Victoria Michael, Author inContenteam - Multilingual Copywriting Service

Is It Still Profitable to Hire an In-house Copywriter in 2023? Market Overview

Victoria Michael — Wed, 23 Mar 2022 06:59:02 +0000

Are you on the fence about adding an in-house copywriter to your team? I can understand your hesitancy — the average salary of a copywriter in the US is a bit over $50,000 per year, according to data from Indeed. And if you’re hiring for a full-time role, you have to consider the price of employee benefits, which increases the average cost of each employee by 31%.

And that’s still not all! You can’t forget about the actual costs involved in sourcing and onboarding employees; in 2022, the average cost to hire an employee is $5,000+.

Copywriters are talented and deserve to be compensated accordingly. But perhaps you are not in a position to pay $70,000+ in salary and benefits for one. And if you have pressing needs for content, your copywriter may not be able to handle all of it; you’ll have to start looking for more copywriters, and costs add up quickly. There’s also the flip side: if you don’t need copywritten content very often, you are paying an unnecessary salary.

Yet, even with the expenses, working with an in-house copywriter brings far more advantages than hiring copywriters from online freelance marketplaces. I’ve experienced writing from members of such sites firsthand; while some are decently written, much of it is atrocious. Unless you only need copywritten content once in a blue moon, I’d say you can safely rule out using freelance copywriters.

That doesn’t mean that in-house copywriters are your only option, though! If you need high-quality content but can’t pay a copywriter’s salary, you can work with a remote dedicated editorial team. Basically, instead of paying a copywriter a regular salary, you’re working with a team on a per-piece basis. During the weeks that you don’t need any content, you don’t have to pay them. If you need tons of content, they have enough writers to handle the task. As such, one of this model’s biggest benefits is its scalability.

As a member of a remote dedicated editorial team, perhaps I may seem a little biased. Yet, everything stated above isn’t conjecture; I’m about to back it up with cold hard facts from The Copywriting Institute’s 2022 B2B Content Marketing Report!

Market Overview

The 12th Annual B2B Content Marketing Report on Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends was published by the Content Marketing Institute, in collaboration with MarketingProfs and ON24. At 54 pages long, it’s a pretty lengthy report, so I’m not going to cover the whole thing — just parts that relate to the profitability of hiring in-house copywriters vs. a remote editorial team. However, I recommend giving the whole thing a read when you get a chance!

First things first, it’s important to acknowledge how the survey defines “content marketing” and “success.”

Content Marketing: A strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience—and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action."

Success: Achieving your organization’s desired/ targeted results.

Towards the beginning of the report, you’ll learn that 40% of respondents outsource their content marketing activities (which includes copywriting). Interestingly enough, 57% of the most successful respondents use outsourcing — this implies that outsourcing content marketing correlates with better chances of success.

Moving on to the report’s “Team Structure and Outsourcing” section — the report states that many organizations have tiny content marketing teams, often comprising just one person. Having more people contributing to copywriting impacts your chances of success. 54% of the most successful respondents have two+ employees in their content department, whereas only 17% of the least successful respondents fulfill this.

The more players on your team, the better: you don’t have one person stretched thin trying to write content, proofread their own work, publish it, and update it regularly. But with the rising need for content, soon, teams of 2-3 people may face difficulties. To illustrate this, 67% of respondents stated that over the last year, their content team was expected to do much more work without increased resources.

So, to future-proof your in-house team, it would be best to have several writers — which cycles us back to the price point. Sigh…

Within the Team Structure and Outsourcing section, the report explained that the least-successful respondents do more content work in-house and that they are typically in the early phases of their content marketing maturity/strategy.

As for the size of the companies, 61% of respondents of 2021’s survey indicated that they outsourced — and that figure rose to 75% in 2022. So, at this point, we can see that the biggest and the most successful companies use outsourcing — even if their size and success give them a larger budget.

Now, here’s a point against hiring a remote outsourced copywriter: 65% of respondents said their biggest challenge is finding writers who have enough topical expertise. This is definitely tricky if you’re working with just a couple of outsourced writers — perhaps you need copywriters to produce whitepapers on the technology your company uses. You have one who can expertly write about AI and another who knows cloud technology like the back of your hand. But what if you’re introducing blockchain to the mix, and none of your outsourced writers have any experience in this area? Do you spend time trying to find another outsourced writer, or do you risk assigning it to an existing writer?

This is where full editorial teams come into play — like Contenteam (wink, wink)! By partnering with an outsourced editorial team, you’ll get access to their vast pool of subject matter experts. Rather than finding writers and maintaining working relationships with them from across the globe, you’ll get access to the skillset you need, exactly when you need it.

For instance, if you need an article on how NFTs work, we would assign it to a writer who specializes in fintech and crypto. Then, we would have a subject matter specialist (somebody who is not a writer but actually works in that field) check the content. To make sure the article aligns with your branding and needs, the editor will check the work. And then, lastly, it will go to a proofreader for any grammar or syntax fixes.

So, what do you say? Are you ready to get content on your terms? Whatever topic you want, whatever language you want, and in whatever timeframe you want: just shoot us a message, and we’ll make it happen. Let’s chat and get the ball rolling!

FAQ

How much does it cost to hire a copywriter?

The average copywriter salary in the US is about $50,000 per year.

When should you hire a copywriter?

A copywriter is needed for any company that produces content — it doesn’t even have to be digital content. Every company should have one; even if your operations are mainly offline, you need a skilled writer for advertisements, product descriptions, and mailings.

Can you hire a copywriter for a website?

Yes, we recommend doing so – well, actually, we recommend hiring a remote content team for your website. You’ll get a copywriter to craft compelling service pages, and they will be checked by an editor and proofreader.

Сообщение Is It Still Profitable to Hire an In-house Copywriter in 2023? Market Overview появились сначала на Contenteam - Multilingual Copywriting Service.

The Hidden Mystery Behind Expert Content Creation: Editorial Teams

Victoria Michael — Wed, 12 Jan 2022 13:55:47 +0000

It’s no secret that populating your website with high-quality, expertly-written content has huge SEO benefits. You’ll increase your website’s authority, bring in organic traffic with evergreen content, and create oh-so-shareable texts. But, what exactly constitutes expert content — and even more importantly, how can you start publishing these kinds of texts?

Interestingly enough, the actual process of writing isn’t that big of a factor when it comes to expert content creation. I mean, yes, it helps to have skilled fintech and IT copywriters, but the real importance lies in the legwork: doing keyword research, choosing a format, setting up an editorial workflow, bringing in subject matter experts, and so on.

You can have beautifully-written text created by a master of prose, but it won’t do anything for your website if it isn’t powered by an excellent strategy and an optimized team. I’ve already covered content strategies in detail in previous posts, so today, I’d like to focus on creating an editorial team.

Why You Should Form an Editorial Team

Before your business can start publishing expert content, you need to have people that can write, edit, proofread, and fact-check it. This is particularly important for specialized niches like fintech or industry. Here are 3 scenarios that could occur, depending on how you set up your content production flow:

Scenario A: You run a small business, and you don’t think you have the budget to set up an editorial team. So, you try to write all of your website’s content yourself, on top of your regular business responsibilities. There are two likely outcomes: you either publish lots of content, most of which is of poor quality, OR you infrequently publish content, but it’s of average-to-good quality.

Scenario B: You decide to work with freelance content experts for your various content needs. But this ends up being time-consuming and frustrating — a single piece of content might require multiple revisions, and you will either have to pay the copywriter more or keep the rate the same and risk them quitting. Having one person responsible for one piece of content is not really realistic, as there’s quite a lot that goes into expert content: not just writing but also keywords, style guide adherence, fact-checking, proofreading, and much more.

Scenario С: You set up an editorial team or hire an external one. You tell them what kind of content you need, and it moves through the team’s pipeline. You are able to get the content quickly, and revisions are minimal.

To Contenteam, Scenario С seems the best by far! To illustrate this, let’s look at our own editorial teams. There are several, but I work with two in particular: IT and fintech. These are two very specialized areas that can be difficult to write about — and the scope of what our clients need often falls outside of the realm of what an average copywriter can do. This is actually why a lot of clients choose to work with us: they tried and failed to find suitable copywriters, so working with a full-fledged editorial team actually saved them time and money.

So, each of our editorial teams looks like this:

1 project manager: They are the point-of-contact for our clients. They gather requirements for projects, assign copywriters and editors, make sure deadlines are adhered to, etc.
3+ specialized copywriters: Our team is full of copywriters with expert content knowledge in various niches. We add them to the relevant editorial teams, so it’s easy to select writers who are suitable for each content expert request.
1 fact-checker: After the copywriter has produced content, it goes straight to the fact-checker. Why? Well, if an editor and proofreader check it first, and then the fact-checker needs to make corrections, the text would then need to be re-edited and re-proofread. Our way cuts out those extra steps. We use fact-checkers who are experts in their fields; the background knowledge really helps with the checking process — and if they don’t know something off the top of their head, they know which industry resources will likely have the answer.
1+ editor: After the text has been fact-checked and any necessary changes have been made, the content goes to the editor. They are in charge of making sure the content aligns with the client’s vision. They handle structure, keyword placement, tone of voice, and anything that’s related to style.
1+ proofreader: Now that the editor has verified that the text aligns with the client’s requirements, the proofreader looks for (and fixes) any grammatical and spelling errors. They are putting the final polish on the content.

How To Create a Team: Going Beyond Expert Content Writers

Hopefully, I’ve sold you on why content teams are so important — so now, it’s time to address the logical follow-up question: how do you put a team together? Where are you finding the members?

The most common method, by far, is to slap up a posting on a freelance platform like Upwork. But here’s the man problem with that: the best expert content providers and editors are likely too booked to find you. If you put up job postings, you’re going to be contacted by people who are actively seeking work — meaning they are more likely to be amateurs.

One strategy is to reach out directly to expert content creators that you’d like to work with. However, this means that you’d better be prepared with a great offer; otherwise, it will take way too long to fill your editorial team with skilled members. But if you have the time and resources for this method of action, it can really pay off in the long run!

Another strategy is to partner with an external editorial team, like the ones that we offer at Contenteam. You don’t have to worry about doing any hiring: all you have to do is select an agency and share your requests. The agency is in charge of all training, assignments of work, quality checking, and so on. This is the best option if you want to get your content pipeline up-and-running as quickly as possible.

Structuring the Team

If you’ve chosen to go with an external editorial team, you don’t have to worry about this step. But if you’re hiring your own in-house staff, you’ll need to decide which structure to put in place. Contenteam’s editorial structure is just one example; there are plenty of alternate routes to follow.

For instance, Darina Lynkova of Reach Marketing LP prefers to have 10 people on her content teams: five writers, one senior editor, an SEO specialist, a proofreader, a junior developer, and a content manager.

If you’re only planning on producing a few pieces of content per month, having five writers on your team might be overkill. But if you start off by only hiring a couple of staff, scaling up can be time-consuming. That’s another reason why external editorial teams are getting so popular: you can scale up and down as needed without worrying about hiring on more people or laying anyone off.

If you’ve weighed the options and have determined that creating your own team is the best path, I recommend including these roles in your crew, at the very least:

Expert SEO Content Writer: They use SEO best practices to create high-ranking texts on topics relevant to your business.

Bigger budget? Hire an external content writer; they specialize in creating content for third-party websites, which greatly helps with your linkbuilding strategy.

Editor: They edit the texts so they match the brand, style, and SEO guidelines.

Bigger budget? Hire a proofreader. This ensures that no grammatical or spelling mistakes slip through the cracks.

Fact-Checker: You could skip this for some niches, but they are a crucial member of the fintech and IT editorial teams. With so much information being released daily, it’s important to stay on top of current products, statistics, and regulations.

Bigger budget? Hire a Public Relations expert. They can ensure that content will help position you as a leader in your industry.

Some other roles to consider, if your budget allows for it, are: Head of SEO, Designer, Editorial Director, and Content Marketing Manager.

Make a Style Guide

This is the best way to avoid micromanaging — whether you’re working with an in-house team or an external one, write down all of your stylistic rules. Doing so will align your brand’s look and tone across all channels and cut down the time needed to train new members. Whenever somebody has a question about something related to stylistics, you can just direct them to the document — and if there isn’t an entry on that particular topic, you can create one, and it will hold true for similar future inquiries.

These are the main elements to include in your editorial style guide:

Grammar: Should writers use the Oxford comma? Do you prefer semi-colons or em-dashes? Do you hate the passive voice with a passion? This is where to note all of these preferences.
Spelling: Spell-check can take care of most spelling mistakes. So, instead, this section is where you note your preference with words that can be spelled in two or more ways. Most commonly, this section specifies whether American English or British English spelling should be used (like center vs. centre).
Voice and Tone: The tone may vary depending on what channel content is published one, but the brand voice should be consistent. How do you want your brand to come across? Expressive and witty? Professional and formal?
Sentence and Paragraph Length: On academic websites, it’s typical for content to have longer sentences and paragraphs. But with casual blogs, shorter paragraphs and sentences are preferred. Here, you’ll note which lengths are appropriate for your niche and audience.
Links: Discuss how links should be formatted, as well as how many external and internal links to use in various forms of content.
Images: Specify image size requirements, dimensions, and placement within the content.

Develop an Editorial Workflow

Remember the Contenteam workflow I walked you through earlier? We’ve found that works best for us, but you might want to do something different for your team. The whole point of an editorial workflow is to simplify the content creation process while allowing members to focus on their own responsibilities: the end result should be a happy, productive team that produces high-quality content.

If you’re working with an external editorial team like Contenteam, you’ll also want to determine which steps you are responsible for and which steps the agency should handle. For instance, some of our clients do keyword research, while others request that we do it. Similarly, some clients publish materials on third-party websites on their own, while others delegate that task to us.

Step 1: Identify Tasks

To get started with workflow planning, you’ll need to list every single task that’s involved in producing content, no matter how small. It might help if you group them into categories, like so:

Strategy: editorial calendar planning, selecting a CTA, keyword research
Content Creation: Outlining, writing, design, editing, proofreading, fact-checking
Content Promotion: Optimization, publishing, distribution

Note: identify the tasks that your team is already doing — not every content-related task under the sun. You should aim to organize your existing process before scaling up.

Step 2: Divvy Out Responsibilities

Next, you’ll assign ownership for each step. A lot of it will be fairly straightforward; for example, it makes sense that a content strategist would finalize topics and conduct SEO keyword research. It also makes sense that the content writer creates the first draft and carries out revisions.

But who writes promotional copy for Facebook ads? The social media manager or the writer? Who uploads the content into your CMS? You, the writer or the strategist? Make sure to tackle all these grey-area scenarios.

Step 3: Create a Timeline

You’ve covered the “what” and the “who”; now it’s time to consider the “when.” Map out how long content creation takes — which, by the way, should vary depending on the actual form of content. Promotional copy for social media should not take as long as a fintech White Paper.

When mapping out the timeline, make sure to address these:

The length of each step
The order that tasks must be completed in
Dependencies (for example, should the designer start working on graphics right away or wait until they have a full draft of the content?)

You aren’t coming up with due dates in this step; that’s what an editorial calendar is for. Instead, you’re figuring out the approximate amount of time needed to create various forms of content from start to finish. You might determine that it takes a writer 3 days to produce a rough draft, 1 day for the fact-checker to look at it, and 2 more days for it to move through the revisions/editing/proofreading pipeline.

Summary

Creating an editorial team can take a lot of up-front work. Sourcing top talent, assigning responsibilities, producing a timeline, and much more — it can be labor- and time-intensive. But the SEO benefits that high-quality IT and fintech content bring are well worth it.

I hope that this guide has given you a launching point for creating an editorial team of your own! And if you don’t have the time or resources to create your own team from scratch, don’t sweat it. At Contenteam, our editorial teams can integrate seamlessly into your own in-house staff — or even replace an in-house crew entirely. Just send us a message, and one of our content expert consultants will discuss with you how we can fulfill your content needs.

FAQ

What is the definition of a content expert?

A content expert is also referred to as a subject matter expert. They are highly familiar with certain skills and niches, and they typically have a Bachelor’s degree in the industry, along with several years of experience. For example, when searching for a writer for a Machine Learning White Paper, you might select a copywriter that has 7 years of experience as a Machine Learning developer.

What are the content expert’s responsibilities?

A content expert is responsible for creating drafts and revisions of high-quality content in niche industries. They may also use SEO best practices to ensure higher-ranking content.

Where can you hire an expert for content?

You can place job postings on various freelance platforms, such as Upwork. Alternatively, you can work with a fully-fledged external editorial team; agencies like Contenteam have subject matter experts on hand.

Сообщение The Hidden Mystery Behind Expert Content Creation: Editorial Teams появились сначала на Contenteam - Multilingual Copywriting Service.

A Guide to Creating Evergreen Content: Tips From Professional Content Marketers

Victoria Michael — Fri, 10 Dec 2021 16:30:11 +0000

I’m going to spitball a few goals that I know you have for your website: backlinks from authority sites, a high ranking for important keywords, and loads of organic traffic. Did I guess right?

I thought so! This is pretty much what everybody wants for their website — so why are some sites successfully achieving these goals while others have to fight tooth and nail to bring in visitors?

The answer is simple: they have an evergreen content strategy.

Evergreen Content Meaning: SEO content that remains relevant to readers, no matter the season or year.

This kind of content gets its name from the evergreen tree: its leaves remain green and fresh, even in the winter! And so should your content; if your blog posts revolve around current events and seasons, you’re missing out on loads of traffic!

This isn’t to say that you can’t publish holiday gift guides and the like, but I want to illustrate how evergreen digital content can reap longer-lasting rewards. So, read on to learn why you should be making these materials, as well as to get some of our top evergreen content creation tips!

Seasonal Content vs. Evergreen

Seasonal content is only useful during a certain time of the year — and because it’s time-sensitive, there is less competition. It’s a great idea if you want to create an immediate buzz and cultivate the impression that your brand is on top of the trends. Some examples of seasonal content include:

Breaking news
Limited-time events and promotion
Holiday topics
Seasonal events, like summer vacation or the NFL playoffs

On the other hand, evergreen content generates a steady flow of traffic to your website; what’s more, because the information isn’t constantly changing, it’s easier to write about. There are tons of sources that you can research, and there’s no pressing deadline for publishing. On the minus side, because it isn’t time-sensitive, there is plenty of evergreen content about nearly every topic under the sun — meaning there is more competition.

Some types of evergreen content include:

Whitepapers and case studies
How-to guides
Listicles
Infographics
Product reviews
Glossaries
“History of XYZ” articles

Keep in mind that evergreen content examples are only applicable if they’re about topics that never go out of date. For instance, a product review of a limited-edition pair of sneakers wouldn’t be evergreen — but a review of a sneaker brand that’s been in business for 30 years will be just fine.

You need to find the right balance of seasonal and evergreen content, and there’s no one-size-fits-all formula. To find the right one for you, start with a 50/50 ratio, assess the results, and make adjustments as needed.

A Closer Look at the Benefits of Evergreen Content

Want to get the rest of your content marketing team on board with a shift towards an evergreen content blog? Just show them these benefits:

It generates more and more traffic over time. Evergreen content draws in new users long after it’s published — months and even years down the road. And if it’s an especially useful piece of content, readers might bookmark it and reread it in the future.
It goes hand in hand with social media engagement. Social media users often share content because they think it’s relevant and valuable for their followers — and because evergreen content isn’t time-sensitive, it fits the bill nicely.
It’s easy to maintain. To increase its relevance, you can come back once in a while and add updates, but it’s far more maintainable than seasonal content.
It generates plenty of natural, organic backlinks. Seasonal content could take a while to be noticed by bloggers and webmasters, at which point it could be outdated. Evergreen content remains relevant, so bloggers can share it whenever they find it, even if it’s months or years after you published the material.
It can be repurposed for other marketing activities. For instance, you could use an evergreen blog post to create an infographic or even a video! There are also endless syndication opportunities: besides publishing the content on your website, you can upload it to Medium, Reddit, Quora, and so on.
It improves your site’s overall SEO. Your evergreen material signals two things to Google: that your website has high-quality content and that you’re getting organic backlinks. This is a great way to increase your Domain Authority.

Delving Into Evergreen Content Formats

Earlier, I mentioned a few evergreen content ideas, and now it’s time to take a closer look. The great thing about this kind of content is that it’s applicable to soooo many formats.

Cornerstone Content

This is the main content on your website and might take the form of a single page, an article, or several blog posts. It consists of the most important and highest quality articles on your website: the ones that are most relevant to visitors and that you want to rank highest on Google.

Typically, these are informative, fairly lengthy articles that break down a specific topic and pull in info from reliable sources. And the end goal is to welcome readers to your sales funnel.

List of Useful Services/Tools

This is especially great evergreen content for tech companies; you can compile a list of great tools and technologies that will help your readers in their personal or professional lives. For instance, you could share your top 10 picks for online form builders. Just be sure to review the content once in a while and remove services that are outdated (later on in this guide, I’ll explain more about updating your content).

Infographics

32% of marketers use visual images as an integral part of their content strategy. And it makes sense; after all, infographics are visually appealing and a more efficient way of conveying key statistics, facts, and examples. What’s more, you can base them on articles you’ve already published, so there’s no need to do the same work twice.

How-To Guides

When most people want to learn how to do something new, they head over to Google. This can apply to anything: from something as simple as “how to fry an egg” to complex tech topics like “how to use AI in web development.”

Figure out what kinds of questions your target audience is asking, and then create a step-by-step guide showing them how to solve the problem.

Whitepapers

White papers are typically published by B2B companies, especially within the IT space. Some goals of a whitepaper might be to educate potential customers, gather leads, educate channel partners, build credibility, and publish your own studies. Because white papers are almost entirely data-driven, they require more maintenance than other forms of evergreen content, as data is constantly evolving. But it’s well worth the work: 71% of B2B buyers use white papers to help them make purchasing decisions.

“History Of” Articles

This type of evergreen content is pretty easy to maintain — after all, the history of a topic remains constant. All you have to do is add updates on occasion when there are new developments in the field. And you can easily write a “History Of” article on pretty much anything under the sun; because it’s research-based rather than insight-based, you can even assign the text to a regular copywriter rather than a specialized IT writer.

Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Evergreen Content

Creating evergreen content mainly involves finding topics that have consistent search traffic potential rather than ones that are trendy. Here’s what to do:

Step 1: Conduct Keyword Research

Evergreen content is valuable — but only if it’s acquiring and maintaining a traffic flow. And to acquire that traffic, you need the page to rank high on Google. And, as SEO 101 tells us, keywords are what make our pages visible to search engines.

You likely know all about keywords already, but the question is: how do you pick ones for evergreen content? There are four things you’ll need to do.

First, brainstorm seed keywords. In this step, you’re coming up with evergreen topics that are interesting and relevant to your audience. If you’re a tech company, your audience isn’t just looking for IT industry news. They might also want to learn terms related to software development, view guides on how to choose a dev company, or compare programming languages. So, let the ideas flow — write down whatever comes to mind, and make sure the ideas are diverse. You can always save topics for later.

Next, you’ll need to get inspiration for seed keywords. Check out competitor sites, read forums to see how people are phrasing their questions and use tools like Semrush and Ahrefs.

After that, it’s time to analyze the seed keyword relevance. It’s not worth your time to write about topics that aren’t steadily relevant; after all, that’s the antithesis of evergreen content. Instead, run the keywords through Google Trends and verify that the interest remains stable.

Here’s an example of what a stable keyword will look like on Google Trends:

And here’s an unstable one:

Both of those keywords are measured across a 5-year time period; one has huge peaks and valleys, while the other has a much flatter line.

Lastly, when choosing the keywords, you’ll need to gauge their potential. Is it worth the effort? Perform a keyword audit on a tool like Ahrefs, and check the search volume, clicks, and return rate (RR). Ahrefs even has a handy tool that estimates how many backlinks you’ll need to rank in the top 10 results on search engines!

Step 2: Create the Article Structure

Now that you’ve selected your keywords, it’s time to pick an article structure that’s best able to answer the searcher’s intent. I mentioned a few evergreen article formats earlier, but you aren’t limited to those; just make sure that the format makes sense.

Here are some examples of matching intent with structure:

Keyword	Intent	Relevant Structure
Get custom fintech software online	Transactional	List of services
How to make software in Python	Informational	Step-by-step guide/Infographic
AI in healthcare	Informational	Whitepaper/ “History Of”/Case Study

Step 3: Write the Article

I don’t really have any special tips for you in this section that are specifically tailored to evergreen writing — but if you need a crash course on writing for a tech audience, I recommend checking out some of our guides:

By the way… all of those articles are examples of evergreen content!

Step 4: Publish the Article

You’ve reached the finish line! Hit the publish button, monitor your rankings, promote your content, and make updates if needed. More on that next!

Evergreen Content Advice From a Pro: How to Highlight It for Maximum Effectiveness

After publishing your brand’s evergreen content, don’t let it get buried amid other articles on your website. If you want to get good results, you need to promote the content so that it’s immediately visible to your site visitors. Here are a few ways to do this:

Make a “Start Here” page for your website; such pages contain useful tutorials for visitors, and it’s a great place to list your best evergreen posts.
Create a homepage banner or sidebar section that highlights your evergreen content.
Integrate your evergreen content into your social media campaign.
Update your evergreen posts once in a while, so they make it back to the top of your blog page.

Now, I want to take a closer look at that last point: everybody should be updating their evergreen content on a regular basis. This doesn’t require a crazy amount of work; rather, you can add a couple of links to new, relevant studies, summarize this year’s current findings, and so on.

For instance, if you’re a tech company, certain pieces of technology might become obsolete — so if outdated tech is mentioned in an article, add an italicized note to the beginning of the article. In the note, you could explain that the tech is no longer current and mention its replacement. Make sure to include the publishing/update dates.

Example: Let’s say you’re a tech website that published an article on the best Windows antivirus apps. But one of your picks has gone out of business… You would need to remove the app from the list, possibly replacing it with a different one, and then make a note that looks like this:
Update: Our former pick, ABC, is no longer available. So, we’ve decided to update our list and add XYZ instead. This article was originally published September 2018. Updated December 2021.

Updating your content in this manner has great SEO benefits, and it’s constantly being pushed into search results. So, if you notice that your content has dropped in search ranking over time, it might be due for an update.

The last thing I want to leave you with is a quick checklist for updating your articles:

Review the title and update it if needed.
Remove outdated information and add updated information.
Include a note about the update on the top or bottom of the article (I prefer placing it at the top).
Double-check that the new section matches the tone of voice of the rest of the article.
Fix any broken links and replace outdated images.
Update internal links.
Update the CTA, if needed.

And there you have it! That’s really all you need to know about creating and maintaining the best evergreen content. Remember: seasonal content can definitely be useful and generate buzz, but evergreen is a more solid backbone for generating long-lasting traffic.

If you want to get SEO-optimized evergreen content for your blog, reach out to Contenteam! We are a full-fledged editorial team: simply tell us your goals, and we’ll conduct keyword research, choose a structure, write the article, proofread/edit it, and send it to you. All you have to do is wait for the traffic to come in and reap the benefits.

Interested in getting content for your IT or Fintech company? Just fill out the contact form below.

FAQs

What is evergreen content?

Evergreen Content is SEO content that remains relevant to readers, no matter the season or year.

What makes content evergreen?

Evergreen content is filled with information that remains stable in relevancy. This generates a steady flow of traffic to your website; what’s more, because the information isn’t constantly changing, it’s easier to write about. There are tons of sources that you can research, and there’s no pressing deadline for publishing.

Why is evergreen content effective?

There are lots of ways it’s effective: it generates more and more traffic over time, it’s highly shareable, it generates lots of organic backlinks, it’s easily repurposable, and it improves your site’s overall SEO.

Сообщение A Guide to Creating Evergreen Content: Tips From Professional Content Marketers появились сначала на Contenteam - Multilingual Copywriting Service.

Cracking The STORYTELLING Code in Content

Victoria Michael — Wed, 01 Dec 2021 12:55:53 +0000

Сообщение Cracking The STORYTELLING Code in Content появились сначала на Contenteam - Multilingual Copywriting Service.

How to Craft Killer Website Copy and Win Customers: The 2023 Guide

Victoria Michael — Wed, 17 Nov 2021 13:46:33 +0000

If you’ve been keeping an eye on our blog, you might have read our guides to writing white papers, crypto content, case studies, and more. But today, I’m going to focus on something even more important: quality copywriting for the web.

Well, perhaps “more important” isn’t quite right. But it is certainly more high-stakes. Think of it this way: if your writers churn out 3 blog posts per week & you have dozens for readers to browse through, one dud isn’t that big of a deal. But the copy on your site pages remains constant: a crappy “About Us” page or a poorly formatted “Services” page is going to turn off prospective clients.

If you only work with professional copywriters for one type of content, it should be your website pages; this is NOT an area to skimp on! (This is where I plug our website copywriting agency — just hear me out before moving on to the good stuff )

While Contenteam is known for creating industry-leading IT white papers and case studies, we also have specialists solely focused on copywriting website content. We know how to create content that gets results while simultaneously incorporating SEO in a natural way. So, your website will appeal to potential customers and search engines alike.

If you’re interested in revamping your website’s copy, go ahead and shoot me a quick message! Don’t worry; this article will be here when you get back…

All right, are you ready for a crash course in killer website copywriting? Let’s get started!

First Things First: What Is Website Copy?

You have to crawl before you can walk — so before explaining my top tips for website copywriting, let’s look at what web copy is and what qualities it needs to have.

Some people define web copy writing as any form of copy that shows up on a website, whether it’s page content, a blog post, a case study, and so on. But I don’t think you want to read a 20,000-word guide, so I’m focusing on the text included on the actual webpages — product pages, service pages, the About Us page, the Contact Us page, and so on.

These pages aim to keep your visitors engaged and move them through the sales process. But to do so, the writing needs to have several qualities:

It needs to catch their attention. Cookie-cutter web copywriting isn’t going to cut it (pun intended). We’re living in a digital era, so let’s face it: no matter how specialized your niche is, you’re up against a ton of competition. Your page copy needs to be interesting and unique to give you the best chance of standing out.
It needs to have a strong emotional appeal. Storytelling is your best friend here! Choose the right words, pull in the right examples, and you’ll reel in clients, hook, line, and sinker.
It needs to be “you-focused.” Copywriters are writing for the masses, but if they’re skilled, their writing will seem like it’s talking directly to the reader. Use words like “you” and “your” liberally. And then add even more. Go ahead and count how many times I’ve addressed you in this article (hint: it’s a lot)!
It should sincerely describe the benefits of your service and apply them to pain points. Visitors don’t want to hear, “our service is the best because it’s received 5-star feedback and is used by millions of people worldwide.” Don’t get me wrong; that is great for establishing your authority, but you first need to make a connection between the product’s benefits and the reader’s needs. What are their pain points? How do you remedy that?
It should provide your unique selling proposition. You’re the best in your niche, right? Now’s the time to prove it. Statistics and testimonials are your best friend. Your USP should position yourself as an industry leader and an authority in your field.
It should close the deal and guide the reader to their next action. Craft a direct CTA and include an incentive for why the reader should become a customer. Is there a bonus gift? Do you typically have a waitlist, but you’re taking clients? Mention it here! And don’t forget to tell the reader how to take the next step! Do they need to fill out a form? Call you? Send an email? Tell them what they need to do.

Which Copywriters Do You Need for Website Writing?

As evidenced above, writing copy for websites isn’t for the faint of heart, and you can’t hire just any run-of-the-mill writer. Just like you won’t hire a roofer to fix your pipes, you wouldn’t hire a technical writer to craft your landing page content.

A lot of copywriters advertise themselves as jacks-of-all-trades, but we all have our own strengths and weaknesses. Working with a content agency like Contenteam makes it simpler because we work with dozens of writers with their own specializations. But if you’re planning on hiring an in-house copywriter, you need to verify that they have the chops to create converting webpages. So, here’s a checklist you can work through:

They are a native speaker of whichever language your target audience speaks.
They understand the difference between a product’s features and benefits.
They understand the fundamentals of SEO and can naturally incorporate keywords.
They are specialized in your business segment — more on this soon.
They are familiar with the style guide you prefer (AP, Chicago, etc.), so stylistics are consistent.

When searching for a copywriter, you’ll want to look for somebody who markets themselves as a “landing page copywriter” or a “marketing copywriter,” as their skillset will be relevant to creating webpages.

Writing for Your Business Segment

In the previous section’s checklist, I mentioned that your website content copywriter should be specialized in your business segment. But what does this entail? How does B2B writing differ from B2C? Let’s quickly clear that up:

A B2B website copywriter creates business-to-business writing, while a B2C one focuses on business-to-consumer copy. You probably already knew that, but did you know that the copywriting style for each segment can be wildly different? These are the key areas that differ:

Depth of Content

B2B	B2C
The purchasing decision can take a long time for a B2B audience, so the content needs to be really detailed and info-heavy.	A lighter tone works best here, and shorter content is best. A B2C audience makes decisions pretty quickly, so you don’t want to bombard them with huge pages. You’re marketing directly to humans, so address their needs, goals, and values as an individual.

Number of Buyers

B2B	B2C
Most likely, there will be several people in the decision-making chain, so make sure to emphasize how your service benefits the organization as a whole.	There might be hundreds or thousands of people reading your product page, but you’re marketing to each one on an individual level, so get personal with it.

Emotion vs. Logic

B2B	B2C
While emotion and storytelling should be used in most forms of copy, your copywriters should use plenty of logic and straightforward evidence on the webpages.	This audience loves emotional appeal! The copywriter should strive to engage the audience through entertaining content.

So, you might wonder — if Contenteam is a B2B website, why the heck do I have such an informal writing style? Well, this is an example of how writers in a content agency have their own strengths. Our web pages are written by somebody else, and they are very straightforward, logical, and address a business audience.

But when I write blog posts, I’m trying to demonstrate how we craft B2C copy! If I tried to create our website’s landing pages, it wouldn’t be as effective because that isn’t my writing specialization.

This goes to show why working with just one or two website copywriters can get really tricky; it’s best to work with an editorial team with diverse expertise.

How to Streamline Website Copy Creation

It’s best to follow a set process for website copy creation; this way, your pages will be consistent, and it will be easier to train new copywriters. By creating a website copy template with relevant information, all of your freelance web copywriters will be able to create high-quality pages that align with your business goals and integrate well with the rest of your site. So, here’s what you should do on your end:

Step 1: Choose your commercial pages. These pages are connected to revenue — for instance, your Homepage, Features page, Pricing page, and Plan Comparison page.
Step 2: Determine the elements that need to be on each page — headlines, sub-headlines, CTAs, benefits, features, title tags, meta descriptions, etc.
Step 3: Ensure that the copywriter thoroughly understands the service you provide and what your business goals are. It will help to provide information about your target audience, your style guide, tone preferences, and so on.
Step 4: Collect any materials that the copywriter will need. For instance, you could include your company’s mission statement and links to competitors.
Step 5: Work with the website copywriter to create a basic outline or approve their outline.
Step 6: Review the copywriter’s first draft of the webpage content and provide any revision requests.
Step 7: Check the final draft; ensure that it is free of grammar and spelling errors and that it is SEO-optimized.

Copywriting Considerations for 2022: How to Write Website Copy During a Pandemic

We’re still in the throes of a global pandemic, as vaccination rates are lower than desired. Covid-19 has impacted virtually every industry, including, you guessed it, copywriting! During events that affect a significant amount of the population, it’s important to alter your writing’s tone. When writing copy for a website, it should show that your company is relevant and active, even during a worldwide shift of such magnitude. So, how should your website copywriters adjust accordingly?

Reconsider bold statements. Up till now, it’s been really popular to write things like “This is the best time to,” “It’s the perfect opportunity to,” and so on. But during this pandemic, such overly aggressive and positive statements can come across as insensitive. Instead, consider showing vulnerability when writing web copy— explain how your niche has been impacted by the pandemic (like I’m doing here), and empathize with the reader.
Rethink sales pressure. Similarly, urgent action words have been a mainstay of advertising, but they are no longer appropriate — during a pandemic, we don’t recommend titling something “URGENT: 24 HOUR SALE.” And during a time of widespread forest fires, perhaps don’t say, “These discounts are on fire.”
Stay consistent. If you’re toning down the statements on your webpages, it’ll look weird if you’re still using that style of writing in email marketing, social media posts, and so on. Make sure your adjusted tone remains consistent across all channels.
Be current. If your company has switched from physical locations to a mostly digital presence because of Covid, ensure that your advertising reflects the change. If there’s a change to your store’s physical location, updating your website accordingly needs to be done immediately! It would be great to include a section on your site that lists all recent changes.

A Quick Guide to SEO Web Copywriting

I’ve mentioned a couple of times in this article why SEO is important for webpage copy — so it would be remiss of me not to give more details! Here are my top tips for SEO website copywriting that’ll get you ranked higher on search engines:

Tip 1: Always start with keyword research. Rather than starting with writing, you need to let popular keywords determine what you’re writing about. To research keywords, you’ll need to make a mission statement, determine the search terms you want your website to be found for, and look at search intent. The four kinds of search intent are: informational, navigational, commercial, and transactional — and your webpages might have one or a combination of these intentions. The copywriter’s job is to create awesome pages for the keywords you want to be found for and to have them match searchers’ intentions.

Tip 2: Prepare the text. Before the web copy writer starts writing, they should ask themselves several questions, namely, what is the purpose of the article? What key question is being answered? Who is the audience, and what are they looking for? How will the article be structured?

Tip 3: Optimize the Meta Title, Meta Description, and Header. The meta title should be 60 characters at max, and it should contain your target keyword. The description should be 160 characters max, include a CTA and target keywords, and accurately describe your webpage. The Header (H1 tag) should fit within a 600-pixel width and include actionable words.

Tip 4: Include external and internal links. By doing the former, you’ll build trust; linking to authoritative sources will support your points. And by doing the latter, you can guide site visitors through their customer journey and direct them towards converting pages.

Copy Alone Isn’t Enough!

Your website’s copywriting could be incredible, but it won’t convert non-existent visitors! That’s why it’s important to have a great web design with copywriting, well-written PPC ads, expert SEO, and a solid social media presence.

That’s where Contenteam comes in! Yes, we have a dedicated team of writers, but we also have PPC specialists, marketing and SEO experts, content managers, illustrators, and content designers. We’ll go beyond providing web copywriting services — we’ll help boost traffic, so you actually get eyes on the writing.

You simply can’t beat the benefits that come from getting professional website copywriting services from a full-fledged agency. From working with native-speaking writers from all over the world to getting proofreading and editing services and even receiving social media and email marketing posts, you’ll enjoy first-class support.

Ready to get the ball rolling and get end-to-end copywriting services online? Just shoot us a message, and we’ll walk you through our editorial process!

FAQs

What is website copywriting?

Website copywriting is all copywriting that shows up on your website. In this guide, however, I focused on webpage copywriting: the content on your About Us page, Homepage, Service page, and so on.

How important is copywriting for website sales?

Good web content copywriting is non-negotiable; it influences the customer’s perception of your brand, persuades them to buy your product, and encourages loyalty. What’s more, it cements your position as a niche expert and draws in lots of new traffic.

How much does website copywriting cost?

It depends on whether you’re working with an outsourced agency or an in-house copywriter for your website. If you hire an in-house copywriter, you need to consider the costs of recruitment and training; plus, you’ll need to work with an editor, fact-checker, and so on. Costs can rise quickly. By working with an agency like Contenteam, you’ll benefit from working with a full team that already knows how to create website copy, including Homepage copywriting and Contact pages. You can expect to pay approximately $80 – $100 per 1,000 words with our web copywriting agency.

What is SEO web copy?

This kind of writing uses search engine optimization strategies to boost your website’s ranking on Google and other search engines. It factors in keyword density, reader intent, meta-information, and much more.

Сообщение How to Craft Killer Website Copy and Win Customers: The 2023 Guide появились сначала на Contenteam - Multilingual Copywriting Service.

White Papers 101: How To Write Professional Materials and Establish Your Expertise

Victoria Michael — Tue, 02 Nov 2021 11:41:48 +0000

White papers are a phenomenal way to generate leads — in fact, 80% of users are willing to leave their email in exchange for a white paper. I wouldn’t blame you for wanting to get in on the action. But if you’re new to writing white papers, it can be difficult to figure out where to start.

To help you out, we’ve compiled a crash course on white papers: read on to learn about data collection, formatting, white paper writing tips, promotion, and much more! At Contenteam, we’ve been creating effective white papers in English, Spanish, German, and other languages for over seven years, so we have a lot of strategies in our arsenal.

What Is White Paper Writing, and Why Is It Needed?

Before we dive into the logistics of creating a white paper, let’s examine what it is and how it can benefit your business. Who writes white papers? Well, the term “white paper” was actually derived from when government papers were color-coded; white-colored papers indicated that the text was for public access.

Nowadays, though, white papers are detailed reports that inform readers on complex challenges and present solutions. Companies create white papers as part of their content strategies. This format of content allows them to showcase their expertise in a topic, build user trust, generate leads, and expand reach.

White papers are used at different stages of the sales funnel, but more often before making a deal. The document helps a wide audience understand a topic and develop trust in the sponsor. By presenting factual evidence in an educational context, the company can position itself as an authority in its industry.

There are three main formats of white papers:

These white papers detail the benefits of a product, service, or approach.
“The problem is the solution.” This kind of document provides readers with a solution to a common problem.
Such a white paper collects useful statistics and data on the state of the industry.

And, of course, a great white paper can also contain elements of all three formats. Whichever format you choose, when writing a white paper, you should stick to these principles:

The document should be based on facts and figures rather than the author’s personal opinion.
The text should be highly detailed; it could range from 5 to 100+ pages.
The material should be written in a formal business style.

What's the Difference Between a White Paper and an E-book?

A corporate white paper isn’t the same as an e-book or a longread, even if they end up being similar in length. Check out the table below to see the differences at a glance.

White paper	e-Book	Longread
The text is usually long and continuous, with few breakdowns	The text is divided into easy-to-read blocks	The text is split into small blocks that are easy to scan
Is based on data, research, and facts	Ideas and trends are based on principles	Is based on one narrow theme
Text dominates	Text is diluted with visuals and graphics	Text is diluted with visuals, examples, and videos
Formal business style and expert tone	Informative style, dialogue with the reader	Informative or even conversational style, dialogue with the reader

A white paper is the most official, expert format out of the three. Objective data and analytics come first, and there is much less adaptation for the reader.

Killer White Paper Examples

Let’s take a look at the most prominent whipe paper exmples from the market leaders.

Google Cloud Platform

Google content is a classic example of a white paper review: an online format with a PDF download, section navigation, and solid text. They have plenty of software engineering white paper examples for your perusal.

Hyperledger

The blockchain company Hyperledger has prepared useful material on industry terms and metrics in PDF format. Diagrams and tables have been added here, which makes it easier to understand.

Cisco

Cisco proves that a white paper essay doesn’t have to be boring. Smart design, infographics, and callouts make reading this text comfortable.

Zendesk

Here’s a great example of a white paper in a report format with an engaging performance. It uses animation, graphic elements, intuitive navigation, and interactive elements.

How to Prepare a TOR for a White Paper

When preparing terms of reference for a white paper, make sure to consider the following elements:

The first question you need to answer is why your business needs a white paper. What goals will it help you achieve? Do you want to generate leads? Increase your sales? Position yourself as an expert?
Determine in which areas you’re an expert and in which areas you have enough data to write about. Then, from the resulting list, choose the topic that is most interesting to your target audience. Analyze the most frequent search queries and check out reactions to similar white paper content. Try to focus on topics that haven’t been extensively covered by competitors.
Reader persona. Determine at which stage of the funnel you will offer the white paper to users. Will they be familiar with the topic already? Do they understand the terms? What problems do they want to solve?
Determine which subtopics should be considered by the author, and choose an order (we’ll cover this in detail later).
Compile expert information, internal data, and links to sources.
Choose which graphic elements you’d like to see in the white paper. If you want a professional design, it’s better to create a separate TOR for a specialist.
Promotion channels. If the white paper will be published as an advertisement or on a landing page, you’ll need to link the paper’s introduction with the campaign’s promises. If the emphasis is on organic promotion, make sure to prescribe SEO tasks in the white paper proposal.

«When you estimate how many resources will be spent on White Paper, the most important thing is to be realistic. This means setting aside enough money and time to get the job done well and having reasonable expectations about what you can achieve with White Paper alone.»

Gordon Graham

Recognized author of over 300 white papers

How to Collect Data

White papers are data-focused; you can’t just throw statements out willy-nilly without backing them up. You’ll need to conduct significant research in order to put together an authoritative white paper – and the quality of your sources matters.

If you want to create a valuable document, you need to gather your research materials from reliable sources – and, no, blog posts that compile statistics don’t count. I can’t tell you how many times I clicked through a link to a study and found out that the blogger totally misrepresented the context.

With so much fluff on the Internet, where do you find the good stuff? Well, you have two options:

1. Your Own Research

If you have the resources for it, you can conduct your own research: this includes interviewing site visitors and customers, working with focus groups, and conducting experiments. Then, you can incorporate instructions, test results, and diagrams into your academic white paper.

This option is very successful, as it offers readers unique data. It strengthens your status as an expert and paves the way for industry networking opportunities. What’s more, the process of researching gives you incredible insights into your audience and industry.

Yet, you might not have the ability to conduct research on every topic you’d like to write about. So, in that case, you’d move on to the next option.

2. Authoritative Sources

Just about every industry contains a research firm that publishes industry trends, statistics, and valuable information — all things that add up to a spectacular white paper. For instance, Gartner is one of the most well-known and reputable research firms. If you reference them in your work, nobody’s going to give the claim side-eye.

Here’s an easy way to tell if a source is trustworthy: domain authority. Moz offers a free online site authority checker; all you have to do is enter the domain and get the result. The higher the domain authority and the lower the spam score, the safer it is to use the resource.

Some authoritative sources we work with include:

Tips for Data Collection

- Check out the white papers published by your competitors, as well as those published by trade associations and governments. By reviewing these materials, you can determine which topics have already been covered many times. You’ll want to bring something new to the table — or at least a topic that hasn’t been discussed to death.
- We recommend getting familiar with your industry’s trade associations. They publish newsletters, reports, and other publications that present facts, news, and trends in a straightforward manner. What’s more, they also host webinars, conferences, and other events, which are great ways for you to access original research carried out by association members. Want a pro tip? Sometimes these trade associations post PowerPoint presentations and workshop handouts on their websites. So, you can get insights without flying out to a conference!
- When collecting data, you’ll need a place to organize your findings. Microsoft Word is the obvious solution, but I also really like working with Evernote. Break your research up into chunks (or themes), and give each chunk a heading. You aren’t creating a white paper outline at this point; it’s just an easy way for you to keep your statistics straight. As you find facts and research that are applicable to your white paper, just paste them under the relevant heading.
- Decide in advance how you will format your citations. Typically, a list of sources is placed at the end of the white paper. We recommend using this free Citation Generator; you can choose the style (APA, MLA, etc.), and the tool will do the rest of the work. You’ll just need to copy and paste the result into your white paper.

How to Write a White Paper

Let’s dive into step-by-step White Paper creating process.

Creating an Outline

First things first, you’ll need to make an outline. Attempting to write a white paper without a plan is a big no-no; winging it will lead to a messy document, inconsistencies, and just plain inefficient writing.

There are tons of ways to create an outline, but here’s one of my favorites. First, open up a blank Word document, and write your white paper’s key message at the top. What I mean by this: pinpoint what you want your reader to understand, believe, or do after reading the document. For instance: “I want the white paper to educate readers in ABC and position our company as an authority in the XYZ industry.”

This key message prevents you from drifting — everything you write should align with your key message.

Next, list all the major points you want to address in the white paper; don’t worry about organizing them just yet. I like asking myself the five W’s and H – Who am I writing to? When is the data from? Where is this information applicable? Why is this information important to the reader? What is the problem? How is it being addressed?

As you ask yourself questions, new questions will inevitably pop up. Let yourself go down the rabbit hole — just make sure that what you write down aligns with your key message.

After brainstorming your heart out, arrange your thoughts in the order that you want to write them. Review the whole thing, and repeat the process as many times as necessary — until the outline reflects what you want to write about and the order in which you want to write it.

How the pros do it: At Contenteam, we interview the company on a call and create an extended outline based on product research. We get the client's full approval on the outline before passing it on to the white paper writer; this makes the process much more efficient and ensures that the end product aligns with the client's key message.

Choosing a Title

Just as every book has a title, a white paper must have one too. A great title tells your target audience who the paper is for, what it’s about, and why they should read it. So, if you actually want people to download your white paper, you can’t rush this step.

White papers are often long documents that are a slog to get through — so if your white paper is on the brief side compared to your competitors, spin that to your advantage. Use the title to hint that the paper is a quick, condensed read: “Six Things You Need to Know About ABC.”

Another idea is to address the audience type; for instance, “The Sales Manager’s Guide to Upcoming CRM Trends.”

Now, a completely different (yet still effective) approach would be to put your keyword at the front of the title, and add a catchier subtitle after it. Case in point — bWhen you’ve thought of a few options, run the titles through a headline tool like Sharethrough. It’ll give you a good sense of how engaging your title is.

Crafting an Introduction

The first page in any document is the most important: it might not contain the most valuable information, per se, but it needs to grab the reader’s attention, introduce the problem/question/challenge, and explain what your white paper brings to the table. Let’s take a brief look at each element.

So, first, you want to captivate your target audience and compel them to keep reading. To do this, keep your first sentence pretty short. Give a startling statistic, give a piece of advice, make an odd observation — it’s up to you. Just please, please, PLEASE, do not mention the name of your company or the title of the white paper in the first introductory sentence.

After you’ve grabbed your reader’s attention with a cool statement, it’s time to name the challenge that led to them reading the white paper. Perhaps they want to understand a technology, solve a problem, or make a decision … this is where your key message comes in handy! What is happening in the market today that involves the reader? What are companies struggling with?

State the problem clearly — and then conclude the introduction by saying how the paper will answer their questions. It can be great to include a bullet list here (don’t shy away from using lists in an introduction; anything that makes papers easier for consumers to digest is perfectly fine).

Providing an Overview

Before you dive into the meat of the whitepaper content, you need to give the reader some context. Unless every reader is working with a common set of facts and assumptions, the paper will be hard to understand. So, to give them all the context they need, you’ll provide an overview. It doesn’t have to be too long — half a page will work.

In the overview, you’ll define the key terms that will be considered in the material and set the variables. I also recommend taking a paragraph to describe the industry’s current state of affairs and present a brief history of the issue. At the end of the overview, use a couple of sentences to indicate what the reader will learn about next.

Tackling the Body

Work section by section to fill out your white paper. This is where your outline comes in handy! You’ve already broken your white paper up into different sections, and your research was organized into chunks as well. All you have to do is connect the dots! Here are some tips to keep in mind when writing the body of the text:

The best white papers provide unbiased, educational information. Don’t try to sell something to your readers or push your brand — leave that for the CTA at the end (which we will address in a moment).
Even though a white paper is data-heavy and technical, it doesn’t have to be dry. Use active language and incorporate real-life examples when possible.
Keep going back to your key message! Make sure that every paragraph points back to your key purpose: if something is irrelevant, delete it.
If you think readers need additional context that doesn’t fit within your white paper, provide a list of external resources — books, courses, videos, etc.

Give a Conclusion

Consider the key findings from different sections of the white paper. This is where you’ll add a CTA and push your service/company — after all, in most cases, the purpose of a white paper is to generate leads. Yes, you want your text to position your company as an expert in the field, but if it doesn’t generate any leads, what’s the point?

But, since white papers need to be unbiased, it can be hard to strike a balance between text that is impartial yet lead-generating. It really comes down to your CTA: you have a page or so to explain your solution, show how it solves the reader’s problem, and give some information about your business.

So, how do you present the conclusion? Open up by summarizing the white paper, and then restate the problem statement & solution. Provide a summary of your recommendations, and then transition into a description of your company and its services. Make sure to tie your services into the problem statement: very clearly spell out how you can help address the challenge.

Lastly, you need to tell the reader what the next step is and how they can take it. Do they need to fill out a form? Sign up for a free demo? Call you for a consultation? Give them any necessary information.

List the References

Provide a list of the resources you used in the material. Make sure all citations are done in the same style and that you include the DOI for online journal articles.

Errors to Avoid

Some common errors to avoid when writing a whitepaper include:

Focusing on sales. A white paper is primarily intended to reinforce your status as an expert. If it’s full of sales tactics, readers won’t glean much value — and it’ll leave a bad taste in their mouths.
Little data. All conclusions in a white paper should be based on data. If you’re writing content based on opinions and general recommendations, it’s better to format it as an e-book.
Abstract information. In order for your material to be read and shared, you need to tie facts to the specific problems they solve.
Dry writing. A white paper is professional content with strict boundaries — however, you should still follow the general principles of storytelling. Organize your material in such a way as to guide the reader from simple to complex and offer the promised reward at the end. Without this, it will be difficult to retain the reader’s attention.

Formatting and Design Tips

Now that the text is ready, it’s time to style it. You can use a regular text editor or an online builder — the latter comes with all sorts of cool templates, but you might need to pay a monthly subscription to access the service. If you want a truly professional design, though, we recommend working with an in-house specialist or freelance designer.

When formatting the white paper, keep these points in mind:

Break up your text with interesting visuals, such as charts and graphs. Highlighting blocks and building a hierarchy of elements and visuals will make the white paper easier to scan and read.
Elements should have a consistent design. Determine what the different elements will look like beforehand: headings, subheadings, lists, quotes, captions, etc.
How does the white paper look on mobile devices? More than 50% of Internet traffic today comes from mobile devices. If you don’t want to lose half of your audience, adapt the white paper for small screens.
The white paper’s design should reflect your brand’s corporate style — for instance, the same fonts, color palette, and recognizable elements should be used throughout the text.
Don’t ignore trends! While fashion might not be as important as the other elements on this list, paying attention to design trends is worth it.

For inspiration on white paper design, I recommend checking out Paperflite.

How to Promote a White Paper

Your white paper is ready! It’s well-written and organized, and the formatting is beautiful. You’ve checked and double-checked citations, and the proofreader has cleaned up any grammatical errors. But … now what? How do you get this beautiful craftmanship in front of your target audience? There are a few powerful approaches I’d like to suggest:

Collecting Leads

More often than not, companies create detailed, expert content to collect the contact information of potential customers.

«Good White Papers increase the conversion of both visits to leads and leads to customers.»

Neil Patel

Marketer and Influencer

To promote a white paper for this purpose, you’ll need to prepare separate landing pages with download forms. In order to get the material, the user needs to provide contact details and information about their company. Here’s an example from Oracle:

For this approach to work, it’s important to add the following elements to your landing page:

Describe the user’s goal. What will they get by downloading the book? For example, will they learn how to snag their ideal clients?
Provide a problem statement. What challenges are your future readers facing? For instance, perhaps CMOs want to keep their ROI while innovating but are having difficulty doing so.
Propose a solution. How does the white paper help them solve the challenge? Perhaps it provides a data-driven approach that can help pool marketing resources and personalize customer experiences.
Give a call to action. It can be pretty simple, like “Download Now.”

Pro Tip: To increase conversion, provide a material preview or add automatic import of data from social networks.

Website Ad Blocks

Do you already have a loyal audience that visits your site for industry insights? Invite them to read your white paper! To do this, you can:

Add ad units to pages and blog posts.
Set up a pop-up window for when they are on the site for a long time or if they try to leave the page.
Include a call-to-action in push notifications or via chatbot.
Mention the white paper in other publications.

External Promotion

When drawing attention to a white paper, you shouldn’t limit yourself to your own website. There are many other ways to draw in high-quality traffic:

Social networks. Here, you can capture your audience’s attention with a couple of shocking facts. Then, tell them they can download the white paper to find out more.
Send out an email notification about the material to your own base.
Shoot a video with a brief overview of the white paper, and add a download link in the description.
Share information about your work in groups and communities on similar topics.
Add a link to well-crafted guest posts.
Opinion leaders. Ask experts to tweet about your white paper or mention it in their own publications.

Summed Up

A white paper is an effective tool for generating leads and strengthening your status as an expert in the industry. To get the most business value out of this content, follow these guidelines:

Study the needs of your target audience, and use them to drive your topic and content.
Collect data — the more, the better. Do your own research or use trusted sources.
Write the text or order it from professionals (more on that later). Don’t forget to add a title, introduction, overview, subheadings, conclusion, and list of sources.
Prepare the white paper for promotion. Create a landing page for collecting leads, advertise materials on your platform, and spread the word on external sites.

Trust Your White Paper to the Experts!

At Contenteam, we live and breathe high-quality content. Our team is well-versed in producing white papers that boost clients’ authority, are filled with data from high-quality sources, and are supplemented with beautiful graphics and useful charts.

We can handle white papers on any topic, including highly technical ones. And no matter what length you need, our white paper writers are on the job: from smaller papers with 6-8 pages, all the way to 70+ page beasts, we’ve done it all!

Save yourself hours upon hours of writing, and leave the job to the experts. Here’s how we carry out white paper writing services:

First, we’ll have a call. Together, we’ll determine an outline, and you can provide us with any original research. If you want us to do all the research ourselves, that won’t be a problem. We have access to the best research databases.
Next, the white paper will be assigned to a white paper copywriter who has subject knowledge of your industry (for example, if it’s a text on cloud technology, an IT writer will handle the text; PR experts will write public relations white papers, etc.).
After the paper writer has finished, the text will move on to a fact-checker. After all, white papers are data-driven, so every statistic needs to be correct.
Next, an editor will make sure that the white paper meets your specifications in full: from style and tone to contents.
Lastly, a proofreader will scour the white paper carefully for any spelling or grammar mistakes.

Once the white paper has passed this multi-step approval process and is perfect, we’ll send it to you. And that’s it — with little work on your end, you’ll receive expertly written content that cements your position in the industry.

We offer the best white paper solutions for numerous niches, including:

IT white papers
Crypto white papers
Retail white papers
Healthcare white papers
Fintech white papers
White papers for corporate investors

If you want to learn more about ordering our white paper service, fill out our contact form. I’d be happy to have a white paper consulting session with you!

White Paper Writers Wanted

Are you a technical writer looking for work? Contenteam is expanding, and we're adding specialist writers to our team. If you think you have the chops for white paper copywriting, fill out the contact form!

FAQ

Why are interviews important when writing a white paper?

Interviews can provide readers with new information that isn’t widely known. An interview contains the perspective of one person rather than general industry insights. Thus, interviews can bring all sorts of fresh ideas to the table.

What does a white paper look like?

A white paper usually opens up with a title page, which contains the company’s logo, a headline, the date of publication, and a 1-sentence summary. The second page has a table of contents, and the following pages have the actual text. The final page will contain references and, sometimes, a blurb about the company.

How to write a technical white paper?

Here is a pretty basic summary of what a technical white paper does: you’ll address the problem that readers are facing. Then, you’ll introduce the technical product that solves that problem. First, explain how the product works in general. Then, move on to how the product fixes the challenge and why it’s the best solution. If you don’t want to write the technical white paper yourself, consider using white paper services from Contenteam. Order a technical white paper, and you’ll receive well-organized, on-brand content that’s backed up by the latest data.

How long should a white paper be?

It really depends on how much useful information you have. Don’t be tempted to pad out a whitepaper with filler content; if it can fit in 6-8 pages, that’s great. After all, your target audience might not have lots of time to examine huge documents. However, if you are contributing original research, the white paper can be as long as necessary; I’ve read some that are 50+ pages!

Сообщение White Papers 101: How To Write Professional Materials and Establish Your Expertise появились сначала на Contenteam - Multilingual Copywriting Service.

4 Emotional SEO Triggers for Top-Notch Content Performance

Victoria Michael — Thu, 21 Oct 2021 11:00:45 +0000

Сообщение 4 Emotional SEO Triggers for Top-Notch Content Performance появились сначала на Contenteam - Multilingual Copywriting Service.

Emotional SEO: Converting Website Traffic into Qualified Leads 📈

Victoria Michael — Tue, 12 Oct 2021 10:42:53 +0000

Сообщение Emotional SEO: Converting Website Traffic into Qualified Leads 📈 появились сначала на Contenteam - Multilingual Copywriting Service.

3 Red Flags That Your Copywriter Isn’t a Native English Speaker

Victoria Michael — Fri, 01 Oct 2021 11:36:40 +0000

DISCLAIMER

The use of the terms “native English speaker” and “non-native English speaker” is very broad and does not imply the superiority of any of these groups. We chose to highlight the difference between them to help our readers find writers for “localized” marketing campaigns, i.e., those who can ensure the material is clear and authentic to its target audience. Our intention is not to outright exclude writers based on their origin or native language - we encourage anyone to pursue professional opportunities and improve their skills.

contenteam

Choosing the perfect copywriter for your blog’s team is not an easy task! There are many factors to take into account, but one of the most important is the writer’s command of the target language. Let’s say that all of your blog posts are written in English. You can choose to hire a dirt-cheap copywriter who doesn’t speak English natively. That’s totally fine!

Everybody has their own #1 priority, whether it be quality, efficiency, cost, etc. If cost is the major determining factor of your hiring process, then, by all means, hire somebody who speaks English as a 2nd or 3rd language. Keep in mind, though – the time you spend editing their texts might outweigh any potential savings. A text could be completely free of spelling errors and punctuation mistakes but still feel… wrong.

So, let’s say that you make room in your budget for a slightly more expensive copywriter who claims that English is their native language. If you hire a writer from a trustworthy copywriting organization, such as Contenteam, then you don’t have to worry about verifying that your writer has an excellent command of English.

However, if you are hiring somebody off of, let’s say, Upwork, then you should make sure to scrutinize their work. Make sure you are getting your money’s worth and not just giving your hard-earned cash to somebody who lied through their teeth to get the position. Here are 3 red flags that the copywriter you hired doesn’t really have a great command of English.

Red Flag #1: Poor Stylistics

One issue is that many copywriters use stylistics that just feel off. A non-native speaker could study English for years, yet never really gain a feel for the language.

Take the following sentence, for example:

I used my green little knife to spread a pat of butter across the toast.

Looks good, right? Well, that sentence would make any native English speaker cringe, even though they wouldn’t quite be able to put their finger on what’s wrong. You see, we subconsciously adhere to an order of adjectives. “Green little knife” makes us feel like somebody’s scratching their nails across a chalkboard. “Little green knife,” on the other hand, just feels right. Ask a native speaker who is not trained in stylistics, though, and they wouldn’t be able to tell you why it’s better. They can just feel it in their bones.

Another issue that many non-native copywriters have is being overly formal in their choice of words and sentence structure. Wordiness, too, is quite a problem.

Due to the fact that the class has been canceled, I am thinking that the professor should choose to postpone our homework assignment.

Okay, so that sentence doesn’t have any grammatical mistakes. Commas are good, spelling is good, etc. But this just isn’t how native speakers talk (or write)! Instead, we might write something like this:

Because class is canceled, I think the professor should postpone our homework assignment.

Or, if we’re speaking, we’d probably say:

I think the professor should postpone the homework since class is cancelled.

Those sentences are simpler, easier to read, and they don’t feel awkward. Remember, more formal ≠ better!

Another issue you might run into is that your copywriter fills their articles with all kinds of fluff. That can be quite annoying; once your editor cuts it all out, the post may be way under your desired word count. For instance, let’s look at the following paragraph:

XYZ Company sells purses made from high-quality vegan leather. When you wear this purse, your dreams will come true! You will feel like the belle of the ball. As you walk down the street, everybody will stop and stare at you because your purse is so marvelous. Our materials are ethically sourced and eco-friendly.

If your copywriter turns in something like this, please, please, PLEASE have a talk with them. This kind of copy will not make anybody want to buy your product. The first and the last sentences in the paragraph are great – they are informative, grammatically correct, and can be backed up. The middle of the paragraph, however, is just low-quality rhetoric that any shopper with two brain cells could see right through.

Now, you could employ a really amazing, English speaking editor who can totally fix the stylistics of an article. However, this would be a time-consuming process, and you would probably be better off just hiring somebody who uses great stylistics in the first place.

Red Flag #2: Mixing Up UK and US Language

Even though UK English is understandable to US readers, and vice versa, there are still some key differences – primarily in spelling. Flavor vs. flavour, behavior vs. behaviour, and so on. Depending on your target audience, you want a copywriter who knows the ins and outs of the language’s intricacies. And, above all, you do NOT want to hire a copywriter who flip-flops between UK and US English in the same article! This is a huge indicator that your copywriter is not actually a native English speaker.

So, how can you be sure that your writers aren’t switching back and forth between UK and US spelling? It’s super simple – you can go through your spell checker’s settings and configure it to suit your preferences. For instance, I’m currently writing this post in Word, and I have my spell checker set to US English. Just go to File, Options, and then the Proofing tab.

If you are using Grammarly, which is a super popular grammar checking service, you can choose between American, Canadian, British, and Australian English.

Once you have optimized your settings, give the article a quick run-through to make sure that your copywriter isn’t switching back and forth between styles.

Red Flag #3: Poor Choice of Words

Sometimes it seems like a copywriter has swallowed a thesaurus and vomited up a big, stinky pile of gibberish. Perhaps this is because they are trying their hardest to make the article unique from similar posts, so they are looking up alternatives to as many words as possible. Here’s the problem – you can’t just swap out synonyms and expect the article to flow as nicely. English is a nuanced language, and non-native copywriters may have a difficult time understanding why one word is acceptable, but a similar word is not. It’s all about context!

For instance, “budget surplus” is a specific term that refers to when a business’ income is greater than its expenses. If a copywriter looks up synonyms for surplus, they will find words such as plethora, superfluity, profusion, and more. Yet, if you write “budget superfluity,” it makes no sense. Copywriters need to be able to determine what an acceptable word substitution is, rather than relying on a thesaurus.

So, you could give your editor the task of swapping out every single improperly used word. Or, you can save time and effort by making sure to hire native-speaking copywriters.

How To Find a Great, Native-Speaking Copywriter

Perhaps English isn’t your native language, and the thought of checking for these red flags is daunting. Maybe you are worried that you wouldn’t be able to catch these subtle mistakes. Well, if that’s the case, you probably don’t want to hire a writer off of Fiverr, Upwork, or other services. Those companies have no way of verifying or guaranteeing that the writer you hire has a great command of English. All you have to go off of are reviews and samples of work, and even those can be faked.

Your best bet is to look for a copywriting organization that hires copywriters whose first language is English. These organizations usually have a vetting process where they give potential writers test tasks and will only hire those who can write excellently. On top of this, these organizations can afford to have native English-speaking editors who make sure that nothing slips through the cracks.

Take, for instance, Contenteam. It is a copywriting company with dozens of employees, years of experience, and stellar reviews. Not only does the company have several native English-speaking writers and editors, but it also provides unlimited edits to guarantee its clients are satisfied. I am the company’s editor-in-chief, and I have implemented a rigorous testing and examination procedure that every copywriter must go through. I can vouch that every single writer is thoroughly tested, and their articles are carefully examined. We do not rest until our clients have received top-notch articles. Don’t fret over having to comb over every single piece of copy; work with Contenteam, and we’ll bring you convenience and beautiful texts.

If you already have a copywriter, but doubt that they are fully proficient in English, you can contact me personally by email. I will take a look at their texts and give you my opinion. From one colleague to another, I want your business to succeed!

Сообщение 3 Red Flags That Your Copywriter Isn’t a Native English Speaker появились сначала на Contenteam - Multilingual Copywriting Service.

Tone Matters: How to Use Tone of Voice to Improve Your IT Content and Boost Sales

Victoria Michael — Thu, 16 Sep 2021 08:34:28 +0000

Have you ever sent a text that just didn’t come across the way you meant it? Perhaps you forgot to add an emoji, it wasn’t clear that you were being sarcastic, or maybe you even ended the text with a period (gasp!). Next thing you know, the person you’re texting feels self-conscious, confused, or even offended – all because your tone of voice in communication didn’t properly convey your message.

Newsflash: the exact same thing can happen in your brand’s published content. But things are even trickier here; while you can add emojis, GIFS, and “lols” galore in a text conversation, you can’t really do that in IT content. Or, at least, we really don’t recommend doing that.

So, it begs the questions: how do you avoid coming across as dry, bland, and condescending in IT text while still retaining a semblance of professionalism? What is tone of voice supposed to look like for an IT company? These are tricky questions, for sure, but the Contenteam editorial team has extensive experience in this area; read on for insight in perfecting your IT company’s tone of voice.

The Good vs. the Bad

All right, let’s start off with what we shouldn’t do. If you find yourself relating to some of the examples, don’t despair! Perfecting your tone of voice in tech writing is a challenging process. And, besides, you’re here, aren’t you? That’s the first step!

Don’t: Write for Keywords

Please, please, PLEASE don’t write content solely to cram in keywords and optimize your website’s SEO. Repeat after me: readers will see right through this. Sure, you might get lots of clicks onto your website, but visitors will just as quickly click off the site. After all, do you really want to slog through something like this?

What is cloud computing? Cloud computing is not a new term. When talking about cloud computing, we mean services rendered via the internet. Software resources and information are shared through an Internet connection when you use cloud computing. And, you might wonder, what are the different kinds of cloud computing?

This kind of writing is something I come across a lot when researching IT topics, which is why I’ve switched to almost exclusively reading scholarly journals and professional publications. There simply isn’t enough well-written IT web content; it’s stuffed full of keywords, and it’s apparent that it was written for SEO, not for the reader. Just do any IT-related web search, and you’ll come across a glut of poor tone of voice examples.

This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t use keywords. They just need to be smartly used. Long-form content is a great way to add in relevant IT keywords, as you don’t have to stuff loads of them into a 500-word article.

Don’t: Overuse Jargon and Buzzwords

Avoid technical jargon as much as possible, especially if you are writing the technical text for non-IT workers. Not only does your text need to be accessible for the lowest common denominator, but the IT world is ever-changing, and you don’t want to incorporate trendy buzzwords. Otherwise, your text will seem outdated in just a couple of years!

Now, this isn’t to say that jargon doesn’t have its time and place. If your primary audience is IT professionals who are “in-the-know,” it can be easier to use industry terms – think B2B writing. But if you’re writing for consumers, you need to consider whether they’ll understand the terms you’re using.

So, when determining which jargon to use, assess the audience and use your best judgment. But, buzzwords? Scrap them altogether.

But, Victoria! What’s the difference between jargon and buzzwords? Jargon is essentially an industry shorthand used to communicate between professionals and in-the-know people. Buzzwords, on the other hand, are trendy phrases that become popular for a period of time and then fizzle out. Often, these have nothing to do with the industry at all and are more related to corporate lingo.

Examples of jargon: Backward compatibility, fragmentation, scalability, scripting, CRM, backend
Examples of buzzwords: Synergy, ground-breaking, actionable, thought leader, greenfield

Now, time for some Do’s!

Do: Stay Consistent

Tone of voice’s definition is a simple one: the way a person speaks to someone. It’s so important for you to keep a consistent tone of voice across your IT brand’s content – but if you have a team of writers, this can be difficult. We recommend creating a style guide for your editorial team. Many organizations already do this, and they might include their feelings on the Oxford comma, title capitalization, and so on. But this is a great place to include information about your IT brand’s tone of voice! Some tools for creating tone of voice brand guidelines include:

There are 4 main dimensions of tone of voice, but they act as a spectrum rather than clear-cut divisions. Assess your target audience, figure out where you need to lie on the spectrum, and include that in the style guide.

Dimension 1: Funny vs. Serious
Dimension 2: Formal vs. Casual
Dimension 3: Respectful vs. Irreverent
Dimension 4: Enthusiastic vs. Matter-of-Fact

Tone Profile Example 1: Serious, Matter-of-Fact: Your lifestyle, policy management preferences, and driving habits, among other factors, are considered when determining which discounts you are eligible for.

Tone Profile Example 2: Funny, Irreverent, Enthusiastic, Casual: One of our security signs in your front yard tells robbers, “Don’t even think about it!”

Tone Profile Example 3: Serious, Casual, Respectful, Enthusiastic: We deeply care about every patient. At our medical practice, we don’t just treat diseases; we treat individuals. You’re our most important priority.

After determining the dimensions (for instance, funny and casual), you could refine it even further into specific tones, like quirky or playful.

But what if you are having trouble deciding which dimensions to go with? Wondering, perhaps, how to choose the voice and tone of your brand? It’s time to do a little undercover work: figure out what language your target audience is speaking. Pay attention to how they communicate on forums, what articles they share on social media, and what language relevant conference speakers use.

If your writing is more on the peer-to-peer side, casual writing with a few jokes can be appropriate. If that’s too bold for your situation, use friendlier language and a less official tone.

Example: “Check out our FAQs” (friendly) vs. “Refer to our FAQs” (formal)

You may have noticed that at Contenteam’s personal blog, we err on the side of friendly and enthusiastic – but when the situation calls for it, such as when we’re creating press releases, we take a formal, matter-of-fact tone.

Do: Evaluate Your Tone

Maybe you think your editorial team is publishing content that’s friendly or empowering or sophisticated or authoritative or… (the list goes on and on). But how do you know for sure? This is where product-reaction testing comes in.

One excellent method is to use Microsoft Reaction Cards, which consists of 118 product reaction words (although we recommend shortening the list). It’s filled with adjectives, some positive and some negative. Some of the tone of voice options found on the list include annoying, appealing, confident, empowering, frustrating, inviting, optimistic, rigid, and trustworthy. When product-reaction testing, remove any words that are only relevant to performance or functionality, such as “slow,” “time-saving,” and “responsive.”

Include these words in an online survey placed after your IT content. Analyze the results to determine if the participants’ chosen tone words match up with your target tone profile. For instance, let’s say you really want to come across as funny and respectful. If lots of respondents pick “humorous,” then you know you’re on the right track.

Conversely, if participants chose “snarky,” that’s a sign that you need to adjust your tone a bit. Snarky is kind of humorous, but it’s definitely not fulfilling the “respectful” aspect of your desired tone of voice!

It can also help to ask users to rate tone indicators on a 5-point scale, for example: not funny at all (1 star), slightly funny (2 stars), moderately funny (3 stars), very funny (4 stars), extremely funny (5 stars).

Real-Life Examples

Let’s look at a company that’s really got its brand’s tone of voice together: Starbucks. They have highly public tone of voice guidelines, and one area that really stands out is “expressive” copy standards. Their goal is to present information about their products in a fresh, interesting, and relevant way, with the end goal of making the user smile. When possible, content creators are encouraged to tell a passionate coffee story. And, boy oh boy, have they succeeded!

Starbucks makes connections with their readers, sharing the stories behind coffee: from their “Notes From the Cupping Room” to their “Meet the Barista” series, the brand has made a name for itself as passionate coffee-makers who provide an above-and-beyond consumer experience.

Now, what about an actual IT company? For this example, we’d like to take a look at Atlassian, a software development company with over 180,000 clients, 2.6 million community members, and 5,000 employees. Their website’s home page immediately shows Atlassian’s unique tone of voice: casual and enthusiastic.

They start off by greeting site users with “G’day,” which is pretty much as casual as it gets. They use contractions throughout the text, further solidifying their casual tone – and their passion shines through phrases like “we’re serious about” and “amazing.”

But this isn’t just surface-level wordplay to draw in visitors. As you explore Atlassian’s website, you’ll notice that they use a consistent tone of voice. For instance, let’s hop on over to their Company page. When scrolling through the page, I was impressed by this particular section:

We’ve got passionate words like “empower,” “drive”, and “inspire.” And, again, we’ve got that very casual, youthful attitude with “We :heart: teams” and “Don’t #@!% the Customer.” The latter made me laugh out loud; I don’t think I’ve ever seen an allusion to cursing on a software development website before.

Obviously, this type of language isn’t going to be everybody’s cup of tea. For Atlassian to have chosen this direction for tone of voice, I’d imagine that their target audience consists of young, progressive entrepreneurs who are tired of stuffy corporate culture.

But, remember how I said earlier that different tones of voice could be applied to various forms of content? For instance, we wouldn’t want to write a press release and a blog post the same way? Atlassian understands this quite well, as their press releases are written in a formal, matter-of-fact manner.

Summing Up: 10 Takeaways for Improving Your IT Tone of Voice

Go undercover and study your target audience. Figure out what tone of voice appeals to them.
Choose the dimensions of your tone of voice, then narrow it down into specific vibes.
Use product-reaction testing to validate your tone.
Create a tone guide for your editorial team.
Use different tones when the situation calls for it (e.g., a blog post vs. a press release)
Only use jargon when the audience is “in-the-know.”
Cut out buzzwords!
Don’t stuff your content with keywords.
Write for the reader! Aim to produce informative content & bring something new to the table.
Consider partnering with a tone of voice marketing and content creation company.

But, wait! We didn’t talk about point #10 yet, have we? I’ll go ahead and fix that right now! Do you want well-written, SEO-friendly content that’s aligned with your marketing strategy and desired tone of voice? This is where we come in: Contenteam is a content creation team, complete with in-house editors, proofreaders, and multiple language departments.

Our priority is to create selling texts that deliver value to the reader and align with your brand. We work with large volumes of text – so you don’t have to worry about hiring on your own team and training them on style standards. Simply send us your requirements, and we’ll take it from there!

Interested in learning more? Shoot us a note, and I’ll be happy to chat with you.

Сообщение Tone Matters: How to Use Tone of Voice to Improve Your IT Content and Boost Sales появились сначала на Contenteam - Multilingual Copywriting Service.

Victoria Michael, Author inContenteam - Multilingual Copywriting Service

Is It Still Profitable to Hire an In-house Copywriter in 2023? Market Overview

Table of Contents

Market Overview

FAQ

How much does it cost to hire a copywriter?

When should you hire a copywriter?

Can you hire a copywriter for a website?

The Hidden Mystery Behind Expert Content Creation: Editorial Teams

Table of Contents

Why You Should Form an Editorial Team

How To Create a Team: Going Beyond Expert Content Writers

Structuring the Team

Make a Style Guide

Develop an Editorial Workflow

Step 1: Identify Tasks

Step 2: Divvy Out Responsibilities

Step 3: Create a Timeline

Summary

FAQ

What is the definition of a content expert?

What are the content expert’s responsibilities?

Where can you hire an expert for content?

A Guide to Creating Evergreen Content: Tips From Professional Content Marketers

Table of Contents

Seasonal Content vs. Evergreen

A Closer Look at the Benefits of Evergreen Content

Delving Into Evergreen Content Formats

Cornerstone Content

List of Useful Services/Tools

Infographics

How-To Guides

Whitepapers

“History Of” Articles

Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Evergreen Content

Step 1: Conduct Keyword Research

Step 2: Create the Article Structure

Step 3: Write the Article

Step 4: Publish the Article

Evergreen Content Advice From a Pro: How to Highlight It for Maximum Effectiveness

Interested in getting content for your IT or Fintech company? Just fill out the contact form below.

FAQs

What is evergreen content?

What makes content evergreen?

Why is evergreen content effective?

Cracking The STORYTELLING Code in Content

How to Craft Killer Website Copy and Win Customers: The 2023 Guide

Table of Contents

First Things First: What Is Website Copy?

Which Copywriters Do You Need for Website Writing?

Writing for Your Business Segment

Depth of Content

Number of Buyers

Emotion vs. Logic

How to Streamline Website Copy Creation

Copywriting Considerations for 2022: How to Write Website Copy During a Pandemic

A Quick Guide to SEO Web Copywriting

Copy Alone Isn’t Enough!

FAQs

What is website copywriting?

How important is copywriting for website sales?

How much does website copywriting cost?

What is SEO web copy?

White Papers 101: How To Write Professional Materials and Establish Your Expertise

Table of Contents

What Is White Paper Writing, and Why Is It Needed?

What's the Difference Between a White Paper and an E-book?

Killer White Paper Examples

Google Cloud Platform

Hyperledger

Cisco

Zendesk

How to Prepare a TOR for a White Paper

How to Collect Data

1. Your Own Research

2. Authoritative Sources

Tips for Data Collection

How to Write a White Paper

Creating an Outline

Choosing a Title