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Operating your business is only a small part of what you do each and every day.

Many other hours are spent completing human resources development, creating marketing tactics, organizing finances and much more.

With only 24 hours in a day, outsourcing some of your business needs is not only practical but in fact necessary to succeed. Outsourcing frees up more time for you to concentrate on what you do best – and keeps you focused on why you started your company in the first place.

Many business owners either don’t have the time or the necessary skill set to develop great content. When that’s the case, knowing how to hire a freelance writer is important! Here are three methods to use when outsourcing your business’ copywriting:

#1) Know What You Require Before Looking

Once you’ve decided to outsource some of your writing needs, determining what you will require from a copywriter is next.

Are you looking to increase the number of blog articles you publish each month?

Want to revamp your website content?

Looking to launch a monthly e-newsletter?

Help potential writers decide if they have the expertise and time to take you on as a client by determining your copywriting needs first.

#2) Ask for Recommendations from Other Business Owners

Finding a quality copywriter can sometimes be difficult.

Many freelancer marketplaces exist but finding a valuable writer on these platforms can be difficult. Although many people advertise themselves as writers, only a few have the skills and experience to create content successfully.

One of the best places to start on your quest to hire a great copywriter is to ask for recommendations. Hearing about experiences that other business owners have had with certain writers can help streamline your own outsourcing process.

Many writers can write effectively for a variety of industries so don’t be afraid to ask business owners outside of your own industry for recommendations.

#3) Request Writing Samples

Viewing previous work from a writer you’re considering can help you to evaluate their writing skills. Ask for links to published blog articles or web content that the writer has recently created.

Once you find a writer that you’re considering hiring, ask him/her to complete a single paid test article prior to signing a contract.

Doing so can help you determine their writing quality and whether their writing style will fit with your business’ needs.

Do What You Do Best and Outsource the Rest

Trying to complete all of your business tasks yourself can quickly lead to frustration, anxiety and burnout.

Outsourcing provides the opportunity to use an expert to complete your least favoured tasks – or tasks that do not compliment your skill set.

For more information about outsourcing your content writing needs, check out our services! Contact us today for a free consultation and to learn more about what we offer.

“Whatever is worth doing at all, is worth doing well.”
~ Philip Stanhope, 4^th Earl of Chesterfield (1694-1773)

Back in the 18^th century, there weren’t computers, the Internet, websites or blogs. So when Stanhope said his famed quote, he most definitely was not referring to the art of copywriting.

Even so, the beauty of his famed words is that they can be applied to anything in life – including writing blog articles. Here are five tips to ensure you are creating the best blog posts possible for your business.

#1) Choose an Appealing Topic for Your Audience

When writing your blog articles, you need to put yourself in your customer’s position. What would your customers be interested in reading about regarding your industry? What types of questions do they have about your products or services?

Writing articles that will be of interest to your audience will have a greater chance of being read.

#2) Make it Captivating

Think about the last time that you started to read something that was boring. More than likely, you stopped reading right away.

Ensure the same doesn’t happen to your blog articles by creating valuable copy. Writing articles that will provide knowledge to your audience will keep them coming back for more. Remember to include an eye-catching headline and an engaging introduction, too. Eventually, you’ll be seen as the go-to source for information and advice in your industry.

Don’t forfeit quality due to time constraints. If you simply don’t have time to write valuable content, consider outsourcing this task to a professional Toronto copywriter.

#3) Spend Some Time Choosing an Image

If you think choosing an appropriate image for your blog is easy, then think again! As discussed here, your choice of imagery for your blog plays a huge impact on attracting readers.

Make sure the image you choose to article your blog article is relevant, professional and high quality.

#4) Develop Your Blogging Style

Your blog is the perfect opportunity to develop a voice for your business. And the type of business you have will determine the tone you choose when writing your copy.

For example, a funeral home’s blog will likely have a much more serious tone compared to a blog for a home builder or photographer.

What type of tone do you want your own blog article writing to convey?

#5) Keep Readability in Mind 

Although there really is no perfect structure for blog article writing, there is one thing that remains consistent amongst all successful blogs: excellent readability.

Your blog article should be easy to read and properly utilize headings and fonts.

Don’t forget about proper spelling, grammar and punctuation, too!

Determining the Success of Your Blog Article

Knowing whether you’ve composed a poorly written business blog post or a great one is never a guess – your website traffic stats will clearly show you the answer!

Besides seeing an increase in website traffic and conversion rates, check out your business’s social media. If your recent blog post is commented on and shared with others, you’ll know that you’ve written something that your audience finds interesting.

After writing one great blog article, continue to apply the same technique to future blog copywriting. The more successful blog content you create, the greater your chances are for being seen as an industry expert.

Make Stanhope proud! If you’re going to write a blog article, write it well.  For information about outsourcing your copywriting, contact us today.

So you’ve followed our tips for writing killer copy and have your latest blog post ready to go.

Sure, the words you write are super important – but choosing an image is arguably even more important. Since the majority of us are visual learners, it’s crucial that the image you choose for your blog content will grab your audience’s attention and compel them to read your words.

Before you hit that scary “publish” button, ask yourself the following five questions about the image choice for your blog article.

#1) Is Your Image Relevant?

It will only take your readers a matter of seconds to decide whether they are interested enough to read your website’s copy.

Besides the headline, the featured image is normally the first thing that someone sees in an email or on social media. As such, it must have a clear connection to the headline and be relevant to your site’s content.

#2) Is Your Image Captivating?

The image you choose is the first impression your readers receive of your content.

Don’t risk choosing a boring or unremarkable visual – it will only result in fewer click-throughs.

Don’t be afraid to get creative with your imagery; it can make even less-appealing copywriting more interesting!

#3) Is Your Image Professional Looking?

Copy riddled with spelling and grammar errors aren’t the only things that can make your business look unprofessional!

Images that aren’t respectful to various cultures, religions and political views can be deemed offensive by your audience and can negatively impact your business.

#4) Is Your Image User-Friendly?

Choosing an image with improper resolution can take your blog page longer to load.

According to this report, 40% of web visitors will abandon a web page that takes longer than three seconds to load.

Don’t risk losing an audience that’s not willing to wait for images to load! Try to keep your image sizes to under 100KB and follow these other tips for increasing downloading speeds.

#5) Is it Legal to Use Your Image?

The Internet makes it so easy to find a variety of images that would suit your blog post. But keep in mind that some images published on the web can be subject to copyright issues.

Avoid any headaches with copyright infringement by using a subscription service to a stock photo service.

The Bottom Line

Choosing an image is not as easy as you may think! However, putting the effort into choosing a great image to accompany your blog content pays off with increasing your blog’s traffic.

Need some help with your blog writing? Contact us today for more information.

 

As humans, our attention span has dwindled to being only eight seconds – or one second shorter than your average goldfish.

With an attention span that short, you must get extra creative with creating blog and web copy that will keep your audience captivated. One great way of accomplishing that is by incorporating visuals into your business’ copywriting.

Visuals Provide the Speed that Readers Need

Since visuals are processed 60,000 times faster than text, they help keep our short attention span. Plus, the majority (65%) of us are visual learners.

Within only a matter of seconds, we want to determine whether a piece of content is interesting enough for us to spend our time reading – and visuals help us make that decision.

Visuals Make Your Copywriting Memorable

In a recent article, we discussed how overloaded our lives have become with information.

One way of handling the overwhelming amount of data and information around us is through visual presentation. In only a couple of seconds, you can quickly determine whether or not reading a piece of content is worth your time.

Boost your chances of having an audience read your business’ copywriting by including captivating visuals.

Visuals Can Even Make Your Boring Copy Engaging

Nobody likes reading boring copy. But sometimes, we have dull information like stats that need to be presented. Visuals can provide the solution!

Visuals help a reader to better understand a message compared to only text. Instead of simply presenting figures and statistics throughout your writing, use graphic charts, graphs or infographics to keep your audience engaged.

Visuals also help get your data research read by more readers.  Readers love sharing captivating data that has been presented in a visual way! According to QuickSprout, blog articles featuring graphs and charts receive 258% more trackbacks (external links) than blog posts with other image types.

Visual Content Gets Shared More on Social Media

It’s no coincidence that our two most popular social networks, Instagram and Snapchat, are visual-based.

Visual content is 40 times more likely to get shared on social media than other types of content. Tweets with images receive almost double the number of views compared to content without visuals.

Images are crucial to the success of blog or web copy. Besides being processed quicker than text and in a much more appealing way, visuals attract more people to your content. Visuals help them remember the content longer, too!

Be sure to incorporate visuals into your own copywriting today! Contact us for more information about how we can help.

You may have the best product or service on the market, but if you’re not effectively marketing it to an audience, you may soon be out of business.

A huge part of your marketing strategy comes down to how you communicate with your audience base. Whether it be via your website, blog or another type of communication, communicating regularly using informative, engaging copy is important!

Here are the top four ways copywriting can help grow your business.

#1) Copywriting Can Increase Your Audience Base

An effective copywriter knows how to write in an engaging way that will resonate well with your current audience. But besides your current audience, they can write content that will attract new visitors to your site, too.

By effectively utilizing strong SEO writing skills, your site can rank higher on search engine results.

This provides you with a greater chance of being found by customers searching for similar products or service to your own.

#2) Copywriting Highlights Your Business’ Strengths

When used effectively, copywriting can help showcase what your company does best.

Whether you’re offering a product or a service, copywriting provides a comprehensive opportunity to describe what your company offers.

For example, blog writing is a great avenue to discuss the latest product or service you’re launching and its benefits. Web copywriting is a great way to answer your company’s most frequently asked questions!

#3) Copywriting Enables You to Remain Competitive

Great copywriters spend time researching about the topics and questions that are currently trending in your niche. By addressing these in your copywriting, your company can be seen as an authoritative, trustworthy solution provider.

Rather than writing in a haphazard fashion, copywriting has a clearly defined goal in each written piece. It provides a cost-effective communication method to let your audience base know that you are an expert in your field and can be relied upon to provide solutions to their questions and problems.

#4) Copywriting Helps with Your Professional Image

How many times have you visited a website and quickly left after viewing the site’s content as unprofessional?

Most likely, those types of websites lacked effective copywriting. When websites feature text that is full of errors, is difficult to read or barely offers any information, web visitors will quickly move on.

Only engaging, well-written, high-quality copywriting gets results. Here’s what to include in your copywriting to see some positive effects for your business:

• Keep It Interesting: Make your content relevant and on topics that your readers will find interesting.
• Ensure It’s Error-Free: Nothing hurts your professional reputation more than having copy riddled with grammar, punctuation and spelling errors.
• Make it SEO-Friendly: In order for potential customers to find you, Google needs to rank your site in search results. Having SEO-friendly content helps achieve this!
• Consistency is Key: Keep your writing topics consistent, post regularly and keep the quality high.

Writing compelling content is difficult when you’re already busy with other tasks! We recognize that and are here to help. Contact us today for a free estimate on our copywriting services.

As a business owner, what are you most interested in accomplishing?

Increasing your profits is a given.

But what about growing your customer base?

Becoming highly regarded in your particular niche?

Or creating a better reputation for your company?

Regardless of what your business goals are, know that effective copywriting can help achieve them! Here are the biggest reasons why copywriting is important for your business’s content marketing strategy:

Copywriting Increases Search Engine Rankings

Think about it: if people are in need of products or services but don’t know where to go for them, who do they normally turn to first?

If you said “Google”, then you’d be right!

Every second, over 40,000 search queries are completed using Google. You can only imagine how many of those searches are regarding products or services that your company can provide! That’s why it’s crucial to have web and blog copywriting that is search-engine optimized.

Wondering how to do this? Complete research on trending topics and questions in your industry so that relevant content can be created. Integrate keywords into your copywriting and ensure your writing is of the highest quality – each and every time you hit publish.

Copywriting Helps You Build Credibility as a Business

Besides being cheaper than many other types of marketing, copywriting provides an avenue to build (or maintain) your company’s reputation. Posting regular, informative, engaging content provides a great opportunity for your company to communicate what it wants with its audience base.

And the more frequent you publish quality copywriting, the more chances you have at growing your customer base and increasing your profits, too.

Copywriting Saves You Money

Unlike many other types of marketing, copywriting is reasonably priced to create.

Whether you hire a professional copywriter or decide to write the content yourself, there is virtually no investment other than time.

Just remember, only quality content will get you results, so spend time ensuring the writing process is well done!

Copywriting Helps Establish You as an Expert

Copywriting provides a great opportunity to share your knowledge and experience so that your audience views you as an industry expert.

Find out what your audience wants to read about so that you can easily tailor your web and blog copywriting.

For example, consider writing a blog post series on industry trends or on your company’s most frequently asked questions.

Putting It All Together

There really is no better way to regularly communicate to your audience base than with professional copywriting! Contact us today for more information about our services or to receive a free estimate.

 

Developing a website can be a large investment. But regardless of how much money you spend, your investment’s futile if your site lacks relevant copy.

Although your site’s look and design may initially attract website visitors, they won’t stay long if there’s nothing interesting to read! Here are some other reasons why effective copywriting is so important.

Copywriting Leads to a Better ROI

You’ve spent a lot of money initially creating your website; why throw all that money away by not publishing regular, relevant copy?

Without an engaged audience visiting your website, there will be fewer conversions, clicks and ROI.

In other words, your initial website development dollars may as well have been put down the drain!

Copywriting Creates Better SEO Results

When businesses have relevant, regularly published content, Google rewards them by providing higher rankings in search results. This leads more web visitors to your site and more opportunity for those visitors to become customers.

When web visitors read high-quality content on your site, there’s a greater chance of them wanting to learn more about your company’s service or product…and ultimately, to becoming a customer.

Copywriting Provides an Opportunity to Get Your Voice Heard

Copywriting provides a great chance for brand awareness.

Besides promoting your products and services in a non-pushy way, copywriting provides an opportunity to really tell your business’ story. Many of today’s customers want to know a company’s background, how they make their products and what they believe in.

Copywriting provides an effective avenue to accomplish this.

Copywriting Strengthens Your Relationship with Your Customers

It’s not enough to just attract customers to your website and develop their interest towards your business. To create the best customer base, it’s crucial to keep in touch with your customers on a long-term basis.

Posting relevant content presents the best opportunity to communicate with your target audience on a regular basis. The more relevant the content is, the stronger the relationship becomes between your company and your customers.

The next time your customer requires a company that offers your products or services, yours should be at the forefront of their mind!

Copywriting is an Affordable and User-Friendly Type of Content Marketing

When it comes to deciding where to spend your advertising dollars, content marketing is one of the cheapest methods of online marketing.

As long as you can write effective, relevant copy using search engine optimized techniques, copywriting does not involve much of an investment.

And compared to the small investment that needs to be made, copywriting is limitless in its results!

Copywriting is Best Managed by a Professional Website or Blog Copywriter

No matter how a visitor may find your website initially, it’s quality copywriting that makes them stay – and converts them into customers.

However, copywriting can be an overwhelming task to tackle – especially as a busy business owner. Don’t worry! Our professional copywriting team is ready to create the best quality content for your business. Schedule a consultation with us today to get your business’ copywriting prioritized!

In an online marketing world where competition is fierce, it can be difficult to have your business stand out.

But what if there was a method that, when done correctly, could edge your brand out in front of your competitors’?

Sound too good to be true? It’s not!

SEO Copywriting – The #1 Way to Get More Website Visitors

Effective copywriting provides the answer for your business to remain competitive online!

Whether it’s to raise brand awareness, grow website traffic or increase your company’s SEO, copywriting can make a big difference to your company’s bottom line!

SEO Copywriting Helps Your Business Increase Website Traffic

Writing effective copy helps bring readers to your website.

Impressive websites that have informative, frequently published content are more likely to impress potential customers. For example, if you post an interesting blog or article that answers a question your audience frequently asks, you have a better chance of attracting website visitors.

Since that type of informative content is created with your company’s interests in mind, this increased website traffic can directly lead to an increase in your company’s sales, too.

Effective Copywriting Helps Your Business Get Better SEO

Having a search engine optimized website is based primarily on having fresh, relevant content that utilizes keywords.

Companies that create more of this get rewarded by Google with higher search engine rankings, which leads to more website visitors (and sales) for your business.

Copywriting Helps Your Business’s ROI

Your website is a large investment and one of the best ones you can make in the digital space. To ensure your website will generate the best Returns On Investment (ROI), high-quality copywriting needs to be incorporated.

Because effective copywriting leads to better rankings on Google, your company will experience more website traffic, too. In no time at all, you’ll see how quality copywriting can provide excellent returns on investment!

Only Effective Copywriting Will Yield Your Company Results

To get the best results, your company’s copywriting needs to be more than just compelling,  interesting and creative.  Topics must be of interest to your audience so that visitors remain engaged while reading and are encouraged to stay longer on your website.

Most importantly, your content needs to be relevant. In other words, it must relate to the services or products that your company provides or sells. Otherwise, what would be the point of creating and publishing content?

If copywriting seems like an overwhelming undertaking, an expert copywriter can provide the solution.  What seems like a difficult task for you is easy for a professional Toronto copywriter!

Copywriters’ expert skills can translate your company’s message into interesting, relevant copy that leads to more profit for your business. Request a free consultation today.

A term once used only jokingly, ‘information overload’ is now a reality.

On a daily basis, we are presented with the equivalent amount of 34 gigabytes of information. On the web alone, social media, web pages, emails and advertisements continuously present your brain with information to read and process.

All of this online information is referred to as copy (or content) and copywriting is the act of producing this information.

Writing the Best Content for Your Company

Since we are inundated with information each and every day, it can be difficult to get your company’s information noticed by your audience. But with expert copywriting, this task becomes simpler.

Writing high-quality, engaging material that is targeted at a specific audience has the best chance of getting read. The content needs to be researched and creatively written in a way that resonates well with an intended audience.

Content writing can directly affect a business’ revenue, so it’s important to ensure it’s constructed with quality in mind.

Creating Effective Copywriting 

In its most basic sense, copywriting can be used to inform the reader of a company’s news and products.

Visiting a website to find specific information and having to click around aimlessly looking for answers can be frustrating. But effective copywriting can be used to make navigating a website quick and simple for potential customers!

Plus, website visitors can be persuaded to stay longer (and potentially convert into customers) if a site features engaging content.

Ensuring Your Copywriting is SEO Friendly

Since copywriting involves so much more than jotting some ideas down on a website or in a blog post, hiring a professional copywriter is key!

Professional copywriters know how to write well in a way that will resonate with your audience.  Plus, they have a solid skillset in spelling, grammar and punctuation.

Creating search engine optimized content is important if you want your customers to easily find you using search engines like Google, Yahoo or Bing. The best expert copywriters know how to create SEO friendly copy that get noticed by search engines!

Skills Needed to Create Great Copywriting

Writing quality content requires more than just a great idea. Here’s what’s needed to write copy that will keep your audience engaged:

• Strong researching skills and the ability to find out topics that your audience will want to read about.
• Expert proofreading: a company’s credibility instantly diminishes when there are errors.
• Specialized knowledge on the subject matter; you need to know what you’re writing about!
• Creativity, since nobody will want to read boring copy!

Outsource Your Company’s Copywriting Needs

Writing great copy takes specialized skills which is why many companies choose to outsource their copywriting needs.

For quality copywriting services, contact Sarah McKenzie Copywriting Services today.

 

It can no longer be argued: copywriting is important.

But what’s not as clear is the cost associated with a professional website content writer’s services.

How do you know if you’re getting a quality writer? And more importantly, how do you know if you’re paying a fair price?

In short, there’s no simple answer to these questions. But there are some tips to keep in mind when pricing professional web content writing services!

A Web Copywriter’s Years of Experience Matters

Like most professional services in life, the costs of a professional web copywriter’s services will increase depending on their level of experience.

A copywriter that has one to two years’ experience will be priced substantially lower than an experienced copywriter with five or more years’ experience.

For best results, you’re going to want to hire a copywriter who is experienced with your industry, has numerous writing samples to show you (from various types of clients) and remains knowledgeable on industry standards and techniques.

Keep in mind that experienced web copywriters will come with a steeper price tag than someone who is fresh out of college!

Pricing Differs Depending on the Copywriting Needed

Pricing can differ greatly depending on the type of copywriting you require. Although some writers charge per word, most charge per project.

Here is industry pricing on some of the most popular types of copywriting: blog articles and landing page (website) copy.

SEO Blog Post Pricing   

In general, crafting a 400-500 word blog post that is SEO-friendly can range from $90.00 – $200+, depending on how experienced the writer is.

Bulk discounts are normally available; basically, the more articles you commit to, the greater savings you can experience.

Landing Page Copy Pricing

Website pages are the most expensive type of copywriting you can request since they require the most amount of work. Pricing varies widely, but for an average 400-word landing page, expect to pay a minimum of $250.

Like blog posts, bulk discounts normally apply – so if you need more than one page of content created, negotiate a discounted rate with your copywriter.

Other Writing Services

Press releases have price tags ranging from $200 to upwards of $1,000 depending on how much writing, editing, promotion and distribution is required.

Pricing is similar for email newsletters, where subject lines are crucial to boosting open rates.

The Bottom Line

The best way to know if you’re going to get quality copywriting is to do your research.

Ask a potential copywriter to view their writing samples. Check out the type of clients the writer normally writes for as well as the type of industries. Ask about the niche that the writer feels most comfortable writing about. If yours is the same, less research will be required…and less cost, too.

Bottom line: you pay for what you get when it comes to copywriting services. If a price seems too good to be true, it likely is! Always do a trial basis first before committing to a contract.

And don’t be afraid to give the writer feedback about their writing – YOU are the expert for your business, remember!

Contact us today to receive a free, no-obligation quote for your company’s SEO copywriting needs!