaborations demand a thoughtful, personal touch.

Of course, it’s somewhat ironic to talk about customer-centric businesses in abstract terms since we’ve just mentioned this as a reason for criticism. So, let’s define specific actions that make businesses customer-centric. Harvard Business Review writes:

Operationalize customer empathy

Hire for customer orientation

Democratize customer insights

Facilitate direct interaction with customers

Link employee culture to customer outcomes

Trust is also a key component. By its nature, customer trust is a customer-centric process, so it makes sense to focus on one for the sake of the other. Edelman suggests that businesses follow these core tenets:

Demonstrate tangible progress. Show how your systems work and how you deliver on your promises, all the time and with competence.

Focus on long-term thinking. Solutions can’t default to short-term gain.

Provide credible information. Operate based on thorough, well-reasoned arguments and strong evidence.

Roadblocks to B2B Digital Experiences and Our Solutions

Moving on to our experiences with customers’ digital experiences, we want to talk about solutions that worked. At Contenteam, we decided to break away from a product-focused or sales-driven culture by adapting our operational capabilities to what the customer needs.

1. Collaborating Across Time Zones

B2B professionals are busy, they have projects to manage and problems to solve. Besides, as consumers, we are all used to intelligence at our fingertips and receiving answers in a matter of seconds. For example, nearly 80% of American consumers say that speed is the most important element of a positive customer experience.

You might be able to guess that the pressure to deliver timely responses and resolutions becomes more alarming when you work with clients all over the world. What if you waste their time or fail to offer a solution? According to the same PwC report, 30% of clients leave after one bad experience. Not exactly the portion of clients you can generously afford to lose.

Solutions

As soon as we onboard a new client, we have the “time zone talk”. This allows us to assign the right project manager before we start missing deadlines, meeting times, or time-sensitive correspondence. During the talk, we also establish which time zone we’ll set as the standard. In most cases, the client’s local time – unless they, too, exist in different timezones.

In the early stages, it’s also important to communicate the project manager’s working hours. This helps us find the balance between ensuring our team’s workload is manageable and keeping the communication window as open as possible.

Over the years, we’ve found ways to use different time zones to our advantage. For example, the writer can hand off the article for overnight attention, and the manager will pick it up by the time the client gets to their desk.

2. Communicating Over Different Medium

Many companies implement digital transformation by simply transporting legacy processes, touchpoints, and experiences into an electronic format. Becoming a customer-centric company starts with understanding how companies use technology. And more importantly, it means using digital tools to offer value to different clients through different means.

Businesses that don’t put customers first often force them into channels they wouldn’t have chosen otherwise. That’s one part of the issue. But when managers try to solve the communication problem in isolation – by looking for new modes of communication – they forget that greater access to information is not itself the only solution.

It’s the approach that matters. To be more specific, it’s also important to show customers that the company prioritizes their convenience. There is a difference between adding communication channels “on request” and establishing the most suitable channels for a particular client.

Solutions

Our clients have a myriad of options for communicating with us – email, any major messenger, Slack, Google Meet, Zoom, Skype, etc.

In terms of tech adoption and preferences, we see generational differences. Millennials are more technologically adept and more open to change. Gen Z prefers shorter, crisper ways to communicate – chat, text, social media, and in-app comments. We see differences depending on the type of company, their scale, location, etc. And in each case, we find a mutually beneficial way to communicate.

Channel surfing can also be a good thing. Projects involve diverse tasks, so the ways we connect with clients and team members are equally diverse. Our clients know that they can switch to any alternative means of communication, whether it’s for productivity or convenience, and we’ll meet them there.

3. Ensuring Brand Cohesion and Quality Control

Contracting outside the company isn’t something out of the ordinary. Adding to the company’s intellectual capital and sharing risks is simply good business. But why do outsourced services often fail to meet the standards established within the company? Why does it feel generic, lacking in substance?

This is because neither party – the client and the contractor – commits enough time and dedication to make processes business-specific. In other words, they delegate to forget.

When considering a purchase, B2B buyers spend only 17% of the time meeting with potential contractors. More time is spent researching online and offline. When the partnership is already in full force, they spend even less time talking to the contractor. It’s no wonder that the final product seems generic.

Solutions

We solve it by establishing a direct line of contact with a potential client, which continues long after the start of the collaboration. For example, one of the first things we do is jump on a long video call to establish the project’s framework and objectives, basic rules, key team members, and more. The more information you give us – at the beginning and throughout the entire timeline – the more tailored the content produced for you will become.

A project manager with industry-specific experience is also an incredibly useful asset. They don’t need long introductions to the topic – they’ll get right to the chase. They’ll assign the right people to deliver content with the level of insight an in-house team would have. Only with all the perks of a remote agency.

What’s more, the content produced can bring double, triple, quadruple the value through localization. And this is where brand cohesion becomes more challenging than before. Delivering brand-specific content while also targeting a region-specific audience is a task for the best of the best.

4. Delivering to Multiple Decision-Makers

The buying cycle in B2B is long and complex. “The number of people involved in B2B solutions purchases has climbed from an average of 5.4 two years ago to 6.8 today,” – reports HRB.

There are many people with specific roles and responsibilities. Managers will be the ones researching the solutions, financial representatives will approve the spending, the legal departments will look over the contract, and more.

Solutions

To open-ended learning loops, we create single points of information. Depending on what decision-makers want to know, they will open a file with everything on the topic. For example, it can be a presentation with previous projects to showcase our experience, a commercial offer with all price estimates laid out, or a spreadsheet to schedule content creation.

All that complexity is put into an accessible format that everyone can keep up with. And, of course, each stakeholder our agency interacts with has the information they need to do their jobs. If not, you’ll always have a dedicated manager to arrange that.

Working With the Modern B2B Buyer

The conventional wisdom seems to always have been about going above and beyond to please the customer. This manifested in free products and free services, all for the purpose of exceeding customer expectations. But HBR research shows that companies that “try too hard” to win over customers only marginally improve their loyalty, in contrast, to simply meeting their needs.

And once again, there is an enormous gap between what companies think they do and what customers believe. The same report states that 89% of customer service heads said their strategy is to exceed expectations. Meanwhile, 84% of respondents said their expectations hadn’t been exceeded during their most recent business interaction.

All this leads to the conclusion that a customer-centric approach is about helping customers solve their problems quickly and easily. Businesses don’t always need to go the extra mile to delight and surprise. But every part of the team should understand the fundamental focus – make it easy for the customer.

Do you want to experience treatment like that? Let’s work together and make it happen!

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Bulk Content Production From A to Z: How to Get the Most and Get It Right

Nazira Konysbayeva — Wed, 11 May 2022 11:59:28 +0000

Much ink has been spilled over the “quality over quantity” debate. But quality and quantity don’t have to be mutually exclusive in content marketing – in fact, you probably need both. Numerous case studies show that the quantity of content can be a clear predictor of web traffic growth. Meaning, the more you publish, the more traffic it drives. But the quality has to be there.

The idea of bulk content production doesn’t have to turn into a trade-off between content quantity and quality. Whether you are an SEO specialist launching a new website with numerous content-rich pages, a marketer arranging a partner program to monetize your project, or anyone else looking for high volumes of content, we have your back. With a few tweaks, you can have the best of both worlds.

Companies want to double down on content production but don’t plan to increase the size of their marketing team. Who will do the writing then?

Out of 1,500 surveyed companies, 72% planned to increase their content marketing budget in 2022. However, 42% of these companies have only one to three content marketing specialists on their team, and 49% say it will stay the same.

So, companies have the resources to produce content in bulk but no teams to handle the planned increased production.

Source: The State of Content Marketing: 2022 Global Report

At Contenteam, we’ve managed many high-volume projects. And we want to share our experience and insights we’ve developed along the way – here is how to create in bulk!

Characteristics of a Bulk Project

Without dragging out the introduction, let’s quickly identify what constitutes a bulk project. Of course, no two projects are the same, but most of them do have overlining characteristics:

High volumes of content
Quick turnaround time
Consistent quality and tone
Requires a team of writers
Usually produced with search optimization in mind

Bulk content production can take a number of forms, depending on what the client needs and their marketing strategy. Here are the most common categories of batch content:

Blog articles
Location-specific web pages
Product or service descriptions
Social media posts for multiple platforms
Newsletters

How to Write a Brief for Quality Content in Bulk

With tens of thousands of words written per week, you need to make sure writers and editors have everything they need in the content brief.

What should be included in the brief (+ a tip for each item):

Client description – No matter how many articles there will be, each should tie back to the client and their strategy.
Target audience – Make sure writers think about whether what they’re writing makes sense to the reader.
Content purpose – Educate/motivate/other?
Buyers’ journey stage – Explain where the piece fits in the marketing funnel.
Brand style and tone of voice – Formal/informal/assertive/humorous/etc.
Topic – Mention that the writer can change the suggested title and headings.
Word count – It’s okay if writers slightly go over or under the required volume.
SEO keywords – Mention that keywords should be evenly spread across the article.
Article outline – To avoid misunderstandings, write a sentence or two explaining what you expect from each section.
References – Add as many as you want and consider specifying what exactly you like in competing articles.
Deadlines and milestones – Don’t make it the same day that you promised to the client. Take into account all subsequent steps (editors, experts, proofreaders)

Other recommendations:

Cluster key queries with as much detail and specifics as possible. This will help you avoid publishing different articles with the same collection of keywords – essentially, turning your website into its own competitor.
Ask writers to write meta tags for the article (title + description). It’s important for copywriters to understand that they are writing not any type of text but content for a website. With this small move, you’ll engage them in on-page optimization.
Give guidelines for illustrations – Do you want them drawn from scratch? If not, how and where should the writer get them? What parts of the texts should be illustrated?
Revise the brief and incorporate the edits. After you receive feedback for the first batches of texts, include new suggestions in the brief to avoid repetitive edits.

Any divergences from the brief must first be discussed with the client.

A Few Words on Plagiarism Checkers

When the client puts something along the lines of “write a unique text”, it doesn’t say much to the writer. What they mean is that they want an original article, based on the writer’s own research. But how do we measure it? Right, plagiarism checkers and percentages that both sides agree on in advance.

A content brief must contain a requirement for a percentage of unique content and specify the plagiarism checker the writer should use (ETXT, Copyscape, Content Watch, SmallSEOTools, Grammarly, etc.). Otherwise, there would be too much content to re-check and go into disputes over.

It’s not uncommon for writers to produce an original article, using no references or borrowing nothing from other articles, and still get a low uniqueness score. The opposite can also be true – the article can be weaved from different pieces of copied content and be considered unique.

Solution: choose reliable checkers that produce consistent results (even if you run them in different countries, with a slow internet connection, etc.) and work with writing teams you can trust.

Dissecting Good and Bad Creative Briefs

Below are two examples of content briefs – good and bad, slightly trimmed. We won’t provide additional commentary, but don’t worry – you’ll see why you put these briefs in their corresponding categories.

How to Structure the Perfect Team

Let’s start with the line-up.

Project manager (or editor-in-chief) – The link between the client and the team.
Writers – Choose the appropriate number of writers depending on the size of the project. But don’t go overboard – otherwise, your writers will be sitting about much work during a large-scale project.
Editors – Within one project, we have at least two editors for two separate tasks – for checking SEO requirements and for checking the content itself.
Experts – To fact-check the text and minimize edit’s on the client’s end, which considering the volume, would just be overwhelming.
Proofreaders – To ensure there are no grammatical, formatting, spelling, punctuation, or other errors.

Baseline requirements: accomplished, flexible, capable of honoring deadlines, good team players.

The choice of editors, experts, and proofreaders is generally the same, whether the work is voluminous or not. Of course, they should have a good track record (meaning, they won’t slow everyone else down) and be informed of the tighter deadlines for deliverables. It’s the writers who you should select most carefully because they’re the ones who can ultimately float or sink the content ship.

For high-demanding batch tasks, it’s better to work with your trusted writers, who won’t need as much guidance as new additions to the team. Experienced writers allow you to increase the output – with each passing piece of writing, they learn to deliver more for less through contingent engagements.

If, however, you’ll need to expand the team to handle the workload, check their command of the target language, walk them through each item of the brief, explain the entire process and what’s expected of them, and introduce them into the bulk project through smaller tasks with longer deadlines. Sometimes, taking a chance on less experienced talent works out. But other times, they will let you down, so have your backup writer briefed and ready to take over.

Different Types of Content Writers and When to Use Them

A bulk content writing project calls for a lot of writers. But your main selection criteria should be whether the writer is fit for the assignment rather than whoever is free.

Niche copywriters fill a specific role in the ecosystem – someone can be exceptionally skilled at writing how-to guides, and someone can be a master of storytelling and emotional marketing. And, of course, a writer with a background in a specific sector, let’s say, blockchain and fintech, will be more valuable in crypto projects.

The point is not to pigeonhole your writers – just have a core team of your go-to people for different topics and types of content. Bulk writing can get monotonous, so the project manager should keep an eye on go-to writers. With time, they may run out of ideas to talk about the same things and compromise the quality of content. Consider pulling them out of their comfort zone and switching things up (i.e., assign tasks they don’t usually do).

Unified Presentation and a Single Source of Truth

No two copywriters are exactly the same, which is both a good and a bad thing. The “bad thing” is getting a mishmash of different styles and techniques in a bulk project, which is supposed to create a unified brand experience. We have two solutions (which should be used in combination).

Solution #1: Create a style guide

A detailed style guide can ensure all writers understand editorial guidelines, formatting specifications, and the idea behind the project. Have a set of standards to make the content look and feel unified.

Solution #2: Make the project manager the “single source of truth”

A single source of truth is based on the idea of aggregating data from different sources into a single location. That single location should be the project manager. If anyone from the team has a question or concern, they will always have a direct line of contact with the person who holds the most information.

How to Streamline the Batch Content Creation Process

You may already have a general idea of content production stages just from the composition of the editorial team. And you would be right – before declaring any piece of content complete, it goes through the entire process of content creation, editing, and quality checks.

Managers are responsible for 70% of deviations in team engagement.

The team should have a specific team member responsible for monitoring each step – the project manager. This way, they will ensure bulk content production has good, consistent, and engaging results and minimize lags.

The graph above only depicts one assignment for one author. When the work is voluminous in nature, the graph is multiplied and arranged in staggered rows. The SEO editor checks assignment A and sends it to the content editor, who is finishing up the edit for assignment B, in the meantime, the writer is working on assignment C, and the expert and the proofreader are also busy with their own tasks, and so on… Overall, everyone is occupied, and the production is organized with workloads and different time zones in mind.

Here are a few other ways we use to streamline content production:

The project manager should estimate how much time each stage will take. This is where their expertise comes in handy – they should set tighter deadlines for routine tasks and leave more time for creative assignments and research-based articles.
Try to fit all editing checks within a day or two since they take the least amount of time.
Set successive deadlines – e.g., one task for Monday, one for Wednesday, and one for Friday rather than all three for Friday.
Notice when writers routinely submit tasks at night – they might burn out from working late.

Set a regular payment schedule for everyone on the team. Frequent compensation can help keep everyone motivated.

How to Prevent Duplicates (Both Intentional and Accidental)

Duplicates can be caused by:

Two writers working on the similar tasks who followed the same structure,
One writer unconsciously repeating their previous works,
One writer intentionally copying text to go through the batch faster, mong other situations.

We won’t tell you how to deal with writers who submit substandard texts (because it should be decided on a case-by-case basis), but we will tell you how to spot duplicates – use bulk-cross comparison services. Here are the platforms we use:

According to Google Devs, if your site suffers from duplicate content issues, the algorithm will choose one version of the content to show in our search results. So, two texts before posting can be 90% unique but very similar. The search results will only show the first version you’ll post, while the other one will be as good as nothing.

How to Bulk Translate Content

Source: https://csa-research.com/Featured-Content/For-Global-Enterprises/Global-Growth/CRWB-Series/CRWB-B2C

By bulk translating, we don’t mean machine translating all of your content. MT is not suitable for most translation circumstances and has yet to replace human translation. Yes, translating software produce lightning-speed results, but its faults lead to inaccuracy, misunderstanding, and sometimes even offense. A better alternative – expert localization services.

When you spend a lot of time producing original content, it would be a shame to miss out on traffic from other languages. First, assess where your traffic is coming from. If you see foreign traffic that is simply bouncing, focus on these languages first. If translating all of your content seems like a lot of work, send out high-priority sections rather than entire content trees for translation into one or more languages.

The good thing about bulk translation is that you can overlap it with bulk content production. Just make sure not to overwhelm your proofreaders (remember the tips for setting deadlines).

Is It Possible to Produce Multilingual Content in Bulk?

Yes, as long as you’re working with the right people!

Recently, we published a case study detailing how we managed to produce 2-3 articles in 4 languages per week. In short, we used all the tips and tricks from this article. The main difference was that we assembled four teams, one per language, but had one project manager overseeing all of them. And there you go – real-life proof that our recommendations work.

Broadly speaking, we manage bulk writing in one language and bulk writing in different languages by following the same formula (obviously, adapting to your project’s specifics). If you want to see this formula in action, get in touch! Even if your publishing schedule seems like an impossible feat, let us assure you that high volumes of relevant, personalized content on a tight schedule is nothing Contenteam can’t handle. Need 100,000 per week? Let’s discuss!

Concluding Thoughts

Here is what we want you to remember about bulk content production:

The content brief should be clear, thorough, and regularly updated.
You’ll need at least three writers, one SEO editor, one content editor, one fact-checker, and one proofreader per project.
Choose your go-to writers for specific types of content.
Have a style guide to ensure the content follows a unified message and tone of voice.
The project manager should monitor each stage of content creation.
No one in the team should sit idle at any given time.
The finished work should be cross-checked with other texts from the same assignment batch.
Choose expert localization over machine translation, even when handling high volumes of text.
Multilingual content in bulk is just as manageable as bulk content in one language.

Сообщение Bulk Content Production From A to Z: How to Get the Most and Get It Right появились сначала на Contenteam - Multilingual Copywriting Service.

Crypto Marketing Mistakes: What Makes Your Campaigns Tank

Nazira Konysbayeva — Thu, 17 Mar 2022 13:24:04 +0000

Crypto-related perceptions continually evolve, largely influenced by marketing campaigns and media representations. However, as digital currencies gain mainstream popularity, marketers have to deal not only with more enthusiasts but also with more skeptics. Persuading a skeptic can be fun, though.

At Contenteam, we have our fair share of experience in promoting crypto projects. And we’ve made a few mistakes along the way (that we learn from, of course). So, we want to share our insight into things you shouldn’t do unless you want to blow your marketing budget.

5 Things to NEVER Include in Your Crypto Marketing Strategies

Let’s get straight to the chase – here is what you won’t find in a good crypto campaign.

Misleading Messages

Avoid phrases that portray cryptocurrency as “simple and easy”, the platforms as “trusted”, security as “never been hacked”, and trading as “risk-free”. For one, it puts you on the radar of regulators, which pinned crypto ads as a red alert priority. The enforcement work varies from country to country, but since crypto is borderless, you can get in trouble (and possibly banned) in any of them. Yes, complaints and investigations will create a buzz; but not the kind you want. But you also don’t want to seem disingenuous in front of your customers. Building trust is just as important as building a brand, so your marketing materials should not be misleading or socially irresponsible. Go out of your way to inform readers about the potential downsides of crypto investing and build awareness around these complex and volatile products. Even if you sense preference for small risks with moderate rewards, don’t make crypto products something that they aren’t. Being honest will save you from having unsatisfied customers, to say the least.

Irrelevant Channels

Source: ING

The chart above shows where survey respondents learned most of what they know about cryptocurrency. The news and online research take the lead. While it might be hard to get your company featured on the national news, getting smaller-coverage media attention is not out of your reach. It can be through direct pitching – actively “chasing” journalists to cover your story. Or it can be an industry event that gets good PR.

The category of online research is arguably more enticing. This is where you have the most power to build your image and boost recognition. There are many different corners on the web you can tap into – social media, discussion platforms (Reddit, Quora), your own blog on the website.

One of the most common mistakes we see in crypto marketing is pursuing the work channels. So, before pouting efforts into any of them, identify your audience and find a channel to match. You’ll be surprised to learn that crypto is not only for the young.

All Figures, No Explanations

Many crypto projects use figures to explain abstract concepts but fail to give context or provide explanations. For example, if you say “Coin X has a throughput of 5,300 TPS, and a transaction time of 10 min”, do you expect regular users to see it as an advantage? They may be able to understand the latter part. But if you don’t at least compare it to Bitcoin’s speed (5 transactions per second), consider this talking point lost. Many people build their knowledge of cryptocurrencies passively. Here is how we suggest helping your readers switch to active learning:

Figures should have descriptive titles and captions. The latter should be succinct enough to understand at first glance.
Images should be simple, accessible, and visually appealing (consider adding brand colors and design elements).
Choose the right points to highlight – the facts that proved relevant and useful to your readers’ everyday financial lives.

All style and no substance…

People who are “in the know” have precautionary ways to analyze crypto projects. Even those who are blissfully unaware of scammers tend to make assessments of crypto projects and altcoins.

Here are the areas where you can convey the value of the project:

Whitepaper – A token’s whitepaper is where you outline the goals (realistic!) and explain the mechanism.
“About the team” section – What reputable the team members have worked in the past? What are their qualifications? Do they have experience in the blockchain ecosystem?
Social media – Build a large community supporting the cause. Facebook, Twitter, Telegram, and Reddit are good places to start.
Project announcements – Keep users updated on the latest announcement. Make sure to look at the comments to garner user sentiment pertaining to the news.
Blog – Want to seem more credible? Create valuable content that is free for all users.

Non-Segmented Strategies

Don’t expect all audiences to respond well to the same crypto marketing strategies. In the best-case scenario, you’ll only attract one group; in the worst-case scenario, the message will lose its meaning and reach no one in particular.

In general, we can separate five groups of engagement:

Active owners – They are optimistic and feel confident about the global economy. Many believe crypto will replace traditional fiat currencies. They are more likely to participate in industry events, engage in new ventures (like NFTs), and become brand advocates.
Passive owners – They also have a positive perception of crypto. Even if the market goes up and down, these people believe crypto will come out higher in the long term. They are concerned about financial institutions and want to be confident in the longevity of the project.
Curious – They did some research and haven’t purchased any crypto products. These people are less likely to believe that cryptocurrency is convenient and not too complicated in everyday use (here’s your chance to prove them wrong).
Skeptics – This group has negative perceptions of crypto. Their most frequent sources of information about crypto are word of mouth and news; perhaps, you can double down on advertising triggered by customer experiences.
Unengaged – They are similar to skeptics but don’t display nearly as much aversion. As blank slates, they don’t need a special approach, but the more engaging and attention-grabbing, the better.

Marketing Fails (Crypto Projects Edition)

As mentioned, many scammers are exploiting the popularity of cryptocurrency. Boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. and rapper DJ Khaled learn this the hard way. A few years back, they became brand representatives for Centra Tech, which is now remembered as a $25 million ICO scam banked on celebrity promotion. “You can call me Floyd ‘Crypto’ Mayweather from now on” did not turn out well.

This was not a one-off case. When some companies manage to scam investors out of millions of real dollars, this has an effect on the entire crypto landscape. So in 2022, the use of celebrity endorsements in crypto advertising isn’t seen as credible as it once was.

Aside from reverse influencer marketing fails from 2018, we can look at the ASA’s (Advertising Standards Authority) rulings of December in 2021. Portraying crypto investing as something simple can get your ad banned.

Example: Register in minutes, deposit instantly, then make super-easy and secure crypto trades.

The majority of banned ads held back information necessary for investment decision-making. If you imply that crypto’s past performance will always be reflected in future movements, that can at least get you heavily criticized.

Example: $5 in #Bitcoin in 2010 would be worth over $100,000 in January 2021. Don’t miss out on the next decade.

Trivializing crypto trading activities is another way to lose credibility points.

Example: FREE Bitcoin worth $10 for every pizza bought.

Why Crypto Brands Failed to Hijack the Super Bowl

To give credit where credit’s due, commercials for Coinbase, FTX, eToro, and Crypto.com, an NFT integration by Bud Light, and Binance were impressive. At the very least, they showed that crypto made it high enough to be featured on such a massive stage.

But Super Bowl 2022 took place when Bitcoin and Ethereum had shed half their value since their peak just a couple of months prior. So, it was particularly hard to attract new investors into the crypto boom.

FTX “DON’T MISS OUT”

Larry David shrugs off life-changing inventions throughout history – from the wheel to (you guessed it) crypto. Calling your future customers too cautious and short-sighted can get you a few laughs but does not invite brand loyalty.

CRYPTO.COM “LEBRON”

LeBron James met his high school self to give some advice. The ad failed to communicate what Crypto.com actually is.

BUD LIGHT “ZERO IN THE WAY OF POSSIBILITY”

Similar to the previous ad, Bud Light does nothing to explain or advance the understanding of crypto or NFTs. For some, the announcement of 12,722 NFTs, $399 each, may be enough but not to the general public.

How to Engage Different Types of Crypto-Aware Consumers

If you want to spark interest in a crypto project, there are a few triggers you can implement. They are centered around building wealth & diversifying investments, freedom & flexibility, and shaping new financial systems.

Becoming Crypto Investors/Traders

Passive owners are often motivated by wealth-building potential. In fact, many skeptics are equally intrigued by that. Few other industries experienced such quick and unprecedented growth as cryptocurrency, so it’s not surprising that people want to capitalize on it.

Those who buy cryptocurrencies as a long-term wealth generator need to be convinced of the coin’s further growth. Communicate what factors can drive it and what can protect the asset against inflation.

Using Crypto for International Remittances

Active owners, as well as curious users, take advantage of the global nature of cryptocurrency. The type of content they see should highlight freedom and flexibility. Talk about the ability to send funds without sneaky bank exchange markups bypass existing financial networks and related restrictions. Low fees, 24/7, borderless – all of it can interest this segment of your audience.

Building New Financial Ways and Disrupting Traditional Systems

Many active owners view crypto as something more than a technological phenomenon. They consider it an essential tool or unliking the potential of new-age financial systems. To appeal to them, show the cultural movement that a given project brings about. Talk about the intrinsic value of the project and the coin, consider introducing a bit of FOMO.

Concerns to Address

While we’re here, let’s also briefly talk about customer concerns that you can respond to through content:

The bad reputation of crypto – You can’t deny scams and criminal activity in the crypto community. But you should prove that you’re a legitimate company (strong online presence, social proof like reviews, etc.)
Fear of losing assets – Share advice for keeping your crypto secure. Also, explain how volatility and changing regulation may affect the value of crypto investments and what tools can help benefit from different market situations.
Steep learning curve – This comes from uncertainty around the fundamentals, which you can also get rid of by just providing information. E.g., review financial products and write articles.
Negative environmental impact – If your project uses an alternative protocol with low energy consumption, explain how it works. Perhaps, your project has no negative environmental impact at all.

Our crypto and fintech writers know the terminology, understand the technology and stay up to date with the latest trends. But perhaps most importantly, they can make any type of content engaging, even when on complex topics.

The crypto is flooded with content every day. So, let Contenteam make your articles stand out from the crowd!

Сообщение Crypto Marketing Mistakes: What Makes Your Campaigns Tank появились сначала на Contenteam - Multilingual Copywriting Service.

Everything You Should Know About a Copywriting Agency

Nazira Konysbayeva — Fri, 21 Jan 2022 13:25:31 +0000

Think about all of the different things that require a copy in the business world: blog posts, ads, landing pages, other web pages, mailouts, etc. Generic copies rarely make it to the top search results, not to mention the lack of substantial website traffic. But what about fully structured teams of skilled writers and editors ready to take on the job? That’s the joy of working with a copywriting agency.

In today’s article, we’ll talk about the ins and outs of SEO copywriting – various positions within the team, how they work together, advantages of cooperating with professionals, stumbling blocks, and everything in between. There is a lot to talk about, so no time to spare!

Importance of Copywriting in Digital Marketing

Let’s start with the reasons to jump on the copywriting bandwagon.

Boosts Your SEO

Top-ranking websites have original, in-depth, and long-form content. This is what an SEO copywriting company will help you produce. Copywriters work closely with SEO requirements, helping them write texts that don’t need further optimization to perform well on search engines.

Makes Your Brand Recognizable

Half-empty websites look not only lacking but also close to scammy. That’s because professional-looking website design is only part of the equation.

Website content helps you establish your tone of voice – fun, serious, credible, either of or all of the above. Readers will learn to recognize your style and become more loyal (familiar brand = trustworthy brand). And for those visitors who are purely looking for information, the content will be a gateway to learning what your company does.

Makes You Money and Saves Your Money

Having established your brand and found your clients, a big part of the marketing job is done. Of course, it’s a never-ending cycle. And this is when your ever-green content comes into play – traffic of potential customers will continue coming in long after the article is posted.

If a visitor is compelled to stay on the page thanks to good content, they’re more likely to act. This wide net you cast with quality content has exceptionally good ROI.

“Make it simple. Make it memorable. Make it inviting to look at. Make it fun to read.”

Leo Burnett

pioneer American advertising executive

The perfect balance of all four qualities – simplicity, memorability, noticeability, and entertainment – is hard to achieve. This is exactly why you can’t ask your average employee to write your copies. Yes, they are well-versed in the topic and understand your company’s business processes, but that doesn’t always translate well to text.

The Anatomy of a B2B Copywriting Agency

Despite the seemingly straightforward work process, a copywriting agency actually comprises multiple job titles. The idea is that having every workflow organized and interwoven with each other minimizes the time and overhead for a final product.

We’ve found that almost every project requires a team with the following structure.

Managers (Editors-in-Chief)

They are the primary contact between a client and an agency. Their job involves discussing the forthcoming project with the client and then communicating this information with the rest of the team. Chief editors give out assignments, oversee processes and deadlines, and overall, bridge the gap between the client writers+editors while keeping the spirits up of all parties.

If there are questions/edits/notes on either side, a manager is the one to convey it to the other side. Mind you, good studios might not even need it.

Writers

Are you worried that your company blog makes your readers snooze? Then here is how you avoid indifferent and dispassionate articles – professional niche copywriters. They specialize in just several topics or formats, allowing them to dive deeper and be more creative. These writers create sit-up-and-listen content and, most importantly, make it valuable for readers.

Editors

They work closely with writers to make sure they follow all specifications of the technical task, including the recommended structure, keywords, formatting, intent, overall message, etc. Editors act as a link between the writer and the editor-in-chief, sending edits to the first and final text to the latter.

Experts

Let’s say we have a technical copywriter who’s writing marketing materials like case studies, brochures, website copy, and product guides for technical/financial/other industries. While the text may be good enough, it can always be better. In our experience, the best result is ensured by a specialist with relevant, hands-on experience.

We have experts from different fields who help authors write strong copies that go beyond basic research. They can be an intermediary link at different stages – from initial project discussions to reviewing edit iterations.

Proofreaders

Proofreading is the big final check and polish before the text is sent to the client. Proofreaders look for typos, incorrect punctuation, other discrepancies in the grammar, and major inconsistencies. Generally, they do not change any of the content, especially after the text was reviewed by an expert.

All of these people play an indispensable part in creating content:

Without a smart and attentive writer, there would not be high-value text.
Without an editor, the client would have to meticulously check whether the writer followed the points of the technical task, included the keywords, and explored the topic to a meaningful extent all on their own.
Without an expert, it would be difficult to fact-check information that the editor-in-chief might not be sufficiently versed in.
Without a proofreader, there might be grammar and stylistic mistakes, especially the ones overlooked by grammar checker services.

The struggle of organizing and managing processes in a remote website copywriting agency is a whole other story, which you can learn all about in our Medium post.

From First Encounter to Finished Text: How a Copywriting Agency Works

It all starts with the client. They are the launch point of this complex mechanism of interactions, technical specifications, and the back-and-forth exchanges with the chief editor. Let’s pull the wraps off using an example.

A hypothetical client ABC wants to promote their company online. They need a competent article to publish on a large cryptocurrency portal. A semantic specialist collects keywords for ABC, an SEO specialist drafts requirements for plagiarism checks, text length, and other parameters.

Then ABC Reaches Out to a Digital Copywriting Agency

They share the technical assignment with the chief editor, who reviews the required volume of the text and estimates the approximate price bracket. Together with ABC, the manager discusses all the important details, for example, the target audience for the text – British, American, Australian, Canadian, or some other segment. This will affect the editor-in-chief’s choice of authors and editors. ABC makes the prepayment and goes on about their usual business while the agency works on the task.

Let’s Talk More About the Team Selection Process

We’ve already talked about our ground rule – to choose writers based on their specialization (even more, this point is often covered in our client case studies).

Now, for this example, the manager chooses writer(s) skilled in fintech and cryptocurrency topics. At the same time, they talk with an expert and let them know about the project and upcoming texts. Then, they select an editor and discuss optimal times to submit (if you read our Medium post, you already know about the intricacies of working in different time zones).

If needed, the manager also adds notes to the technical task for the writer. It may be something that the client talked about during a call or some personal insights).

Here Is What Happens When the Text Is Ready

The editor checks the text – whether it complies with the technical specification – and forwards it to the expert for fact-checking. There is no strict protocol for the expert, so the subsequent actions may vary. Sometimes, the expert adds a couple of examples from their own experience to liven up the text. Sometimes, they adjust or update factual statements.

Now, it’s the proofreader’s turn – they carefully check the text for errors to ensure correct grammar, clear syntax, and stylistic consistency. The chief editor looks over the final version, sends it to the client ABC, and after approval, the article can be published!

ABC then posts the article on the target page, let’s say the company’s blog, thus creating a new highway for incoming traffic and new leads.

“Every product has a unique personality and it is your job to find it.”

Joe Sugarman

sold 20 million BluBlocker sunglasses through both direct mail and infomercials

People that are personally involved in creating a product – those inside the company – can often forget how potential buyers view it. Copywriters bring in the outsider’s perspective that may have been lost during all iterations of product development. Copywriters are also very familiar with marketing concepts – like target audiences and buying personas – so they will match the tone of the text to what readers will positively respond to.

Challenges That People Don’t Talk About

The sequence of events leading up to a polished text holds a few considerations that often stay behind the scenes. Yet they are no less important than all the obvious steps. Edits, financial matters, and comments from the client are commonplace in the everyday life of an SEO copywriting agency.

Edits

This word brings up bad memories for some people. But edits don’t always sting. Usually, clients make comments that align with the pre-approved technical task, so no edits out of the left field. The editor-in-chief receives the comments, forwards them to the performers, and supervises revision.

Direct communication with the manager is easier for the client. They don’t need to think about who to address – an author, an expert, or a proofreader. The editor-in-chief will understand whose area of expertise the edits are meant for and make sure they get the note.

Estimated vs. Final Volumes

The technical task includes an approximate number of words for the future text. These numbers can be based on similar texts by competitors. This establishes the framework for the text.

Authors always follow the text requirements, but the finished text doesn’t always precisely correspond to them. The final volume, after edits, revisions, etc., can be higher or lower than expected. Therefore, after a client approves the text, the editor-in-chief will match the volume of the final article against the estimates.

This information is included in the reports (often in spreadsheets) so that all charges are transparent for the client. The total volume may be covered by the prepayment or not. And this must be taken into account from the client’s side: the prepayment amount is not the final cost of the task, so be prepared for adjustments.

Underpayments and Overpayments

Additional payments after the final approval are a regular thing, which isn’t a surprise to either party. Typically, they are not substantial: a miscalculation of 100 words is considered standard for smaller texts. It’s a different matter when the initial calculation of the volume turned out to be vastly incorrect. The editor-in-chief always discusses such situations with the client: if the text doesn’t fit the supposed budget, some parts may need to be removed from the text.

But! Good authors never resort to filler text. So, simply cutting up the text – removing several sentences from different paragraphs – will not work. In most cases, the client agrees that the extra volume adds value to the text and pays the difference.

The opposite can also be true. The prepayment may be higher than the final cost of the task. Then the editor-in-chief offers two options: set aside the amount for future tasks and avoid back-and-forth payments, or return it to the client. The first option is more common.

Is Hiring a Freelance Copywriter Worth It?

Let’s say you already agree that content creation – no matter if it’s for a blog, landing page, or third-arty publications – needs to be delegated. A business owner writing blog articles is, of course, commendable but also excessive. Now, the question is who to delegate it to.

Should you give the task to a freelancer or contact a copywriting studio? All clients have their preferences, but we tried to gather unbiased pros and cons of working with both. To start off, we’ll look at freelance copywriters and their contributions to business operations.

You can find copywriters on platforms like Upwork, social media like LinkedIn, personal connections. There are versatile authors, but we’re mostly interested in those with niche expertise. But in either case, the key elements of cooperation stay the same.

Pros

More affordable. At least, in most cases. You pay the person right away and pay for only one service – writing. No editing, proofreading, fact-checking. That said, an experienced copywriter can be expensive, with the starting rate of $75+ per 1000 words going into hundreds.

Fast results. You can often bypass the contract stage and simply agree on the terms of cooperation. The writer receives the advance payment and starts writing. Assuming that you find a competent author quick enough.

Flexible adaptation to your requirements. You will introduce a new member to your project so that they produce precisely the kind of content you need. Over time, you may be able to achieve efficiency and closeness. Many believe that this will minimize factual mistakes (whether you agree with this statement is up to you).

Cons

It’s hard to find a good writer. Yes, there are numerous services with thousands of copywriters. The one we mentioned, Upwork, features 55 thousand writers. A good writer who: a) understands your field, b) follows deadlines, c) is a good communicator, d) submits genuinely good articles, these workers are rare. There are few professionals, and since they know their worth, they charge a lot. That is, the main advantage of working with freelancers – the low rates – becomes a disadvantage.

Unreliable quality of articles without an editor. Even talented writers need an editor and proofreader. This becomes especially important as you scale up your content production. Bear in mind that the cooperation of authors and editors can extend your content budget.

Flexible adaptation to your requirements. You will introduce a new member to your project so that they produce precisely the kind of content you need. Over time, you may be able to achieve efficiency and closeness. Many believe that this will minimize factual mistakes (whether you agree with this statement is up to you).

A lot of effort. You need to spend your time looking for the right author and communicating with them. And, most likely, that time can be spent otherwise – improving your product/service, expanding business operations, etc.
Clients also note the following inconveniences: freelancers are notorious for disregarding technical tasks – they simply ignore some requirements. This increases the number of iterations and edits and the time it takes to create one text.

Are Agencies Better Than Freelancers and In-House Writers?

Let’s talk about a freelance copywriting agency, shall we? Not to be confused with individual freelancers covered in the previous section. There are also a few things to be said about agency vs. hiring a full-time writer. However, freelancers and writers on staff are similar, so we’ll mainly focus on agencies.

As we talk about a copywriting agency (company, studio, etc.), we are referring to a team of writers, editors, experts, and an editor-in-chief. Here is why many clients prefer when the chief editor from an agency forms a team specifically for the project in hand.

5 Factors Pushing Companies to Work With an Agency

Delegated selection process (among everything else). The editor-in-chief will do it for you – assemble the team (of Avengers, if needed) that perfectly matches your product offer, topic, format. As you can guess, subsequent content creation stages are also covered.
Consistent quality. Each text is created by a whole expert team. Before making its way to the client, it goes through several checks by an editor, proofreader, and expert. By the end, you have an excellent product in terms of content and SEO requirements.
Ease of communication. Clients and writers don’t speak the same language. Not always literally – they sometimes don’t understand each other. Clients may not know the specific terms to explain what they need, while writers may not be able to solve crises and respond to complaints. A manager can handle both sides.
No need to explain technical requirements. An agency is a well-oiled machine where members learn how to understand each other on the fly. All you need is to find your groove with the chief editor – that’s easier than training multiple people on staff.
There are guarantees. Studios always strive to develop long-term relationships with clients and value their reputation. Should any disputed situations arise, they will be resolved peacefully. Plus, there is a contract.

One additional note about edits: freelancers don’t view edits as a priority. They are much happier to work on another text (possibly, from a different client). It sometimes takes a lot to convince them to revise. With an agency, on the other hand, an editor-in-chief will ensure that you receive the text with all the corrections at the agreed time.

“Good writing is about telling the truth.”

Anne Lamott

progressive political activist, public speaker, and writing teacher

Competent writers don’t need to embellish or overstretch facts. They are skilled enough to look at a product or service and figure out exactly what features to highlight. They will be kind and gracious, but it won’t involve misleading readers into buying. Quite the contrary – it will involve presenting the truth in a way that will persuade you to buy your own product.

The Point of Congestion

Price. Yes, the best copywriting agencies usually have higher rates than individual copywriters. But there is a good reason for that – you’re paying for an entire up and running editorial team. Should we remind you that you get a well-written text by a competent author, checked by an editor for SEO requirements, fact-checked by an expert, and proofread for grammar?

The price you pay for streamlined processes is worth it, not only in theory but also according to our clients. See for yourself – just send us an email or a message to the chatbot, and our editorial team will quickly get the process started.

Hottest Copywriting Niches in 2022

Simply put, the ratio of demand to supply makes a niche hot and fresh. Though the same niche can have variability – depending on clients to clients and projects – some fields are notoriously competitive. That is, there are many companies fighting for consumers’ attention and not many qualified copywriters to make attention-worthy content.

Let’s talk about two prime examples – fintech and IT.

Financial Copywriting Agency

The fintech market can be segmented into API, AI, blockchain, distributed computing big data, process automation, etc. And in each category, there is a need for sharp, relevant content. This search calls for a dedicated remote crew, the one assembled based on the project’s requirements to write:

White papers
Case studies
Press releases
Interviews
Presentations for investors
Price predictions
News
Educational materials

If you operate in this business segment, rest assured knowing that we speak your language. But most importantly, we also speak the language of your audience, be it retail clients or large corporations.

IT Copywriting Agency

Experts have never been as optimistic about digital market prosperity as in 2022. Gartner analyzed the sales by thousands of vendors across the entire range of IT products and services and forecasted a 5.1% growth in spending this year. So, if you haven’t already invested in IT content, it’s not too late.

There are overlapping types of content between fintech and IT, so let’s only name the ones we haven’t already mentioned:

Product use cases
Landing pages
Expert blog articles
Ebooks
Pitch decks
Guest posts
Push notifications

Сopywriting Services for Small Businesses

It’s possible that these past two years have made a long-term dent – many are still dealing with supply chain disruptions and even closures by policy mandate, downward demand shifts, and health concerns. Small businesses can’t rely on the brand carrying them through these tough economic times. We found that making strategic efforts to grow online is always worth a try.

As you remember from our discussion on freelance and in-house writers, they can be more pain than gain. And even if you convince your employee to write something for you, it may not render the results you want.

The latest reports show that over the past 12 months, the number of internet users has grown by about 8%. So, whether you’re looking to attract local customers or anywhere else on the globe, your audience is online. This is where you should channel your message and expertise – online.

As a small business with a small team (at least, for now), you’re probably used to outsourcing talent. And since content production is not like a building contractor or network provider, you don’t need a ‘copywriting agency near me’ – we can work with you wherever on Earth you are.

“Copy is a direct conversation with the consumer.”

Shirley Polykoff

one of America’s best-known copywriters

Copywriting drives a lot of knowledge from customer service. World-class customer service is about treating humans like humans, and so is copywriting. For example, еhe goal of both is to answer the customer’s need and make them feel heard.

What Makes Great Copies: Top Copywriters in the World and Our Approach

Eugene Schwartz, who famously worked only three hours a day (a dream come true), once said: “I write with my ears.” He wasn’t talking about the rhythm or musicality of text. Schwartz was talking about listening. To a client – what makes the product unique, who it’s for, etc., and to customers – what they need. Then the copy writes itself. That has been Contenteam’s method from day one – closely working with clients (messages, calls, interviews) and being the reader’s friend.

Victor Schwab was one of the first copywriters to talk about calls to action. Without making it too intense, we sprinkle in CTAs as advice. After all, you shouldn’t expect readers to pick up barely noticeable suggestions – if you want them to click a link in an email to read your latest blog post – you have to put yourself out there.

Lastly, David Ogilvy has a blunt yet truthful quote: “The consumer isn’t a moron”. Users want respect. That means giving them the right information to make up their minds, ditching the condescending tone (even if you know more than them), and not resorting to trickery. Basically, the attitude you show to the audience is what you’ll receive in response.

Final Takeaway

Here is a brief overview of what you should know about a web copywriting agency:

Tasks coordination happens between a manager from an agency and a representative from your company. This is a much better way to communicate than with all contributors separately.
Once an agency sets up a team specifically for your project, they will get up to speed with your brand or business.
There are (usually) many skilled individuals on hand. Their minds are fresh and always moving, and their exposure to a wide variety of businesses and industries provides them with a unique perspective.
There is a negotiable price in place that depends on the task specifics.
Writers and experts are responsible for research and fact-checking, while editors and proofreaders are responsible for errors and SEO requirements.
Their minds are fresh and always moving, given that they are exposed to a wide variety of businesses and industries.
An agency handles (and pays) for its own tools and training, relieving the need for additional expenses from the client’s side.
By partnering long-term, relieving the need becomes an extension of your company. Down the line, knowing the nuances defining your field and business speeds up content creation.

Need high-quality content on a consistent basis? Then let us become that invaluable extension of your brand and show you that content is indeed king. All the benefits discussed in this article were pulled from our experience. So, it’s not just a baseless list – it’s something that Contenteam is happy to provide for your business.

FAQ

What are copywriting services?

It refers to a company that produces informational and/or persuasive marketing and promotional materials. A third-party copywriting agency allows businesses to delegate the task of content creation, including writing/editing blog articles, ad copies, landing and sales pages, newsletters, product descriptions, etc. Just like other types of outsourced work, these agencies draw on the niche skills of experts in certain fields, not necessarily present in the client’s core team.

How does a copywriting agency work?

From the client’s perspective, the process is straightforward. They approach a copywriting agency and start communicating with the project’s manager (editor-in-chief). They discuss the specifics of the task, deadlines, and rates, and the bulk of the work commences after the prepayment. Once the text is finished, they review it, discuss edits with the manager (if necessary), and approve the work.

Internally, there are many more processes going on. The chief editor assembles the team specifically for each project and not only communicates all important information from the client but also coordinates the work of everyone involved. This includes writers, editors, experts, and proofreaders).

How to get copywriting work?

Freelance copywriters can sign up on online platforms like Upwork and update their LinkedIn profiles. Alternatively, you can join our editorial team. Send us your CV and cover letter, and let’s talk!

How to pitch copywriting services?

Whether you’re the one doing the pitching or the one receiving the pitch, we can all agree that sending out mass email pitches will never work. Here is a recipe for copywriting success: take the time to do the research, convey the value you can contribute, show your differentiator, and don’t be entitled.

How much does it cost to hire a copywriter?

The cost can be anywhere from $25 to $25,000 per page. Of course, you don’t have to fall on either extreme. But if you consider hiring a freelance copywriter at the lower rate range, keep in mind that there won’t be editors/proofreaders/experts included in the price. All-in-one website copywriting services usually offer a better value for money.

What are technical copywriting services?

Technical copywriting services can create readable content on highly technical subjects, such as IT. These tasks require in-depth research and often – practical experience (which is what experts are for). And no matter how complex the topic is, a technical writer’s goal is to package it into approachable content – after all, most types of content are meant for casual readers and not industry experts.

Сообщение Everything You Should Know About a Copywriting Agency появились сначала на Contenteam - Multilingual Copywriting Service.

7 Ways To Create a More Appealing Marketing Strategy for an IT Company

Nazira Konysbayeva — Mon, 20 Dec 2021 15:20:53 +0000

“Becoming a developer” is the new “becoming a banker”. The profession is fairly new, in-demand, and well-paying. Businesses are lining up for talented developers, and as of 2021, the global talent shortage of qualified IT workers is 40 million.

The companies are ready to offer work flexibility and decent pay. It would seem that with such great terms, high demand, and respect around the profession, IT services don’t need further promotion. However, supply increases along with demand. The industry is known for tough competition, as well as numerous newcomers. Everyone hoping to fit in needs to stand out – especially if you are promoting a remote developing team or agency, you need to articulate the advantages clearly.

This guide will explain how to do it the right way, what channels to use, and what trends to focus on. Also, check out examples from strong players for inspiration!

Market Research: Development and IT

Before implementing any marketing activity, you need to research the market and competitors. This will help you understand what niche is more profitable and what advantages you should emphasize the most.

Start by analyzing your closest competitors: teams that work for your target audience, stand on about the same level of popularity as you, promote their services in the same area, and, of course, offer similar services.

Analyze each team based on the SWOT model:

Strengths
Weaknesses
Opportunities
Threats

Apply this model to your company as well. Thus, you will make an objective comparison between yourself and other businesses and create a unique selling proposition. Some of the important questions to answer are: “What makes us better than our competitors? Why would people choose us specifically? “

Itransition, for example, emphasizes its impressive track record in international projects.

Kandasoft focuses on digital business transformation.

Kodius promises seasoned veterans that will solve customer problems.

In terms of positioning, it’s also important to keep track of the industry as a whole:

There are almost 27 million software developers worldwide, and there will be 27.7 million by 2023 and 28.7 million by 2024.

61% of HR professionals say that their biggest challenge is finding qualified developers.
Global IT spending is projected to exceed $4.5 trillion in 2022, up 5.5% from 2021.
Over the next ten years, the number of developers is expected to increase by 75%.
Tech startups raised $100 billion in investment just in Q3 2021.
46% of companies charge less than $20,000 for a basic development project. For general utility tasks, 61% of firms ask $20,000-$40,000.
53% of developers consider adapting to changing client requirements their biggest challenge. 17% of respondents mentioned continuous performance and load testing management. And 13% mentioned finding and hiring the right developers.
As for the types of projects, developers work on enterprise applications (84%), solutions for business process automation (53%), e-commerce products (38%), Big Data tools (30%), CRM (15%), and training programs (7%).
The leading industry trends are artificial intelligence (69%), blockchain (56%), Internet of Things (47%), Big Data (31%), cloud solutions (28%), augmented and virtual reality (26%), and cybersecurity (24%).

Strategies for Promoting Remote Development Teams and Agencies

Generally speaking, online promotion is the only viable strategy for developers. Offline channels can only be somewhat effective if you’re focusing on local businesses. This includes advertising in print media, on TV, outdoors, industry events to get contacts of potential customers.

The main advantage of development services is that they are not tied to one location. The only limitation is the language of client communication, nothing else. And if the team can communicate in different languages, the scope of potential clients expands further. Although communicating in English is the default for both developers and businesses. Fortunately, now there are many services providing legal and accounting solutions for international cooperation. So, the coverage only depends on the company’s goals and an effective marketing strategy.

It’s safe to assume that any IT company would want to work with interesting projects, loyal clients, and profitable solutions. Let’s take a look at tried and tested strategies for promoting IT services and finding these clients and projects.

Contextual Advertising

It’s practically impossible to look at a business and determine that it needs software development services. A clear demand is easier to work with.

Contextualadvertising in search engines allows you to display ads for relevant queries. For example, “app development” or “developer for business”.

Pros	Cons
The link to the landing page is guaranteed to be at the top of SERPs	Ad placements can be expensive because of high competition
No need to work on search engine optimization	Requires professional help to set up campaigns
You can narrow down audience targeting to the relevant services	Risk of click fraud by malicious bots
You already have potential customers that might be interested in the offer, you just need to convince them to take action

Website Promotion

Building and promoting your website is a must. It’s where you drive advertising traffic and collect leads. A website ultimately helps to improve your position in the search results for the long term. Maintaining an expert blog will help you get there. Fill the website with valuable, high-quality content, optimize for keywords you are interested in, regularly add new content. If you need a pro team for content creation, get in touch – we will be happy to help

Good material will build organic traffic gradually. One tactic to speed up the process is smart link building, which we will talk about later.

Pros	Cons
Relatively inexpensive	Organic promotion takes time and requires continuous effort
High-quality content will establish trust with the audience and increase conversion	Only top-quality content has a chance at the top, and you need a lot of resources to produce it
Your website belongs to you, so you don’t have to worry about it being blocked or deleted

Social Media and Targeted Advertising

Social media brings you closer to potential customers. This is where you can establish strong relationships: talk about behind-the-scenes of the company, employees, challenges, and wins. Experiment with different formats and reach new audiences. Ads will strengthen your organic presence and help you build a substantial subscriber base faster.

Pros

Cons

Freedom of expression and creativity

You are dependent on algorithms and updates

Collects hot leads and warms up the audience

Slow organic growth

Builds loyalty

Requires constant effort and experimenting

You can rely on customer support for certain issues

Guest Posting

Useful content isn’t only limited to a blog format. Your options include guest posting, expert commentary for industry media, and in-depth material with restricted access to collect leads.

The strategy attracts potential customers, builds loyalty, and brings quality links. Links incidentally affect the position in the search results (in a positive way).

Pros	Cons
Builds trust and expert status	You need to negotiate with each site separately and adapt to their requirements
Covers a potentially interested audience	It often takes a long time to get approved – up to several months
Material posted on high-traffic sites is more likely to reach the top of search results	Media websites usually close external links from indexing or refuse to add them at all
	Content can be removed or altered without notice Many resources charge a publication fee, which sometimes is unreasonably high

Catalogs and Business Review Websites

Before purchasing or hiring, customers often turn to rating aggregators. This way, they can assess the quality of services without bias based on independent reviews and specialist recommendations. That is why it is beneficial to register your business in catalogs, take part in rankings, fill out cards on relevant resources and review aggregators (Clutch, GoodFirms, Provenexpert, Youteam, Upfirms). While doing so, remember to monitor user feedback. This strategy is also useful for link building.

Pros	Cons
Expands your online presence	Keeping track of reviews on dozens of sites can be difficult
Build customer trust	You often have to pay to get included in rankings
Can be a source of high-quality external links	You need to purchase extended packages from these aggregators to generate fair attention
You only fill out cards once, and they work for you indefinitely

Email Marketing

There are several approaches to this method. The first is to collect user emails, warm them up with useful content, and convert them into buyers. The second is to send offers to the base of cold contacts.

This tactic can only work if you have strong, well-written texts and embed emails into the sales funnel correctly.

Pros	Cons
The strategy has the highest return on investment	You may end up in spam
It is convenient for segmenting the audience and addressing each group with a personalized message	It’s difficult to catch the attention of recipients
Many services offer testing tools and automated statistics collection, making it easier to optimize your strategy	Email services become an additional expense
You only fill out cards once, and they work for you indefinitely	Email is becoming less popular with the rise of instant messengers

Crowd Marketing

This is the last strategy for promoting an IT company – it is meticulous but can bring surprising results. Crowd marketing involves mentioning and placing links on relevant online resources: forums, Q&A services, social media, groups and communities, blog comments, etc.

Pros	Cons
It is free in most cases	It is hard to find relevant, suitable discussions
Native advertising works well	Some websites don’t allow adding clickable links
High-quality link building	The author’s rating is often very important and takes time to build up
There is a wide variety of websites and formats to choose from

These strategies work great together. Experiment with them and choose the ones that suit your budget and align with your goals (specifically, how quickly you want to achieve it.

Marketing Trends for IT in 2022

The target audience for IT companies is businesses. Your potential customers don’t need complex terms and descriptions of advanced technologies. Their interests lie in solving specific problems: optimizing processes, increasing revenue, and scaling up. You should speak the same language as your clients and consider the context of communication. In 2022 will, it will be important to simplify, personalize, and experiment more.

We want to highlight the following trends:

The growing popularity of video content, especially short-form. TikTok continues to change the Internet culture, and by now, light-hearted, funny videos have taken over social media. Users are getting used to an informal presentation of information, and B2B is no exception. IT agencies and developers become more involved in experimenting with the format, not only expanding reach but also collecting leads.
Personalization. Research potential customers, divide them into categories based on their requests, behavior, interests, line of work, etc. Build a sales funnel for each group and create personalized content. Businesses will appreciate relevant offers much more.
Simplified communication. It can be a struggle for some developers – to move away from dull tech content full of niche terms. This format should be left for communicating with colleagues or employees. But when talking with potential clients, you need to demonstrate the value and the result, not the subtleties of the process. Simplification is the future.
Visualization. Users become less and less interested in reading because it takes longer to process text. Charts, tables, infographics, and videos will help you to hold the attention.
Building relationships. Faceless organizations are not fit for 2022. Human connection has become more valuable, which is why companies tend to show their specialists and clients, collaborate with bloggers. It is easier to build a relationship when there is a person on the other end.

Examples of Successful Development Teams: What They Did Right

Goji Labs is the highest-ranked development studio. Here is what helped the company achieve these impressive results: a simple and compelling website, a helpful blog, and high rankings on field-specific platforms.

Goji’s closest competitor, Miquido, also boasts a well-made website with social proof, such as reviews, past projects, partner logos, as well as interesting content – both on the website and in the media. The brand also has a blog on Medium.

Sidebench relies on guest posting in major business publications: Forbes, Entrepreneur, Inc., and others. They also update their own blog, where they share expert knowledge and talk about their team.

Jelvix runs a great YouTube channel – Tech In 5 Minutes. The channel talks about technologies, the development market, and their own experience. These guys also have a professional-looking website and a corporate blog.

Summary: Marketing Plan For an IT Company

The demand for IT services is growing faster than the supply. However, if you want to create a constant flow of customers, you need to present your services competently and do proper promotion.

Remote development teams and agencies can use the following strategies:

Contextual advertising in search engines
SEO website promotion
Social media posts and ads
Content marketing
Catalogs, business review websites, ratings
Email marketing
Crowd marketing

If you’re a remote software development team, then you can probably guess the advantages of a remote content agency. Just like your clients hire you for your expert solutions, our clients hire us for our expert content. Our writers have the experience to create the type of content your company needs - from blog articles and press releases to case studies and white papers. Based on original research and purposeful cooperation, we will communicate the value and importance of your products or services. Ready for the top search positions? Leave us a request, and we’ll start strategizing!

Contenteam

Сообщение 7 Ways To Create a More Appealing Marketing Strategy for an IT Company появились сначала на Contenteam - Multilingual Copywriting Service.

8 Diverse Types of Content to Drive Traffic to Your Website

Nazira Konysbayeva — Mon, 22 Nov 2021 21:05:23 +0000

The first step in content marketing is starting a blog. If you post informative, engaging articles, visitors will naturally gravitate to the website. Ultimately, content creation can be one of your key tactics to improve positions in search rankings.

But you need a solid strategy to promote it. Writing about the first thing that comes to mind and publishing it in your blog is a bad idea. After all, you’re trying to appeal to both the algorithms and users.

If your goal is to drive more traffic to your website, choose content formats that will help you achieve it. Today, our editors at Contenteam will share eight content options that will benefit companies from different industries. Here is why they work:

these formats are shareable, which attracts organic traffic and external links;
they usually rank better than regular articles;
the content can be repurposed for social media to expand reach.

If any of these options grab your interest, let us know – we’ll be happy to help you write them!

1. Infographics

Infographics are a visual presentation of data to communicate information quickly and clearly. It can be an image with one graph or a large detailed multi-page compilation with multiple pages.

Users enjoy sharing infographics. In fact, social media posts with infographics get three times as many likes and shares as other types of content.

How to Create

Gather relevant data (or do your own research) and reach out to a graphic designer. Alternatively, you can try creating your own infographics yourself in simple editors like Canva or Piktochart.

How to Drive Traffic with This Content

Post on Pinterest, add title + description with keywords, provide your sources.
Post a snippet of the infographics on social media and encourage users to visit your website to see it in full.
Use image search to see if others reposted your visuals, contact them and ask for a link.
Add the word “infographics” to the title of the article – this will attract more clicks in the SERPs.

Example

Help Net Security creates great infographics that found their way to social media and reached the top of image search results.

2. Memes and Gags

This is another format that social media users love. Just make sure to adapt the current Internet joke for your niche so that it doesn’t come off as random or distract users.

How to Create

Meme Generator and Quick Meme are your go-to websites. If you want to bring a unique idea to life and create an original comic, contact an artist.

How to Drive Traffic with This Content

Your meme iteration should bring up a problem or topic that is relevant to your audience. Then, you can offer a solution or discussion in a blog article.
Add silly images beside the links to your site – this will make users click to learn more.

Example

Memes are very popular in the crypto space. People at Binance are avid meme collectors, regularly sharing their own or user-generated images. Many of them are about bringing positive sentiment to crypto holders and joking about sceptics.

3. Video

Video is more engaging and convincing to the audience compared to text. Right now, the format is at its peak popularity. According to Renderforest, 78% of webmasters have increased their website traffic through videos.

How to Create

Videos can be very different: from short clips made with a front-facing camera all the way to professional quality shows. You won’t need any special equipment to shoot a simple video – just your smartphone. But if you want to go all out, you can use lights, a microphone, and a studio. Decide based on your tasks, posting platforms, and budget.

How to Drive Traffic with This Content

Make YouTube videos: Google often puts them above article links.
Attach a video to the article so that reader will stay on the page for longer and get to the article through its accompanying video.
Try out short videos, for example, TikTok, and offer users to go to your website as a lead magnet or to get detailed information.

Example

Accenture accompanies blog articles with videos on the same topic. This helps increase time on page and attract more visitors from search results.

4. Detailed Guides and Tutorials

Search engines love in-depth articles with full and accurate answers to the user’s query. According to Hubspot, 2,100-2,400 words is the text length that attracts the most organic traffic. This is why with guides and tutorials, you have a better chance of hitting the top rankings. Since the first positions attract up to 33% of clicks, expect targeted traffic to flow to your website.

How to Create

The best option is to have an expert write your guide. However, an expert with good writing skills is very rare.

You can work with a copywriter and collect references for them (or have them work with an expert directly). This will ensure the final product is factually correct and relevant. Services like ResponseSource can be useful for these tasks – just leave a request and pick suitable responses.

Consider adding infographics, tables, videos, and podcasts to the guides to keep visitors’ attention and make their reading experience more diverse.

How to Drive Traffic with This Content

Look through search results for your relevant queries and write something better than your competitors at the top.
Make shorter-format posts based on the guide, post them on social media, and invite users onto the website to see the whole thing and find out the details.
Share the link on relevant forums and discussion panels to increase page authority.

Example

Adobe occasionally posts detailed tutorials and case studies, solidifying their positions at the opt of search results.

5. Reviews and Unboxing

93% of consumers read reviews before making a purchase. Search engines process millions of requests that have something to do with “review” every day. So, there is demand, you just need to create supply.

How to Create

Pick a relevant product or service and make a detailed and unbiased review. You can test highly advertised features or compare the product to similar ones by competitors. The format is up to you: article, video, social media post, or something else. Most importantly, make sure to add a link directly to the product in the online store.

How to Drive Traffic with This Content

Research keywords for this topic and add different variations of the product name to cover as many queries as possible.
Be as thorough as possible to get to the top of the search results.
Submit your review to the popular review aggregator sites (Amazon, TechRadar) and suggest going to your website for similar reviews.
Take things a step further and create a section dedicated to this format.

Example

Exodus does not specialize in reviews but still takes advantage of this content format. This strengthens the service’s position as an expert voice in the crypto space.

6. Selections and Compilations

“Top 10 software for business collaboration”, “10 free essential tools for cybersecurity”, “Top 5 books for beginning traders” – search engines rank these articles well because they help users make better choices.

How to Create

Start by collecting keywords for your niche. See which queries are the most popular and list your options for relevant selections. Consult an expert or make your own compilation to create truly valuable content.

How to Drive Traffic with This Content

See how many tools and items your competitor include and review more.
Optimize your text for good search engine rankings.
Complement the material with independent reviews.
Share each item on social media in small batches and encourage people to view the full review.

Example

Changelly has a regular section with the best cryptocurrencies for the near future. Not only is it a popular topic on its own, but they also support the article with social media posts.

7. Checklists

Users appreciate quick instructions that they can easily follow, which is why lists often become featured snippets. Search engines take them from articles and add a link to the source for a detailed article.

How to Create

Include step-by-step lists in your texts where appropriate. Be sure to put them in an easy-to-understand format like a list or subheadings, otherwise, bots will not register them as checklists. Additionally, you can put a checklist into a visual format to make it more shareable for social media.

How to Drive Traffic with This Content

Describe each step as briefly as possible.
Add keywords to the accompanying text and the checklist itself.
Share an image version of the list on social platforms and mention that users can see the detailed guide on the website.

Example

Mural uses the checklist format, neatly integrating its own collaboration tool into the mix. Plus, heading can be easily turned into steps for Google snippets.

8. Research

The numbers are important to both businesses and consumers. They draw the most attention in presentations and reports, trend analyses, comparisons (e.g., company success vs. market average). Do your own research to get links from other reputable sources and social media reposts.

How to Create

Conduct a survey among your customers. For example, you can add a pop-up window to the website, send out a newsletter, or post about it on a social network. You can go further and seek help from specialized services (SurveyMonkey, TypeForm). If you collect anonymous customer data, assess changes and trends.

How to Drive Traffic with This Content

Spice up dry numbers with graphs, tables, and other visual materials.
Share your research with niche publications, offer to publish a press release.
Make announcements on social media.
If you don’t have the resources to do your own research, try collecting data from different sources.

Example

Atlassian does a great job with original research on their blog service, having a separate department for Research & Insights.

In Short

Publish high-quality content, and traffic will follow. Consider these formats to promote your blog:

Infographics
Memes and gags
Video
Detailed guides and tutorials
Reviews and unboxing
Selections and compilations
Checklists
Research

If you’re looking for a content marketing agency to develop and manage targeted strategies, let’s work together!

FAQs

What is content creation in marketing?

Content creation is the process of generating topic ideas and executing them in different content formats for brand promotion. It can be roughly divided into written and visual content, both of which are meant to attract and retain a defined audience. These days, it’s an essential part of any marketing strategy.

Why is content creation important?

It provides your website visitor with something of value. From the customer’s perspective, it makes you appear professional, trustworthy, and relevant. From the search engine’s perspective, it informs algorithms that your website offers useful content that is worth showing to more users.

What is content creation all about?

It’s all about generating traffic, followers, and leads. There are many other direct and indirect positive outcomes like building rapport with the audience, positioning your brand as a thought leader, upselling, exploring prospect pains, developing new ideas, and many more.

Сообщение 8 Diverse Types of Content to Drive Traffic to Your Website появились сначала на Contenteam - Multilingual Copywriting Service.

7 Astonishing Formats to Cover in a Blog for an IT Company

Nazira Konysbayeva — Thu, 11 Nov 2021 09:49:10 +0000

In the context of ever-increasing competition in the IT market, companies go to great lengths to attract leads and, more importantly, convert them into customers. Many choose the long-term strategy, focusing on content marketing. However, some don’t know how to get the most out of it.

A corporate website is the storefront of the company and a powerful tool for a variety of purposes, allowing you to inform readers about your services and products.

These days, it’s important to offer your own corporate media directly on the site – an expert blog led by the company’s specialists. According to TechJury, it can increase website traffic by 434%. Moreover, a blog helps establish targeted lead generation, which brings you closer to the target audience and optimizes the marketing budget.

What Should You Blog About?

To start a corporate blog, you only need a few hours’ worth of a web developer’s work. Filling your blog with high-quality, useful content that highlights all the benefits of your business is much more difficult.

How do you figure out what topics to cover and what types of content to include in your blog content strategy? What kinds of articles do well in IT?

Below are seven best blog content ideas that you should definitely explore.

1. Case Studies

The main premise is: prospects are looking for a partner with a proven track record. If they are blind firing, i.e., googling IT companies, having no explicit recommendations from friends, it makes sense that they want to have proof of the company’s competence.

Case studies give you a perfect opportunity to showcase your expertise in real-life scenarios. Talk about how you solved a difficult problem, overcame all obstacles and fully met the client’s needs. This way, you’ll transform the blog into selling content.

Three principles for success:

As many details as possible (within reason)
Only true information about the project (recommendation: don’t be afraid to talk about failures during the project, turn them into stories about dealing with defeat, and make the case study truly valuable for the reader)
Real client testimonials (preferably, in video format).

2. Success Stories

Authenticity and mutual understanding are more relevant than ever. These terms used to describe only B2C companies, but today, many B2B projects are based on the same principles: customers avoid working with companies that don’t share their values.

That is why a few articles about the history and growth of the company will come in handy. You can even publish them as guest posts first on popular sites and get more eyes on your story. Additionally, it’s worth going beyond the Meet the Team page and use the blog content service in other ways – e.g., in the interview format with the founders and key team members.

Three principles for success:

Focusing on what makes the brand unique
Personal stories
Sharing values and mission

3. Niche Articles With a Clear Agenda

A tech blog that only covers general topics won’t make it easy to reach the top of the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages = organic search results). On the other hand, narrow topics that focus on specific pain points of potential customers can actually bring leads to your site.

How do you implement this? Single out several most promising niches that your team can provide deep expertise on, identify the needs of potential customers and hit the target. For example, you can publish a series of articles about, let’s say, “Application of artificial intelligence in oil and gas industry,” and then adapt the ads for these articles to your target audience on social media.

Three principles for success:

The narrower the niche, the more effective the content
Emphasis on solving a specific problem for a potential customer
Segmenting content for target audiences that are most cost-efficient

4. Industry News

If you have already grown the blog and attracted an impressive audience, you can turn it into a media outlet and present industry news. First, it will help you generate extra site traffic (a lot of it!). Secondly, you will cover your audience’s need to get information about the latest events from third-party resources. This ultimately increases loyalty.

You can add the opinions of the company’s experts to make the blog content more diverse. But writing long articles isn’t worth it: key events with concise but illuminating comments work much better.

Three principles for success:

Writing and publishing content fast
Including only verified facts from reliable sources
No filler text

5. Press Releases

Continuing the topic of news and personal stories, sharing your own achievements is always a good idea for writing blog content. Press releases – short news excerpts – are typically published on third-party platforms like PRNewsWire. This helps a business reach a much wider audience.

After publication, you can also post a note on the company blog. This way, your customers and potential customers will understand that they are dealing with a successful partner.

Three principles for success:

Informational value;
Focus on customer benefit;
Time efficiency.

6. Dynamic Presentations

Interactivity has become the go-to practice for increasing user engagement. Therefore, it is used whenever the content fails to grab attention, anywhere from marketing to online education. Brands often include dynamic presentations in informational blog material to highlight the company’s achievements or educate the audience on a new product.

This approach works best for B2C companies with in-house development that targets the mainstream user. A presentation can be a better solution than a long article if you want to quickly and clearly communicate your team’s innovative solutions to B2B clients.

Three principles for success:

Key facts and figures
Animation that doesn’t distract from the content
Adequate number of slides

7. White Papers

White papers, a popular content format, are in-depth reports or guides about a product and service and relevant issues. The goal is to cover a certain topic without promotion and show potential clients how a certain solution can be useful to them. It’s not structured as a regular article but as a full-on PDF book – this format won’t fit into a blog.

You can take inspiration from Gartner or Deloitte – provide a short extract from the report and add a form to download the file next to it. Of course, you don’t need to ask for anything in return. But it is better to exchange the guide for an e-mail or phone, thus adding users that are interested to your sales funnel.

Three principles for success:

Captivating announcement
Succinct summary
A form for contact info (e-mail or phone number)

In Conclusion

Does an IT company need a blog? Definitely! How to create blog content, and what should you write about? Anything that highlights your expertise – from personal success stories and achievements to professional advice and reviews. The main thing is to present the information in a way that focuses on potential customers’ pains and problems that your team can solve. This approach will help you optimize and simplify the process of converting readers to leads and leads to customers!

Are you looking for an editorial team to provide blog content services? You’ve come to the right place – contact us here, and our project manager will reach back within 15 minutes. From that point on, our team of writers, editors, and experts will quickly start working on your project!

FAQ

How to write a good blog for business?

Use the language and communication techniques that your target audience understands. To make the content as suitable for different readers as possible, divide your audience into several segments. For example, if your product is a mobile game app, write one article with beginners in mind, another one – for gamers with experience, and the third one – for those who never play any games. The list can go on.

Our next piece of advice is to provide useful content for free and in good faith without going too far with brand advertising. Also, try to involve more clients in the content your write and share reviews on your product or service with a link to the person’s profile, they will appreciate it.

How how to make blog content useful?

Keep track of everything going on in your business niche and relevant areas (including new research and solutions). Avoid covering the same topics from the same perspective as everyone else. If you work with the best blog content writers and experts, you can share exclusive takes and think pieces that no one else has. This is what we practice at Contenteam.

Enrich your text with verified data and statistics that you pulled from your project, show your company’s case studies, and explain how your product/service can help customers. Overall, share everything your target customers will find interesting and always look at key metrics for content you already posted – this will help you monitor growth.

How to establish a blog content plan?

Start by defining key areas: who you’re writing for, what problems you’re going to solve, and what aspects of your product/ service you want to highlight. Then, conduct market and keyword research and brainstorm ideas. Of course, there are many steps involved in creating the writing, editing, and publishing plan – this is just a general outline.

Where to post blog content?

Your own website isn’t the only outlet available to you. You can amplify your blog as well as your brand by posting on Medium, Reddit, LinkedIn, personal page on Facebook and a company Facebook page, Quora, and Flipboard. Figure out what websites your target audience visits the most and reach out to the owners.

What is evergreen blog content?

Everegreen content stays relevant and brings value to readers over a long period of time. If you buy blog content, you definitely want some of it to have an indefinite expiration date. For example:

How-to guides (how to create an effective employee cybersecurity training program)
Beginner’s guides (introduction to insider attacks and how to prevent them)
Definitions (what is a data breach?)
Lists & checklists (10 questions to ask your IT security provider)
Best practices (why your business needs remote monitoring and management)

Сообщение 7 Astonishing Formats to Cover in a Blog for an IT Company появились сначала на Contenteam - Multilingual Copywriting Service.

What Crypto Content the Audience Wants to See: Examples and Best Practices

Nazira Konysbayeva — Thu, 28 Oct 2021 08:24:31 +0000

The crypto industry is becoming more profitable for both investors and companies that develop supporting technologies.

As a result, we have an oversaturated market, and it’s getting more and more difficult for users to navigate it. That is why you need a competent content strategy to grow your crypto project online and useful, accessible content to attract attention and build loyalty.

What To Include in Crypto Content

Below are general recommendations – they can help your content bring in results and generate high-quality leads. Use these three rules as guidance when creating a strategy.

Offer Value

The cryptocurrency market hasn’t reached its peak yet, but the media space is already full of many similar topics circulating again and again. Every other platform claims that cryptocurrencies are dead or the opposite, promises that the industry has an exceptionally bright future. New projects talk about their products and assure that they can make anyone rich. That said, few people bother explaining what is special about their idea.

Offer your readers a middle ground: content without exaggeration or empty promises that is accessible even for beginners and truly useful.

Try to back up each statement with data or an unbiased comparison.

This approach will help build relationships with potential customers and stand out among similar startups.

Offer educational materials for leads who are not familiar with the market or your product. Explain what crypto is, what crypto to buy, the basics of trading and mining, encryption, and blockchain. This will help you reach a wider audience and help newbies understand the specifics of what you offer.

1. Create Visual Content

Cryptocurrency is not an easy topic. What can help you explain even complex concepts is visual content: infographics, charts, tables, and videos.

As soon as you add a visual element to the text, the content becomes more memorable by 6.5 times. Without it, people tend to forget around 90% of the information.

The best visuals for crypto content are:

Infographics. They get 3x more likes and shares on social media than any other content format.
Excerpts from the article. Have a separate block with interesting facts, statistics, key findings, quotes, even headlines. The format will make it easier to scan the text.
Videos. 59% of executives prefer video over text. The format is effective in generating leads and, in fact, doesn’t require a lot of money to create.

2. Make Content a Part of the Sales Funnel

Quality content is the first step to generating leads. However, it doesn’t end there. Potential clients need to understand what stages will follow next.

Develop a customer journey for all target audience segments. Make sure the transition to each following step is intuitive and organic.

For example, if you are collecting leads for a trading tool, don’t urge readers to buy at the end of the article.

Offer them to learn more and redirect to content that encourages users to make a decision without a rush. Or ask them to leave contact information in exchange for a detailed trading guide.

Set goals for converting leads from one stage to another and track conversions for each piece of content. This way, crypto marketing agencies can optimize the strategy and focus on those content formats that bring paying customers.

Examples of Successful Crypto Content

We have the general guidelines covered – the foundation for a content strategy. Now, let’s take a look at examples of topics, techniques, and formats that help crypto projects draw an audience and generate leads.

Chainalysis

Chainalysis builds trust by offering banks, government officials, and other stakeholders the software and data they need to master the technology. Their crypto marketing strategy is based on research and trend monitoring. Their blog posts receive hundreds of inbound links and top 3 organic rankings on a consistent basis.

What content works well:

Detailed articles with reviews of the cryptocurrency market, news, new solutions. Most of them include infographics.
Reports on industry trends that can be downloaded in exchange for contact details.
Expert on-demand webinars that can be watched for free after filling out the form.
Interactive charts with up-to-date data on the leading crypto coins.

Bitcoin

Bitcoin’s official website is the benchmark for cryptocurrency marketing. The project has tons of educational materials in different formats. You’ll have the usual blog, a Wiki library, and even podcasts.

What content works well:

Bitcoin Wiki with answers about the coin created and maintained by the community.
Free video lessons that explain the basics of the project.
A large platform for user-generated content, where anyone can talk about the coin in a podcast, article, or forum post.
Detailed guides for beginners – full-fledged knowledge hubs.

Coinbase

The platform gives access to the crypto market to everyone. Because of how the company positions itself, it’s implied that they need to create a lot of educational content. The company answers questions in great detail and accumulated almost half a million blog subscribers.

What content works well:

A popular blog on Medium to discuss the latest industry trends and share tricks and company news.
A learning hub for beginners. We see three kinds of formats here: crypto market basics, tips and guides, and industry news. The content is arranged in the Q&A format, which helps with the ranking. Not that there is a lot of infographics.
A small glossary of crypto terms with detailed yet accessible explanations for beginners.

Gemini

Gemini is a platform for buying and selling cryptocurrencies. The company distinguished itself from the competition with Cryptopedia – a free educational platform.

What content works well:

Lots of mentions and publications in relevant media. The site has a separate page for links.

Educational videos – webinars.

And, of course, Cryptopedia with in-depth articles about cryptocurrency, online security, investment, and DeFi. The project is still young but very promising.

Circle

The company’s mission is to help online businesses send and receive payments using the blockchain. The brand uses content marketing very efficiently, so there is a lot to learn from them.

What content works well:

A blog that is regularly updated with company and industry news.
Section with customer success stories.
Guides with quotes from experts to inject expertise into the content.
A podcast about money with thousands of subscribers.

Ripple

The blockchain payment platform maintains a blog, records podcasts, and shares expert material with peers.

What content works:

A blog with news, thought leaders, and descriptions of the platform’s capabilities.
A press center with official company statements to streamline cooperation with the media.
A podcast about prominent figures in the blockchain industry.
Expert materials for developers from the startup team. This is a good tool not only for generating leads but also for recruiting.

In conclusion

Most crypto projects rely on educational content that helps attract beginners. Brands maintain blogs, shoot videos, record podcasts, and build vibrant communities (Reddit crypto communities are particularly active). It’s definitely worth at least testing each of these formats. Then you’ll see what works best for your project.

Сообщение What Crypto Content the Audience Wants to See: Examples and Best Practices появились сначала на Contenteam - Multilingual Copywriting Service.

How To Write and Promote a Case Study + Best Examples

Nazira Konysbayeva — Wed, 27 Oct 2021 10:23:37 +0000

Talking about a company’s experience in solving specific practical problems is the best way to advertise. Not to mention, you can take advantage of the power of stories and turn them into a powerful, convincing business tool for potential buyers. We are talking about writing a case study. Contenteam shares how to make a case study and show you some great examples.

What Is a Case Study?

A case study is a deep and thorough analysis of a specific real-life situation.

In the business context, we can define a case study as a content format that demonstrates the experience of solving problems of a client. It is structured based on the principles of storytelling: there is a protagonist that is in conflict with an enemy – a problem. While trying to solve it, the protagonist finds someone who helps them – a company or a product. Together, they defeat the enemy and become better.

Case studies are created for the bottom stages of the sales funnel. They usually generate less traffic than optimized blog posts but are far more effective at convincing potential customers. In fact, if a potential customer sees evidence of you successfully solving a similar problem, they will be closer to making their choice in your favor.

Statistics show:

Case studies are the third most popular content format among B2B marketers, with 68% of specialists using it in their strategy.
66% of B2B marketers consider case studies to be “very effective” in attracting leads and increasing sales; 32% call it “quite effective.”
We asked the member of our telegram channel which content formats they prefer for IT promotion. Case studies made second place after blog articles, with 19% of respondents in favor of them.

As you can see, many companies already rely on case studies for a winning strategy.

Who Needs To Write Case Studies

If your business solves consumer problems, and the project results can be qualitatively and quantitatively assessed, it is worth adding case studies to your promotion strategy.

But it can also be a waste of time for other companies – those that provide standardized services or sell a simple product.

The main value of this content format is a conflict, a complex, interesting situation. The hero must overcome an obstacle to reach their goal. Otherwise, no one would read the story.

For example, the process of implementing an IT solution for a client’s company is case-worthy, whereas a usual site audit is not.

Important note: press releases, promotional materials, and ads are not case studies. The goal of a case study is not to sell but to demonstrate your abilities through real projects. Anything that you state in the material must be objective and supported by data.

Challenges of Writing Case Studies

Case studies generate hot leads and build up a business’s reputation. However, many companies have their hesitations about this content format, and here are the main reasons why:

There is nothing to talk about. This is probably the most common problem. You might not have big wins yet, but even small achievements can provide a blueprint for a useful case study. After all, you can write an anti-case study and help potential clients avoid the same mistakes.
Clients don’t want to collaborate. If you’re held back from writing about your achievements by an NDA, try to negotiate. Perhaps you’ll be able to write a non-specific case without mentioning the brand and using their data.
Competitors will steal your ideas. Case studies can become the basis of entire learning systems because this is where companies share effective strategies. However, you shouldn’t worry that your experience will help competitors get ahead of you. You have different work processes, teams, and tasks. Whatever has worked in your case may not necessarily help a similar project.
You need an expert. Case study research is not the task for an average copywriter. Firstly, the format takes a lot of time and preparation: conducting interviews, collecting data, etc. Secondly, the writer must understand the subject matter and what the client’s business is all about. If you don’t have someone like that on your team, consider working with an agency.

These challenges can be handled. Follow the steps below to make sure you don’t miss out on anything and create truly effective content.

How To Do a Case Study With Prominent Results

Here is the best strategy to create the case study for evergreen lead generation.

Goals

As with any other marketing activity, you need to start with setting the goals. In terms of KPIs, it’s better to focus on the number of leads and sales growth rather than traffic and reach. A side note: the average conversion rate for organic search is 5%, for paid search – 3.6%, and for social media – 1.9%. The metrics will depend on the type of promotion you choose.

Specify how much time and resources and how many employees it will take to prepare the material, and how you plan to promote it. Coordinate the plan with management.

When the task is done, you will be able to objectively assess how effectively the content will perform.

Topic and Format

The goals are set. Now, you can move on to choosing the topic and the project. Focus on striking a balance: the story should be interesting and also relevant to potential customers. It’s not wise to choose a rare problem that will generate no response. The story can involve different types of business, circumstances, methods, and solutions, but the general conflict should be familiar to most people.

Good topics to cover:

● cost reduction

● turning a profit

● increasing in the number of leads

● profit growth

● improving sales close rates

● entering a new market

● improving efficiency and reducing environmental impact

● optimization to meet legal requirements

At the initial stages of writing a case study, choose the format for it. Your options are:

● text

● presentation

● PDF file

● web page

● video

● infographics

● podcast

Client

The topic is clear. Now, you need to choose a suitable client to write about. You can focus on the following categories:

Product Knowledge

It’s better to write about a client who is familiar with your product. It means they use it effectively and to its full potential.

Significant Increase in The Main Metrics

Customers with satisfactory results are more likely to cooperate, and their stories will make for better cases, drawing the attention of the target audience.

Popular Brands

If your client is well-known in the industry, you will earn trust and credibility as a bonus to generating leads.

Dissatisfied Customers of Your Competitors

You can highlight your benefits by telling how you work with such requests.

Industry

Try to choose interesting projects in those industries and fields that you often work with. This will strengthen your expertise.

After that, find the customer’s contact information and proceed to the next step.

Client’s approval

Make sure the client is willing to collaborate. Describe what you need from them and what they will receive in return. You can write a letter, make a call or reach out on a messenger.

Here is how you can tell a client that you are conducting a case study:

Hello [customer name]!

Our team is working on a case study where we would like to tell the story of [company name]. Are you interested in working on it together?

Here’s the type of data we need:

● high-resolution logo

● photos of team members, office, production site – stories with images attract more traffic

● figures before and after

During the process, we will:

● interview [team member]

● write a case study based on the interview

● ask additional questions if needed

● send you a draft for approval

● make edits, publish the case study, and start promoting it

This will take about a month.

Please let me know if this format is suitable for you.

Kind regards,

[author of the letter]

At the point when you’re just discussing cooperation, it will still be useful to mention the benefits for the client. For example:

Expanding the brand reach. You will mention the name of the company, briefly describe the project. This will increase awareness and even attract the attention of potential customers.
Building a personal brand for employees. You will use quotes from team members, which will strengthen their expert status and boost recognition.
A discount on a product or service. Motivate the client to spend their time by making an offer on special terms.
External links. You will add an active link to the client’s website. Since you are a reputable resource, it will improve their rankings.

These arguments should convince the client and make the discussion stage easier.

Interview With the Client and Data Collection

Approval received, moving on to the interview. It can be carried out in any format that’s convenient to both parties: phone, video, email, messenger. You need to discover answers to the following questions:

What problems did you face before using our product/service?
Why did you choose our product/service? Have you considered offers by competitors?
How did our product/service solve your problem?
What business goals do you set?
Are you ready to share the evidence about your success?

Here are questions for the client’s profile:

● What industry do you work in?

● How long have you been using our product/service?

● What does your workflow look like?

● How many people are on your team?

It may be enough to only cover the basics for a small case. But if you are planning to write a detailed study, you will need more details.

Storytelling

Data that you collect is the backbone of a future story. Now, you need to arrange it following the best storytelling traditions. “The Hero’s Journey” is the preferred template for a case study. What does he look like?

The narrative consists of three acts:

● problem

● solution

● result

Remember that your customer is the protagonist of the story, not a product or service. You were just guiding them on their path to success.

Draw up a plan, assign the data for each act and proceed to the next step.

Structure

Everything is ready for the most important stage: writing the case study. Start telling the story step by step:

Heading and subheading. Try to include a brief description of the client, problems, and solutions in this block. Great example: How Host Analytics Used LeadGnome To Increase Lead Quality By 80%. Bad example: LeadGnome Helps To Increase Lead Quality.
Summary. Describe the case, list the main figures, and share conclusions in a few paragraphs.
Customer. Who this case is about: industry, size of the company, its specifics.
Problem or challenge. Describe the problem your client faced or what goals they set.
Solution. How your product helped to solve the problem or achieve a certain result.
Results. Figures, percentages, or before/after visuals.
Plans. If the project is not finished, share what else you plan to do to achieve the best results.
Call to action. Invite potential clients to contact you, subscribe to a newsletter, or read similar case studies.

The draft is not ready for the next step.

Approval

Contact the client again, show the material and, if necessary, make changes. It sounds simple, but the stage can take a while.

Design

It’s time to focus on the case study design. The choice will depend on the format, posting platform, and budget: a simple layout can be enough, but sometimes a case study requires infographics or even an animation video.

General rules:

Ensure the scannability of the material: emphasize important things with lists, divide the text into small paragraphs, add subheadings.
Visualize your data. To make sure the data is easy to understand, consider graphics, animation, tables, infographics, interactive elements – any format that works for you.
Simplify. Give examples, add comparisons that the readers will get, make videos.
Place accents. Use contrasting colors to highlight key findings, important quotes.
Brand. Add a logo, use brand colors and fonts.

It is better to get the client to approve the material again. They might ask you to change the font or resize an employee’s photo near the quote.

Approved? Then let’s roll!

Where To Publish and How To Promote Case Studies

Most of the work is done. All that’s left is to share your experience with potential clients. Let’s start with the publication.

Platforms for publishing a case study:

Company website. It’s already the place where you bring the audience. Case studies will help them decide to make a purchase. The content can be publicly available or shared in exchange for contact information.
Relevant niche websites. Publish the case study on a platform that is often visited by your target audience: a blog for entrepreneurs or Medium. This is a good option if your website still has little traffic, but you want to increase the reach. As a bonus, you also get an external link from a reputable source.
Social media. There are two ways to approach it: post case studies directly on your account or on relevant groups (but don’t spam).

You published a case study and obtained the link. How to promote it? Here are some options:

● Run targeted ads on social media. Add users who have previously been interested in your website or group to your core audience.

● Set up contextual advertising. Check if the topic of your case study is popular in search.

● Conduct seed testing. Promote the publication in relevant communities, forums, Q&A platforms.

● Ask the client to talk about the material on their website.

● Share your experience with an expert. They might find it interesting and share it with their audience.

Follow these steps to write an effective case study and show it to as many potential customers as possible. But before you start, take a look at some examples of case study research papers and use them as inspiration for your own.

Best Case Study Examples

IBM released Watson AI to help businesses automate processes and improve efficiency. The brand talks about its success in the Customer stories section in a clear, easy-to-understand manner.

Here is one of the case studies – the results of the project with Korean Air. It has an intriguing headline, an overview of the problem, a description of what was done, impressive results, and a call to action.

The next example will inspire companies that have little experience to challenge themselves and create case studies practically out of nothing. This is what the Cloud Guru training platform did.

Cloud Guru’s employee shared a compelling story on Medium. In Australia, Victoria’s police staff was struggling to handle stolen car searches, so they commissioned the development of an automated monitoring system BlueNet, worth $86 million. The hero of this unusual case was able to create a free alternative, which impressed 78,000 readers. The call to action motivates readers to learn the technical skills to create projects of equal scale.

And here is a classic example of a case study from HubSpot. Description of the project, focus on the results, the client in the lead role, quotes, a call to action – they included all the important elements.

Here is one of the best case study design examples in a PDF format from eMoney. The story is divided into several blocks: “Company Profile,” “Problem,” “Solution,” “Results,” and a call to action.

Case studies are not always about a client’s story. You can talk about an internal experiment while promoting your product. For example, like Ahrefs. They created a detailed piece with screenshots, gifs, graphs, and even algorithms.

In short

A case study is a valuable content format that you shouldn’t neglect. It turns users into customers, demonstrates your expertise, and helps you promote your business.

How to conduct a case study:

Set a goal and choose KPIs.
Decide on a topic and format.
Select a client.
Share your intentions and get approval.
Conduct interviews and collect data.
Arrange the story using the template Problem -> Solution -> Result.
Write a title, summary, client profile, problems and solutions, results you achieved, and any further plans for the project. Add a call to action.
Send draft to the client for approval.
Add design elements, create visual content.

You can publish the case study on your website, external sites, or social media. Promote it using targeted and contextual ads, placing links in relevant discussions, and collaborating with experts.

If you struggle with any of these stages, please contact Contetneam – we will be happy to help. Contenteam – we will be happy to help.

Сообщение How To Write and Promote a Case Study + Best Examples появились сначала на Contenteam - Multilingual Copywriting Service.

How to Promote Software Products via Content Marketing in 2023

Nazira Konysbayeva — Tue, 19 Oct 2021 08:20:26 +0000

The global software market is growing at a steady pace – up 7.4% each year. Moreover, considering there are 27 million developers in the world, by 2030, there will be more than 45 million.

Do you have the feeling that it’s getting harder and harder to promote your products? The bad news is that it won’t get better.

The competition is increasing, industry giants are taking up most of the traffic, and it the chances of creating something unique become slimmer. However, it doesn’t mean that you should leave IT, slamming the door behind you, because of all these challenges. There is $580 billion circulating in software development, and if you market your product wisely, you can still jump on the bandwagon. In this review, Contenteam will cover the best tactics in content marketing for SaaS.

Challenges in Promoting Software Products

Let’s start by discussing why many companies don’t succeed in promoting their product.

First, it’s not an easy niche. Sowaftre or application development is not cheap. Also, the market is full of free alternatives, and it’s no surprise that users love freebies.

Here are a few other common challenges for a SaaS content agency:

The idea carries the main value of the product, but it is almost always very easy to copy.
Software has a long sales cycle – first, consumers test a trial version and only then decide to buy (or hesitate, which happens much more often).
Continuing the previous point, it’s not that difficult to attract downloads, but only experts with a fearless mindset can motivate people to pay for a program.
IT is complex, making it hard to describe the benefits of the program in a clear and accessible way.

Secondly, many people don’t have a proper promotion plan. But chaotic campaigns don’t succeed. You need to think it over even before writing the first line of code – assess the market, competitors, demand, and prospects. And that will help you come up with a product that solves specific user problems and does it better than similar programs.

SaaS Marketing Strategy: The Steps

If you are determined and audacious, you can move on to creating a marketing strategy. Write down the following points and discuss them with the team:

Market assessment: players, scale, demand. For example, post scheduling software for social media has huge competition, plus, the platforms already have free official tools. But when it comes to high-quality text generators based on artificial intelligence, there are very few of them.
Target audience analysis and segmentation: determine who needs your software and why. Divide the target audience into several groups, create portraits of ideal customers for each group. Here is an example.

Positioning: create a unique selling proposition, or a USP, list competitive advantages, and develop a corporate identity. For example, HubSpot markets itself as marketing, sales, and service software that helps your business grow without compromise.
Marketing activities: decide how and where you will promote the program or application. This is what we’ll cover in the next section.

22 SaaS Content Strategies for All Types of Products

There is no one-size-fits-all solution for promoting programs and applications: each niche and market has its own set of rules. But it still means that you can choose SaaS content marketing strategies from the list below and try them for your business. The success of IT companies often relies on these activities.

1. Website

Before telling the entire Internet about your software, you need to lay the foundation – the official website. This is where you’ll be sending traffic from other channels and convert visitors into customers.

Here is what you should include on the site:

A detailed and clear description of the product: what it does, who needs it, what problems it solves.
Social proof: logos of famous brands that use your program, customer reviews, ratings on other sites, recommendations from thought leaders.
Rates: list the prices in a comparison table. Many companies reduce prices for long-term subscriptions to increase customer retention.
Guarantees: why is it safe to download your program? How will payment processing work? What if I don’t like the product?
Information: a blog, FAQ, instructions, case studies, and any other additional resources that will help to make a purchasing decision and understand how the product works quickly.
Contacts: contact customer support; a section for partners and applicants if necessary.
Call to action: usually, it’s a button offering to download a trial version, leave a request to access the service, or learn more.

To increase chances of your site’s being successful, make your designs look professional, use less text but ensure it’s powerful and convincing, add visuals – videos, infographics, software screenshots, etc.

Let’s look at the example of a post scheduling service called Later.

First screen. The team shows what their program looks like, states their USP in the title, and talks about their capabilities in two sentences. The call to action is strengthened by guarantees: free forever, set up in minutes, no credit card required.

Second screen. If a visitor is hesitant about creating an account, social proof and benefits will come into play.

Third-sixth screens. Here, the team describes the functions in more detail to make sure the user is fully convinced that this software is a useful solution for their problems.

Seventh screen. Testimonials from happy customers to get rid of any doubt.

Eighth screen. They list guarantees once again and attach a call to action.

The site also has a blog, resources for training, contacts of the support, courses, an About Us page, and a section for partners.

2. Mobile App Stores

Now that you have a website that does part of the selling, move on to attracting traffic from external sites. The first step is to register in application stores: Google Play, App Store, Microsoft Store, and others. This is where most users download new software for their devices.

How to promote in app stores:

Learn the requirements of the site and write a description according to them.
Add keywords to the text to rank in search results for your target queries. If your brand is still getting little attention, optimize the page for searching by function: tracking expenses, losing weight quickly, removing the background, etc.
Collect downloads and reviews. These metrics are very important for ranking. At the initial stages, you can ask friends or pay users that download the app – you can find them on freelance exchanges. However, don’t resort to cheating if you don’t want to find yourself banned.
Add external promotion. Run SaaS advertising, promotions on social media, and working with influencers.

3. Industry-specific Portals

If your SaaS marketing plan is not for applications, you can post on other portals where people download software. The main idea is the same: design the page, optimize for search engines and work on activity and engagement on the page. Here are some options:

You can also come into the spotlight on popular platforms where developers talk about their products:

Check if your niche has online portals, media, or directories that other companies use to promote software. Contact them and clarify the terms of cooperation.

4. Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding is not only about raising money for a project. Products that become popular on such sites often become hits outside of them and get picked up by the media.

You should definitely include this channel in your strategy if your program solves an important consumer problem and with no worthwhile equivalents.

Several leading sites are:

5. Search Engine Optimization

You’ve made a statement about yourself, now let’s move on to promotion. SEO won’t bring instant results but will provide long-term growth of the project’s recognition. There are three directions to focus on:

The technical side: page speed, clean code, navigation, robots.txt and sitemap files, meta tags, markup.
Content optimization: keywords, LSI, formatting, text volume, internal linking, reading experience.
Links: Organic link building from reputable sources.

6. Contextual Advertising

If you run ads in search engines, you can reach top positions in the SERPs the same day. However, it’s not cheap: $1-$2 per click on average.

You can launch a campaign through:

Produce creative content, customize keywords, and start driving paid traffic to your website or app store product page.

7. Expert Blog

Software is difficult to display. You can’t try on a program or take a picture of it, but what you can do is write about it in an interesting way. This is why an expert blog is a win-win tool for promoting software.

Here is what you can write about:

Product updates
Comparison of your solution with competitors’ products
Answers to user questions
Instructions – how to solve a specific problem using the program
Instructions for beginners and best tactics
Alternatives for popular applications (yours being the first on the list)
Interviews with clients
Material on adjacent topics: reviews of industry trends, guides, collections of ideas, research. They will strengthen your position as an expert
Case studies
Downloadable detailed documents (for example, white papers), which will help to collect contacts of potential customers

Make your blog and search engine optimization go hand-in-hand for better results.

8. Social Media

Take a look at the most popular apps worldwide: 7 out of 10 are social networks or instant messengers. People already spend half their lives here, so why not use these channels to promote new technologies?

Study audience preferences and find out where your potential customers are active the most. Register and design profiles and start promoting them with content, targeted ads, and public and blogger promotions.

Social media is also great for collecting feedback, user-generated content, and customer support.

9. Landing Pages

In the beginning, you created portraits of ideal customers. Chances are you made several very different profiles because a single product can be used to solve different problems. You will increase conversions by reaching out to each of these groups with a unique content marketing solution.

For example, Unbounce offers different solutions.

For SaaS:

For ecommerce:

Create a landing page for each profile. Here is where you can get traffic:

ads
blog
expert articles on third-party sites
social media, etc.

This personalization will help the user understand that your product will definitely solve their problem.

10. Website Visibility

When it comes to converting a visitor to a client, you can’t forget about the usability of your website and landing pages. After all, it’s not only the relevance and quality of the product that drives a customer’s decision but also the user experience. Here is what’s important to consider:

Ease of navigation and site structure.
Breadcrumbs – links between different sections.
Ease of conversion. How easy is it to download the program or send a request for access?
Search. How quickly will the user find what they need?
The quality of site search.
Contacts information.
Convenient design. Usually, the simpler – the better.
Page speed.
Valid links.
Adaptivity for different screens and devices.

When you take care of the main things, you can run A/B testing for the color, layout, forms, visuals, etc.

11. User’s Attention

If there is traffic but few downloads, try to work with keeping visitors’ attention. Add pop-ups, blog post ad inserts, exclusive push emails, floating buttons, and live chats.

Make sure not to overdo it, otherwise, the user will quickly leave the site. Test tools gradually and observe the reaction.

12. Outreach

If you’re already posting expert blog content, outreach can help you get even more value out of it. Reach out to reputable publications within your niche and offer to make guest posts with mentions of your product.

You can also keep track of program selection articles, contact the authors and negotiate to place a link to your service.

If it is technically possible, collect data using your software and turn it into an original study. The media is happy to publish this kind of content, which incidentally increases your brand reach and improves your site’s rankings.

13. Email Marketing

Here is what can help you collect email addresses:

forms that visitors need to fill out to download the trial version
contact forms
account registration
downloadable detailed content
bonuses for registered users

You will need to segment the list of addresses and send out links to new materials, information about updates and promotions. But don’t do this too often to prevent email from going to spam.

It’s also very important to set up an automatic mailing list for new customers, which will help them understand how to use the program. This will extend the life cycle of your customers and reduce the number of returns.

14. Display Ads

This option is usually less effective than contextual advertising, but there is also a time and place for it. These are banners and videos shown on different websites.

The best platforms for launching display ads:

15. Video

Videos are life-savers for marketers who are promoting sophisticated software. A visual demonstration shows how it works, the benefits, and motivates users to download and try the product – all in just a couple of minutes.

Add videos on your website and guest posts, but there is a lot more to it. Try YouTube, the second most popular search engine in the world, other video hosting sites (Vimeo, Dailymotion), and social media. Optimize your description to hit the SERP for the right search terms.

16. Demo

Let’s face it: there is a lot of great free software on the market. And if you want to promote expensive software, you need a demo. Users will want to test whatever they’ll be paying for.

There are two common approaches:

Make all functionality available, but limit the time: 7 days, a month, etc.
Offer a limited free version and plans with additional features.

Choose the option that suits you best and direct traffic to the demo.

17. Affiliate Program

Offer a percentage of sales for promoting your software. Connect the affiliate program and remember to specify what promotion channels to avoid paying for low-quality traffic.

You can implement the approach on your own directly on your website (through discount coupons, for example) and through CPA networks.

18. Direct Sales

If you offer business software, you can implement direct sales. Find big industry players, make a unique proposal, and start the discussion directly. To make it more efficient, personalize all marketing materials and adapt to customer requests.

19. Events

Arrange themed events, invite experts, and as a side note, introduce your product to the audience. This can also be done as a traditional seminar and conference or as online events like webinars and live broadcasts.

20. Early Access

Before the global product launch, gather a list of the most interesting clients (bloggers, experts, large companies) and invite them to test the software. Consider giving them free access. If they like the product, you will receive endorsements from thought leaders.

Ideally, if the use of the software is visible to others – you can make a new block on the website. Then the approach will definitely be beneficial.

21. Brand

Competitors can copy the idea, but if you build a strong brand, customers will still remain loyal to you. You will need:

Recognition – style, design, logo, colors, presentation.
High-quality experience – service, response time for new requests, convenience and usability, updates.

Brand building is not a separate strategy: it should become part of all your activities and communications with the audience.

22. Localization

Software usually has no geographic restrictions and can be useful to users anywhere in the world. High-quality software localization will help you expand your reach and grow several times faster.

Localization includes not only translating the interface but also all marketing materials: website, blog, landing pages, ads, etc.

Contenteam has been helping clients as a SaaS content marketing agency for 8 years, and we know for sure that machine translation or freelance services don’t have any benefits for your company.

In short

There are quite a few options for promoting software. Choose which ones suit your business:

creating a high-quality website for the product
uploading to app stores
registering on industry-specific portals
crowdfunding
optimizing the site for search engines
placing contextual ads to attract traffic quickly
maintaining an expert blog
promoting on relevant social media platforms
creating landing pages for different target audiences
improving site usability
making guest posts and doing PR
launching email campaigns
placing display ads
creating and promoting video
offering a demo
launching an affiliate program
doing direct B2B sales
holding events online and offline
offering early access to influencers
strengthening your brand’s position
localizing the program and marketing materials

Are you looking for the high-quality promotion of an IT product with expert content? Send us a message, and our writer and editors will help you create export IT content for your brand. We look forward to chatting with you at your free consultation!

Сообщение How to Promote Software Products via Content Marketing in 2023 появились сначала на Contenteam - Multilingual Copywriting Service.

Nazira Konysbayeva, Author inContenteam - Multilingual Copywriting Service

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